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.