Wriggling

I was given a bag of nisperos. They are a local fruit  they bruise easily and so do not travel well.  These had been marked by the hail - hadn't tried them before but they were really delicious. A sharp sweetness, yes I know that is a contradiction but it's the only way to describe it, with the flesh firm like a peach

 Awful photo but by the time I realised it was too late, they had all been prepared.  Each fruit had 2/3 of these seeds inside so considering the size of them you do not get very much flesh. 

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could grow them - they will have 2 chances lol

A little while ago I did the same with the advocado seed - the root grew quite quickly then the seed split and produced the shoot.  I have now planted it up, so will wait and see how it performs.

I have also been experimenting with green smoothies - this one consists of cucumber, celery, pear, lemon, spinach and cilantro (coriander) - I got DH to try a sip, his face was a picture, certainly didn't like it preferring fruit smoothies, but I found it quite pleasant with the cilantro definitly adding to the taste

I said I had better get a wriggle on with the keepsake box - I have now stitched the box top and 3 sides with the fourth on the go, quite pleased with it so far

this is one of the sides, the wings are wired to give a 3D effect - it was only after taking the photo that I noticed it looked like a face, it doesn't look like that in the flesh though - honest

Better carry on with it only a couple of weeks left now.

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing

take care

Pickleitis

Socks! - I was inspired by Kim (private blog) to try knitting a pair of socks - hmmm, well after casting on 3 times, getting in a pickle,  double checking the Youtube tut and struggliing with the tension, I managed to even turn the heel, but then it went wrong, suddenly the stitching turned inside out, but the pattern said to knit, oh well as long as the other one turns out the same..........

  
Busy week - Monday DD and I tried Benidorm again - this time we decided to park in the closest underground carpark and walk.  What we hadn't realised was the inner town is a series of tiny passages no wonder we couldn't get there by car..... The shops close at 2 - 5 here so we were a bit late - tried a few dresses and reserved one - unfortunately DH didn't like the colour and decided to accompany us the next morning back to the shop.......At last.......dresses for both of us, including all the accessories, shoes, fasinator, bag, even a pair of earrings each as a gift.........such a relief, just DH to sort out now........

Yesterday it was car shopping with DD - the insurance company have declined the claim as they state there were no flames!! well what ever the orange/yellow crackling streaks were I don't know.... they said we should have left the car and dialled 112 - what ever happened to their theory of damage limitation? and considering the amount of pedestrians, to have left it would have been irresponsible - ok rant over.......

I have made the basic shape for the keepsake box and am concentrating on embroidering the top of the lid

Better get a wriggle on, the time seems to be disappearing

Mr Postie took his time, but DD presented me with more birthday pressies - I do have a kindle but sometimes it is nice to just feel the book and to easily dip in and out 

 Unsettled weather at the moment including storms - a pretty rainbow disappearing behind the church

Another weekend already - whatever you are doing, enjoy

take care

Fuego

Well this post was going to be about posh frocks and socks but events of the day rather took over!

DS announced his forthcoming marriage in 'four' weeks time, so DD and I went off to Moraira in search of the 'posh frock' boutique.  Unfortunately nothing suitable for me but a couple for her, one of which was stunning on her.

So we decided to head off to other shops today in the old town of Benidorm - these streets are tiny, many one way, with people cross crossing across the roads without looking, eyes in the back of your head job.  Having never been to this side of town before we were being very careful, not helped by being barred from roads that the sat nav wanted us to go down.

Suddenly approaching a junction with a split road, the car conked out, nothing, nada, no hazards or anything, suddenly I saw and smelt smoke coming out of the bonnet and shouted to DD to get out of the car quick, don't worry she said it's only steam - no its smoke - out of the car pdq reaching for the extinguisher, she opens the bonnet (carefully) having tested for heat, only smoke billowed out, put the bonnet down then round the back to erect the triangle.  Why people have to honk their horns when they can see a breakdown is beyond me, but it added to the stress.  Suddenly more smoke was coming out of the bonnet when DD lifted it, huge flames sprung out and began licking all around the engine - the extinguisher wouldn't work, then a very unhelpful man came over and gawped when we handed him the extinguisher, but he couldn't make it work either,  all we had were 2  1.5L bottles of water so we poured that over and thankfully it seemed to put it out - the man then began to say it was the radiator and began a lecture on ladies not remembering to fill up the containers, grrr, when DD pointed out everything was full he walked away wishing us luck!!! **'@*&**

One thing they do have under control here is breakdown cover, their main aim is to keep traffic moving and under control, so after a call to the insurance company we were informed a grua would be arriving after 45 mins.  Luckily being a two laned one way street we were not a total obstruction - a Policia Local pulled along side (blocking the road!) but was uninterested once they knew the grua was en-route.  They passed again a little later and just waved! By this time we were just recovering when a second Policia car turned up.......
After telling them fuego (fire) one rang the grua whilst the other decided to move the car back - bearing in mind we were on a slope! and wondered why it nearly ran away down the hill derrrr - the worst was yet to come the absolute idiot tried to start the car - the grua arrived and they walked away. not realising they had reignited the fire.

Suddenly I spotted more black smoke coming from the bonnet - shouting to the grua 'senor, senor, fuego' - he looked bemused - what is the silly woman on about - boy did his face change when he saw - suffice to say after rushing over and grabbing the extra water I had found he doused everything and dismantled the sizzling battery - copper wire exposed after the rubber sheaths had melted, the whole loom of wiring across the car, fried, including all the extra sensory blocks - something out of Salvador Dali's paintings - he realised the police had caused the latest fire and began taking photos.

Conclusion - we felt like cocktails - shaken (very hard) rather than stirred - no water left, no lunch, no car, but the greatest positive is no one was hurt and thankfully I was with DD to help and comfort -  the garage took one look and destined the car to the scrap heap - they said there was nothing we could have done, it was 'just' an electrical fire - thank god it wasn't worse - their advice was to carry a bag of sand in the car for electrical faults - great! another item for the boot.

Enough excitement for the time being - a nice glass of rosado (rose) and a little chill out - the special project, posh frock and the socks? well they can wait for another day............
take care

Teeny tinies

The new lower garden is beginning to take shape, the new wall has been finished gaining us about 3-4 feet of usable space.  Roses are in full bloom and all the little wild flowers are creating carpets of colour everywhere.  This is what our vine has suddenly produced

 teeny tiny bunch of grapes forming, amazing as only a few short weeks ago all the vines were just whizened stumps

I finished off a miniature crochet tablecloth, this was using perle 12 cotton, started with a circle and just kept adding rounds

A little bit of recycling by using half a walnut shell for a pin cushion, along with a little cross stitched cushion

Got a special project to make, so off to research some patterns and start designing - problem is I haven't got long to complete it, better go and get on with it

take care