Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 39

Firstly I apologise for my lack of comments last week. Friday we were out early as I had an appointment at the clinic. It was my first venture out of the house for almost a month and the surgery is a good twenty minute walk each way, so by the time I made it home again, I was exhausted. But since then I have gradually improved. The second course of antibiotics did help. I still have a cough but it is easing, and other than that I am just about back to normal. (I will look at two weeks of posts when I visit you this week).

Apart from that, it has been another quiet week. Each morning, when I open the curtains downstairs I see a long strand of spider's web stretching from the hedge across to a shrub in the centre of the bed. It never seemed to change until this week when it suddenly became a full web - such wonderful bits of craft I think. Then right in the middle came a fat garden spider, who was getting blown around in the breeze. I don't care for spider's close up, but as long as he remembers that he belongs in the garden, he is welcome to stay. What struck me most was his bright orange colour, and the amazingly intricate pattern on his body and legs. A marvellous creation really.

I have also been watching the sky. We have had some really lovely intervals of sun and one evening we just about managed a sunset. It was not a dramatic red and yellow one, but folds of soft pink and grey, and quite pretty for the few minutes that it is was visible.

Another day I popped out into the garden when I first got up, and the sky looked like this. I just love it! They are called altocumulus clouds, but I call them cottom wool clouds! When I showed the picture to my friend she said "Oh. cotton wool clouds". So I am not the only one.

On Tuesday we had an unexpected pleasant time as some old friends of ours who we knew for years in Spain, and who now live in Shrewsbury, were in Oswestry for an appointment at the orthopaedic hospital. So when they were through with that, they met us for a coffee and catch-up at a café just across the park. They have a few indoor seats upstairs and a good area of out door seating on the plaza. Chris is in a wheelchair so it was an ideal venue as it was a warm sunny day, and sitting outside was a pleasure. It was good to have a proper chat, as we normally keep in touch with messages, and just as we were leaving we took a quick selfie as Chris (my friend, not my husband!) wanted to send it to some other friends from Spain that she keeps in touch with.

The rest of the week I have been busy making Christmas cards etc as I am still way behind schedule, and I know once October is here, Christmas will rush towards us. So I had better get back to it now.