Month: June 2017

A Postcard from Wigan

~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Last week, we found ourselves in Wigan for a very special family wedding. We had a lovely time and made some very happy memories. We spent the night of the wedding in a hotel in Standish, near Wigan and awoke to enjoy a gloriously sunny morning ahead of our flight back home to Gibraltar. The hotel was set in beautiful landscaped grounds so we headed out for a wander after breakfast.

Regular readers to this blog will know I have a bit of a thing for trees, especially the mature deciduous varieties and there were plenty for me to enjoy (and a rather fetching evergreen too).

At the very edge of the grounds was a footpath leading to Worthington Lakes, a series of lakes maintained by North West Water. Do you fancy joining us for a walk by the water?

How luscious and green… Those moss covered rocks are so inviting to touch, just like green velvet.

At the end of the path, we caught our first glimpse of the water through the trees.

The rhododendrons were looking stunning in the late spring sunshine.

I’m not a huge fan of rhododendrons to be honest, but their blooms were very pretty in the dappled morning sunlight.

The woodland path lead us along the edge of the lake. I think the Little Postcards enjoyed it as much as I did, going on a woodland adventure – it’s not something we get to do unless we are over visiting family in England. We really should seek out some woodland and countryside near to us in Spain.

The path brought us to a raised bank which divided the body of water into two. To the right there were yellow iris growing in the marshy banks.

To the left, there were fishermen enjoying the peace and quiet.

Oh, and there were some ducks too…

Across the grassy divide and we were back in amongst the trees again.


Did I mention, that I like trees? 😉

These hawthorn blossoms are a lovely shade of coral pink aren’t they?

The lake we were walking around appeared to be the central one of three. We could hear a waterfall not too far away through the trees, but we didn’t want to venture too far off the beaten track though as we had a plane to catch and I didn’t want to be having to change muddy clothes at the last minute!

The lake at the other end was completely different and had a bountiful show of water lily pads. You may just be able to make out the yellow buds of the lily flowers almost ready to burst open. I bet this will look glorious in a week or two.

There was much excitement when a heron was spotted sitting in a tree surveying the water.

We passed this water course with little brick bridges over it – do you know what they’re for? I have no idea.

We were then back on the bank of the central lake which would bring us back to the hotel.

We spotted a few trees with horseshoes nailed to them – perhaps this is a bridle path…

A highlight for my little botanist was the sighting of this grey squirrel in the branches overhead.

This rather fat fish was basking in the sunny shallows at the opposite side of the lake from the fishermen!

Just look at that blue sky!

And we were back at our hotel and it was time to head off to the airport… Goodbye Wigan, and thank you – it’s been lovely! 

2017 Weekly photo challenge (week 23) Favourite

~ Making Stitches ~ 9 Comments

So this week’s prompt for the photo challenge is ‘favourite’. I couldn’t narrow it down to just one thing, so here are a selection of my favourite things…

Favourite thing:

If I could close my eyes and be anywhere right now, it would be on a leafy woodland walk in the English countryside on a spring or summer’s day. It’s something I miss a lot living where I do, and it’s always one of the highlights of my trips home to visit my family in the summer – we always have to have a woodland walk and a picnic!

Favourite place:

That said, I do live in a very beautiful part of the world and my very favourite place in Gibraltar has to be the Med Steps! I have a bit of a thing about greenery… did you notice? 



Favourite pastime:

I have been inclined towards crafty things since being a child, I remember attending my first craft fair at the age of about 8 or 9. It was at a National Trust venue near to where I grew up (Tatton Park I think) and was in a series of huge marquees. 

I was blown away by, first of all, being in these big tents, but also the sights and smells that greeted me and the wonderful array of crafts on offer. Suddenly my eyes were opened to the possibilities that I could one day make some of these wonderful things myself.

I left with a burgundy leather wristband to match my corduroy pinafore (child of the 70s/80s you see) which smelt divine and my heart had been lost to the world of crafting. My lovely Gran helped forge that love of craft. On my annual summer holidays up to her home in Scotland, she introduced me to embroidery, sewing, knitting, crochet and through her next door neighbours, smocking as well. 

My favourite make from my holidays spent with her has to be this duckling embroidery made from a kit. I made it on a visit up north of the border and gave it to her as a thank you for having me to stay one summer (when I was about 14). It now hangs in my parents’ house and it reminds me of Gran and our summers whenever I see it.

In more recent times my favourite make has got to be this rainbow granny square blanket I made for the Sixty Million Trebles project. I love the colours on it.

Favourite food:

It’s a tough one this, as eating is one of my favourite things of all time… would it be roast beef with Yorkshire puddings? Chocolate? Cream cakes? No, it has to be fish and chips eaten out of paper by the seaside! You just can’t beat it! 

I’m linking with Nana Cathy and Wild Daffodil for this weekly photo challenge throughout 2017.

Sunday Sevens #86 4.6.17

~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Wowzers that’s been quite a week. A trip back home to England for my brother’s wedding and lots of other stuff too since we returned. In some ways it feels like longer than seven days…. (oh and there’s more than seven photos again this week!)

Flying back to Manchester

So on Sunday last week, we all boarded a plane to England. As we sat on the runway waiting to take off I had a clear view out of the plane window towards the Rock of Gibraltar. While we prepared to depart, I thought ‘I wonder if I could record the takeoff ok my phone?’ So I did. 

A couple of days later, I thought, ‘I wonder if I should upload this to Facebook?’ So I did.

It kind of went a bit crazy after that and so far the video has been watched over 8 and a half thousand times…. wow! 

Here’s a screen shot of our bird’s eye view of Gibraltar taken from the film. If you would like to see it yourself, you can find it on my Facebook page (just search Postcard from Gibraltar) and it’s also on Instagram (search Postcard from Gibraltar).

Manchester 

Manchester was still deeply affected by the terrible events of the week before when we arrived. On Sunday as we drove from the airport to my parents’ house I spotted a long queue snaking out of a shop. It was a tattoo parlour. The penny dropped after a moment or two. These were people queuing up to get tattoos of bees in memory of the people who died in the bombing and in return for a donation to the fund to support the survivors. 

I took this photo at the same shop 24 hours later, on bank holiday Monday- they were still coming. 

(Tragically as I publish this, we are seeing news pictures coming from London, where another terrorist incident has taken place. So sad. My thoughts are with all those affected and the wonderful emergency services who put their lives on the line for our benefit.)

We also went shopping to the Trafford Centre, which was unusually quiet and with several high profile armed police patrolling the place.

Nuptials 

On Tuesday there was a very special wedding. My lovely brother wed his long term girlfriend and all round superwoman in front of family and close friends. It was such a lovely day and a happy time which we will reminisce about for decades I’m sure.

(For those of you who have been reading Sunday Sevens for a while – I’m afraid I didn’t finish my skirt to wear for the wedding, my head was turned by a fabulous dress in a shop window so I wore that instead).

Homeward bound

All too quickly our time in England was over, it was mid term in England but not for us in Gibraltar and the Little Postcards had to miss a day or two of school to attend the wedding, so we headed home on Wednesday. The Cheshire countryside was like a luscious green patchwork quilt below us as we rose into the sky from Manchester.

As we flew along the southern Spanish coast, Gibraltar with its cloudy Levanter hat appeared into view…

We landed in the same direction as we had taken off and got a great view on our way in.

Lunch with a friend
On Thursday, once the Little Postcards were ensconced back in school I met up with a crafty friend. She’s a very talented lady who can turn her hand to crochet, watercolour and felting amongst other things. She showed me this, her lovely crochet blanket made up of oddments of leftover yarn. Isn’t it gorgeous?

This lovely lady has promised to teach me how to felt myself … I’ll keep you posted on that!

Out of the blue 


On Friday, out of the blue, I got a phone call as I was dashing out of the front door. Normally I would just leave it so I wasn’t late, but I felt compelled to pick it up. I’m glad I did. It was one of my neighbours from about 15 years ago when we lived in West Yorkshire, and she was in Gibraltar!

She and her husband had gone to the Costa del Sol on holiday on a bus (from Yorkshire), stopping 3 times on the way, and then took a day trip to Gibraltar. When she arrived on the Rock, she looked for a phone book to find my number and had just caught me in!

I dashed down to meet them as I had just an hour spare before needed to collect the children from school, and took them for a whistle stop tour of Gibraltar in our car. They did the full loop of the Rock, seeing our home, the boys’ schools and ending up at Europa Point. 

They had wanted to see Africa, but sadly, the sea mist didn’t play ball and they couldn’t see it at all. They did see the lighthouse resplendent in scaffolding, having a bit of a spruce up though! 

We then travelled along the eastern side of the Rock and saw the beaches before  dropping them back in town. It was such an  unexpected treat to see them, and made me so glad I still send real cards and letters at Christmas time or they wouldn’t have known my address.

Pomp and ceremony 


Yesterday I popped into town for a quick spot of shopping and found myself in the midst of a Ceremonial Guard Mount at the Convent. The Governor was there (on the left in white presenting the bunch of keys to the Royal Gibraltar Regiment) along with the mayor, representatives of the Gibraltar Government, along with other dignitaries. 

It was quite a sight to see and the tourists were lapping it up. It just goes to show that there’s never a dull moment here in Gibraltar! 

Thank you so much if you have made it all the way to the bitter end, it’s been a very lengthy edition of Sunday Sevens this week!  However you have spent this week I hope it has been a good one for you, and if you are one of my new followers on Facebook, thank you for joining me!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.