Friday Smiles 2024 #Week 16

Summer is on the way, and the village is waking up after it's Winter quiet season. This week we have enjoyed temperatures in the low thirties, and I have started to wear my summer dresses.

There are more folk around on the street, stopping to chat to friends instead of hurrying back to a warm house. It is still breezy but the strong winds have passed, for now anyway. At the end of last week the circus rolled into town. It pitched up on the area at the back of our house, on the far side of the 'green zone'. It is amazing how quickly they can put the Big Top up. They did performances on three nights, Friday-Sunday. Although they were so close to us we didn't hear much noise from them. I don't know how many people attended. It is an expensive evening if you have a family to take. I don't think they have any live animals these days, but their poster advertised a large gorrilla, described as a King Cong animatron. This was taken from my back yard.

By Monday night all sign of them had gone. I guess they had another place to be for this weekend.

I was hanging out my washing this week and to do this I look over next door's garden. It used to be a lush orange grove, but now the house is empty, and workers only come in occasionally to do essential tasks. Many of the trees have died, and some have been replaced by other fruits such a pomegranet,  jujus, and figs. But mostly it is just brown earth and a lot of stones where much of the soil has blown away. But the few remaining orange trees are still watered and under them, the weeds grow strong and tall. Everywhere has changed so much since we came out here. I have photos of this garden covered in lush grass and full of wild flowers after the winter/spring rains, but not any more.

This morning I went into our bathroom and saw this little cutie on the wall. We welcome the geckos both in the house and outside, as they eat mosquitoes and other bugs. But this little chap had been in the wars and lost most of his tail and injured his back, right leg. Fortunately for him, his tail will grow back. If any predator tries to catch a gecko by the tail, they will just shed it and grow a new one in a few weeks. I am not sure whether the leg will regenerate too. But it didn't stop him from moving around. I was able to catch him and I carried him outside and carefully placed him on a potted plant. He was better camouflaged than he looks in the photo, and I thought he would be less vunerable to our cats outside.

I am slowly working on my Floral Blooms blanket. It is a bit different from anything I have done before. I have finished all the flowers which were the most straightforward part, as well as a few of the leaves and a strange shaped joining piece. The leaves have to have some surface crochet and top stitching to finish them, and although there is a pattern for each joining piece, there is still an element of free-crochet to fill any spaces, which is something I haven't tried before. I have to be in the right mood to tackle each piece, and really concentrate on it, so I have the odd night off when I really want to watch something on TV. But there is no rush for it at all, so I can take my time and enjoy the process.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

P.S. Wewoke up this morning to RAIN. And it is still raining. Yay!!

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 15

Well our week didn't start off so good as storm Kathleen, (not sure I like having a storm named after me!), arrived bringing with her a cloud of desert dust known as Calima. By tea-time on Saturday the sky had a yellowish hue and the hills below the village were barely vivsible from our gate. By Sunday morning there was a layer of red sand on everything. We are not supposed to wash down with the hose while the water ban is in place, but we did have to wash the car windows before we could drive.

But Sunday was a good day all the same. I knew our friend Lisca was on holiday with her daughter, down on our stretch of coast, staying in a hostel in Garrucha. We were both set on going to church in the morning so I phoned her after lunch and we arranged to meet up. It was lovely to be able to actually see one of our regular 'blogland friends' face to face, so of course we got Chris to take a photo of us together.

It was also nice to meet Lisca's daughter Tracey, especially when we discovered that she lives in the same little town as my son Ben. (A small world isn't it!). I did take a photo of her with her mum but I caught her just as she took off her sunglasses so she had closed her eyes against the glare. But Chris took another one of me with Lisca this time with the palm trees and boats in the marina as a backdrop.

Then we decided to drive them round to Vera Laguna, but we were surprised to find that there had been enough rain to flood the area where there is a boardwalk at the back of the lake durng the summer, so we couldn't walk along the side of the lake and down on to the beach as we often do. Also there were fewer birds there than usual. Sometimes the water is heaving with all sorts of wild-fowl, but there were a few ducks and moorhens, and one or two others. The first one that caught my eye was a white one and I thought it might be an egret, but I had never seen one with a plume of feathers on its head before. However, I took a photo and googled it when I got home and sure enough it was a Little Egret. Maybe the plume is part of its mating finery.

Further away I saw a pair that I didn't recognise. My photo is a bit 'odd' because I had to zoom in a long way to take it, but again I was able to identify them on google as Black-winged Stilts. I like to know what I am looking at.

We drove back to Garrucha promenade and sat outside a little shop to enjoy a lovely icecream before we took Lisca and Tracey back to their hostel.

On Monday we had to go to the hospital for Chris second eye treatment, which means were out for most of the afternoon so not much else was achieved.

Tuesday was our church AGM which was well-attended  and interesting. It was followed by a lunch, so I was out for most of the day again. 

Wednesday was my sewing group and then we visited my friend Steve to discuss more about the laser cutter, so the week has flown by.

Today I needed to make two sympathy cards which I managed to finish in time to get them in the post. Our office is only open for an hour between 1.00 and 2.00, but starting next week it is changing to 9.00 - 10.00 which will be more convenient.

While trying to tidy my craft room a bit, I came across a box labelled "Christmas. W.I.P." Inside I found a sheet of printed digistamps, some very old Christmas cards that I obviously saw as being suitable for recycling and then never used, and oddments of ribbon etc. So I set to and made half a dozen cards to add to my stash. Now I really must try to get some birthday cards made.

We have a cat-flap in our back door so the cats are free to come and go at any time. (Except for Leo who is still shut in at night though I do let him go out during the evening now it is warmer). I have no idea what Tolly gets up to in the hours of darkness, but he is in the kitchen ready for his breakfast when I get up, and then he goes to sleep on the settee. And he doesn't just have a nap. He usually stays there until mid-afternoon, and sometimes until it is time for tea, and he is 'dead to the world'. He doesn't flinch when we move him along so we can sit down, and didn't even twitch a whisker when I took this photo. I wish I could sleep as deeply as that.

I had some happy mail this week. I ordered an oversized mug. It holds 600ml and I love it for breakfast and tea-time, though I do use a smaller one during the day. It was described as a coffee mug but as I don't drink coffee, mine will only be filled with tea. It is good for me to drink a lot and as I don't have it too strong, I don't think it will do me any harm. We also both have a little heat pad to keep our drinks warm and it is ideal for this mug.

And that is it for this week. I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and hopefully get to visit you all later.