Gibraltar is changing, in fact it’s been constantly changing since we first arrived almost a decade ago. The latest developments are very tall in contrast to the older, more traditional buildings of town.
Tall buildings are very handy for framing views though, don’t you agree?
Tall is the theme for this week’s Friday photo challenge. Next week, it’s ‘Golden’.
Calentita, Gibraltar’s annual food festival came to town on Saturday. Started back in 2007 (before we arrived on the Rock), the festival just gets better and better, and this year, attracted chefs from much further afield.
In our early years on the Rock, we attempted to ‘do’ Calentita on a few occasions, but found it tricky with small children. Now, with older children and a bigger, more spacious format for the festival, it’s much more do-able for us as family. (You can read about our experience of last year’s festival here.)
This year’s Calentita was a special one for me, as an article I wrote featured in the specially published Calentita Press magazine.
Anyway, down to business… Calentita. Being English and having kids with us, we turned up early. Over the years turning up early for events hasn’t always gone our way (like when it seemed like the rest of Gibraltar got the memo to come half an hour to an hour later for something), on this occasion though, we were in luck. We found a prime location for a base (one of the Casemates pubs which allowed us to buy drinks from them, but bring our own food from the stalls to the table) and we managed to get served at a few of the stalls before the, at times, humongous queues formed. Win, win!
Another perk of being early meant we could have a good nosey around at everything before it got too crowded.
There was so much variety to choose from. From the biggest barbecue I had ever seen…
To gorgeous cakes…
…And lots more besides, like craft gins and food from all four corners of the globe.
And so to the food… first stop for us was the cake stall (above), unfortunately I forgot to photograph the Oreo and Black Forest cupcakes I bought. I went there early before they sold out and saved them until we got home. You’ll have to take my word for it that they were beautiful both to look at and eat!!
For our first foray into the stalls we went for meat, (the huge barbecue hadn’t yet begun serving so we headed to another barbecue stall) the Iberian Secreto of pork (above) was just melt in the mouth and these mini burgers were lovely too. They came from the Gourmet Grill stall in Casemates.
Next came the taste of Asia with Chicken biryani and kebabs cooked by the Gibraltar Hindu Community.
The Little Postcards sampled hot dogs (which were available from a number of different stalls) and these rather tasty hot waffles smothered in Nutella….
As you can see, the food came on paper plates (you could bring your own plates and cutlery if you were organised – I wasn’t) and the cutlery was wooden. This year, Calentita was free from disposable single use plastic items in a bid to help the environment.
A few drinks may have been drunk too… ;-).
The atmosphere was brilliant, busy but not overly so, and it was very friendly and there were lots of families about. Among the non-edible attractions was the Casemates stage which had performances from local dance and musical groups, although this hadn’t properly got going while we were there… I did spot a couple of rather snazzily dressed witches behind the scenes…
And in Market Place, there was a stage for chefs (some local and others from further afield like Malta and London) to carry out demonstrations for the audience of diners sitting at the nearby tables and the people queueing at the stalls.
Calentita, yet again was a really well organised event and drew large crowds to come along and sample some of the many different foods on offer.
We only stayed for about 2 hours, as by that time tummies were full and we had played Top Trumps several times so the younger members of the party were ready to head home. If we had been there without children, we would most definitely have stayed longer. I can imagine the atmosphere being lovely after sunset, as the stalls began to light up. Maybe next year…
And finally, confession time. I have lived in Gibraltar for almost 9 years and until Saturday, I had never before tasted the Gibraltarian national dish of calentita (after which the food festival is named). It’s a kind of flan made with chickpeas, and was probably brought over to Gibraltar by the Genoese fishermen who migrated here (it’s known as farinata there, although a similar dish, known as karantita is served in nearby Northern Africa).
I decided the time had come to finally sample this local delicacy. Now, I’m not sure whether I will have to return my ID card and pack up and head back to England, but I’m afraid it wasn’t for me. I’m a fan of flans and custards and quiches and this was kind of a savoury combination of all of the above, but no, I’m not sure I’d go in for another slice. I don’t know what I was expecting, but perhaps after the lovely spices of the Hindu community’s gorgeous biryani it was a bit bland. Sorry!
And so that was our experience of Calentita 2018. A great evening, a lovely atmosphere and lots of tasty treats to eat. I think it may be time to hit the Med Steps again though to burn off those extra calories, it’s beach season again after all!!!
Hello there, it’s been a busy week for us here in Gibraltar with two festivals, one for world music and another one for food. The weather’s been rather interesting too! Here goes…
Sea mist
Last Sunday we were still in the grips of sea mist which enveloped the Rock and caused flights to be cancelled. For those of us lucky enough to not to be traveling it was quite fun to sit and watch it changing shape out in the Bay. (Photo credit Mr Postcard).
We’re having babies!
We have had a pair of collared doves house hunting in our neighbourhood recently and it would appear that they have moved into our roof to have their little family. It looks like Mum is sitting on some eggs, I will keep you posted as to their progress.
GWMF
Mid week this week, we had the Gibraltar World Music Festival in full swing. There were a number of different events including talks for school children, a concert inside St Michael’s Cave and this musical street party on Castle Steps. It was a great venue for the choirs and band, with space for us to sit on the steps and look down on the performers. The atmosphere was fabulous.
Stormy night
In the early hours of Thursday morning I was woken by a Little Postcard. When I settled him back into bed, the room lit up and there was an almighty rumble of thunder (that’s what probably disturbed him in the first place).
I thought I’d try and grab a dramatic photo of the lightning, so I headed out onto the balcony in my pjs at about 4:20am (just as well no one was passing). Needless to say I failed on the photo, just got this blurry one. I decided after about 10 minutes that I really should go back to bed!!
I’m in print!
For the first time ever, I have had an article published in print! It’s in the Calentita Press, a magazine compiled for the annual Calentita food festival. In my article I talked about growing your own food, even in small spaces (as most of us in Gibraltar have no outside space to speak of). I interviewed Andrew Abrines from the Alameda Gardens ahead of writing the piece and he gave lots of great tips for getting started. I even learned that you can grow your own pea shoots using dried marrow fat peas… and so I did…
Pea shoots!
….here they are! They took just about two weeks to grow on my kitchen windowsill and they taste lovely – very pea-ish if you get what I mean!
Now that’s what you call a barbecue…
That’s one heck of a lot of meat! This was just one of the food stalls at last night’s Calentita Festival. It was a great event, yet again and I came home with a very full tummy! I hope to write a blog post all about it in the next few days, time permitting.
So there you have it, Sunday Sevens done for another week. I hope it’s been a good one for you. Until next time, bye for now.
I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.
The final rays of sunshine on the longest day of the year, last night…
Next week’s photo challenge is ‘Tall’.
Last week, we took advantage of the Bank Holiday for the Queen’s birthday and did the touristy thing. We took the cable car up to the top of the Rock with the intention of walking back down via Gibraltar’s newest tourist attraction; the Skywalk.
Opened in Spring, by none other than Luke Skywalker himself, I had been meaning to pay the Skywalk a visit. I figured it was something I really should do with the Little Postcards, as Star Wars is quite a thing in our house and they may not have appreciated me doing it before them.
Being local residents means that we are able to use the cable car at a discounted price and access the facilities on the Upper Rock for free. It’s something I forget about from time to time and really should make more use of.
We were lucky enough to be enjoying a sunny but reasonably cool day, just perfect for pootling about on the Upper Rock without it being too hot or too chilly.
We really should come up here more often!
Looking down upon Main Street and the rest of town reminds me how small Gibraltar is and how much of our lives are caught up in such a small area; school, work, home and leisure.
Gibraltar’s furriest residents were putting on a great show for the tourists.
We didn’t linger long amongst the apes, I caught one of them gazing admiringly at my backpack and didn’t fancy a fight. This trio of apes (siblings I think) were winding each other up and play fighting – it was very reminiscent of our house on most days!!
We headed off downhill towards the Skywalk taking in the views across the Bay of Gibraltar and the Strait to Morocco.
And there it was…
Now let me lay the cards on the table here, I’m not a fan of heights. I kind of put off this visit because of that, as much as because I wanted the Little Postcards with me. I was a little bit trepidatious as I climbed the stairs up to the platform.
The first platform is solid stone, and it’s from this vantage point that I could see the glass floored Skywalk below me as well as a new view North across the ridge (below).
The time had come to be brave and go onto the glass platform…
I did it! Look those are my toes!! And there’s Sandy Bay way, way down below…
I amazed myself! Here’s Sandy Bay again through the glass wall surrounding the Skywalk.
It wasn’t as scary as I imagined it would be!
It felt like a big achievement ticked off for me. Now time to head back down the Rock to have a celebratory cuppa at home! For some Gibraltar residents, these views are so boring though…
My Skywalk experience wasn’t my only ‘first’ on this trip, I also experienced dragonflies in numbers I have never witnessed before in Gibraltar. It reminded me of driving down country lanes in summer in Norfolk or Yorkshire back when we lived in the UK.
There were loads of them…
I loved seeing them!
Then, just as we were getting back down into South District, just below the Jews Gate entrance to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, I spotted some small brown creatures rushing up an embankment out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was mice or rats…. but it was a mother Barbary Partridge and her brood of chicks!
Can you see the chicks in amongst the undergrowth?
They were so well camouflaged, there were about 5 or 6 of them in total. It was so lovely to see them up close. We are really lucky to have this nature on our doorstep.
Later on Monday, I was on Sir Herbert Miles Road, below the Skywalk. Look, I went on that!! It looks a lot worse from down there!
For more information about the Skywalk, you can check out its website.
Hello there and happy Father’s Day to any Dads out there who might read this. Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens 🙂
International Yarnbombing Day preparations
This time last week I was installing my yarn bomb in the Alameda Gardens close to the fundraising sponsors plaques for the BioDome outdoor classroom. It was fun to do, and less pressure than the last time I did it (which was without permission). I had some lovely comments, which was fab to hear.
A pair of cuties
On Monday we had another bank holiday here in Gibraltar. My parents were over visiting so we did the touristy thing and caught the cable car to the top of the Rock. Up there, we encountered this pair of cuties. I posted the photo on social media asking for possible captions… the hands down winner has to be Sandra from Wild Daffodil with the comment “So, yarnbombing – what’s that about?” Very appropriate seeing as it was actually International Yarnbombing Day 🙂
Evening out
I enjoyed a lovely evening out on Wednesday with my book club ladies. There was a lot of chat, a bit of wine and good food and it was such fun.
Nasturtiums
I think I have finished this paining of wild nasturtiums now. I’ve been working on it for weeks at my watercolour class and I think I should probably stop now before I make a mess of it!
Passion Flower
Talking of flowers, I spotted this beautiful passion flower on a walk around town this week. It looks so exotic and interesting.
A day of sea mist
In late spring/early summer it’s quite common for us to experience fog and sea mists. The mist arrived on Friday and was ever changing throughout the day. It was fun to watch it change direction, thickness and shape. I also love listening to the ships singing to each other as they blast their fog horns!
Tiny coffee
Yesterday morning we had an early drive to Malaga airport to take my parents for their flight home. We decided to take a trip to IKEA while we were in that neck of the woods. We were there so early, Ikea hadn’t yet opened, so popped into McDonald’s next door for a small coffee. When I asked for a small cappuccino, I hadn’t bargained on it being a ‘tiny’ one! It came a day too late for my Friday photo challenge for this week.
I hadn’t been to Ikea for about 5 years. I had a wonderful time and bought so many things I hadn’t realised I needed in my life, like lampshades and picture frames!!! 😉
Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you have a great week! I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.
It was a bank holiday on Monday this week here in Gibraltar, and we took a trip up in the cable car to the top of the Rock. While we were up there we spied on the bank holiday beach goers down below us in Sandy Bay. They looked so tiny!
Next week’s photo challenge is: Midsummer (eek, that must mean we are halfway through the year already!)
This month’s monthly meet-up theme is ‘Sunlight’. Living in Gibraltar, we are blessed with quite a lot of that, this photo is of a sunset, as seen from our front door. I loved that the seagulls swooped into view while I took it.
My favourite sunlight photos though, have got to be of the inside of the Pantheon in Rome. The beam of sunlight which comes through the ancient domed roof is breathtaking.
It has got to be seen to be believed. A truly awe inspiring place.
I’m linking with Wild Daffodil for this monthly blog meet-up.
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while may remember that 2 years ago, I undertook some guerrilla crochet and yarnbombed the Alameda Gardens for it’s 200th anniversary. You can read all about in this post from International Yarnbombing Day 2016.
Well it turns out, today is International Yarnbombing Day 2018 and I fancied getting my yarnbombs out of storage to see the light of day again. This time though, it was a bit less guerrilla (I actually had permission this time – must be getting old and more responsible!).
I dusted off my original yarnbombs and added a few new ones including this handful of butterflies…
Want to see them in situ? Here goes…
Molly Bloom’s got her necklace back on…
Giuseppe Codali’s got his scarf back on too…
He’s looking rather dapper as he stands guard overlooking his bridge:
My mini blanket is now hanging up alongside the fundraising plaques for the Alameda BioDome.
This time it has some little crocheted butterflies holding it in place.
More of those little butterflies are fluttering about nearby…
And last of all, vines of little crocheted flowers have wound themselves around the railings too.
If you would like to go and see them for yourself, they should hopefully be there until Wednesday.
Happy International Yarnbombing Day!
For more information about the Alameda BioDome Project, why not check out their blog?
Hello there! We are in the middle of yet another lovely bank holiday weekend here in Gibraltar, this time it’s to commemorate the Queen’s birthday. Here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens:
Birthday cake and sewing
It was my friend’s birthday this week and it coincided with our sewing class. I wasn’t expecting a generous slice of this gorgeous plate of chocolatey heaven when I turned up! As you can probably tell from the photo, it was divine. I was very careful not to drop any crumb on my dress I’m sewing!!
World Environment Day
World Environment Day was celebrated in Gibraltar on Tuesday in Commonwealth Park. Local school choirs performed on the bandstand and organisations and companies with an interest in the environment like the Alameda Wildlife & Conservation Park and the Nautilus Project had stalls to raise awareness about environmental concerns. It was a lovely afternoon in a beautiful setting.
Alameda Gardens
We are in the midst of a bit of home improvement Chez Postcard at present. The place is in utter chaos with stuff moved from it’s normal locations, floor tiles lifted, power tool noise and lots and lots of dust. I ran away one morning to escape the noise and mess and sat for half an hour in the tranquility of the Alameda Gardens. While I was there, these beautiful day lillies caught my eye. Aren’t they beautiful with their deep purple edges?
Sunny Catalan Bay
In another bid to escape the work at home I took a walk through Catalan Bay one lunchtime. It was beautifully sunny and quiet! It won’t be long before this place is full of deck chairs and sun umbrellas cheek by jowl on the beach. Until then, it’s such a peaceful place to be!
Cock a doodle doo to you too!
You can often hear cockerels crowing in the South District of Gibraltar, but until recently, I had never actually seen who was making all the noise! A couple of months ago on an early morning walk I came face to face with a rather impressive black cockerel, but he ran away too fast for me to catch him on camera. This week though, as I walked along Europa Road, I not only heard, but saw two cockerels crowing. They were oblivious to the traffic whizzing by them just a metre or so below them.
Sunny walk on the costa
Yesterday we took a drive along the coast to Puerto Banus near Marbella. It’s a rather swanky place full of designer shops, very (and I mean very) posh cars and mahooosive yatchs in the marina. I quite like going there to people watch and to see how the other half lives. Away from the razzmatazz there’s a lovely promenade where you can walk all the way to Marbella. We had a very pleasant walk there yesterday (not as far as Marbs though) the Little Postcards enjoyed jumping from rock to rock along the wall at the side of the path.
International Yarnbombing Day preparations
Did you know it’s International Yarnbombing Day tomorrow? Well it is, and I may be working on a little yarnbomb of my own… watch this space!
I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.
