Friday Smiles 2023# Week 42

Although I have had a very pleasant week, I have been very lax about taking photos and hence have very little to show you.

The week has been warm and sunny without being too hot, and the autumnal turn that was forecast did not really reach us. However we have now been warned of a 'polar jet' of cold air sweeping our way and bringing very high winds, colder days and heavy rain. They warned us to tie down any outside furniture etc that could be blown around, and not to leave the house unless we had good reason too. Well so far the sun is still shining but the wind is getting up and I can hear it rattling the doors and whistling round the corners of the house.

Fortunately I had an 'appointment' for a face call with a dear friend in UK this morning, and we chatted for a couple of hours!

On Sunday it was my husbands birthday so I made him his favourite roast beef dinner. He declined my offer to make him a cake, as he would rather have a chocolate biscuit than a piece of cake.

On Monday I had arranged to visit a friend a half-hour drive away, and we spent a lovely afternoon drinking tea and chatting in her garden. (Again no photo I am afraid).

Tuesday it was my birthday, and I had  happy face-time calls from all my boys. We then decided to go out for a joint celebration lunch. We are used to having our main meal at mid-day and neither of us can cope well with a big meal in the evenings these days. We had a lovely meal sitting on a sunny plaza down by Mojacar beach and it was very pleasant. I had asked Chris to buy me some of the new Sketchers Slip-on shoes and I wore them that morning. They are so comfortable, like walking on clouds, and will be ideal footwear all through the coming winter.

When we got home I did bake some cakes. First I made my favourite which is Canadian date cake, (also known as matrimonial cake?). It is a layer of oats, flour, butter and sugar followed by a mushy layer of cooked dates, and topped with more of the oat mix. Then I made a very moist triple ginger cake using a recipe I found online. I cut a small piece of each to keep at home for us, and cut the rest up to take to my sewing group the next day, and they all loved it.

There have been a few clouds each evening as the sun sets so I was hoping for a nice colourful sky on Saturday, but the clouds deepened and I just got this lovely golden burst as the sun tried, and almost managed to break through.

Last night I was sitting out on the porch at sun-down; It starts to set around 7.00 now. I can't see the hills it sets behind from there but I did notice some little fluffy curls of pink in the opposite direction, where whispy clouds were reflecting the late sun rays. So I took this photo and then went round to the other side of the house to see if there was a colourful sky.

But when I got round there all I could see were these few puffs in an otherwise clear sky. I thought it was fun because I immediately saw a face so I took a couple of photos. Then I realised there were two faces depending on how you look at it. In the first I have zoomed in and it is almost a female face with heavy eyes and a cigarette between parted lips. 

In the second one when I moved out further, the woman's eyes become a moustache and the two extra white wisps become the new eyes making an almost 'Santa' like face. Its probably just my imagination, but I will leave that idea with you.

And finally, as we are talking skies, each morning there has been a layer cloud at sunrise which soon burns off, but it gives us some very pink and orange skies for a short while which we can see as we lie in our bed. (We still sleep with the windows wide open). The view is seen through the fly free netted area but I am rarely up in time to photograph it and we do not have a very good position in the yard to see it from. But our local radio station, Spectrum FM, has its office right on the sea front at Mojacar and sometimes the presenter puts a photo on Facebook that he has taken from their balcony. So today he called it a 'Rather  Moody sky' but I think it is lovely. Here is his photo.

The black clouds rolled away but we are watching for them to roll back in now as the sun prepares to set, and maybe they will bring that promised rainfall. Meanwhile I will prepare this to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles ready for publishing in the morning.