Rocking Your World 2017; Week 47

Hi I am writing this a bit early today. I shall have to rethink my usual evening blog post as my choir has changed its practice time from Wednesday to Friday evening, and although it is early evening, 6.00-800, if it has been a good session I am often too tired to do anything much when I get home. So when I can, I'll be writing during the day. That said, I expect I shall only get half way before it is time to go out today.

My smile to start with is this photo of Arwen. She is a bit more friendly than she used to be, and often comes for a bit of fuss, and sits right here next to me when I am using my computer.

The family I speak to on Skype are quite used to seeing a tail move across their screen. She still doesn't like to be picked up for cuddles, but she does allow me to gently brush her coat now and then. She is moulting everywhere right now, so I may have to take her down to the vets for her twice a year 'sleep and shave'. She really looks daggers at me some days, but I guess she can't help the fact she was born with a grumpy face. Most of the day she sits by our window and just outside below the window is a bench, which is where I found Paco this morning.

He had the good sense to trade his comfy bed curled up on the settee, for a doze in the sunshine. No doubt he'll be back indoors by tea-time.

I had gone round the back of the house to take a picture of the green zone.

As you can see, it was a perfect morning, with a cloudless blue sky. By lunch time it was 24º which is pretty good for nearly the end of November. Days like this remind me of why we moved out here, and make me realise how blessed we are to be here.

As you can see, a lot of the green zone is rather brown, and everything is very dry. We desperately need some good rainfall, and some is forecast for next week. But while we wait we are happy to have the sun instead.

Also from the picture above, you can see a few patches of yellow foliage. The orange trees stay dark green all year, but the one tree that does show some autumn colour is the pomegranate. Their fruit is almost gone now and for a few weeks we have this lovely yellow of their leaves, before they dry up and fall.

Something else that looks really gorgeous against a blue sky, is the deep pink bougainvillea that we bought as a tiny dried up stick some years ago. It has slowly responded to some TLC and this year it was big enough to tie to the fence which seems to have given it the incentive to sprout even more. before long we will be trimming it back. It is already too high for me to tie in the top branches. 

Just beside it you can see some late flowers on the double oleander, which is a similar colour though not so vibrant. Once again several plants are acting 'out of season'. The weather seems to have confused them all.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had forgotten to take a photo of my last little item I made for the sale. Well I decided I wanted a couple more to give to friends so this week I made them as well as one for myself, and here they are.

I saw the original one hanging in my sister's house. It was given to her by a friend who was battling with cancer at the time. She has since sadly lost that battle, but she was an active worker for her church, and we are both sure she would be happy to know her work was continuing to be shared to give pleasure to other folk. The hearts are made from white card and the script is vinyl, both cut on my silhouette cameo machine. The little flowers are die cut and each one has five layers plus the leaves. My sister Jean knows I struggle with the fiddly items so while she was here she made the first few for me, and showed me how to do them. She is a good teacher because I have now made several on my own and am happy with how they turned out.

Today my first two parcels for UK were pòsted and I now have three more ready to go, and then it will be just cards to send. I am glad I am up to my target time for these this year, and won't have my usual last minute rush. I even managed to get my family  and friends news letter ready to go in with some of them. I do still have a couple of December birthday cards to make though.

I am grateful to have a 'techie' husband who helps me sort out problems related to my computer. This week he worked on my laser printer but unfortunately he could only help with part of the problem. I think it is telling me I need a new toner cartridge and that will have to wait for a while, so I am back to my ink-jet one for now. It is perfectly adequate but much slower.

I was happy to get a letter from the hospital yesterday with an appointment for all the X-rays I need to have. I am still waiting for a date for the MRI but at least I know I am 'in the system' and some progress has been made.

Now I will end with a couple of sky photos. The first one was taken as I set out to drive to church on Sunday. As you can see, not every day dawns with a blue sky, and on Sunday it was quite dark clouds. But before long the sun was trying to break through, and there were long shafts of light coming down the Cabrera mountains. This photo doesn't do it justice, but I only had my phone with me so this was the best I could do. It looked beautiful.

And this one was taken last night. I glanced out my window and again saw a lovely peaceful evening sky, with such pretty colours in it.

Then, as the sky darkened, I looked up and saw a tiny, tiny moon rising to add its blessing to the scene.

And with that I am ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Just done in time to go out. I must try to achieve this again other weeks!

Rocking Your World 2017; Week 46

Well another week has flown past, so here we are looking back at what has made us smile. I have to say I am enjoying the Autumn weather. We are still enjoying lovely blue skies and sunshine, but the temperatures have dropped to a very comfortable level, so I have spent several afternoons, sitting out on the porch doing my crochet or reading my book.

But the sun goes down soon after six now and suddenly it becomes quite chilly. So the 'summer weight' duvet is now on the bed, and by 7.00 the fire is lit in the sitting room, so we have one place to be cosy.

The animals soon caught on to this idea, and on Thursday night I was in there knitting, and I had one cat on each chair for company, and one of the dogs, Kim, on the settee. My lovely long-haired ginger cat Tango,  would have been sitting on me if I had let him, but the piece I was working on made it just not possible, so he curled up beside me instead. Last night when I went in there I found Kim had got there before me and what's more, he was sharing 'his' settee with Paco. Normally they have a mutual respect for one another but keep their distance, so it was a surprise to see them (almost) curled up together.

I said last week that I had started a piece of knitting. Although I have almost given up knitting large garments because they hang too heavy on the needles, I am hoping this yarn is light enough for me to manage in small doses. It is a chunky mix that I bought in huge 200g balls at Hobbycraft when I was in UK recently. The natural colouration of the yarn means it is knitting up almost stripey, but I am not going to attempt to match the stripes on the other pieces. It will all be used as it comes. The main pattern is a simple double moss stitch, and I am using bamboo needles. I have not got on with them very well before, but they are recommended for people with arthritis so I thought I'd give them another try, and so far they are fine. I am making a fairly shapeless slouch jacket, but it is coming up a little tighter than I was expecting, but I have a feeling it is going to stretch with use so I don't want it to start off too big.

Knitting is nice and easy for me to do if I am watching TV, but when I can concentrate more I have been working on this mandala, and last night I finished it. I just love it.

The pattern was released in three parts as a CAL (Crochet Along) by an Australian lady called Emily, and it is called Connie's Ray of Hope. It was designed in memory of a lady called Connie Johnson, who finally lost her battle after three bouts of cancer. Her brother Samuel wrote an inspirational blog post about her journey, and from that, the mandala was born. I chose to make mine in Christmas colours, and it will make a bright spot hanging on my wall throughout the festive season. It was a fairly complex pattern, but well within the capabilities of most crocheters, but I have to say the last four rounds, from where it was attached to the ring onwards, were very difficult. The galvanised steel ring is 350 mm - approx.14 inches, in diameter, so the finished mandala is around 430mm, so it was stiff and unwieldy to hold, and my poor shoulders and hands were complaining mightily this morning, but they have settled down now and I am so glad I persevered and got it finished.

My other project for this week was a final effort to get Christmas cards made. I ended up getting quite carried away, and made a run of 35 cards, all using the same image, printed and hand coloured, and then made into a card using a variety of papers, die-cuts and lots of glue. I can't show them yet as I will be using them for a Christmas card challenge at the end of the month. I now have enough made to get them all written, so I should be able to post my Uk ones before all the bank holidays start. We have three at the start of December, and I like to get mine posted before this disrupts the system and slows everything down.

When we set out with the dogs for their morning walk today, men were already at work trimming the trees that grow all along our road. The one by our gate looks really nice now. They have stayed so good considering the very small amount of soil they have in these wide, shallow containers. But I have to say, the maintenance department at the Town Hall deserve full marks for the way they look after our streets. In another couple of weeks there will be poinsettias planted around the base of the trees to add some colour as well.

We have had such lovely clear skies this week, but with little or no cloud, there has not been any notable sunsets. But as I glanced out of the window yesterday evening, the sky was such a beautiful colour. It went from a muted golden through pink, purple and  then indigo. I tried to catch it on the camera, but this doesn't really do it justice. It is the best I could get though, so I am using it anyway! How peaceful is that?!

Now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and I'll see you all again next week.