Monthly Meet-up

A Postcard from October & November 2024

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Halloween decor in London

Hello there! This should really be a Christmas post, but life’s been very busy so it’s a Postcard from October & November instead!

Better late than never eh?

I really don’t know where the weeks have gone but the juggle with work and family meant blog writing got put on the back burner for a while.

Here’s a quick whistle-stop round up of October & November in my world.

October 2024

Half term trip to London

Back in October I took my 2 youngest sons to London to visit big brother at University. As well as visiting him in his Uni accommodation to let Number 2 Son see what lies ahead for him in the not-too-distant future, we did a bit of sightseeing.

We’d prebooked to visit the Natural History Museum as myself and Youngest had never been before. Prebooking was wise because it was so incredibly busy and we skipped the entrance queue. However, once inside it was so busy it was quite unpleasant.

I have never felt panicky in a crowd before (I’ve been to a Wembley cup final & big gigs) but this was intense.

We went to see this big animatronic T-Rex then made the decision that perhaps we should leave as it wasn’t a fun experience.

We took a long route through the museum to appreciate a bit of the architecture, then, once outside we bought an ice cream and found a nice bench to sit on to take a moment.

That bench happened to be next to the Albert Memorial overlooking the Royal Albert Hall.

We sat there for ages as Eldest read us information about the history of the Albert Memorial curtesy of Google. It was an unexpectedly fun hour or so learning about the meanings of all the little statues around the memorial. We just sat there for ages chatting – much nicer than being jostled in a hot, crowded museum!

Then we decided to walk through Kensington Gardens and spied Kensington Palace in the distance as the sun started to set.

We had a lovely meal together before Eldest directed us back to Euston for the trip back up north to Manchester.

One finished jumper!

Well it’s been on the go since about October last year, and stupidly I thought it would be finished for Christmas 2023. It is finished for this Christmas though! I really enjoyed making this Tin Can Knits pattern – for those who don’t know them, you buy a ‘real’ pattern which you can print but you also access it on the Tin Can Knits app and can mark your progress on the pattern and make notes on your app – it’s brilliant! I would highly recommend it!

[The yarn I used was Knit Me Crochet Me by Stylecraft.]

The FareShare Festive Feast Wreath

In case you missed my last post back in October, this is my FareShare Festive Feast Wreath! I started working for FareShare Greater Manchester earlier this year and decided I wanted to create a crochet pattern to help raise funds for the charity. I even made a Making Stitches Podcast episode about it. The pattern’s still available for sale in my Etsy shop if you fancy making your own!

Podcast News

As well as podcasting about the wreath pattern, I revisited a guest who I met at Yarndale this year – Becky Davies-Downes. Becky worked for decades in TV & Film costume departments and now created beautiful things inspired by British wartime fashion. You can find out more about our chat here.

November 2024

And so to November… and that month saw me taking another train journey down to London for a meeting. Thankfully I also got some precious time with Eldest again as it fell on a day he had just one lecture!

It was a bitterly cold day as I left Manchester and saw some lovely snowy and frosty scenes on the way down south. This photo was taken close to the Wedgewood factory in Staffordshire. I took so many but most were blurred as we were speeding past.

I had my crochet for company – the Mischievous Magpie Mal from Heather at Keep Calm & Crochet On & yarn from Kitey at The Yarn Whisperer. One day I will finish this…

After the meeting, Eldest took me to Loop in London – I once visited many years ago while we made a family trip to London from Gibraltar. I remember it was at the end of a long day with lots of walking. Tired, argumentative boys waited outside with their Dad while I walked in and was slightly overwhelmed. I left after a hurried look around aware of the increasingly fractious situation outside and bought, wait for it, a pair of scissors!

This time, Eldest told me he was happy waiting outside and to take as long as I wanted (what a lovely boy!).

Similarly, I was a little overwhelmed by the colours & yarns on offer but this time I left with this lovely hand dyed skein. I wonder what I’ll use it for?

After our trip to Loop and a fabulous pizza for lunch, we went for a short walk along the canal from close to Angel in Islington. It was such a beautiful, bright, sunny day and it was lovely to escape the traffic noise and hubbub of the city.

It really was a lovely day, and a luxury to spend some time with Eldest on my own.

November yarny things..

I decided that I wanted to make myself a quick tank top. After the elation of finishing my jumper in October, I thought I’d see how quickly I could whip up a granny treble cluster tank top. I made one for Christmas a couple of years ago making it up as I went along and did the same with this. I used some ‘Nigel’ yarn I had bought at Yarndale in September. (I did have to order some more mid project as one ball wasn’t enough).

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and how quick it was to make – it goes really nicely over a denim shirt.

Also in November I challenged myself to a bit of knitted colourwork. I ordered the kit for the Season’s Greetings Festive Stocking kit from Black Sheep Wools designed by Debbie Abrahams.

It includes beading with the colourwork and is such a clear pattern to follow. I have amazed myself that I’ve managed to do it so far. I shall share a finished photo when I get that far!

And that just about brings this very belated Postcard from October and November to a close.

As it’s Christmas Eve, I would like to wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas.

If this is a difficult time of year for you, I hope you find some peace and time to do something that makes you happy.

With love,

Lindsay x

Monthly meet-up October: Tree

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This month’s meet-up theme is ‘tree’. There are so many architectural trees on the Upper Rock.

We also have some trees which shed bark…

I’m afraid I can’t tell you what type they are…but they look rather dramatic.

I’m linking with Sandra at Wild Daffodil for this monthly bloggers meet-up.

Monthly meet-up August : Flake

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This month’s monthly meet-up prompt is flake. There can only really be one can’t there? This was mine while strolling along the prom prom prom in Great Yarmouth a couple of weeks ago.

The only other ‘flake’ I could think of was flaking paint and masonry. It was something I was drawn to a couple of years back as I wandered around the streets of Gibraltar’s Upper Town armed with my camera…

This door inspired me into painting my own watercolour version of it…

I’m linking with Sandra at Wild Daffodil for this bloggers’ monthly meet-up.

Monthly meet-up July : Sculpture

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July’s prompt for the monthly blogger’s meet-up arranged by Sandra at Wild Daffodil is sculpture.

Last summer we saw many, many sculptures on our travels, especially in Rome, but this one stuck with me most of all. It was a fountain in Toulouse, in southern France, and was erected to commemorate the 210 victims of a flood in 1875. It was beautiful and poignant.

The fountain can be found in Place Olivier in Toulouse.

June monthly meet-up : sunlight

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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.

May Monthly meet-up: Flower

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This beautiful lily is flowering, as I type, beside my front door. May is such a beautiful month for blooms. These ‘trumpet flowers’, as we call them in our house, were glorious at a place we visited in Spain at the weekend.

Isn’t this floral wall display I saw in Spain on Tuesday delightful? They were all genuine geraniums and they were gorgeous.

And of course, the Med Steps is gearing up to be in full bloom any moment…

Which reminds me of my attempts to translate them into yarny creations…

I’m linking with Sandra at Wild Daffodil for this monthly meet up.

Monthly Meet-up April : Yellow

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Crumbs how are we on our fourth monthly meet up of 2018 already? This month’s prompt was ‘yellow’, so here’s a sunny sunflower to brighten your day. One of our first crop when we moved to our current home in Gibraltar, which luckily gave us enough space outside to grow some sunflowers.

Regular visitors to Postcard from Gibraltar will know I am a watercolour student. This is one of my most recent paintings done at my weekly watercolour class…

Last summer we visited Rome and one of our days there was spent touring around the Vatican. It was a truly fascinating day, and you can read all about it in my Postcard from the Vatican. While we were there we simply had to send home a postcard from the Vatican….

Oh and another great trip last year was to visit some very good friends living in Berkshire. While we were there, we went to Legoland for the day, which is where we saw these ducks!

I’m linking with Sandra of Wild Daffodil for this monthly meet up.

Monthly Meet-up March : Scale

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The Bay and Strait of Gibraltar is incredibly busy for shipping. As well as passing vessels, many large ships moor off the Rock of Gibraltar either for bunkering services (refueling and supplies) or to wait for their turn to go into port at either Gibraltar or Algeciras.

These large ships are an everyday sight for us living here, the novelty of seeing them wears off after a while. That is until you get up close to them.

When you head out into the Bay in a small boat, like one of the dolphin tour boats, you feel dwarfed next to them. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be in one of those small supply boats approaching a huge tanker in heavy seas. The crew must have nerves of steel.

In fact it was only when the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth came into port last month that these giant ships were made to look a little bit smaller.

That is my take on scale for this March monthly meet-up hosted by Wild Daffodil.

Monthly Meet Up – February : Warm

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Appearances can be deceptive. The above photo looks pretty warm doesn’t it? It’s of the beach at Tarifa in southern Spain, the southernmost tip of Europe as a matter of fact. The water is the Atlantic Ocean. It was a sunny but bitterly cold day in January a couple of years ago.

Ah, that’s better! Same ocean, different country. This was taken on our stay in Portugal last summer, believe me – it was warm!!

I’m linking with Wild Daffodil for this Monthly Meet Up

Monthly Meet-up January : Sparkle

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Throughout 2017 I took part in the weekly photo challenges set by Nana Cathy and Wild Daffodil. This year, they have both decided to take a break from setting this particular challenge. Instead, Sandra at Wild Daffodil has started a monthly meet-up with a prompt for you to share photos or blog posts you may have which are appropriate for that prompt.

This is the first of the monthly meet-ups for 2018 and January’s word is Sparkle. What better way to start the year’s new blog series than with some sparkly fireworks from New Years Eve?

As I enjoyed taking part in Sandra and Cathy’s photo challenge last year so much, and I thought I would miss having a weekly photo post, I have decided to launch my very own photo challenge for 2018. Starting this Friday will be the 2018 Friday Photo Challenge. The first prompt is aptly ‘New Beginnings’ and if you would like to join in, just tag me in your post and I will share any entries each month as we go along.

Do join in if you fancy it, there’s no pressure to get involved each week if that’s too much of a commitment, just dip in and out if you like. The full list of prompts will be published with the first Friday Photo Challenge post this Friday.