Friday Smiles 2023: Week 24

I am writing on Thursday again as I have a hospital appointment tomorrow morning. Thursdays do come around fast and looking back there is nothing of great significance to report this week, but no disasters either so I guess that is worth a smile on its own. It has, in fact been a very pleasant week. Despite a few thunder grumblings, and some very short showers, it does feel as though summer has finally arrived. Some afternoons the thermometer has been showing as high as 35º, but there is just enough breeze to keep it comfortable, and as I am trying to finish several papercraft projects before I go to UK in August, I am spending most afternoons down here with my fan in use from the far corner. If I have it too close, it blows my bits of paper around, but over in the corner it is just right for now.

Yesterday I was aware of the wind getting up by tea-time and when I went outside I found it had broken up the clouds into little powder puffs. So pretty against the blue don't you think?

Each week at church, people donate items of food for our  gifts to needy folk in Zurgena. I am hopeless at remembering to take food with me, but I do donate any money I make from selling jams and pickles at my sewing group, and they use this with any other donations, to buy tinned meat and fish to help balance each bag. There was sufficient on the shelves to make up some bags this week, so Keith and Peter, with the help of Hazel, a member of our church, spread everything out on tables and divided it into useful selections for a family. 

Then Keith and Peter shopped for the items needed to make balanced meals and on Tuesday they took 20 bags of food and four more of toiletries etc, up to Zurgena Town Hall. It was our first delivery since the administration changed there following the recent local elections, but they were still gratefully received and I am sure they were soon distributed to those in need.

Immediately opposite our house is the big white house with the cacti mural, which is used as an Abnb, and next to that is another large house which has stood empty ever since we moved here nearly fifteen years ago. I think it is an attractive building with lovely arches around large upstairs and downstairs patios. Many of the big, older houses in the village are owned by a family, and if not everyone is in agreement as to how they should be used, unfortunately they just stand empty, which can't do them any good in the long run. Anyway, there has been some activity over there in the last few weeks, with sounds of hammering and workmen seen going in and out. This week the painters have been there and yesterday they tackled the outside of the house. What a difference it has made. The houses with no 'overhang' of their roof, were badly stained when we had that dreadful orange rain early last year, and this house was still striped with black. (You can see one small area of the highest tower at the back, that still needed to be painted when I took this photo). It is nearly finished now, so we are hoping we may get some nice neighbours soon.

As I mentioned earlier, I have spent most afternoons down here making things with paper, but my evenings are still spent down with Chris, either in front of the TV, or sitting out on the porch, and as I am not very good at 'just sitting', I have been working on another crochet project. It is a wrap around shawl for the winter, and it is made by a method called entrelac, and this one is in Tunisian crochet. This means it is worked across in little squares of one colour, that are interlaced. Then you start at the beginning with the same or different colour and work across again. Tunisian crochet means you pick up stitches across the row, (in this case just across one square, and then work them off again). I have done entrelac before but not in Tunisian crochet, and the other difference is that the squares are not all the same size, which has an interesting effect, and needs a bit more concentration following the pattern. I will just show you a small section for now, and the whole effect when  it is finished.

The theme of the piece is landscapes and I wanted something in blue and green, so I have incorporated the colour of the sky and sea, the greens of the countryside, sands of the beach, and a little lilac and violet to represent the wild flowers I love. The idea was that this project would use up some of my vast stash of wool, so I didn't have to buy any to make it. This is my colours I chose.

In other news, Leo has finally mastered the cat flap in the kitchen door,so he is now able to get in and out whenever he wants to. He learned to use the big dog flap a while ago but he needs the back door to be open to get to that. The kitchen one is always available for all the cats and he is enjoying running out with them.

And now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, ready to publish in the morning.