Rocking Your World 2020; Week 44

Well here we are at Friday again. It wasn't quite the week we had expected as we thought the house would be ringing to the tones of workmen stripping out the bathroom. Unfortunately the work could not start on Monday as planned because much of the new items had not arrived, and they didn't want to start ripping it out until they could put the new stuff in. Of course it is Covid causing delays in the deliveries. We were not even sure whether the workmen would be allowed to come but apparently they are.

When we checked today, we learned that the wall tiles had arrived, but not the ones for the floor, which are expected to arrive early next week, and the other items were sent out from Murcia on Wednesday so they should manage to get here, and may be delivered today. So we are hoping the work will begin by the end of next week.

Our village is not in the best situation right now with 59 active cases of the virus, but the rest of Spain is not doing too well either. The country is in a "State of Alarm" with a nationwide curfew, and each authority has the power to close its area borders. We haven't gone quite that far but police are often seen on the roads in and out of the village to make sure your journey is an essential one.

So once again we are mainly staying at home, but that hasn't been all bad. The weather has been lovely and we are grateful for that. We have been able to eat our midday meal outside on some days, it is pleasantly warm to sit out on the porch with a book or tablet, and on Wednesday I did a lot of washing which dried really quickly.

This morning we decided to do a 'big shop', making sure the larder and fridge were well stocked, so hopefully we will not need to go again during November. I will, of course need milk, bread and vegetables in that time, but they can be bought much nearer to home. The shops were quite quiet, with very little queuing, and there was little traffic on the roads. We went to the big Spanish supermarket Mercadona, and then went on to Iceland - Supermarkets Overseas, for the English items that I really wanted. Marmite was at the top of my list. I eat it regularly now as I try to eat less of the sweet spreads like jam and marmalade, and it is something that they just don't have in Spain. Mercadona was well stocked but there were a lot of empty shelves in Iceland so maybe they are also having problems with deliveries. They may have just been running down the cold counters before the long weekend closure but that would be unusual. Anyway, we got most of what we wanted so that was fine.

It was a good morning's work really, but I am happy not to need to do it again for a good while.

Two things I am constantly running out of is cat food and cat litter. They are both bulky and heavy items so I tend to only buy them when I know I am parked right outside the store. But yesterday I took my son's advice and ordered enough from Amazon to last us until Christmas. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. The first lot arrived today and the rest is coming on Tuesday. Monday is a bank holiday or red day here so there won't be any deliveries then.

I have been busy finishing off a crochet project and a photographic one but I can't show either of them here just yet. Now I am back working on my pocket scarf. I think I will need to use it soon for sitting at my computer. The evenings are decidedly colder.

So the only photos I have for you this week are of a lovely sunset. I saw this sky when I went out to feed the dogs their tea.

Then the sun broke out below the clouds and lit it up more.

Chris came out and said "What are you standing out here for. It's quite chilly?" and I said, "I am waiting for that sky to turn red. I am sure it is going to". And I was right. Before long it was a fiery red but it only lasted for a few minutes before it faded away completely.

So now it is time to link up with Rocking Your World on Virginia's blog, and Annie's Friday Smiles. Hopefully I will have a more exciting week to write about next time

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 43

As every day the news gets more confused and troubling, lets take a few minutes to share what has kept us smiling through these dark days.

Personally I have had a lovely week, not least because it was my birthday on Saturday.  So before I go any further, as promised,  I will show you the beautiful card my sister made for me,  that was inside the lovely envelope I showed last week. So here it is.

We have both been paper-crafters for many years but gradually we have developed very different styles. I tend to use bright colours, and my designs often end up 'busier' than I intended. Jean uses subtle colours and her work is very neat and precise. Fortunately we both appreciate the other's skills, and I think this card is very special.

Something else that made my day was this birthday tribute to both of us (Chris' birthday was the previous Thursday), posted on Facebook by one of our sons.

I can't think of anything nicer he could have said.

So, as we did not in the end do anything special on Thursday for Chris, when I saw another good day forecast for Saturday, I suggested we went for a walk in the sunshine. The fresh air, sea breeze and exercise would do us good after spending so long at home. So we drove to Vera Laguna, which is a fairly large lagoon formed at the mouth of the River Antas, where it flows onto Vera Playa. It is not somewhere you pass normally as the road comes to a dead end just passed the lake. But we knew it was there although we had never actually visited it. I was taken aback by the number of birds that were there. They were mostly ducks and moorhens, and they were happily feasting on scraps thrown by a Spanish family that was there.

Of course, the seagulls wanted their share and weren't slow to take it!

Suddenly all the birds took off across the lake to a spit of sand at the side where another family were getting out a bag of food. They obviously thought there might be better picking there.

We were walking in that direction and when we got there the birds were not a bit fased to have us walking among them. Aren't their heads a beautiful colour?

In this picture you can see how the far side of the lake is only separated from the beach by a small board-walk, so the fresh water coming down from the River Antas must mix with the salt water from the sea, especially in bad weather, but the ducks seemed very happy with it. Apparently it is a stopping off point for them on their winter migration from northern Europe to Africa, but some have made it their permanent home.

We walked along three sides of the lake, but the path on the fourth side would have taken us up to the main road, a fair distance from our car, so we turned around and walked back. I took various views because it looked so different from different angles. I think this one is beautiful. It is so peaceful and the light is just right so I used it as my new header on Facebook. I think it may end up on my blog too.

This time I took a closer one because it shows the jagged mountain range behind Mojacar village. When we first came here we used the 'dragon's teeth' mountains as a landmark to help us get our bearings. And there are lovely reflections in the water too.

When we left the lake we continued our walk along the promenade. The road comes to an end but the walk way continues all the way to Garrucha I think. The stretch of sand down to the sea gets very wide, but fortunately the council have installed concrete 'board-walks' at intervals along it, making getting down there much easier. I am always surprised how well the palm trees grow in the salty sand. I just had to catch this little group with a big green tanker in the distance behind them.

As you can see, there were very few people on the beach, though we did see a couple of families arriving as we left. They would have no problem with social distancing down there! Of course I couldn't leave with out having a birthday paddle so here is the proof.

We decided against going in any of the bars for a drink, and made our way home where I made our dinner with my favourite comfort food - jacket potatoes with cheese and beans. Lovely!

On Sunday I did do a special meal for us midday, with some excellent fillet steak and all the trimmings. When we had eaten Chris suggested another walk would do us good so we drove down to Garrucha marina. Normally this would be heaving on a Sunday with Spanish families out for a stroll before their Sunday meal in one of the many bars and restaurants there. But this week it was very quiet.

There were a few people out walking like us, but not very many. We stopped to watch the little shoals of fish swimming between the boats. They flashed silver as the sun caught them.

We left the marina and continued along the promenade stopping to buy a very large ice-cream. Only one person was allowed in the shop at a time, and we decided not to sit at one of their tables outside, and instead we crossed back over to the seafront and found a sunny bench to sit on.

Near the port there is a statue of Virgen del Carmen de la Mar. She is the patron saint of Garrucha town and also of fishermen, so she stands looking out across the sea where the fishing boats come and go every day. A large amount of European money has been used to build a lovely walkway out to where she stands, and on round to the harbour to the big building where the catches are auctioned. It was only finished this year so we thought we'd walk around it. The statue is one of the more attractive ones I have seen.

As we walked around it we were much closer to the working port that we usually see across the water from the marina. And there, in the main berth, was the green tanker we had seen at the lake the day before. No work goes on on a Sunday, but usually the port is a continuous flow of lorries bringing stone quarried from around Sorbas, which is loaded onto tankers and taken away to build roads etc elsewhere.

It was such a lovely day, warm and sunny but not too hot to walk comfortably, so we were in no hurry to return home, and instead drove from Garrucha all along the coastal road to the far end of Mojacar. This used to be a very rough, deserted stretch of beach but it has been developed for tourism, with a sea wall forming a small  bay and cutting off the dangerous tides that Mojacar is infamous for. There were a few cars on the parking area, but only one couple sitting in a sheltered corner where we were. We sat on some rocks and let the waves lap over our feet.

Here's Chris doing his Pixie pose. I wish I could still sit like that, and have a smile on my face. (I'm not sure I ever could!).

Soon the sun was going down, sparkling on the water and making it look even more peaceful. Another photo with no other people around.

I am always looking out for interesting patterns around me and I loved this neat dry.stone wall, and the reflected light of the sun on the water on the end of a rusty old boat.

I am glad we had this lovely weekend as we are more or less housebound  again now. Sadly we have 45 cases of the virus in our little village now, and with a population of around 2,700 that equates to over 900 per 100,000, which really is very high. So although we are not actually in lock-down, we are recommended to stay home as much as possible, so no more nice outings for a while.

I have continued to try to catch our difficult animals on camera, and had some success when I eventually managed this one of big Kim and his sidekick, little blue-eyed Foxy.

Tolly on the other hand is not camera shy. Yesterday he had his visit to the vet to be neutered and micro-chipped, so we will continue to keep him indoors or in the fly free porch this weekend, but next week we will start letting him explore outside, which I think he will enjoy. He is still a little on the wild side so we are hoping the operation will calm him down a bit. Here he has taken over the waste paper bin again. I have given up using it for its intended purpose as he just empties it over the floor and jumps in again!

And finally a sky photo, and we haven't had one of those for a while. We usually sleep with our windows uncovered, and one morning I woke up to see this lovely sunrise, so I jumped out of bed and threw on a housecoat so I could get out to take a picture before it faded, and I was just in time.

I hope I haven't worn you out with all my photos. I have had so few for a while now, so I had to share these. Now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Enjoy your extra hour in bed on Sunday, and I'll see you next week.