Month: July 2019

Sunday – no – Saturday Sevens – no – Fives #198 27.7.19

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Hello all, this week I’m ringing the changes, Sunday Sevens is making an appearance a day early… I shall explain why at the end!

Tortilla fail

Last Sunday I attempted to make a Spanish Tortilla or Torta de Patata as it’s know round these parts… I failed! It didn’t taste too bad with the burned bits cut off… my Gibraltarian friends will despair of me!

Blue skies in Blighty

I can’t take credit for this beautiful photo, it was sent to me by my Dad as he and my Mum took a walk along a canal tow-path in Cheshire. I have his permission to feature it in this week’s Sunday Saturday Sevens Fives. We have had some very humid weather in Gibraltar this week, but I know that it’s been sizzling in the UK, with temperatures higher than we’ve experienced.

Saharan dust sunset

This beautiful sunset caught my eye one evening this week – Wednesday I think. It was a stunner, thanks to the Saharan dust which is knocking about a lot at the moment.

Evening stroll by the sea

This week has been rather hectic in our apartment, we have got some contractors coming in to do some much needed work. As a consequence I have spent a lot of time over the past few days packing our things/junk and moving them into rooms which won’t be touched by the workers.

First world problems I know, but it’s been a bit crazy added to the fact I have 3 young men at home who were hoping to spend some time at the beach this week but were stuck indoors while I did jobs and Mr Postcard has been away with work. To try and make up for the fact we had been in a hot sweaty flat all day I took them out for a walk to Catalan Bay on Thursday evening and we stopped off for an ice cream after dinner. Not quite the beach day I’d promised them at the start of the week, but it will have to do!

Restful sleeping environment – not

And this, my friends is the view from my side of the bed. Most of the contents of the lounge are in our bedroom. The flat is in chaos and I’m a bit frazzled with it all, so I’ve decided to take a week off my phone and try to unwind a bit after a rather stressy week. That’s why this week’s Sunday Sevens is actually a Saturday Fives – and not the most uplifting one either – apologies for that!

I’ll be back again next Sunday, all being well, and between now and then I’m going offline – I’m not being rude – just reclaiming my sanity after a busy few days. See you on the other side x

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 4)

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Good evening, here’s week 4 of my Summer Craft Challenge…

Day 22 Saturday 20th July

Back on the aqua blues after that pop of colour last week…. do those bobbles remind you of anything?

Day 23 Sunday 21st July

…more waves.

Day 24 Monday 22nd July

… and still more waves!

Day 25 Tuesday 23rd July

And here is my first row of land… a spot of wet sand!

Day 26 Wednesday 24th July

I have a grey stripe now…. looks a bit like pebbles don’t you think?

Day 27 Thursday 25th July

We spent a lovely hour in Catalan Bay on Thursday evening which made me think perhaps it was as good a time as any to reveal that this year my seaside blanket will be made with a Catalan Bay theme – I can’t wait to capture some of the colours of those Catalan Bay homes!

Day 28 Friday 26th July

Today I did a bit of planning for my Sandy beach rows, then a spot of ruffling…

We have had a rather busy week this week and as it’s the summer holidays I’m taking a little holiday from my phone as from tomorrow. I’ll keep up with my Craft challenge and will tell you all about it when I return!

Until then, bye for now and thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Sunday Sevens #197 21.7.19

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Hello there! I hope you’ve had a good week! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens, seven pictures from the last seven days….

Beautiful building

I had a meeting in this beautiful old building on Monday. I have walked past it countless times on my wanders around Gibraltar but never set foot inside before. Wow, what a stunning staircase!

Sunshine through the green!

I drove past this banana (I think) leaf on Tuesday and the sunlight shining through it caught my eye. When I walked past it later, I had to take a photo!

Marbella

We had a midweek trip to Marbella. The old town is just so pretty.

The breakfast of champions

We went out for breakfast on Thursday morning – what a treat! Never had new potatoes with my eggs Benedict before… it was delicious though!

Levanter galore!

It was a rather grey but humid day on Friday. We went to the beach… it was rather quiet! (I wonder why?!) The Little Postcards enjoyed themselves in spite of the weather.

Beautiful bougainvillea

I walk past this beautiful bougainvillea every so often and it almost all year round looks fab. We’ve had mixed results when we’ve tried to grow it – this one gets a gold star!

And that’s all from me for this week. I hope it’s been a good one for you.

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Summer Craft Challenge (Week 3)

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Hi, 3 weeks down already, those days are zipping by at lightning speed! Here’s week 3 of my summer Craft challenge…

Day 15 Saturday 13th July

Last Saturday after what felt like weeks of ‘shrimp’ bobbles I finished the round and changed to ‘lemon’ instead!

Day 16 Sunday 14th July

I’m liking the contrast of the citrus colours against the blue…

Day 17 Monday 15th July

I managed to find time for a little bit of crochet on the balcony as the sun went down time…. ahhhhh!

Day 18 Tuesday 16th July

… more bobbling.

Day 19 Wednesday 17th July

Whilst on a flying visit to the Costa del Crochet, I managed to finish the bobbles and even managed another row of blue.

Day 20 Thursday 18th July

I got a lovely surprise on Thursday morning – my Spanish bobbles featured on Eleonora’s weekly round up grid of her Changing Tides CAL with crocheters from around the world. What a treat to see that when I picked up my phone!

Thursday’s Crochet was pale blue…

Day 21 Friday 19th July

Friday night was a rushed crochet before bed – so rushed that I realised today that I’d done it wrong and had to frog it! Whoops!

That’s it for another week… thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Sunday Sevens #196 14.7.19

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Well, last week I promised a Sunday Sevens full of sport. We have had a truly wonderful week here in Gibraltar with the NatWest International Island Games. 21 visiting teams from islands as diverse as St Helena and the Isle of Man, Menorca and Greenland competing in 14 sports.

I have had such a busy week and it’s getting late on this Sunday evening, so I shall just let the pictures speak for themselves this week. Here’s what we’ve been watching….

Sunday – 10 pin bowling

…and clay pigeon shooting.

Monday – Basketball

….and beach volleyball.

Tuesday – cycling time trials

…and athletics.

Thursday – more beach volleyball

…and swimming.

Friday – tennis

…and more athletics.

…phew, what an amazing week it’s been.

Well done to all the athletes, support teams, organisers and the 700 volunteers from our community here in Gibraltar for helping make this a truly fantastic event. I’m just sorry it’s ended so soon! What will we do next week?

I hope this week has been a good one for you, normal Sunday Sevens service will be resumed next week!

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 2)

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Week two gone already! It’s been a very busy one here with the Island Games (more on that in Sunday Sevens here tomorrow). Here goes with this week’s crafty endeavours…

Day 8 : Saturday 6th July

Saturday was a very grey and cloudy day here in Gibraltar which made it perfect weather for me to sit out on the balcony and do a bit of catch up on the Coastal Crochet CAL without getting sunstroke. That’s week 6 complete (just another 7 weeks’ worth to catch up on now…)

Day 9 : Sunday 7th July

Sunday was a busy day going to see some of the Island Games events but there’s nothing like a spot of crochet while the sun goes down to unwind!

Day 10 : Monday 8th July

One last row of aqua inspired blues before a change of colour….

Day 11 : Tuesday 9th July

And this is the colour change I opted for, the rather aptly named ‘shrimp’. The perfect colour for for a spot of bobbling on the beach!

Day 12 : Wednesday 10th July

And the bobbles continue…

Day 13 : Thursday 11th July

A spot late night of bobbling in front of the TV.

Day 14 : Friday 12th July

Well I’ve been bobbling since Tuesday and I’m still going!! There’s a lot of work in these bobbles and it’s been a busy week, so my crochet windows have been small. I’m hoping next week will offer more time with my hook…

Thanks for stopping by! If you would like to join in with the summer Craft challenge, just upload a photo of your crafty work onto Instagram with the hashtag #summercraftchallenge2019

Just in case you were wondering, I’m currently working on the lovely Changing Tides Blanket CAL by Eleonora from Coastal Crochet.

Sunday Sevens #195 7.7.19

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First week of the school summer holidays over already! Just another 8 to go…

Saharan dust at sunset

The calm before the busy week ahead…. a Saharan dust sunset last Sunday evening.

We’re watching you!

On Monday we went to the beach – better start the holiday as we mean to go on… it was lovely! While we were there we were watching HMS Echo mapping the sea bed off the East coast of the Rock.

New pool

Gibraltar has a new /old pool. The former MOD Nuffield Pool was handed back to the Gibraltar Government a while back and was left empty and unused (which is a terrible waste). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago it was opened to the public for the first time (previously you had to have MOD connections to get in). It is utterly marvelous and I can see us making use of it a lot this summer – we went twice this week!

Gib in the news

On Thursday morning Gibraltar hit the news, a tanker containing Iranian oil and suspected of heading to Syria (in breach of EU sanctions) was seized by the Gibraltar Government with the help of the Royal Marines. We took a drive around to the Rock to see it, we spied it just off the South West coast beyond the lighthouse.

Another beach day

I’ve got this beach thing sorted I think! It takes me a few attempts to get into my stride with what to take etc. Now the Little Postcards are a bit older I can actually take the risk of looking at a book without fear of them getting into too much bother – this is a very nice development! Next week I think my crochet will have to come too…

Calentita time!

Calentita came to town on Friday night. The annual food festival takes over the main Casemates Square and Market Place (below) with food stalls, tables, musical acts and cookery demonstrations. We always get there early for a quick feed with the Little Postcards before it gets too busy later on.

Island Games

Last night, the NatWest International Island Games kicked off in Gibraltar at the new (not quite finished yet) Europa Point Sports Complex. Teams from 21 visiting islands from St Helena to Greenland, the Isle of Man to Sark arrived. Gibraltar will host them in a number of sports for the next week. Be prepared for a rather sports inspired Sunday Sevens next week!

And that brings this week’s rather busy Sunday Sevens to a close. I hope it’s been a good one for you. Until next time, bye for now!

Sunday Sevens – which features 7 photos from the last 7 days was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 1)

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And so it begins… school’s out for summer and as in the previous three years I decided that the only way to survive the long 9 (yes, 9) week-long school summer break is to find a few moments each day to do something I love (not just drinking Mojitos – although this was a particularly lovely one) but making something or doing something crafty.

Although I only work a small part-time job, this academic year has been a very busy one for me with other projects going on. All of those things are coming to a hiatus during the summer months which is giving me the perfect opportunity to pick up my crochet hook, needle or paintbrush and get cracking in amongst the usual arguments, suncream & sand that punctuates the summer months.

Each day I will attempt something crafty and post it on Instagram using the #summercraftchallenge2019 hashtag. I’ll also publish a weekly round up of my crafty endeavours – this forces me to actually stick to my summer resolutions! If you would like to join in, please do and use the hashtag on Instagram too, I’d love to see what you’re up to as well

Here goes with Week 1:

Day 1 : Saturday 29th June

I may only be on week 4 of the Coastal Crochet CAL when the CAL is already in its 12th week, but I have plenty of time to play catch up this summer!

Day 2 : Sunday 30th June

A spot of long waving in front of Glastonbury on the telly!

Day 3 : Monday 1st July

Got the long waves finished on Monday night.

Day 4 : Tuesday 2nd July

Now for the turn of the blue waves on Tuesday.

Day 5 : Wednesday 3rd July

Life got in the way of crochet on Wednesday…

Day 6 : Thursday 4th July

On Thursday I did get the time to pick up my hook, I managed a lovely row of granny clusters… My photo from Tuesday made an appearance on Eleonora’s Thursday round up of her Changing Tides CAL (from Coastal Crochet) which was a lovely surprise (top left).

Day 7 : Friday 5th July

Another busy day meant no crochet for me, work, swimming with the Little Postcards and then the Calentita Food Festival last night! I’m not doing too well with this year’s challenge am I? Never mind… here’s where I’m up to so far. Better luck next week I hope! Still at least I’m now on week 6 of the Coastal Crochet CAL I’m very slowly catching up!

If you want to join in (and do a better job than me) of posting a crafty photo each day on Instagram throughout your summer, please do join in with the hashtag #summercraftchallenge2019