Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 31

Another lazy week when I have been too hot to do much. We just about hit 40º again today and tomorrow could be higher. I am very grateful for the more efficient fan hubby has given me for my room, but I can still only sit here for a short while before I head for the sitting room and air-con again.

But Tom and I did venture out on Monday evening for a local night market at an animal sanctuary. It was a fund raiser for their animals of course and there were quite a few stalls there, plus a refreshments area. We went as soon as it opened at 8.00 and there werren't a great number of people there, but I expect it got a bit busier later.

The sanctuary includes a dog kennels and a riding school, but is also home to chickens, rabbits ducks etc. I had not been to any of their previous events so wasn't sure what to expect. It was just off the main road but google soon led us to the gate. As we walked down from the car we saw some stalls and few other people walking ahead of us. (lovely old olive tree on the right).

There were lots of open spaces with shelters for the animals, and several groups of trees. This group has a mixture of  deciduous and tropical trees. 

Sadly you can see how the water shortage has affected the prickly pear. It's leaves should be fat and smooth. Not thin and wrinkly like this, but it still manged to produce some fruit.

Tom caught me on his camera under a nice cactus tree, when I was taking a picture of the chickens in their pen. They were looking a bit hot too, but they did have several trees around them to give some shade.

We did a quick walk around the stalls and I bought a blue mid-season dress from the summer sale rail at my friend's clothing stall. (The lady I often visit to buy my clothes from). But we did not stay around for long. Although it was the evening it was still too hot to linger for long so we went home again to make a big jug of sangria and be lazy again for the rest of the evening.

As we left the sanctuary this tall pine tree stood up above every thing else, and I wondered how deep its roots had gone to find enough water to grow so strongly.

The view from the gate was of the Cabrera mountain range and I tried to get it in a photo, but it was too wide. I am not keen on the panoramic photos I can take with my phone as they tend to be a bit distorted into a fish-eye shape. So I took three photos moving along the mountains and I have now stitched them together into one long one. It is not perfect, but not too bad either.

I have had short sessions of crafting in this room in the mornings, before the sun gets round to this side of the building, read lots of books on my Kindle, and made a couple of dashes to the shop, but nothing more exciting than that.

I find our big king-size bed quite hard to change now, so I am very happy that my nice cleaning lady changes the sheets regularly. Of course, we also change our clothes more often in the heat, so the washing machine is often on, and everything is on the line, dried, and folded away again within a couple of hours. This week Tolly discovered the machine and he sat watching it transfixed by the movement. I have not seen him do that before.

This afternoon we dropped our son Tom off at a very quiet Almeria airport. It was another blisteringly hot day so he spent his last morning in and out of the pool, in between packing a few last bits. (He keeps one set of swimwear here so he never has to worry about packing wet items). Of course I made sure he had a good meal inside him before we set off at 5.00. It is an easy drive and only took us 45 minutes today as the motorway was almost empty. We left him queueing up to drop off his case and were home again by 7.00. His flight was delayed a little but he was soon on his way to London. He has one more day of sightseeing there tomorrow  before flying home to Denmark on Saturday. It had¡s been lovely having hi here for over three weeks. The house will seem very empty without him.

And finally not exactly a stunning sunset, but a lovely golden sky all the same as the evening slipped in on Tuesday.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and publish this on Friday morning.