Rocking Your World 2019: Week 48

Not much of a post this week folks. It has been a very quiet week here. The virus is proving hard to shake and I have little energy. What I have is used up coughing! Poor Chris is much the same. He started coughing before I did, but did not have the really bad days I had last week. But he too is finding it hard to shake the cough. But one of the blessings of being retired is that, if you don't feel like doing anything much, then you can curl up in your favourite chair and recouperate in your own time, so that is what we have done.

I did venture out to choir practice on Wednesday, but had to listen more than I sang. With only a couple of rehearsals left before our concert I thought I ought to be there. 

Yesterday we went together to do the monthly food shop. We were glad to get back home, but at least it is done.

Tonight is the last practice before our concert for my other choir, so I will be going to that too. We are to run through the whole programme, so it is an important one.

We have had bad news and good news this week. Two good friends have suffered major strokes, and another is in hospital with a serious chest infection. It is a part of living in a mainly retired, non-Spanish community, that your friends start to fail, but it is sad when it hits so many at the same time. Fortunately we have a good health service here, and for now at least, we have easy access to it, so they are all being well cared for.

The good news is that son number two, Michael, wrote to say he and his lovely partner Lucy are coming to spend two days with us immediately before Christmas. They each share custody of their children from previous marriages, but just occasionally they get a few days when it is just the two of them, enabling them to go off on one of their adventures. So it is lovely that they have decided to spend this time popping over to wish us Happy Christmas. 

And now our eldest son (Father Jim) and his wife Jo, have asked to come out to celebrate Three Kings, or Epiphany with us at the start of January. It is a long time since they were here, but with their three children all away at University, they are taking the opportunity to come. Jim has always wanted to find out more about how the festival is celebrated here, and they do it so well in our village. So that is lots to look forward to.

Now to get the house sorted out after a fortnight of neglect, ready for me to get the decorations out.

So I will leave you with my only photos for this week, which are of a very interesting sunset. It started off with just a nice patch of light low down on the horizon. Then plumes of clouds formed in lovely shapes which picked up the colours of the setting sun. I am sure you will like them as much as I do.

And now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and maybe I will have more photos for next week. 

Rocking Your World 2019: Week 47

There is not much to report this Friday as I have spent the best part of the week wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fire, having succumbed to the rather brutal virus that is doing the rounds here. I have to say I don't remember feeling this bad for a very long time. But I am hoping the worst has passed now and I will soon be on the mend.

But I still have some lovely photos to share, and the first one is my little mandarin tree. It was covered in blossom in late spring, but like most of the citrus trees, much of their flowers are lost in the high winds of March and April. I didn't actually think any had survived, but gradually I saw a few fruit forming and now they are turning orange , they can be plainly seen. I think it has fourteen fruit on it which I am delighted with as it is only a baby tree, and has never had any fruit on it so far. As soon as I am up on my feet again, I am looking forward to picking them.

Now to the main event as it were, my Advent Angels Project. Over the last month or two I have invited members of our three congregations to knit, crochet, or otherwise craft, small angels. The idea is to put each one into a cellophane bag together with a Christmas greeting, and information about all the services in the three churches in our Chaplaincy. I know I have told you most of that before, but here is the good bit, when I asked them all to be handed in last weekend, I ended up with a magnificent collection of 400 angels! isn't that a brilliant response? And considering we only average around thirty in each congregation, it is an awesome achievement.

There were a large number crafted from paper and card...

Some cute and colourful ones in felt, fabric and ribbon...

And a good number that were knitted or crocheted. It was good to see a few ethnic angels in the collection.

Here is a group, just a small selection to show them in more detail.

So, on Tuesday morning a group of friends met at my house to get them all bagged up ready to distribute. (By the end of the morning I knew I was 'going down' with something, so I hope I didn't repay their kindness by giving them the virus too!).

My first estimate was that I would get around 200 angels so I had sent for  pack of 200 small bags. But when I realised we were going past that number, I ordered a further 200 slightly larger ones. We divided the angels into two sets by size and I worked with three others to get the small ones done, while the other three worked with the larger ones, and within a couple of hours, they were all done!

We all enjoyed chatting and looking at the variety of work involved in making some of them.

And one last picture to share on this theme, at the bottom of the box I found two baby angels. how cute are they!

Fortunately my friends are used to my cats wandering in and out when they are there, and as soon as we emptied one box, Charlie jumped in. He sat there with our feet all around him, quite unconcerned. We did offer him his own angel but he wasn't interested.

What is it with cats and boxes? I had dozed off that afternoon and when I woke up, Tango had commandeered another box and with that grumpy face, I think he was just challenging me to make him get out. But I left him there and he curled up in it and had a snooze. They seem able to fit into the smallest spaces.

And that's it for this week. On Sunday the angels will be blessed in the three churches and given to the congregation to leave in random places around their communities, such as supermarket shelves, buses, bars and park benches, for folk to find and take home to enjoy. And hopefully some who find them, will even join us at one of our services. I am gutted that I will have to miss this last stage of my project, but I am not fit for public gatherings yet, but I am hoping someone will take some photos for me to share next week.

Until then, I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking your World.