Month: September 2018

Sunday Sevens #156 30.9.18

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Sunday again, I was supposed to post midweek all about the Music Festival last weekend but unfortunately time got the better of me, perhaps I’ll manage it this week…. here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

And relax…

It’s been quite a week for me this week, we have had visitors over – which has been lovely (and I couldn’t have managed without their help), I’ve been doing a bit of extra work too this week and it’s been a bit non-stop at times. It has made realise that there’s no way I could work full-time. I take my hat off to all those parents out there who hold down a full-time job as well has looking after children.

Pattern making

There wasn’t a lot of sewing going on at my dressmaking class this week but my jacket pattern is moving on apace.

Under a cloud…

The hot and sweaty Levanter weather conditions have continued for most of this week. As you can see, up above the thick cloud (which sits above Gibraltar at the minute) there’s some lovely blue sky. Everyone’s complaining about the humidity at the moment, I hope it comes to an end soon.

A lovely lunch

As I alluded to before, we have special visitors over at the minute, my parents are here for a visit. That gave us the perfect excuse to go out to lunch while the Little Postcards are at school. It’s amazing being able to hold uninterrupted conversations!!

Whoops!

I’m on the final push for my Coastal Crochet CAL. The Seaside Stash Busting Blanket has seen a bit of action this week, but as you can see, I got it a bit wrong…. it took me 4 rows to realise that I’d made a mistake – whoops! Thankfully it’s sorted now!

The end of summer…

It looks like summer beach season is over… I was at Sandy Bay on Friday and although there were quite a few people on the beach and in the sea, work was underway removing the net from the family end of the beach. It doesn’t feel like autumn yet, that’s for sure!

A new arrival in Gibraltar

There’s much excitement in our household about the arrival of a new eatery in Gibraltar. When we visited Sidmouth and Lyme Regis on our Easter trip to the south coast of England, we first encountered the delights of the Cornish Bakery. Then, on our trip to Southwold in Suffolk, we discovered a branch had just opened there too. Imagine our surprise when this signage appeared in Casemates Square… is this an anti-diet conspiracy??!! Is the Cornish Bakery stalking the Postcard family? Methinks a few pasties may be consumed…

Thanks for stopping by to visit this week, that’s all for this Sunday Sevens. As always, I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Sunday Sevens #155 23.9.18

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This week started quietly but grew to rather noisy climax with the MTV Gibraltar Calling Music Festival last night. Here’s this week’s installment of Sunday Sevens:

The submarine

Last Sunday we went for a bit of a walk and ended up quite close to the visiting nuclear submarine HMS Talent. Later on in the week I saw a military and police convoy (presumably bringing important stuff on board) it was quite impressive as it went past.

Med stepping

I went up the Med Steps twice this week, the second time I did it in 30 minutes. I was rather happy with that time. I was a bit tired afterwards!

Sewing class

Hurrah, my dressmaking class has restarted this week. It’s jackets this term… I’m going for grey with a shocking pink lining.

Border queue

I made a ‘quick’ trip to the shops in Spain midweek and ended up sitting for an hour in the border queue to get back into Gibraltar. The border queue can be so unpredictable and is a right pain in the neck at times.

Who’s idea was this?

At my watercolour class I had the rather foolish idea that I’d like to paint the photograph I took of the rough waves crashing at Europa Point in a storm…. easier said than done! I think it may be too hard!

Drama on the high seas

There was a bit of drama off Europa Point on Thursday afternoon. As I was driving along the road towards the lighthouse on the Eastern side of the Rock, I spied the submarine I mentioned before, heading out to sea with a flotilla of other boats. I stopped the car and joined the many other by-standers at the side of the road who watched the sub leave. Heading towards the flotilla was a Spanish police boat which had to be seen off by a couple of Royal Navy boats, one using a flare. It was quite dramatic to witness.

A change of view

I had to park out by the small boats marina on Friday morning when I headed into town. I do like this view of the Rock, it’s nice to see it from a different angle.

Music festival

Friday and Saturday saw the MTV presents Gibraltar Calling music festival. I only went yesterday, but it was a good day out. I’ll share a few more photos taken yesterday in due course.

That’s all for this week, I hope it’s been a good one for you. Thanks for stopping by. As always, I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

A postcard from Bee in the City Manchester 2018

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All this summer, there’s been a buzz in the City of Manchester and very soon, it will come to an end. While we were visiting my parents a few weeks back, we went on the Bee in the City trail to see what we could find.

The big golden Bee was at the start of the Bee in the City trail at Piccadilly Station, from there we set off our our Bee quest to see as many bees as we possibly could…

The Urban Jungle Bee (above: top left) was a particular favourite is mine…

We saw some (but not all) of the bees in the Northern Quarter:

Before heading towards the Arndale Centre where this lovely homage to Salford artist LS Lowry was …

… then on to the Printworks and this Bee celebrating the Manchester music scene:

Before taking on the Bee in the City trail, I downloaded the app to my phone. Every Bee has a code on it which you can enter into the app to say you’ve found it. Some of the Bees offer rewards, and this one gave money off on meals at restaurants in the Printworks. That seemed like the perfect time to stop and grab some lunch Rock and Roll style 😉

After lunch we headed towards the main shopping area and found not only the Bee in the City shop, but also Liam Gallagher (of Oasis)’s Rock and Roll Bee…

We wandered around town spotting a few more before heading to Manchester Cathedral…

Manchester Cathedral:

Manchester Cathedral hosted a whole swarm of the smaller, community created bees. Among them were bees made by local schools and youth groups;

Market Street:

In Manchester art gallery, we found ‘Crown Jewels’.

Outside the Bridgewater Hall there was Buzz-wig van Bee-thoven …

…and across the road at (what was once known as) GMEX was this gloriously shiny bee called Bling Bee!

Albert Square / St Peter’s Square:

In front of Manchester’s currently empty Town Hall were two bees, This is Manchester…

It came complete with its own version of a Gib Rock…

The Birds and the Bees bee, no less!

Beside the Library theatre we spotted this worker bee…

A botanicals gin bee…

…and even a virtual bee called ‘Buzzi’ who only appears on your phone! Now you see him…

Now you don’t…

This rather elegant bee stood inside part of the library…

With the St Peter’s Square bees ticked off the list, we jumped onto a tram and left the City Centre behind. We spotted another bee through the tram window:

Next stop: Media City, home of the BBC, ITV and lots of television programmes.

Media City UK

Children’s BBC programmes are made here and it’s now home to the relocated Blue Peter garden.

And, Blue Bee-ter!

He even has a Blue Peter badge!

Between Media City and the Lowry theatre we had a close encounter with a space bee:

In the Lowry we found a little swarm of five small bees… including (on the right) the ‘Sewing Bee’!

Upstairs, by the L.S. Lowry exhibition space, there were three more:

By this point, we had clocked up 61 bees and some rather tired legs, so we decided to call it a day and head home. We really enjoyed our day with the Bees in the City!

That evening, my Dad went to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United play, and whilst he was there, he sought out this Bee too…

The Bees are being sold off for charity next month so if you would like to see them yourself, you’ve not got long – it’s the last day tomorrow!

For more information about the Bees, check out their website.

Friday photo challenge (week 38) Autumn

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We may not have autumn in the same way as in the UK with falling leaves and all the beautiful colour that goes with that, but we are experiencing autumnal mists at the minute.

Yesterday’s trip up the Med Steps was very atmospheric. Don’t think it was cool though, I was really hoping for a bit of cool weather because it’s been so very humid since the height of the summer. It was warm and humid all the way up until the ninth set of steps towards the summit and all of a sudden I walked into a cool blast of breeze coming up from the sea – it was so welcome!

It’s this cool air which causes the Levanter cloud to form on the top of the Rock, and that cloud is what seals the hot humid air in for those underneath, yuck!

Many of the plants on the side of the rock are dead and burnt to a crisp after a long hot summer, but this clump of purple flowers took me by surprise. Not everything has gone to sleep!

Sunday Sevens #154 16.9.18

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Sunday has come round remarkably quickly this week, I’m not sure I’m ready! I hope you’ve had a good week…

Back up the steps

Last Sunday I took the bull by the horns and headed back up the Med Steps for the first time since the Med Steps 5 in May. It had been too warm to attempt it before then, but Sunday felt a bit cooler, so I thought I’d have a go.

I was amazed at the progress being made at the building works for the Island Games (above) since my last visit.

I took quite a few breaks en route (including a stop off in one of the caves: above). And on my way back down, I spied the visiting submarine HMS Talent down below me in the harbour.

National Day

Monday was 10th September and around these parts that means it’s Gibraltar National Day. You can see more pictures in my last post for the Friday Photo Challenge.

Are you looking at me?

Wednesday morning saw me heading back up the Med Steps. On my way up, I came across a group of about 8 Barbary Patridges. They were so tame and very close to me, this one was giving me the once over though!

Murky night

Wednesday evening saw a sea mist come into the Bay and envelope all the ships out on the water. It was funny how the beams from their lights spread through the mist.

Watercolour class

Term restarted for my watercolour class, and I had a go at some poppies to get back into the groove. They were meant to be covered with splatters which was handy as they covered the area where I dropped my brush on the paper!!

I’m really looking forward to my dressmaking classes restarting next week!

Out and about

I had a nice walk on Friday morning with a few friends, it was calm and sunny and lovely to have a catch up. Unfortunately my walk was cut short this time with a minor crisis at home (which was resolved without incident) hopefully next time, I’ll get to walk further!

Birthday boy

We have a birthday coming up in the household soon and on Saturday we had a bit of a celebration. Pokémon cakes were the order of the day. Thank goodness for the stick-on pictures, they distracted from the wonky icing and burnt bits!!! They tasted ok thankfully!

That’s it for this week’s Sunday Sevens, a big thank you for everyone who’s taken the time to read it! I have had a bit of a spike in activity on my blog during the last 24 hours with lots of views from the UK, so hello to any new readers, it’s lovely to have you along. As always, I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Friday photo challenge (week 37) Pride

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I’ve gone for national pride for this week’s Friday photo challenge. On Monday, Gibraltar celebrated it’s National Day, and both the place and the people were decked out in the red and white of the Gibraltar flag.

Shop windows looked suitably festive.

And some people went to great lengths to look the part…

Central to the day (aside from eating and drinking with family & friends) is the political rally, in which local and UK politicians speak to the gathered crowd and via TV and radio to those at home.

We even had a pre recorded message from Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street. The place was awash with red and white.

There were ticker tape & streamer cannons and even smoke things going off!

We were even treated to a death defying aerobatics display…. I could hardly watch…

And the day was finished off with a fireworks display.

Summer Craft Challenge 2018 (week 8)

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So at last, the Little Postcards returned after a (very) long 8 week school summer holiday, and throughout that time, I have used crafty distractions each day to keep me going. Here’s my final week (+2 days) just a week or so after they went back to school! Better late than never!

Saturday

Work began on Percy the Gnome’s head.

Sunday

Head complete with eyes, meant time for a little scarf.

Monday

On Monday evening, we played scrabble and I crocheted along at the same time – not advisable as I kept losing count – however near the start of the game I ended up with the letters to spell sewing in my little rack of tiles. How appropriate for a craft challenge, shame it didn’t spell crochet!

Tuesday

A gnome hat with a bell!

Wednesday

And he’s finished!

Thursday

On Thursday, our last full day in Manchester, Percy came out with us to the park, looking for some fairies to hang out with…

… I didn’t see any, but saw quite a few fairy doors.

While the Little Postcards played and climbed, I found time for a last little bit of English al fresco crochet for this summer.

Friday

In flight crochet, crochet and gin goes so well together don’t you think?

Saturday

As I waited for the copious washing machine cycles to finish as I unpacked from our trip, I caught up with one of my favourite blogs (Attic24). I discovered through reading it that this year’s Yarndale Festival was appealing for butterflies to be made, so quickly made one…

Sunday

A little flurry of butterflies (the correct term I believe is a kaleidoscope) all bound for Yarndale. One had to be red and white for Gibraltar 🇬🇮.

And another thing…

Way back just before I started my craft challenge this year, I started work on a new project which I didn’t want to say too much about until I had showed it to someone special. Earlier this year, my little brother and his lovely wife went on their honeymoon to Bali. They brought me back a beautiful sarong. It was too pretty for just taking to the beach so I decided to make a skirt out of it.

I took it along to my dressmaking teacher to get her advice. She told me how to cut the fabric to take full advantage of the pattern.

And here it is:

I’m thrilled with it 🙂 and now I have showed them, I can share it with you.

That’s the end of my summer Craft Challenge for this year, I managed to do something crafty on all but a handful of days, and I loved it!

Edit: for some reason the photos in this post have been rather tricksy and that’s the main reason this blog post has taken so long to publish. Apologies if they take a long time to load, I’m not sure what the problem is…

Sunday Sevens #153 9.9.18

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Hello and welcome to another Sunday Sevens, this one comes to you on the eve of Gibraltar National Day. The place is looking very festive decked out in red and white bunting…

Cloudy skies

Last Sunday it was really rather humid. We set out for a walk on the last day of the (rather long) School summer holidays. The cloudy Levanter conditions made for a rather sweaty walk.

Blue skies at lunch

On Monday, after the Little Postcards’ finished their first half day at school (in Gibraltar schools operate under ‘summer hours’ until National Day), we all went for lunch in Queensway Quay. It was a lovely afternoon.

A little friend

On Tuesday I got the shock of my life when I was cleaning. I lifted the dustpan to sweep the floor, and this little chap appeared to be hiding underneath. He was dinky, and I think he was in the process of growing a new tail. He was frozen to the spot, poor thing, so I put the coke can next to him to show his size. I left the room and he scarpered!

Butterflies for Yarndale

I finished my Yarndale butterflies (I had to make a red & white one for Gibraltar abc posted them off on their way to Skipton – I hope they arrive in time for Friday’s deadline…. then I went for a walk, to post them and spotted these beauties feeding off a special butterfly table in the Alameda Gardens.

More street art

While our and about this week, I spotted another mural underway. That’s the third I’ve seen so far in Gibraltar – such a treat in a dingy underpass.

Getting ready for National Day

On Friday, the sun came out and the flags are out too all set for National Day tomorrow. Gibraltar really knows how to throw a party!

Here comes the rain….

So, Gibraltar has had a bit of a drought since April. Yesterday, the rain came. We got off rather lightly though, I believe there were floods further along the coast. It has brought with it the most blissful cool temperatures….

That’s this week’s Sunday Sevens done and dusted, I hope you’ve had a good week. As always, I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Friday photo challenge (week 36) Waterways

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When I think of waterways, it’s the Norfolk Broads which spring to mind. This summer, as we have done many times before, we visited the Broads while visiting family members who live near by.

This time though, we got up close and personal with the waterways and explored them by canoe. It was probably the best day of the holiday for me, it was quiet, calm and so beautiful to be able to slow down and take in all the surroundings. There were literally hundreds of dragon flies flitting about close to the surface of the water.

We also visited this stretch of the Broads at Burgh Castle (below), which has history right back to the Roman occupation of the area…

We enjoyed a particularly pretty sunset there from a Broadside pub beer garden!

Next week’s photo challenge is ‘pride’.