Friday Smiles 2023# Week 30

I won't bore you with yet another photo of our thermometer, but suffice to say the blue line has not moved up and down much at all this week, and we are all still melting. The last couple of days have been a tiny bit cooler, but I still can only sit on the porch if our big fan is going round at top speed.

So not surprisingly, I don't have a lot of news this week, so I will share my son's news instead. (apologies to those who have seen this on facebook already. Our second son Mike celebrated his 50th birthday on Monday. (Well he celebrated it on Saturday really, and kept the fun going until his actual birthday on Monday!). 

On Saturday evening he had a party in a horse field belonging to a good friend. (We have had a few good 'bashes' there before). Fortunately there was a big barn with hay bales for seating, as it was a rather wet affair, but they didn't let that dampen their fun. Several of his friends had set up tents to sleep in, but I suspect most of them camped in the barn instead.

Of course Arsenal was involved as all his own family, and his brothers and dad are all ardent fans, so here he is with his daughter and two of his sons, and his new Arsenal shirt with his nick-name on it, which he is obviously very pleased with.

Mike has worn his hair long for most of his life, and it is thick and wavy, but once every ten years he shaves it all off, for a charity. So the first "Big cut" was on his 30th birthday, when his older brother did the same thing. He did it again whe he was forty, so of course, this week was "The Big Cut 3". His partner, his brothers and his children all had a go at cutting it; first the pig-tails it had been tied in were cut off with scissors, then with an electric shaver, and then twice with 'suds and bic razors' according to his brother, so in the end they did a fairly good job of it.  This is the before and after shots.

His carefully tied pig-tails were donated to The Little Princess Trust who make wigs for children with cancer, so it was all in a good cause. But I am very glad that it will grow again.

I made him a fun card with a concertina of fifty candles. Somehow I failed to take a picture before sending it to him, so here is the one from the cutting file I used in my silhouette, to make it. It was a bit of a  fiddle but he loved it and that is what matters. 

This is the cutting file for the back panel as well.

Our son Tom is still here with us of course. He is now officially on holiday but so far he has spent most of his time jumping in and out of the pool, and spending a lot of time watching videos etc on his laptop. He enjoys discussing new ideas in computer programming etc with Chris, but they may as well be talking a foreign language as far as I am concerned. But it is nice for Chris to have someone who shares the same interests as him, to talk to.

It is also good to have a young strong man around to do some of the things we find difficult now. So he has been up ladders to change our lights in the long passageway through the house. They are high, and very tricky to do so we put it off until the whole passage is in darkness, but now we have light again. He has also helped Chris to clean the pool thoroughly and replace some missing tiles, and between us we have had a general clean up in the yards so it all looks good again now.

One day Tom came to tell me we had a large moth drowned in the pool so I went to investigate, and found this beauty. 

When we tried to fish it out, it flapped its wings feebly and we realised it was still alive, so I carefully carried it round the back and left it on a sunny bunch of oleander flowers, and hoped it would dry out. 

It is part of the swallow-tail butterfly family. The usual one, with four clearly defined wings, is quite common here for a short while, but this is the Eastern Tiger Swallow-tail, and it is much rarer, so it was a nice one to find. They only live for a few days, but I hope it survived long enough to lay some eggs in the green zone.

One thing that makes me very happy is that a Spanish friend of ours, who is an electrician, is coming tonight to install a new air-con unit in our bedroom. He will also be returning when Chris gets home from UK, to fit one in the sitting room. Our existing ones have been here since the house was built as far as we know, and neither of them are very efficient now, so I am looking forward to nice cool bedroom tonight.

I will publish this tomorrow on Annie's Friday Smiles blog, but I don't know whether I will be posting next week. We arrive at our son Jim's house in London on Thursday night, so I may not have anything ready for the next day. But I will try to visit you all anyway.

Friday Smiles 2023# Week 29

If last week was a quiet one, then this week has been even quieter - if you discount the noise of the fiesta just behind our house. The second heat wave swept in and yesterday was even hotter than last week with our shady thermometer showing 45º. Although it is always hot in the summer here, we are not used to being confined to the house, and I find it quite frustrating. But it also makes me very sleepy so I have been siesta-ring in the afternoons. I usually start reading my Kindle but it doesn't take long for my eyes to close!

Our son Tom is staying with us but this week he is 'working from home', so he has set up his own mini office in the sitting room, with a fan blowing full blast on him, and he seems to have got quite a bit of work done. Next week he is officially on holiday and will no doubt hope to get to the beach in the evenings. As soon as he finishes work for the day he jumps in the pool and yesterday the water was 35º on the surface and 31 at the deepest point. We have never recorded such temperatures since we came here.

We spent very little time at the fiesta this year, though when we did go round to the plaza it seemed to be as busy as usual. We enjoyed watching some of the children dancing on the first evening. I was pleased to see that the one little boy in the group had managed to stay with them for another year, though I did wonder whether it was under duress. He didn't really look as though he was enjoying it much!

We like to see all the lights which are erected across the streets and  to see all the bunting and lights above the plaza.

The next night we went over to see the last few races on horses, in the street alongside the plaza. It was very hot for the horses but they behaved well and even lined up while the crowd applauded. Behind them you can see some of the young girls in their pretty fiesta dresses, who sit at the side and reward the winners of each race. Every bit of that sand is cleared, and the street is open as usual by the next morning.

It was very crowded so we only stayed for a little while but we sat down long enough to enjoy a mojito, my usual fiesta treat, and they were really nice ones this year. Chris didn't really have two on the go; one of them is mine!

Sunday was the last night, and as we were all very hot again, we didn't go out until quite late. After the mass on the plaza, the statue of the Virgen del Carmen is paraded up though the village, accompanied by the local band and the clanging of the church bell. Then all the folk from the mass collect the flower offerings they laid around her for the mass, and follow her up to put them in the church. 

We decided to meet them half-way up at the Town Hall. This is an important moment in the procession when everything falls silent. Then the statue is carried up to the doors of the Town Hall. The doors of the top veranda open and the Mayor (centre) and his team come out and throw copious bags of rose petals onto the statue. Then the mayor shouts out things like "Viva la Virgen del Carmen! "Viva Los Gallardos", and to each call the crowd calls back "Viva". Then there is lots of clapping and cheering and the procession continues up to the church.

There is a small plaza outside the church where the men stand, still holding the statue on its throne, (very heavy), and the band plays, then while the church bell continues to clang, there is a display of fireworks. Mostly out here we only get volleys of rockets which make a lot of noise but no pretty lights, but at the end of the fiesta there is a really good firework display. I always think it is like we enjoyed with the children years ago because they are all random. There is no patterns or setting them to music, just one beautiful star burst after another.

After a final loud explosion, the band plays the National Anthem while the men holding the statue dance with her, swaying from side to side, and then lower her to carry her back in to the church. I have uploaded a short very 'amateur' video onto Youtube of this which you can find here.

We have had plenty of birds and insects coming to our fountains and the pool for much needed water this week. Sadly some of the insects get 'water-logged' and can't escape from the pool. It was too late to save this pretty little darter from drowning, and there was another one in there today, and when we swim at night, the light attracts a lot of moths. If I can, I fish them out and leave them to dry on the edge but a lot drown too.

I'll end here with a very pretty  sunset that I spotted on Tuesday. I have used it as a new header for Facebook and on here.

And now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2023# Week 28

This might be short and sweet today. It is too hot to sit here at my computer for too long. But I am happy to say it is a bit cooler than yesterday. I am sure some of you will have seen on TV that most of Southern Europe is experiencing an epic heatwave, which in some areas is continuing for a few days.

Here it was 40º in the shade and we shut ourselves in the sitting room with the windows and door closed and the aircon on, as well as the fans. We only use the aircon occasionally as it can dry your eyes and throat, but sometimes we are just very grateful that we have it. Yesterday was one of those times! We persuaded Tango, Tolly and Leo to stay in with us. They did venture out a few times but they soon came back in. I am sure the tiles on the patio would burn their feet.

This is a map of Spain from the meteorology office. The fine arrow shows roughly where we are. We are blessed to be just near enough to the coast to benefit from any sea breezes. Albox is a town just twenty minutes drive inland from us, and they recorded 45º at their weather station. I have several friends who live up that way so I hope they are all safe. I think quite a few records were broken.

Seeing as we were confined to barracks yesterday, I spent the afternoon writing Christmas cards! Now all of mine for UK are ready to take over with me next month. My sister will keep them until December to post for me.

Today is slightly hazy and the temperature is mid/thirties but it is expected to soar again at the weekend. Fortunately we have decent aircon in the car too as we are picking our son up from Almeria station Saturday lunchtime.

I have been cooling down in the pool each evening before I go to bed. Doesn't that look inviting? We have a floating thermometer in the pool and it showed 31º on the surface at mid-night last night, and 28º at the deepest point. At least you don't get too chilled getting in!

I walked over to the market on Tuesday morning as I needed some fresh salad stuff. It is too hot to cook much so salads are the order of the day. There was a real buzz of excitement in the air as preparations were under way for our fiesta. Bunting and lights were going up and the temporary bars were setting up around the plaza.

Over by the carpark, I was interested to watch how the track for the little dragon roller coaster was assembled. All the other chidren's rides and attractions were moving in around the car park are too.

Last night was the first night when the rides were all reduced for the children. Later there was entertainment on the main stage which, as usual continued most of the night. We decided not to go over there but I was surprised when the Town Hall posted a photo, to see just how many folk braved the heat to watch and join in with the dancing. Maybe they are better aclimatized than we are, and they all enjoy the fiesta so much.

We have seen lots of little sparrows come down to our fountain to drink. It is so important for them to have a supply of fresh water so we make sure to top it up regularly. I went outside with my breakfast on Tuesday and saw a collared dove come there. It is the first time I have seen one of them in the yard. They are not as agile as some birds and there is nearly always at least one cat around, so they are naturally cautious. This photo is a bit blurred because I had to take it through the fly net. I thought I had caught him with his head raised so you could clearly see his dark ring or collar around his neck which gives him his name,  but I see he had dipped into the water again by the time the photo took!

We had another little treat this evening at around 6.00 when a flock of house martins started to swoop over the pool, dipping for a quick sip of water and flying off again. They weren't put off by us watching them, though I did stay inside the fly-free porch so as not to scare them. This little one sat on the side of the pool just resting. I think they are exhausted after another very hot day.

Two more stayed on the electricity cables that cross our yard. I zoomed in on them and you can see their beaks are not fully developed yet so they are newly fledged.

Here are couple coming in for more water. I love our little feathered friends.

Leo often comes down to my room when I am working there. He likes to sit under the fan, and remind me when it is time to feed him! One day he was sitting on the desk at my side and staring intently at the window. At first I couldn't see what he was watching, but then I saw a tiny gheko's head was peeking out from the rolled up blind. Leo kept stretching up to it, seemingly unaware of the glass between them. But just look at how long he is now. When he fills that long lean body out in a year or so, he will be one big boy!

His favourite game at the minute is to run into my room and leap into my big rubbish bin. I have endless offcuts of paper and card that are too small to keep, and he likes to dig down into them and make a comfy seat to watch me from. (Apologies to those who have already seen this on Facebook). One day he is going to find it full of sticky bits of discarded vinyl, and then maybe he won't think it is such a good idea.

Now I am off to feed the cats and then jump into the pool. I will link this up with Annie's Friday Smiles when I publish it tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2023; Week 27

Well, here I am, still surviving ...just. The temperatures have been in the upper thirties all week and I am slowly melting away. Next week they are forecasting a heat wave, with thermometers showing 44-45 in inland places and possibly 40 down here near the coast. If that is the case, I shall be sitting under a fan or in the pool and doing as little as possible!

But it is fiesta time in the village. Our patronal fiesta actually starts next Thursday through to Sunday, but the bumper cars always come a week or two before that. So the big lorries rolled in to the land across the green zone from the back of our house, last weekend, but they didn't seem to be in any hurry to get it all set up this year.

 However it is up now and last night the lights were on and a few youngsters were enjoying rides. But they have kept the music fairly low level and so far have not used the very loud horn that indicates the end of each ride. I am sure it will all be there for the fiesta, but it is nice to have a more gentle intro this year. The rest of the rides will be arriving this weekend, and then the side stalls will set up.

We have a ceiling fan in our bedroom that we have on all night and mostly I sleep quite well despite the fact it stays warm all night, but I do tend to wake up earlier. Yesterday I woke to a deep orange glow in the room and going to the window I saw a very orange sunrise, caused partly by the early mist and dust in the air. But I slipped on a housecoat and went out to take a photo.  As it rose higher the skies soon cleared and became  blue.

It was quiet outside and I sat to watch the swifts darting around to collect their morning feast of insects. They are aptly named the acrobats of the sky, and 'swifts' suits them well. They dive around yet never bump into walls or one another, and they are so fast that I have trouble catching them on camera. However by continuous shooting, sometimes they cross my path more by luck than judgement. Here are just few of them.

I have been so very grateful for the pool this week. It is not big enough to swim in properly, but we are lucky to have one in the village, and it is fine for cooling down a bit after a session in my craft room. Yesterday the thermometer at the surface of the pool said the water was 31º, and and the one at the bottom, at the deepest point showed 27º, so it is a bit like a warm bath, but is still very refreshing.

The fruit trees are doing quite well considering how little rain we have had. Only two fruit remain on the grapefruit tree after the 'June drop', but it is a very baby tree so we weren't sure it would have any fruit this year. The orange tree is in a huge pot which is now disintergrating, making it difficult to water. But we have been faithfully hosing it and this year it has several oranges that look like they may survive. The lemon tree is doing well again, and although it has fewer fruit than last year, the ones that are there are growing well and look good.

Yesterday our little great-grandson Reuben had his first birthday. This is the picture his mum sent of him.

In a week that we have struggled a bit I was happy to spot a little picture that made me smile, so I will share it with you here and then go over to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.