Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 4

Hi everyone. I didn't get around to preparing this yesterday as I usually do, but I am sitting here on a beautiful sunny morning catching up on last week.

I am very pleased to say that although the nurse has again wrapped my hand up well, she says it is no longer infected, and I have finished my antibiotics, so hopefully when I go back on Monday, I will be able to have it uncovered, which will make life a lot easier.

I cover it with a silcone glove in the kitchen, but I did manage to mix up some dough and cooked it in the slow cooker. This is so easy and you don't have to let the dough prove because it rises as it cooks. It takes two hours on high, and it made a lovely loaf. It is rounder and flatter than I would have chosen, but my loaf pan is milllimeters too big to go in my cooker pot, so I will look out for a smaller one when I go shopping. The bread was lovely and stayed usable for a couple of days which is all it needed to!

As I walked into the village on market day I spotted something that always gives me a lift. There is an old almond tree on the car park and it had its first flush of blossom out. A sure sign Spring is on the way.

Our weather has been very unprdictable, but the past few days have been sunny and yesterday it was warm enough to be an early summer day. It is cold enough for the fire by tea-time but we have enjoyed eating our lunch outside. The high winds of last week have dropped too but I did get one photo of a very wind-swept sky.

I have sat round the back of the house and watched the starlings flying over the green zone. There are not enough of them to be a true murmuration, but they are still fascinating to watch as they swoop and swerve yet never collide.

I had a long chat with Ben again this week, discussing his play list for his first official gig, playing the piano and singing, on Valentines Day. He is now self-employed as an entertainer and music technician.

I also had a long email from my oldest sister who is 94. She is spending a couple of months with her daughter who lives in France. I need to answer it and also write my annual letter that I normally send out with Christmas cards, but couldn't manage this year. So I am half way through dictating it on my computer, and I am surprised at how well it hears and understands my voice. I will have to edit it a bit at the end, and tailor it to each person, but fortunately all but one of my friends use the internet so I can e-mail to them all.

I also made my first Christmas cards this week for the challenge I enter each month. Sadly the lady who hosts it is 'retiring' for health and life reasons. I am hoping someone else will offer to take it on. A few years ago I might have done, but I am not in the position to make that committment now. But it was a great incentive to make a few cards each month so I was prepared in plenty of time to send them out.

So now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and go out to enjoy the sunshine.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 3

I am starting off today with an interesting cloud formation I saw when driving home the other day. It was like a small door opening into another world. Certainly someone had their eye on us.

But when I zoom out, what do you think it is? A fairly benign frog or something more sinister peeping out over the hills?

The other week folk shared the odd positions that their dogs rest in, so here is one of Leo. He still loves to run up his scratching tree to the platform at the top, and at first he curls up on it. But as he relaxes you can see he is far too big for it now so he just hangs off each end. He was asleep like this but he heard me get my camera and opened his eyes to give me a baleful look.

However he has got the sense to realise that stretching out between dad's legs is a more comfortable bed!

Just before Christmas our son Tom was on a work trip from Denmark to Portugal, so he stopped off with us for a few days on the way home. He brought me five lovely original tiles, two of which make nice big, easy-clean coasters on our new sofa tables. But as I am trying to introduce some blues into the room to complement the new furniture, I chose the two tiles with the most blue in them to frame. They fitted nicely into these shadow box frames, and for now they are up on a shelf, but I hope to wall mount them soon.

I am also getting into doing a bit of crochet again. I don't like sitting twiddling my thumbs in the evenings, and as long as I don't do it for too long at a time, I find it is okay. Always up for a challenge, I am trying a new technique called Tunisian mosaic crochet. It is worked with two colours in alternate rows, using a double ended hook. (I had not seen these before and had to buy one specially). The motifs are hexagons and you work one edge in the main colour, turn around and work back in the second colour. Then do the same for the next edge and so on. The pattern included a basic practice motif to work to learn the new stitches of which there are five. I did a lot of unpicking at first, but I have got the hang of it now, so here is my practice motif in two shades of green. The hexagons for the main blanket are much more complex designs but I think I know what I am doing now.

A couple of pictures from the garden. We have had very strong winds this week and as I said to one of my boys, it is raining oranges. I collected up another twenty yesterday, so I must remember to juice some. But the lemons are not quite ready yet, and so far they are hanging on tight. We have a bumper crop on our one little tree this year. There are at least forty fruits on there. I have no idea what I will do with them all.

And lastly our pink bougainvillia is still looking amazing, so I wnet out when the sun was on it, and took a few pictures. That would brighten up anyone's day.

One good bit of news this week is that I have finally had the biopsy on my hand. The hospital phoned me on Monday and said "You have an apointment at 4.00 tomorrow". It didn't take long and the anaesthetic worked well, but it was quite different from how they do it in UK. There were no screens etc, so I sat and watched. I am not sqeamish and I find it interesting, but I have to admit I was a bit surprised at how much they cut off the wound for testing. I now have to keep it dry for a week or so until I have the two stitches taken out. Hopefully they will find out why it is reluctant to heal completely, and be able to do something about it.

I spent a lovely afternoon with two very dear friends. We drank tea and caught up on our news, put the world to right, and really enjoyed ourselves.

But now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

A bit delayed! I am late posting today because when I woke up this morning I knew that the wound on my hand was infected again, so I went round to the medical centre to have it checked out. Now I am double bandaged and back on strong antibiotics, but hey-ho - hopefully they will get it sorted in the end.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 2

Well today's post is, of course, mainly about the Three Kings Fiesta which is a  big occasion in our village.

On the eve of three kings, Friday 5th January, we walked over to the plaza to see the arrival of the kings at the marquee where they distribute gifts to the children. These colourful characters were keeping the children entertained while they waited.

Soon the float arrived carrying the kings and there attendants who were throwing handfuls of fruit jelly sweets into the eager crowd along the way. 

Then they climbed down and walked to the thrones on a platform at the front of the marquee and started to give out the gifts (Left at the Town Hall on the previous day by their parents). But it was a chilly night so we didn't stay around for long. Soon the children would have hurried home to, where traditionally they polish their shoes and leave them out for the Kings to place a small gift from each of them, during the night.

The next morning dawned quite sunny and we walked up to the top of the village from where we could hear music from the town band. There was a quite a crowd there and they were being entertained by a juggler balancing on a large ball.

Along the road side there were tables where we could help ourselves to delicious crisp shortbreads and other traditional biscuits, and cups of wine for those who wanted it.

We stood and waited while the procession passed us, led by the women from the village choir, playing instruments and singing with great gusto. 

At last the kings also passed us on their horses, each with an attendant walking alongside and carrying the gifts on velvet cushions.

We followed them down to the plaza where there was a large crowd waiting to watch the usual re-enactment of the Kings visit to King Herod's palace to enquire the whereabouts of the new king.

As you cn see, the sky ws clear and it was lovely and sunny so the kings must have been pretty warm in all their layers of clothes.

Then we wandered round the medieval market where there were stalls like this one selling loose herbs, spices, coffees and teas, and infusions for all manner of ailments.

We decided we would get some lunch while we were over there, so we shared an open wrap with a range of fillings, and washed it down with a rather good mojito.

We went home after that but we could hear the music in the marquee from our house, going on well into the night. The Spanish folk do love to dance!

As for other news this week, I haven't done much else, though I did go to my sewing group yesterday and I managed to crochet one tiny square. It made my shoulder ache but at least I was able to do it.

We had a delivery from Amazon which pleased me. Our new sofa has higher arms than the last one, and we both struggled to reach our side tables where we put a cup of tea, our phones etc, so we ordered two higher ones and they are just right. Slightly narrower and longer than our old ones, there is plenty of room to put what we want on them, and there are two drawers that are handy for storing the remotes, our tablets, headphones, speakers etc. There are also two electric sockets and two USB sockets on the lower shelf so everything can be kept fully charged.

The temperature has dropped a lot in the passed few days, so I am very grateful for our wall fire that heats the room quickly and efficiently, and makes a nice cosy space to settle down in for the evenings.

Tom, our son out in Denmark, sent us videos of him out for a walk with his friends, through a forest white with frost, and on beaches where the rocks were covered in ice, and half the harbour was frozen over. Makes our chilly days seem quite mild!

Last night I had a long chat with son Ben, who I was happy to hear, is now free of Covid. He is bursting with ideas for what he hopes to achieve this year, so it is good to see him so happy and positive.

And on that happy note it is time to close this and get it ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 1

 A Very happy New year to you all. It will take a bit of getting used to,  to write 2024 now!

I hope you were all able to see the new year in, in whatever way suits you best. We were busy with video calls from all our boys through the evening. Tom lives in Denmark and they seem to have fireworks going off randomly all evening. His flat is quite high up in a block, so he has a good view all around, and usually shows some of it to us live.

We weren't particularly impressed with the TV programmes on offer so I read with my Kindle and Chris did whatever he does on his laptop, but as midnight approached we turned on to a Spanish chanel that was featuring the celebrations in Madrid's main plaza. There is a domed roof with a large gold ball on a chain above the clock, and at midnight it slowly lowers until it reaches the clock which then chimes . 

The tradition here is that everyone has a glass of cava and twelve white grapes, and for every dong of the clock, you eat one grape. Believe me it is almost impossible to eat twelve grapes, even small seedless ones, in the time it takes for the clock to strike twelve times, but that is the custom, and it is fun trying! Some supermarkets even sell little plastic dishes with twelve grapes on them for the occasion, but the fruit counters also carry huge amounts of grapes in bunches to divi up among your guests etc.

After that we half watched TV for the next hour, and at 1.00 our time, which is mid-night in UK, we tuned into the BBC, raised a glass to family and friends over the waters, and watched Big Ben strike and then the fireworks. 

I am always torn by this as I love the pyrotechnics, but am also uneasy about all the money going up in flames at a time of financial hardship for so many. I know it is sponsored, and a lot of funding comes from the sale of tickets, and as a country we really do do it very well, but all the same, I felt from what I saw on world news, that other countries had toned down their displays a little this year, while ours was possibly more spectacular than ever. Certainly there were more colours in the sparkles, and I admire the pictures they can create with drones. Here are a couple of shots I took of the TV screen.

As for the rest of the week, nothing very exciting has happened. I have had several chats with our son as both he and his partner are Covid positive, which messed up some of their holiday  plans.

Last Friday we passed a small shop that has a very small garden centre attached to it, and I bought these winter pansies - well they are violas really I think. Aren't they pretty? And also one red and white mini-carnation, or pinks as we always called them when my dad grew them, which I bought because it smelled so strongly or cloves.They are now planted out in some of our front pots and add a spot of colour to all the greenery.

My arm continues to improve and only really hurts now if I try to do too much with it, so I must be patient. One big improvement is that I can now push myself up from lying flat so I am able to sleep in bed again, instead of in the recliner chair. That is very positive.

Also this week we met a lovely Spanish lady who is coming to do some cleaning from next week, (after the Three Kings weekend). We had been talking about it for while, and right now I can do with a bit of domestic help. She doesn't speak any English so it will be good practice for me to use my Spanish, which is another positive.

The weather has changed today with quite a significant drop in temperature, which is a shame as we want to walk up through the village for a little event this evening. We will just have to wrap up well!

As a follow up to that, we had steady rain all afternoon, much needed but not wanted that day, but by the evening it was dry again and we donned our coats (first time this year), and walked up to the small plaza at the top of the village. Here we came to what I would describe as the Spanish version of Santa's grotto. There were three thrones set up under the awning, and soon the three kings arrived, and a queue of excited children soon formed, waiting their turn to sit on the knee of one of the kings, and tell him what they were hoping to get on the night of 6th.

Meanwhile, in the side road that runs alongside the plaza, there were trestle tables set up with 60meters of roscon on them! This is the soft, brioche style bread shaped into a doughnut ring , surrounded by a gold paper crown, and topped with a sweet, sticky glaze and big pieces of glacé fruit for the jewels, traditional for this festival. Although these can be bought plain, they are usually sliced through the centre and filled with lots of cream. This huge one was organised by our local baker, Noella, (seen in this photo), and with some helpers, she soon had it sliced into generous portions, plated up, and handed out to the waiting crowd. We had our slices and they were delicious.

Back on the plaza, as the kings were preparing to leave, and every one was satisfied after eating their roscon, the artificial snow machine turned on. It was on a balcony of the flats above the shop that fronts one end of the plaza. Soon we were all covered in soft, foamy flakes and the children were gathering it up to throw at one another. It was all great fun and we really enjoyed the evening.

And that is really it for this week. We will have a busy weekend with the Three Kings celebrations, but after that, the decorations will come down and everything will get back to 'normal' whatever that is. So I will now link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. See you over there.