Friday Smiles 2024 #Week 20

Another week of ups and downs but I will try to put a post together. I am typing slowly as I have somehow managed to 'sprain' my left thumb and it is very painful and makes the hand useless. I have no idea what I did. It just happened during a very disturbed night. It has eased a little since this morning but the thumb pad is still very swollen. I have just taken the first of some very strong anti-inflamatory pills that the doctor has given me so hopefully it will calm down soon.

In the meantime I have had a busy week with trips to the dentist and hospital, which is just far enough away to make it nearly a day's outing. I have a repaired denture which is good but have been warned it is not as strong and may break again any time, but at the end of the month I am having my last two teeth (fangs!) removed and implants fitted in my lower jaw. When that has all settled down, in 3-4 months time, I will be having a new top and bottom plate. Happy days!

To approve the dentistry work I needed a special X-ray that meant a trip to their bigger surgey in Garrucha. Afterwards we strolled along the front, enjoying the stiff breeze and sunshine. The gulls were gathered in large groups along the shoreline, perhaps hoping the incoming tide would bring them some titbits. Across the water we could also watch all the activity over at the port with the lorries constantly unloading and loading, and what looks like little toy lorries from a distance, keeping all the gravel piles tidy and prepared.

On Tuesday I had my appointment at Torrecadenas Hospital in Almeria city. We took out interpreter along and I am glad we did as she is more used to the layout of the hospital, and I would have struggled to follow all the information I was given. You have probably guessed by now that the biopsy I had done on my hand showed some shallow carcegenic cells so it was agreed that these would be cut away. The site is quite spread out so I will need a skin graft but it will all be done in the day surgery. Now I have to wait for a an apointment from the anaesthetist who will do blood and ECG tests and check I am well enough, and soon after that I should get a date for the operation. So it is all progress.

Parking at the hospital is a nightmare with long queues of cars waiting to get a space. But recently they opened a new innitiative where you can park for free at a new shopping mall and catch a shuttle bus, also free, up to the hospital. Because our interpreter was familiar with all this we were able to do it and it saved a lot of time and frayed tempers. The car park was full to the brim even though we had the almost the first appointment of the day in our department. There was also a long row of parked motorbikes and I guessed that was how the medical staff managed to get to work on time. The hospital is set high on a hill, (Strange choice for a hospital site I feel!), and from up there you can look out over the whole of the city, and in the distance you can see the sea. Almeria is the capital city of our province.

While the painters were in last week, a cupboard they moved off the wall they were painting, accidently fell against the end pole of my washing line and forced it off the wall it was fixed to. So Chris has fixed it again and it is much stornger now, and we went to the ferreteria to buy new line. It has four ten foot lines so it is quite a task to restring it, but it is all down now and I am very happy, and grateful to Chris for his work.

While we were out we popped into the garden centre just opposite the shop, because for ages I have wanted a yellow rose. I bought one once from Lidls and it turned out to be a dark red rose with a thin yellow streak on its inner petals! In the end we found one. It is a small floribunda rather than the tea rose we were looking for, but it is lovely all the same. 

While we were there I also chose this very pretty orange one. It turns to a pale apricot colour as it open out, and it has been planted in one of the big boxes at the corner of the side yard.

I sometimes wonder what Tolly gets up to at night because he is always in the kitchen waiting for his breakfast when I get up, and then he takes up this pose on our settee and doen't move a muscle until lunch time. Even my cleaner can hoover around him without him stirring.

But I know what someone got up to on Sunday night. I don't know which one it was but have my suspicions it was Leo. It is natural for them to hunt but I wish they didn't feel compelled to give me their catch as a gift. However when I got up on Monday, this little fellow was on the kitchen floor. He was dead which was a blessing really, as had he been alive, as soon as I tried to move him he would have shot under the fridge, and I would have spent all day trying to find him. He is a very juvenile horshoe whip snake. They are not venemous and don't bother me at all. In fact I think he is rather beautful, but I know many of you would freak out at such a 'gift'. 

One day this week I ran out of bread for our tea so I decided to make a batch of drop scones. They are a simple batter very similar to ordinary pancakes but with one or two additions. I usually cook them on my old griddle, but I thought they must work just as well on a flat-bottomed frying pan. Wrong! They would not cook and before long I gave up and fetched out my griddle. They cook perfectly on there but you have to be quick. The secret is to turn them over before the bubbles on the surface break, which is why I only have five or six on the go at the time. They made a nice change and we thoroughly enjoyed them. They always bring back memories of my mum. She lived with us for her last ten years aged 80-90, and she loved it when I made these little soft bites for our Sunday tea.

I have spent a lot of time this week chatting to one or other of my boys. They are very good and keep calling to see if there is any progress in my various problems, and now at last I can tell them there is.

So now I will close and prepare to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 19

It has been a week of ups and downs but as this post is called Friday Smiles we will mostly concentrate on the ups. Knowing how much I love watching the sky, you won't be surprised when  I start with two photos I took on  Monday evening. For a short a while the sky was full of 'flying saucers' that caught the rays of the setting sun. They didn't stay around for long but at least I managed to catch these two on camera and even made one of them my Facebook header. I might manage to put one on here later too.

It hasn't been a very peaceful week as we have had three men here all week, stripping down the old paintwork and then painting the outside all the way around the house. It may not look very different in this photo, but it is all a bright shining white, and even all the railings on the fence and windows now have a new coat of glossy black paint. One man was sitting in the full sun painstakingly painting all the curls on our double gates and I said to him "You drew the short straw when you got that job". He grinned and said "I know, but it is better than sitting around at home". They have done a really good job and have even brought in a high power blower to clear all the dust and debris from behind our cupboards, and the paint dust where they sanded all the flakey paint off the walls. It is lovely to see the house looking so good again.

Today they came inside to paint the recesses around the windows and the insides of all the railings, so Chris went round first and took down all the roller blinds. These are just suspended from two hooks and they were due to come down anyway as they get very dusty over the winter. We always start the year by hanging them over the railings and hosing them all. Some will need to be restrung as well. But I knew that the one in my craft room often has a gecko hiding in it and sure enough as Chris started to move it, the little fellow darted out onto the window recess. I think he was bewildered when he couldn't find his home and he kept running up and down the wall. I took a quick photo of him through the fly screen netting but as I tried to get another one he suddenly slipped round the corner and all I got was his receeding tail.  I hope he found a new shelter for a while.

The cats are also a bit disturbed when there are strangers in 'their house'. So they tended to stay inside with us. Maybe they didn't like the smell of the paint (The black gloss was a bit pungent), as even in the evening when the men had gone home, they stayed in with us. So Tolly was happily curled up on a chair when he spotted that I had kicked my shoes off. He loves shoes and he pounced on one of mine and held on tight, eventually falling asleep while cuddling it. When I tried to retrieve it he got quite frantic and wouldn't let go, at least not until I rattled his food dish  in the kitchen and he had to come and investigate that!

I thought I'd show you my first completed project on my new laser cutter. I made a set of three double-layer coasters. Each one has two layers of different wood, glued together and sprayed lightly with a waterproof varnish. They are not perfect and I can't say whether the slightly unequal cutouts are due to a poor file, which I bought from an etsy store, or from the way I set it up, but I am still quite pleased with the result.

I had a phone call from the hospital in Almeria on Wednesday to say I have a consultation with the dermatology surgeon next Tuesday, to decide what they will do to my hand. I did get a call to go to the day surgery in the more local Huercal-Over hospital a couple of weeks ago and I was hoping they would remove the bad tissue from around the ulcer, but when the surgeon saw it he said he couldn't do it because they only do small cuts under local anaesthetic there, and this was too big. So he said I needed to go to Almeria hospital for a general anaesthetic and they would probably do a skin graft to cover it. Now I have to see whether the man in Almeria agrees so after Tuesday I will at least know what to expect next.

And to add to my fun, as I was eating a soft slice of bread Tuesday tea-time, my bottom denture suddenly snapped in two! I have had it a long time and knew that next time I would probably have to lose my last two teeth and have implants to hold the new plate, but I hadn't planned on doing so just yet. But fate has deemed othewise so now I am starting on a rather long journey of dental treatment, but I guess it will be a good thing when it is done. Urg!

I had intended to prepare this post this afternoon but I ended up chatting to my son Ben for a couple of hours instead. But that was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

And just as I started with two sky photos, so I will close with two as well. I took these tonight. I was sitting here preparing this post for tomorrow and saw the pink glow in the sky. So I grabbed my phone and ran out just in time to see this pretty sky. It rapidly darkened and became more red, and by the time I got back to my computer it had gone. But what  a lovely end to the day.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Smiles over on her blog. See you there.

 

Friday Smiles 2024# Week 18

I am a bit late to the party this week. I usually prepare my blog on Thursday afternoon, but yesterday we did the monthly food shop in the morning, and after lunch I sat outside where it was hazy but warm, and read my book all afternoon. It was only at bedtime that I realised I should have been writing my blog. But I am ready to go now.

On Saturday it was a damp, slightly chilly morning but Chris went over to the plaza to watch the start of the Vuelta Almeria 2024. This is a big cycle race with lots of teams taking part, and that day the course started and ended in our village. At lunch time we walked over again and were in time to watch the presentations. There were coloured vests for the first man and first woman home, lots of medals, and each winner was also given a plaque and a big box of local vegetables. It was a good atmosphere and they all seemed to have enjoyed it. There were plenty of police to direct traffic while the road was closed, and ambulances standing by but as far as I know there were no accidents. The next leg of the competition was in Albox the next day. I did not get many good photos so I have made a 'dump collage' of some that the Town Hall posted on Facebook. 

That afternoon I was able to share in the funeral of a much loved sister-in-law via a live link.It was good to be involved even though I was unable to travel over to Wales to attend in person.

On Sunday I went to church as usual and when I got home I continued to make our traditional Sunday roast dinner, including some Yorkshire puddings. Chris called me to say they looked done but I said "No. They haven't finished rising yet". A short while later I went to check again and they had taken on a life of their own and looked as though they were trying to escape from the oven.  They tasted good too. (Apologies to those who have already seen this on my facebook page).

While at church a friend brought me a bag of bitter oranges to make marmalade. He had offered them the week before and I said I would have a look at them but it is way to late in the year. Normally I make marmalade in January or February. It turned out they were lovely looking fruit with good clean skin, but they were over-ripe, with the flesh drying away from the pith inside the skin. But as I had not been given any oranges earlier in the year, and my broken arm would have made cutting them up difficult anyway, I had not managed to make any marmalade this year, so I decided to use these and see how it turned out. I pressure cooked the skins as usual making them easy to cut, and I was surprised how much juice was in them. I enjoy stirring this pot of golden loveliness. It smells wonderful. 

Soon I had eighteen jars of marmalade which set well and tastes fine. It hasn't quite got the tang it usually has , and is darker because I had to boil it a bit longer to reach the setting point, but on the whole it was a sucess and, in my opinion at least, it is still tastier than any I can buy in the shops!

On Monday night we had been promised storms and were hoping for some more rain at last. The sky was dark but no storms seemed imminent, but around 9.00 it suddenly started. The lightening flashes were amazing and came every few seconds for almost an hour. But the thunder was distant and the rain, though heavy, didn't last for as long as we had hoped. I tried to take a photo of some of the lightening flashes but I don't have the sophisticated equippment needed for this so again I have made a collage of the photos shown on our local radio station's page. It was quite dramatic. (photo credit to Carli Tolman).

The rest of the week has ticked along rapidly and here we are at another weekend. I had a chat with son Tom in Denmark, but other than that it has been quite quiet.

This is my great-grandson Alfie, now aged 9. He took part in his schools cross-country event which involved four races over the past few months, and he won all four of them! Here he is with his overall winner's medal.

And here he is again with his two brothers Isaac and Reuben. They are a very sporty family, with both boys playing in the local boys club football teams where thier dad is one of the coaches, plus Isaac sometimes playing for Shrewsbury reserves and Alfie training with a Welsh league boys team. Little Reuben will be two in July and he is their biggest fan, watching all their games and shouting from the side line. It won't be long before he is joining a club too. He already has a good kick and loves having a ball to play with. This week Isaac's team won the Charity Cup, so they have both had a good week.

And now I must hurry over to Annie's Friday Smiles to link up with you all and see what has kept you smiling this week.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 17

It was a lovely morning on Tuesday so I walked the long way round to get to the market. This means I went down our road to the bottom of the village, along the slip road that borders the village, and then up towards the market. The slip road is lined on the left side by tall conifers, and on the right there are several jacaranda trees. At a distance these all look very dead, with bare branches and last years seed pods.

On closer inspection I realised that what I thought was shrivelled leaves was in fact new flower buds forming, so in another week or two we will have a row of beautiful pale blue blooms. (The big brown 'pennies' are last year's seed pods). They are one of the prettiest trees out here. Even when the flowers have faded, new green fern-like leaves appear, and they are still very pretty.

I can't resist showing my poinsettia again. It has continued to turn more and more of its bracts red, and the whole plant is so bright now. The tiny yellow flowers can now be seen in the centre of each rosette. It has done so well this year.

The sun and little rain we had, have woken up the chumba, (prickly pear) that tumbles down the bank at the end of next-door's garden. 

It is an ornamental one and does not seem to produce edible fruit, but it's flowers are stunning. Each one only lasts for a day but there are plenty more waiting to open. And the bees love them. I tried to catch them flyng around these flowers, but I think they dived into the centre and hid behind the petals. I have to lean over the back railings and zoom in to get these pictures, and I can't hold that position for long!

I did a little bit of baking this week and made some blueberry muffins. They are a bit untidy but tasted so good!

It was our 45th anniversary on Saturday. Our boys asked whether we did anything special, so I said, "Well we spent most of the day assembling my new laser cutter!" Not the most romantic exercise, but a very special present all the same. This machine is much more powerful than the one I borrowed, and I can't wait to put it through it's paces. I haven't had much time this week to really get to grips with it, but I am excited to find out what it can do.

As this blog started as a diary for my family and friends, I do not usually add funnies at the end as some of you do, but these two really caught my eye this week, and made me smile.

One for the young ones, ...

...and one for us oldies.

So true, but at least I have health, can take care of myself, and move around unaided, so there is still plenty to be grateful for.

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

Friday Smiles 2024 #Week 16

Summer is on the way, and the village is waking up after it's Winter quiet season. This week we have enjoyed temperatures in the low thirties, and I have started to wear my summer dresses.

There are more folk around on the street, stopping to chat to friends instead of hurrying back to a warm house. It is still breezy but the strong winds have passed, for now anyway. At the end of last week the circus rolled into town. It pitched up on the area at the back of our house, on the far side of the 'green zone'. It is amazing how quickly they can put the Big Top up. They did performances on three nights, Friday-Sunday. Although they were so close to us we didn't hear much noise from them. I don't know how many people attended. It is an expensive evening if you have a family to take. I don't think they have any live animals these days, but their poster advertised a large gorrilla, described as a King Cong animatron. This was taken from my back yard.

By Monday night all sign of them had gone. I guess they had another place to be for this weekend.

I was hanging out my washing this week and to do this I look over next door's garden. It used to be a lush orange grove, but now the house is empty, and workers only come in occasionally to do essential tasks. Many of the trees have died, and some have been replaced by other fruits such a pomegranet,  jujus, and figs. But mostly it is just brown earth and a lot of stones where much of the soil has blown away. But the few remaining orange trees are still watered and under them, the weeds grow strong and tall. Everywhere has changed so much since we came out here. I have photos of this garden covered in lush grass and full of wild flowers after the winter/spring rains, but not any more.

This morning I went into our bathroom and saw this little cutie on the wall. We welcome the geckos both in the house and outside, as they eat mosquitoes and other bugs. But this little chap had been in the wars and lost most of his tail and injured his back, right leg. Fortunately for him, his tail will grow back. If any predator tries to catch a gecko by the tail, they will just shed it and grow a new one in a few weeks. I am not sure whether the leg will regenerate too. But it didn't stop him from moving around. I was able to catch him and I carried him outside and carefully placed him on a potted plant. He was better camouflaged than he looks in the photo, and I thought he would be less vunerable to our cats outside.

I am slowly working on my Floral Blooms blanket. It is a bit different from anything I have done before. I have finished all the flowers which were the most straightforward part, as well as a few of the leaves and a strange shaped joining piece. The leaves have to have some surface crochet and top stitching to finish them, and although there is a pattern for each joining piece, there is still an element of free-crochet to fill any spaces, which is something I haven't tried before. I have to be in the right mood to tackle each piece, and really concentrate on it, so I have the odd night off when I really want to watch something on TV. But there is no rush for it at all, so I can take my time and enjoy the process.

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

P.S. Wewoke up this morning to RAIN. And it is still raining. Yay!!

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 15

Well our week didn't start off so good as storm Kathleen, (not sure I like having a storm named after me!), arrived bringing with her a cloud of desert dust known as Calima. By tea-time on Saturday the sky had a yellowish hue and the hills below the village were barely vivsible from our gate. By Sunday morning there was a layer of red sand on everything. We are not supposed to wash down with the hose while the water ban is in place, but we did have to wash the car windows before we could drive.

But Sunday was a good day all the same. I knew our friend Lisca was on holiday with her daughter, down on our stretch of coast, staying in a hostel in Garrucha. We were both set on going to church in the morning so I phoned her after lunch and we arranged to meet up. It was lovely to be able to actually see one of our regular 'blogland friends' face to face, so of course we got Chris to take a photo of us together.

It was also nice to meet Lisca's daughter Tracey, especially when we discovered that she lives in the same little town as my son Ben. (A small world isn't it!). I did take a photo of her with her mum but I caught her just as she took off her sunglasses so she had closed her eyes against the glare. But Chris took another one of me with Lisca this time with the palm trees and boats in the marina as a backdrop.

Then we decided to drive them round to Vera Laguna, but we were surprised to find that there had been enough rain to flood the area where there is a boardwalk at the back of the lake durng the summer, so we couldn't walk along the side of the lake and down on to the beach as we often do. Also there were fewer birds there than usual. Sometimes the water is heaving with all sorts of wild-fowl, but there were a few ducks and moorhens, and one or two others. The first one that caught my eye was a white one and I thought it might be an egret, but I had never seen one with a plume of feathers on its head before. However, I took a photo and googled it when I got home and sure enough it was a Little Egret. Maybe the plume is part of its mating finery.

Further away I saw a pair that I didn't recognise. My photo is a bit 'odd' because I had to zoom in a long way to take it, but again I was able to identify them on google as Black-winged Stilts. I like to know what I am looking at.

We drove back to Garrucha promenade and sat outside a little shop to enjoy a lovely icecream before we took Lisca and Tracey back to their hostel.

On Monday we had to go to the hospital for Chris second eye treatment, which means were out for most of the afternoon so not much else was achieved.

Tuesday was our church AGM which was well-attended  and interesting. It was followed by a lunch, so I was out for most of the day again. 

Wednesday was my sewing group and then we visited my friend Steve to discuss more about the laser cutter, so the week has flown by.

Today I needed to make two sympathy cards which I managed to finish in time to get them in the post. Our office is only open for an hour between 1.00 and 2.00, but starting next week it is changing to 9.00 - 10.00 which will be more convenient.

While trying to tidy my craft room a bit, I came across a box labelled "Christmas. W.I.P." Inside I found a sheet of printed digistamps, some very old Christmas cards that I obviously saw as being suitable for recycling and then never used, and oddments of ribbon etc. So I set to and made half a dozen cards to add to my stash. Now I really must try to get some birthday cards made.

We have a cat-flap in our back door so the cats are free to come and go at any time. (Except for Leo who is still shut in at night though I do let him go out during the evening now it is warmer). I have no idea what Tolly gets up to in the hours of darkness, but he is in the kitchen ready for his breakfast when I get up, and then he goes to sleep on the settee. And he doesn't just have a nap. He usually stays there until mid-afternoon, and sometimes until it is time for tea, and he is 'dead to the world'. He doesn't flinch when we move him along so we can sit down, and didn't even twitch a whisker when I took this photo. I wish I could sleep as deeply as that.

I had some happy mail this week. I ordered an oversized mug. It holds 600ml and I love it for breakfast and tea-time, though I do use a smaller one during the day. It was described as a coffee mug but as I don't drink coffee, mine will only be filled with tea. It is good for me to drink a lot and as I don't have it too strong, I don't think it will do me any harm. We also both have a little heat pad to keep our drinks warm and it is ideal for this mug.

And that is it for this week. I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and hopefully get to visit you all later.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 14

We have had another windy week. I was nearly knocked off my feet when I went outside on Saturday, but the sun is shining so life is pretty good. 

The weather was at its worst over the Easter weekend which is a shame as there are amazing processions planned for every town in Spain from Thurday through to Sunday. Fortunately the clouds held on to their rain for Sunday morning when the main processions take place. But it wasn't a day for standing around to watch so I went to our own more modest service. We have enjoyed the ministry of a lovely locum priest for nearly three months, and Monday was his last day so on Easter Sunday he wanted all three of the little churches in the chaplaincy to meet together in one place, and the place he found for us was the Tanatorio in Mojacar. A Tanatorio is a funeral chapel so at first it seemed an odd choice, but it was a nice little chapel and it comfortably held the 50 folk who were there. And as Father Denis pointed out, it is the place where hope of the ressurection is most felt.

He was asissted by all three of our lay-readers, and at the end of the service he brought out a bowl of Easter eggs. Stating that they were not a part of the true Easter story, but none the less they are a symbol of 'New Life', and he hoped we would move forward with new life in our churches. He blessed the eggs and then they were distributed among the congregation. Afterwards we had a time of social chat with hot-cross buns and glasses of cava, (sparkling wine). My friends husband walked around taking photos of the people there, including one of me with some friends. I am wearing one of my favourite dresses that I bought when I was in UK last year.

I have spent a lot of time making cards this week, but because I make most of my cards with a specific person in mind, I cannot show them on here.

Today we decided to spend the morning working in the garden. There is a small garden centre attatched to the camp site where we go for fish and chips most Fridays, and last week I bought two red geraniums. They are not ususally in flower yet but these are a glorious bright red, and really make a splash of colour.

This little area is full of colour too, with a deep pink kalenchoe that I thought was dead last year!, and my cute little pansies.

And summer is certainly on the way as the first roses are in bloom and very beautiful they are too. (We saw our first swallow this week as well. Another sign of summer).

I did a lot of weeding and cutting back of dead stems, and Chris cut the tougher branches and swept up all the debris that the wind and weather had built into piles in every corner. It all looks a lot better now. 

We finally had one day of rain, and although it is no where near enough, the plants responded. These two were as good as dead, and as we are very limited in how much watering we can do, we had decided to write them off and replace them next autumn. But after that bit of rain, we noticed small green leaves appearing among the dead brown ones. So I have cut out most of the brown bits and watered them a little more and maybe they will survive after all.

This is my tall cactus. When we moved in fifteen years ago, it was about the size of the small ones around its base, and it used to annoy me when it caught on my skirt as I walked by. But it has grown and grown. I always hoped it would produce a lovely flower at the top, but that seems unlikely now. Look at how narrow it is at the base, and it waves around if you touch it, but as you can see in the photo, it is a fair bit taller than me now.

We had a worry this week when Tolly refused to eat on Monday night, and then he went outside and didn't come back. There was no sign of him all day Tuesday, and we walked all around the area calling him but with no success. Then on Wednesday morning he came back limping badly on his front foot. I have felt it all over and cannot find any thorns or grit between his toes, so I think he must have sprained it. I gave him a dose of painkillers for cats, and some more today, and he has started to eat a little food again. He is spending a lot of time curled up on the settee and was quite happy to share it with Chris today. He was able to jump up there unaided and is walking around when he needs to, so I think a couple of days of rest and he will be right as rain again.

Monday was our grand-daughter's third birthday, so I had a video call with her and her parents yesterday. She had a trampoline for her birthday which she loves as she is a bundle of energy and needs to be on the move all the time. This is a not very good photo taken as a screenshot from a little video they sent me. 

Then I rang our son out in Denmark and had a catch-up with him, and Jim, our eldest son,  being a vicar, was too busy over Easter to call, but he rang us last night for a long chat. Ben and I had had our usual weekly call of two hours or so the night before, so I have had a good family chat time which always makes me happy.

So now I will link up with Annie's Smiles and see what has kept you smiling this week.