Rocking Your World 2020; Week 35

Another week of not doing very much, but it has been pleasant all the same. The highlight for me was a visit yesterday from a dear friend Chris and her husband Phil, and guess what - I forgot to take a photo! Phil and my Chris went into the village for a pint and a tapa while Chris and I had a good catch up over salad and fruit in the fly-free porch.  It was very pleasant sitting there, and lovely to share all our news. Chris has several health issues, so like us, they have mostly been shielding at home, but we took all the right precautions and felt it was safe to have a visit, and I am sure it did us both good.

On Sunday I follow one or two church services on-line. Our vicar is away on holiday so this week our service was led by my dear friend Margie who is our licensed lay-reader, and David who is the church representative on the PCC.

They did a lovely service with some of my favourite hymns from YouTube that I could sing along with. It could be a while yet before the church is able to open again.

On Tuesday night I was my usual clumsy self, and I knocked a jar of jam off the top shelf of the fridge and unfortunately it landed on the top of my foot. Within an hour it had swollen up so I could not get a shoe on. Boy did it hurt at the time, but I was pretty sure I had not done any real damage.

It has now gone down  a lot but is still a bit 'fat' and shades of blue and grey are creeping in all along the base of my toes. But to be honest, it doesn't really hurt now as long as I don't try to put any sandals on. Fortunately I have one pair of summer casuals that are low cut along the toes, so I am wearing those for now. That should teach me to be more careful, but I doubt that it will!

The rest of my post is about little Tolly again, but he is still at that age when he is so cute, even if he is all legs and long body now. He is so much more relaxed around the house now and doesn't constantly cry for attention. He can amuse himself with almost anything but has a definite preference for our shoes! When he has had a good feed and a playtime, he goes off to one of his favourite spots and sleeps. Often he is curled up in the little space behind my chair, but when we are outside he loves the corner next to the water feature. He hasn't seen it in action very often. That might change his mind.

When I am down here in my craft room, he often comes with me. He can be a nuisance, with 'too much help', but sometimes he just sits beside me and watches me typing into the computer.  I must have been at it for too long one day because he got bored and just stretched out between the keyboard and monitor, and went to sleep.

We still spend most evenings sitting out on the porch and one night, Tolly had been playing around and needed a rest and he just leaned into Kim's back, and Kim took no notice of him. I was really pleased because I want them to all be friends. The cats are very slowly coming round to his presence, but apart from Tango they won't let him come close, but the dogs are doing better. In fact they are very good considering how annoying he can be, when he persistently plays with their tails, despite being warned off!

Every night when we are sitting out there, I hear a bird calling softly and have tried many times to catch it on my app to identify it. I had an idea of what it was but I wanted to be sure. And last night the call was much louder and my app identified it as an Eurasian stone curlew, which was what I thought.  It is  mainly nocturnal, which is why I don't notice its call through the day, and often it is heard regularly but never seen. I have never seen one. But I have found a photo from google and this is what it looks like.

It has quite a distinctive cry, so I am sure I will hear it again.

I prepared most of this post yesterday and I am glad that I did as today has turned out to be one of the hottest this year. Our thermometer on a wall in the fly-free porch, which never gets direct sun, is showing 38º this afternoon. That is hot, even by our standards. So now I am going for a cooling dip in the pool, and a lazy rest in front of my largest fan!

And that my friends is about it for this week. So I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles and wait to see what next week brings.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 34

Hi folks. Another week when I have achieved very little except for playing with my new baby and refereeing when he gets over playful with the other animals. They all tolerate him for a short while, but he is still of an age where he is very persistent and doesn't heed warnings, so he gets hissed at and has his ears cuffed when he won't leave them in peace.

He is three months old now, and very agile. He shoots up his play tower and lays at the top playing with the fluffy balls hanging from the top pole. Occasionally he catches sight of himself in the mirror up there, and is quite startled.

When I was buying a few bits before he arrived, I ordered some cat 'treats' that are hard domes made from fish oil that stick to a cupboard or wall for the cats to lick. I thought they might all like them. Unfortunately it said they would not be delivered until October, but they weren't urgent so I left my order in place and had all but forgotten about them. Then yesterday the postman delivered a small parcel and inside were these ten little domes. I stuck one, quite low down on the side of the cupboard in the kitchen and little Tolly was soon licking it enthusiastically. He has worn it down quite a bit already. I haven't seen the other cats trying it but they are often in the kitchen alone so may well be having a lick too. When it is gone I will wait a while before putting the next one up.

We had a lovely visitor in the garden this week. I saw it through the window on several occasions but this was the only time I got out with my camera and she wasn't up for posing for a photo shoot. I am quite sad that we get so few butterflies here, as I know some thrive in hot climates but maybe they need more humidity than we have. This is a Swallowtail butterfly, as seen from above, and below.  I haven't seen it come back again but I know they have a very short life-span.

I have another finished crochet project to show you. I actually finished this last week because I was working on it while I waited for the hoop to be delivered for my mandala. But I decided not to post this on Facebook until I had shown it on here, so that not all my news is 'old news'.

This was made with the yarn I ordered a while back that is 68% cotton and 32% jute. It was surprisingly soft to work with. I had expected it to feel quite harsh. And it has made a really tough, strong bag for shopping/beach/craft. I have used it already and am very pleased with it.

And finally I have two nice sky photos to show. We were sitting on the fly-free porch as usual one evening when we noticed the darkening sky was a bit pink. We are looking almost east from the porch so this was a reflection of the sunset so I hurried round to the other side of the house and just managed to catch these two shots before it was gone.

It's the first time we have had a nice sunset for ages.

Now I am off to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Annie always finds something to make us smile each week, and even if you haven't felt a seismic wave in these difficult times, I am sure something has gently rocked your world, so do share it with us.