Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 9

It has been a good week here starting with last Saturday which was Carnival day here in the village. After a week of lovely sunshine, it decided to rain on Saturday! and boy did it rain. We had a real downpour and I wasn't sure the carnival would go ahead, but the rain stopped at 5.45, and shortly after 6.00 the parade started almost on time. 

Fortunately non of the participants were too skimpily dressed this year, as with the rain there was quite a drop in the temperature too. We usually go down to the slip road below us where the parade musters, but it was damp and chilly this year so we stayed in our garden as the parade passes up our street, so we didn't miss anything. Here is a collage of the few photos I took. It is a fun occasion and everyone was smiling despite the weather.

Other than that I have finished two little projects. One is this Japonese flower pot stand. It is crochet rings, interlocked as you work it, and I have to admit there was some frustrated unpicking and re-doing as I struggled to get them interlocked the right way round, but I got there in the end.

The second project was this owl dream-catcher, cut with my laser cutter. I used three different woods - maple, birch and walnut - and added a little paint to a few pieces. Then it was glued together and spray varnished. It was something that had sat on my 'to-do' list for a while, but I had to order the sheets of different wood. I am pleased with it now that it is done.

Last Saturday was my son Ben's birthday and we had a lovely chat on the computer. Then on Sunday it was my sister Dorothy's birthday and she was 90 years young! Here she is with the photo book her daughter made for her with photographs collected from all of our extended family.

The big news this week is that we have provisionally sold our house. I say provisionally because the buyers have paid the deposit to remove it from the site, and we have all signed a preliminary agreement, but nothing is for sure until the contract is signed, and the full price paid, and that is some way off yet. We are hoping to be back in UK by mid-May, as long as there are no hitches on the way.

So all in all it has been a good week. So now I will get ready to post this tomorrow and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 8

Hello all my friends. We have enjoyed another rather lovely week, with sunshine most days, warm enough to sit out on the porch for a few hours each afternoon, and then a cosy evening by the fire when the sun goes down. It has been good for me as I am taking yet another very strong anti-biotic which upset my insides as first and left me with little incentive to do much except sit and read or doze! Fortunately my body seems to have adjusted today so I was able to have a busy morning in the kitchen baking chicken pie for dinner, "maids of honour" cakes to use up the pastry, and a small brown and white mixed loaf. It looks good but we will know at tea/time whether it tastes good too.

When the sun sinks down behind the roof and the porch is in the shade, I sometimes sit round at the back, just below the window of this room. It is a real suntrap, and is too hot for me much of the time, but early morning and evening, it is lovely. It is very peace ful there and I sit and watch the birds swooping around for insects, or at this time of year, collecting dry grass etc to build a nest.

This tree that I showed when the first almond blossom appeared, never ceases to amaze me. It couldn't look more dead for most of the year, with dark, almost black branches, and not a leaf in sight, but in spring it suddenly produces blossom in a abundance. It will die off again before the nuts have time to mature, but right now the bees and other insects are having a feast.

When I walked over to the village for the market on Tuesday, I cut across the the village car park. This is an area of sandy ground, rough but worn down by constant vehicles. Most days, only the lower section is used, but on market day some cars venture onto the higher level, where I was walking. And it just struck me how very barren it is. When we had our first pups some fifteen years ago, we used to bring them here first thing every morning, and then they had a long run over the campo after breakfast. I remember then,  we were often knee deep in weeds and wild flowers, and the dew would soak our shoes and the dogs feet.  But they don't even try to grow now. It is just bare scrub land with a few straggly plants on the ground.

Round about this time of year I used to pick big bunches of bright yellow wild crysanthmums from here, and they would last for ages in a jar of water. Now I struggle to find any, though I did eventually find this rather sad little specimen.

It is sad illustration of how much hotter it is getting here, and how much dryer the winters are.

I was pleased to see a few asprodels were struggling up along the edges. These grow like weeds everywhere, and are often seen on the verges of roads. They are often taller and healthier than these, but at least they are still trying. 

Here is a close up of the flowers (from google). They are so pretty. I think in England they are grown as a cultivated garden flower.

My 'baby' Ben is 38 on Saturday. How time flies! I wanted a little something to put in with his card, so I made a couple of engraved coasters. He and his partner are in the process of buying an old railway station with a couple of carriages that they want to renovate for visitors to sleep in. So I used two of the photos he had sent to me, one of the waiting room and one of the signal box. I turned them into line drawings and engraved them onto squares of wood. This is the waiting room. 

I forgot to photograph the finished one of the signal box, but this is the photo I prepared. He loves them and that is the main thing.

Most days the sky has been cloudless, so the sun has set in a smooth band of pink and mauve, but one evening as I sat at the back, a bank of clouds rolled in and I thought they looked so pretty. More clouds soon came to cover them so there was still no sunset of note, but I liked the clouds anyway.

This has been quite a sad week in some ways as we said 'Good-bye' to both our lovely cats. Leo went on Satuday and then Tolly on Tuesday. They went to separate homes where I thought the environment would suit them best, and both sets of new owners have sent me photos to show they are settling in well. It seems as though my whole daily routine revolved around cats' feeding times, so I am all at sea with out them. Of course we miss them a lot, but it is good to know they are settling in well in their new homes.

So now it is time to prepare this for publishing tomorrow and linking up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 7

 It has been another quiet week here but it was not without its positives.

For one, the sky has been blue every day so despite a cold wind, it is uplifting to look out of the window. I am almost always cold but I think that is mainly down to one of the medications I am on, and I just wrap up in a blanket whenever I need to.

I have finished my pink blanket and on Wednesday I handed them both in to the lady who collects them for food bank families. So right now my crochet is a bit in limbo. I need a few small projects that don't involve a big expense of more yarn, but will keep my hands busy in the evenings.

I have made a start on some cross stitch (just). I found a kit that didn't get packed when I was sorting out. It looked complete but when I opened it I found a piece of even weave linen, and my eyes are just not good enough to work on that. So I sent for a pack of four pieces of 14 count aida fabric. I had spent ages working out how many stitches were in it at the widest part, so what width of aida I needed, but when it came I realised that, although the design would fit onto it, there was only about half an inch spare all around - not enough to strech the finished work over backing card! So once again I went to amazon and found 14 count aida in a big piece and sent for that. The mistake was mine so I paid for it with good grace. The new piece was rather stiff, so after trying with a small square,  I decided to wash the piece I am using. I pegged it out and it was dry in an hour. Last night I found the centre and worked one line of green stems. The only needle I could find that fitted through the holes was so tiny I couldn't feel it or use it properly, so today I googled what size of needle is required for 14 count fabric, and ordered a set of them. They should be here tomorrow. I am obviously out of practice. I usually have "all my ducks in a row" beore I start a project, but hopefully I am on track now.

I treated myself to a new magnetic bracelet this week and I am very pleased with it. I have had a copper one for quite a while, but it only had one magnet at each end. This one has forty-four of them, all along the inside of it. Also the old one was an open circle and I was always getting it tangled in my clothes, or laying on an end and getting a bruise. This one is much better. I am not sure how much good it does you, but anything is worth a try.

One bit of good news is that I am pretty sure I have found a good home for Leo. It is with a family who already have two maine coons, plus two dachshounds, so I hope there is no jealousy, but he will be very loved, and get plenty of attention. They also have twelve year-old twin girls who love him already. The family came to see him yesterday, but the lady works all week and wants the weekend to make sure he has settled OK, so they are collecting him on Saturday. It will be a big wrench for me, and I will miss him so much, but it will be better for him, and that is what counts.

Once again I have exhausted the books on my Kindle, so I am going to upload a few more, and then sit outside in the porch if it is sheltered enough, and do some sewing while the light is good.

But first I must prepare this ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 6

Well we are right into February now, but I still seem to be on a bit of a 'time-out', with little desire or inclination to do much more than sit on the porch with a book, and do a bit of crochet while watching TV in the evenings.

However we had a couple of days of storms and even some significant rain on Monday, so I have been at  my computer some mornings. I have a thirty day free trial on another editing programme so I am trying to learn what it can do, but I don't think it is really for me. I have another couple of weeks to decide.

I have also done a bit of playing with my lazer cutting but nothing to show as yet. I had a bit of trouble with soot forming around the nozzle but I have given it a good clean now so hopefully it will work better next time.

Crochet wise I have almost finished my second blanket with the pink squares, so hopefully I can show that next week. I have no idea what I can do after that!

So I only have one photo today. After all the rain earlier in the week I was up early for clinic appointment on Wednesday, and I watched the sun rising between some pine trees. There were a few puddles still on the muddy carpark and I wanted to catch a reflection of the rising sun in one of them. But I couldn't get in quite the right position, nor wait for the sun to rise a little higher or I would have missed my appointment, so I took what I could, and I was quite pleased with this one. There is a clear reflection of the trees, and you can see the sun through them in the background.

Now I am going to take my book and sit out on the porch to read, where it is considerably warmer than it is in here.

But first I will prepare this to publish tomorrow and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.