{"id":4338,"date":"2024-06-09T20:54:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T19:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4338"},"modified":"2024-06-09T20:54:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T19:54:18","slug":"week-20-monicas-birthday-and-the-magic-cactus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4338","title":{"rendered":"Week 20: Monica&#8217;s birthday and the Magic Cactus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The main event of the third week of May was my daughter&#8217;s 30th birthday, a milestone that makes both of us feel old (all relatively speaking, of course). As with my wife&#8217;s birthday back in March, I was requested to produce a curry meal for Monica and her guests, so I spent many hours in the kitchen&#8211;preparing an Indian dinner of several courses for 12 people does take some time. But it was worth it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>20_1<\/strong><br \/>\nBut the week started with the first blossoming of my late mother&#8217;s Magic Cactus, a sure sign that summer is coming. As usual, I monitored the miracle every day, starting with the appearance of the still closed flowers on Saturday preceding the week:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_1.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3775\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_2<\/strong><br \/>\nThe flowers opened during the night, and this is the sight that greeted me on Sunday morning:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_2.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3777\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_3<\/strong><br \/>\nMonday morning, still glorious:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_3.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3781\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_4<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Tuesday morning, the flowers show signs of wilting. The Miracle of the Cactus is a short-lived phenomenon:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_4.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3785\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_5<\/strong><br \/>\nMorning light on our enclosed front porch:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_5.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3786\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_6<\/strong><br \/>\nMorning light on a car in the street:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_6.jpg\" alt=\"R000409\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_7<\/strong><br \/>\nAs usual, I went to 100 Montaditos during the week, enjoying my pint and the sights:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_7.jpg\" alt=\"R000411\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_8<\/strong><br \/>\nPeople enjoy the beach in different ways:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_8.jpg\" alt=\"DSF3791\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_9<\/strong><br \/>\nPlaying with doggie:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_9.jpg\" alt=\"R000413\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_10<\/strong><br \/>\nSaturday was my daughter&#8217;s birthday. I had taken Friday off to prepare as much of the Indian food in advance as practicable, so on Saturday morning I had time for my usual bike ride. I passed this road with some improvised decorations which I found amusing:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_10.jpg\" alt=\"1040134\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_11<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_11.jpg\" alt=\"1040133\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_12<\/strong><br \/>\nAn almost empty A31 motorway:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_12.jpg\" alt=\"1040142\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_13<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo of the cats in Verdeg\u00c3\u00a1s:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_13.jpg\" alt=\"1040139\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_14<\/strong><br \/>\nI came back from the ride and finished preparing the food. Around 2 p.m., Monica&#8217;s friends started arriving. They gathered around our kitchen terrace, enjoying some snacks and drinks while waiting to be called to the table:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_14.jpg\" alt=\"DSF0038\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_15<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_15.jpg\" alt=\"DSF0036\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_16<\/strong><br \/>\nThen it was time to sit down at the big table we had set up outside, and dig into the curries:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_16.jpg\" alt=\"DSF0039\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>20_17<\/strong><br \/>\nMy wife&#8217;s contribution to the food was Monica&#8217;s birthday cake:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"uploads\/2024\/20_17.jpg\" alt=\"DSF0041\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And so ended a nice week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The main event of the third week of May was my daughter&#8217;s 30th birthday, a milestone that makes both of us feel old (all relatively speaking, of course). As with my wife&#8217;s birthday back in March, I was requested to produce a curry meal for Monica and her guests, so I spent many hours in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4205,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4338"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4340,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4338\/revisions\/4340"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}