Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 13

Well another week has rushed by with very little to write about. However I am grateful that everything is moving along as we hoped,  and I have managed to finish the main packing. There is still tools etc in the garage, but they have been sorted so it shouldn't be hard to pack them up. I just need small boxes as they are very heavy.

I had an unexpected call from my dermatologist clinic Tuesday lunch time, to say they had a free appointment that afternoon, so we drove to Vera for one last time. Dr Ana was lovely and she has given me medication to last through 'til June, and some useful information for a dermatologist in UK when I find one.

It was nice when Chris brought me in a card which the  mail man had left today. I wasn't expecting anything so I opened it. It was a Mothering Sunday card from my son. I have been so busy that I hadn't even registered that it was this Sunday, so that was a a really great surprise. It is a pretty card and I will enjoy having it on display now.

This week we said "Goodbye" to our last furry friend, little Luna. I took her as a rescue kitten from the vet when a litter was dumped on her door step over sixteen years ago. She has been mostly an outdoor cat, only coming in for food, and shelter when the weather is bad. But she is not unfriendly and since rehoming Tolly and Leo, she has stayed in the house for longer, even curling up on Chris' lap occasionally, though not for long. (I can't have her on mine). A man came to collect her on Tuesday and I also gave him all the food, dishes etc that I had left. I was sad to see her go but I know she was disturbed by all the boxes, wandering around and in between them and meowing, so hopefully she is more settled now. 

It is more than forty years since I had no cats at all, and it is really strange not to be greeted when I get up each day.

I had a long catch-up chat with my sister on Monday, which was nice.

It has been sunnier with intermittant grey clouds this week, and I have sat out on the porch to sew a thread or two of my cross-stitch whenever I need a break from packing. My back soon complains if I try to do too many boxes in one go.

And that is the week that was. Only a few more to go!!

So I am off to share this on Annie's Friday Smiles. see you there.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 12

Hooray, today the sun is shining. There is still more rain forecast but it was lovely to sit out on the porch after lunch and do a couple of strands of my sewing before coming in to prepare this. 

It has been another very busy week with most of my time being taken sorting and packing. The stack of full and sealed boxes is growing, and I am keeping a careful list of what is in each one. When they are all done I will type up a tidy list for the removal men to show customs at the border.

Yesterday I took the morning off packing to attend my sewing group, but when we pulled up outside the hall, everyone was standing outside on the street. It seemed the metal grill that is the safety cover for the entrance, had stuck, and couldn't be unlocked, so they were waiting for a locksmith to come and sort it out. So our leader contacted the bar where some members go after each week's meeting for a drink and light lunch, and he agreed to set up some tables for us there. So we all trouped off; the bar is only a few minutes drive from the hall. We were made welcome, and soon we had put several tables together and all sat around to do our sewing, knitting etc. We ordered a complicated list of coffees and teas, which he coped with well considering there were twenty or so of us. 

One lady was celebrating her birthday and usually we give birthday members a card, but these were all locked up inside the hall, but we sang Happy Birthday to her anyway. A few minutes later the same music blared out of the overhead system and the bar owner came with a cupcake for Linda with a candle on it. Such a nice gesture. (She said "They couldn't find an eight candle or they were too polite to put it on!).

Halfway through the morning we got a message that the doors had been unlocked, but we decided to stay where we were. Back to the hall next week.

I had a lovely long video chat with Ben last night. We hadn't managed to call for a while so we had plenty to talk about.

Other than that, my main problem has been trying to fill big boxes without making them too heavy. I wouldn't want to lift any of them, but the removal man promised there wasn't much he can't handle with his set of wheels, so I hope that is so. I am good at puzzles so I can usually fit things in to fit closely and not move about, and we have bought a variety of boxes to accommodate most things, but one item has been a major headache, and that is my laser cutter/engraver. It doesn't look very big but it has taken us two full days trawling through Amazon to find a box that it will fit in. I think we finally have one but it is not arriving until the end of next week, so I am getting on with other things while I wait.

We have continued to have rain most days, but fortunately we don't get snow down here like poor Lisca had in her village. Most days the sun does try to put in an appearance by the evening and one day I caught this rather lovely scene which shows both the blue sky on the right and the storm clouds rolling in on the left, with the sun going down between them. 

And that's it for this week so I will go and link this up with Annie's Friday Smiles ready for tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 11

Yes I am still smiling, but maybe not quite as much, because Yes, it is still raining! It is on and off showers now with some of them quite heavy. Twice I have had to dry my washing indoors, which is a shame because I love to see it blowing on the line outside. But it was so windy on Tuesday that half of it lost some pegs, and was twisted round and round the line, srangling anything that had managed to hang on, so once again I moved indoors. Fortunately I now have a good size drying rack, and with it still being cold enough to light the fire in evenings, everything soon dries.

Between the showers we have had some lovely sunshine, and in places out of the wind, it has been warmer too. The wild flowers are loving the rain and sun, and are blooming everywhere. The oxalis is now a carpet of sharp yellow over the ground next door,and sometimes we pass whole fields of it, that shine out amid the campo's drab colours.

Next door it is covered in flowers, which close up at night but open up as soon as the sun touches them in the morning. Peeping out between the flowers are little pink stars of Erodium.

Also  we are now  seeing Echium plantagineum which  has flowers that start deep pink and slowly change through pale pink, mauve, purple and then deep blue. Because it flowers continuously for weeks and they are all at different stages, you often see all the colours on one plant and it is so pretty. But it is a 'touch-me-not plant as the leaves and stems carry hairs that are extremely irritating to our skin.

This week has been mainly taken up with a few official appointments with solicitors, attornys, removal men and estate agents. And between those I have been busy packing boxes while Chris handles all the administration, plus any heavy lifting. (We make a good team).  It all looks a bit chaotic right now, but I am actually fairly organised so it will all make sense soon.

We have now agreed that our boxes etc will be collected on May 1st, and will be delivered to a container site in Shropshire on 5th. Our son Mike will be there to supervise the unloading. As we are not taking the furniture with us, we will be able to remain in the house for a few days, and maybe go to hotel for a couple of nights, and we will travel to UK the following week when everythng is signed off. 

By the evening I am ready to sit and relax so some nights I do a bit more of my cross stitch picture. I can only do two or three threads before my sight gets blurred, but it is coming along quite nicely.

And that's really all my news this week, so I will get ready to post this tomorrow and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 10

Yes I am smiling this week - because we have had rain. We needed some rain so desperately in this, the agricultural area of Spain. On Friday the man on the local radio announced that for the first time in his memory, rain was forcast for seven days 'on the bounce'. And this time they got it right. It  started Friday night and boy! did it rain!. It poured steadily right through to Sunday. Every one was warned to stay at home if possible on Saturday as the ramblas were filling up and there was localised flooding. And it has rained on and off ever since. This is a Facebook picture of the rambla at Sorbas, just a few metres up the motorway from here. And I guess ours is much the same. There is no point for viewing our rambla from the village except from a bridge out on the main road, and I didn't want to paddle that far to see, but they showed a picture of the road into the rambla being closed off by the local police. Ramblas are dry river beds and they are useful for carrying excess water from the mountains out to the sea, so it was good to see them fulfilling this function and leaving the village unscathed.

On Wednesday we had an appointment with out solicitor down on Mojacar player. It was a wet drive and very windy, but fortunately we didn't have far to walk. I took this quick picture of the tall palm trees, bravely standing against the wind. 

The sea was churning and breaking from way out, and crashing on the rocks along the sea front. Unfortunately I find it difficult to take a photo that captures the power behind this.

Today the rain has held off for a short while though heavy grey clouds are rolling down from the mountains, ready to drench us again. But I decided to grab the break in the rain to stretch my legs as I have been sitting around far too much this week. I walked up to the top of the village where there is a look-out bay out across the fields betreen us and the rambla. Just look at how green they are. They were just brown mud areas a week ago.

I really went up that way to see a new supermarket that opened last week. It was one before, but it was dark and cramped and I didn't go there much. It has been taken over by a young man who also owns the busiest bar in the village. He has gutted it, put in  new lighting and made a new attractive entrance. It is now  a well stocked shop with a wider range of goods than was previously available, all well displayed and clearly labelled. I was quite impressed. It seemed to be doing a good trade even on a day like this, and I am sure I will visit it again.

And finially this made me smile today. I cleared some debris and weeds from some of the pots in the front yard the other day, and I mentioed to Chris that one pot looked as though it had a little self-seeded pansy in it. And this morning there it was, smiling up at me, so I smiled back.

Now I have to get ready for two visitors this afternoon. The first is from a removal company to assess what we have to move, and give some advice of packing and labelling each box for customs. And the second is a girl from the estate agency to make an inventory of what we are leaving behind. So it will be all go from now on. First I will take this over to link with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.