Alameda Gardens

Sunday Sevens #220 3.5.20

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Hello there! I forgot all about Sunday Sevens yesterday, so here it is a day late. I hope you are ok and managing with your situation right now.

Anyway, here goes:

A Sunday stroll

Last Sunday we went out for a slightly longer than usual walk. It had been a week since our last ‘proper’ walk other than a quick trip to the recycling bins or a 5 minute trip round the block. It was filled with wildlife…

A glimpse of a gecko
Griffon vulture being chased off by seagulls
Wild flowers by the Camp Bay waterfall

And finally a beautiful Passion flower…

Bank holiday walk

On Tuesday it was a bank holiday here in Gibraltar for Worker’s Memorial Day. After the minute’s silence at midday, we went out for a short walk up to the edge of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. The wildflowers were a riot of colour. It was a real treat.

A first!

When I went to the supermarket last week there was some flour for bread. So I had a go at making some for what I think is the first time since being at school. It worked!

Back to the shops

I headed back to the supermarket on Saturday. Last week it was rather grey and miserable at this time, this week, it was glorious. There was a bit of a queue to get in, but it moved quickly. Shopping was done and I headed home triumphant for another week.

I was inspired by Monty Don and co on Gardener’s World on Friday night. I have now planted lettuce and nasturtiums but run out of compost for the sweet peas (they may need to wait until next year!). I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

A walk to the Alameda Gardens

We took a walk to the Alameda Botanic Gardens this weekend. It was beautiful. We had missed it and were thrilled to see it was still open despite lockdown.

Pandemonium CAL

I’m loving the purple dragonflies at the top!

I didn’t manage to finish this week’s rows until last night as I have been concentrating on my jumper WIP I mentioned last week, but here’s my progress so far. I decided it was time for a rainbow after seeing so many beautiful rainbow inspired Pandemonium blankets online 🌈🌈🌈.

Podcast news

And finally, this week I released a new episode of my Making Stitches Podcast, and this one was with my lovely blogging friend Eleonora from Coastal Crochet. You can listen to it by looking for ‘Making Stitches’ on your favourite podcast app or here. Enjoy!

That’s all for this week, I hope it’s a good one for you. Take care x

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

Sunday Sevens #209 10/11/19

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Hello, another week gone by and all of a sudden (if the TV executives & supermarket bosses would have you believe it) Christmas is round the corner… not thinking about that just yet! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

Wildlife Park open day

On Sunday, I took the Little Postcards along to the Alameda Wildlife and Conservation Park in the Alameda Botanical Gardena. This little ‘zoo’ as we used to call it was important to us when we first moved to Gibraltar 10 years ago with just 2 Little Postcards. We lived across the road from the gardens and they became our garden replacement after moving from our home in the UK with our own garden.

The wildlife park is in a very small corner of the gardens and is a sanctuary for animals which have been seized from boats by customs and also houses a few of the problematic native apes who have found themselves outside of the Upper Rock ape community.

The open day was to raise funds and awareness for the work the park carries out and was a huge success if the number of families there was anything to go by.

We all fell for the African Grey parrots who had a lovely chirpy conversation going on with themselves, the other birds, the apes next door and visitors too!

Blue skies are back again!

We had a rather wet weekend last weekend, although nowhere near as bad as the weather the UK has experienced this week. By Tuesday the blue skies were back again.

What a scorcher

By Wednesday morning, this is the weather we were having, it was so hot on the Eastside, although it was grey and blustery around the other side of the Rock! Gibraltar has a very complex weather system…

Wonky carrots

I got quite a shock when I pulled this carrot out of the bag! Diamond, our bunny liked it nonetheless.

Here comes the rain again

Just look at those grey clouds… the rain came back…

Seagulls galore

The noise from these roosting seagulls was terrific!

Sparkly lights across the Strait

Do you see those lights over the water? That’s Morocco. It looked so close on Friday night as I was driving past Europa Point.

And that brings this week’s Sunday Sevens to a close. Thanks for stopping by!

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

Sunday Sevens #206 20.10.19

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Hello again, another week gone by and another Sunday Sevens. It was the Battle of Trafalgar remembrance service in Gibraltar this morning. It was lovely to see, it will feature in next week’s edition. Here’s a bit of what’s been going on this week….

And then it was gone

I mentioned the demolition of the Queens Cinema in a Sunday Sevens a few weeks back, all that remains of this lovely building is a pile of twisted metal. Such a shame.

Trial run trousers mark 2

In my dressmaking class this week I began making my second pair of trial run trousers. Let’s hope the adjustments I made to the pattern accommodate my larger than average calves work out! 😉

A colourful visitor

I went to open the back door one afternoon and spied this beautiful moth sitting on the lock!

Election Day

Gibraltar went to the polls on Thursday. Over here you vote for 10 candidates which you would like to represent you rather than just one representative for your ward. There were candidates from three parties standing this time, which was a first for us in our decade in Gibraltar.

Election results

As we woke up on Friday morning, the results from Thursday’s election were announced. Sadly Steven Seagull didn’t win despite his lovely campaign posters. (The previous government of GSLP Liberal Alliance were returned to power). This lovely poster was designed by the street artist whose work includes cats, a sloth and a few other images which gave appeared around Gibraltar lately. You can see their work on Instagram, just search for jupp.jupp.jupp.

Autumn florals

Gibraltar is still looking beautiful even though it’s well into autumn now. I found myself taking photos of flowers a lot this week.

Crisis averted

So yesterday afternoon we lost our tv signal. Just about the only UK programme I watch on a regular basis apart from the news is Strictly. Half an hour before it went on air and after plugging and unplugging all our cables (and blaming the Little Postcards for touching things they shouldn’t) I called our TV provider. Aparently the whole local area was off – sorry boys! The man said it would probably stay off until this morning – nooooo! But amazingly it came back on part way through – hurrah!

And that brings another Sunday Sevens to a close, thank you for stopping by!

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

Sunday Sevens #190 9.2.19

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Hello there, happy Sunday! Here’s another week’s Sunday Sevens, seven (or more) photos from the last seven days…

Sunday afternoon park life

Last Sunday afternoon we found ourselves in Commonwealth Park, beautiful green oasis in the centre of a rather built up place. The Little Postcards hooked up by chance with some friends from school and ran about like mad things for an hour or so.

Flags of thanks

In last week’s Sunday Sevens you may have noticed I was doing a spot of sewing – on Monday I finished it off. It was a ‘Flag of Thanks’ which is heading to Salisbury to be displayed to raise awareness for homeless veterans. The flags will then be made into blankets for those homeless veterans.

The military in Gibraltar decided to get on board with the project but asked the wider community to get involved too. There were several workshops for people to attend and contribute to the flag collection from Gib. I wasn’t able to attend so made mine at home.

My flag was added to the collection and even got featured in a photo opportunity with the wives of the Commander of the British Forces in Gibraltar (left) Vicky Henry and of the Governor of Gibraltar (right) Lorraine Davies.

If you would like to find out more about the flags of thanks check out the Flags of Thanks website .

Another day, another park…

One of the Little Postcards had a school trip this week to the Alameda Gardens. It was a lovely spot to sit in the sunshine and wait for him to finish!

International Space Station fly-past

Its a bit of a grainy photo but that white dot is the International Space Station crossing the skies over Gibraltar on Tuesday night. I double checked flight radar and it definitely wasn’t a plane, but it was moving far too fast to be a star!! I heard earlier in the day that it would be passing over head and popped out onto the balcony on the off chance it may go past and struck lucky. It appeared between the wispy clouds.

Evening stroll

One evening I headed out with Eldest for a walk in the evening to Europa Point. As we were walking the call to prayer began at the mosque. It was beautiful hearing the melody on the breeze.

Farewell to another sub

Like last week, I have spent rather a lot of time at my laptop this week working on a project. Also like last week, I have looked up at just the right moment to see something interesting sail past. This week it was a black sailed yacht and a submarine leaving port!

50 years since the Frontier Closure

50 years ago yesterday, the border gates between Gibraltar and Spain were closed. This act by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco cut Gibraltar off from the mainland. Families were divided and telephone lines were cut. It was a terrible time for those living on both sides of the border. This week it was remembered by both communities. There’s a fantastic exhibition on at the moment to commemorate the events of 50 years ago which include the original gates.

That’s all for Sunday Sevens this week, I hope the next seven days are good for you.

Sunday Sevens was created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #188 26.5.19

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Hello there, Sunday Sevens has made it back to a Sunday! It’s been another extremely busy week at this end, with a school sports day, an inservice day, and now we’re halfway through a bank holiday weekend. I had to put an extra page in my diary this week to allow for all the things we’ve had going on! I’ll be glad when summer comes and things quieten down a little – I hope!

Med Steps 5 weekend

Last weekend was Med Steps 5 weekend. In previous years the fundraising event ran just on the Saturday. This year though, there was a family event on the Sunday. Children were given a Med Steps passport to complete along the route and were awarded medals at the end.bThis brilliant event, as always, raised funds for the wonderful Cancer Relief Centre in Gibraltar.

One very big boat

Do you remember that in last week’s Sunday Sevens I told you about this big boat? Well this week it even had a helicopter on the top! And I hear it belongs to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame.

Last rays of sunshine

I happened to step out onto the balcony just at the right time to spot the sun about to dip down behind the hills across the Bay from our house one evening. It’s at times like this that I’m so grateful for where we live.

Street art

This little chap has been all over social media in Gibraltar lately. The sloth has been painted onto some hoardings around building work and I happened to walk past him mid week for the first time. Moments later I spotted this lovely cat too just a bit further on!

Jacaranda galore

This year I’ve noticed just how many Jacaranda trees there are in Gibraltar. I have been trying to photograph one with it’s gorgeous blue/violet blossom for the past couple of weeks but normally the background has been blue sky which didn’t display the colour of the blossom well. I spotted this one on Main Street and the building behind it showed it off to great effect.

Polling Day

I’m sitting here in front of the TV this evening watching BBC coverage of the European elections whilst simultaneously watching the local coverage from the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation on my tablet. We, in Gibraltar went to the polls like the rest of the UK on Thursday. Gibraltar is eligible to vote as part of the South West region of Great Britain. Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly (76% of the Vote) for the Liberal Democrats – the party leader, Sir Vince Cable was in Gibraltar to campaign just a week or so ago on a pro-Remain ticket, there was even a Gibraltarian candidate standing as a Lib Dem MEP.

Beautiful botanical gardens!

We took a walk through the beautiful botanical gardens yesterday. No matter what the weather or the time of year, it’s always special here!

That’s all for Sunday Sevens for this week, thanks very much for stopping by.

Sunday Sevens was created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #181 31.3.19

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Hello there! It’s Mothering Sunday here today, I hope it’s been a good day for you. Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens.

Sunday wander

Last Sunday we took a wander into the Alameda Gardens. It was such a grey day, but the gardens still looked beautiful. A true oasis which we are so fortunate to have on our doorstep.

Au revoir

On Monday morning I waved goodbye to one of the Little Postcards, who was off on a residential school trip. It was his first time away from home, and I have to admit to having a bit of a wobble, I really missed him. (He had a good time and made it home in one piece I’m pleased to report).

Housebound crochet

I was housebound for a couple of days this week as a nasty bug struck the household. Thankfully just two succumbed, a Little Postcard and me… while I was looking after him, I got my hook out and did a spot of granny square making, so every cloud and all that!

Finished!

It’s been an awfully long time in the making, but this week, amazingly, I finished my jacket at Dressmaking class. It’s been worn already!

Floral bathroom

We’ve been suffering a few gale force gusts this week, so we had to bring some of our balcony pots and boxes in to stop them being blown to bits. We ran out of spaces to put them, so these ended up in the bathroom. Eldest said it looked like a posh public loo!

Stormy seas

The aftermath of the storms was evident in Camp Bay afterwards. Mr Postcard took these photos while out on a walk on Thursday. The waves must have had some force to throw those rocks so far! I’m glad we brought the plants in!!

Grey skies again

The grey skies which have been a feature for a lot of the week were with us again yesterday- and we had that lovely drizzly rain too. Delightful!

Here’s to a brighter, less windy and germ-free week next week. Fingers crossed!

As always I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Sunday Sevens #177 3.3.19

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Hello there, I hope you’ve had a good week! March already…. who would’ve thought that?! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens…

Plane spotting

Last Sunday we had a football match to watch involving one of the Little Postcards. The football pitch they play on is right next to the runway and so plane spotting is a natural side show. It always amazes me that the planes come so close to where we are. Little did we know that just 24 hours later some poor souls would get the fright of their lives as they attempted to land st Gib… if you saw the news on Monday, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

A new project

Last week I was complaining that I haven’t done any ‘fun’ crafting lately as I’ve been too busy doing other stuff. So rather than keep moaning, last Sunday night I picked up my bag of odds and ends and set about granny-square making. It’ll be s long time before I can cover a double bed with it, but it’s been fun…

Stroll at dusk

Camp Bay

On Monday evening, after the crazy winds that disrupted air travel had subsided, I headed out for a lovely evening stroll.

Mosque at Europa Point

It was lovely to see buildings which I usually only see in the daytime lit up so beautifully.

St Bernard’s Church

Dressmaking class

The sleeves are on… and they’re staying on this time!

A jazzy underpass

The decoration of this underpass close to the Alameda Gardens looks like it’s almost finished. I rather like it.

Watercolour class

Now that I’ve finished my Church ceiling painting, I fancied freesias this week at my painting class. The wild freesias are out in abundance in Gibraltar at the moment…

Bunny update…

Diamond’s been a bit naughty this week. I know he’s a bunny and bunnies like to chew stuff but I was rather miffed with his nibbling this week. The bottom of his enclosure was covered with an old Laura Ashley spotted plastic tablecloth (the type of fabric/plastic used for wipe clean aprons) it worked pretty well for keeping the floor tiles underneath clean. But bunny decided he liked to nibble holes in it. He doesn’t seem to ingest the bits of table cloth as he leaves Laura Ashley confetti all over the bottom of his cage.

Over time the tablecloth was looking rather messy and horrible, so this week I threw caution to the wind, threw away the old tablecloth and bought a brand spanking new one. It looked lovely, and lasted less than 12 hours. The tablecloth confetti is back… naughty Diamond.

Thanks for stopping by, that’s all from Sunday Sevens for this week. I hope you have a good one!

I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Sunday Sevens #174 10.2.19

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Hello there, I hope you’ve had a good week! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens…

Another sunny Sunday stroll

Last Sunday we took a wander through the Alameda Gardens and Eldest realised it was the fourth consecutive Sunday that he’d done this… we’re nothing if not predictable!

Monday at the dentist

I’m not a huge fan of the dentist – well I’ve nothing against him personally – but being prodded, poked and scraped first thing on a Monday morning isn’t my favorite start to the week. On the plus side I do go a dentist in a marina so I get to see this lovely view when I step out of the front door – so it’s not all bad! 😉

Chinese New Year

Gibraltar had its lanterns out this week in honour of the Chinese New Year. There was a proper celebration with a Chinese dragon dance in town on the big day.

Dressmaking class

I tried and kind of failed to set my sleeves into my jacket this week. They were a bit wonky – so they came back off again…

Bees in the sunshine

On Tuesday evening a nasty bug struck Littlest Postcard. The rest of the week, I was pretty much housebound. We have had some lovely sunny days, so one afternoon I snuck out onto the balcony for a cup of tea in the sun and found myself mesmerized by the bees buzzing around our money tree.

Is that a tortoise I see?

On walking past the register office garden in town yesterday, I spied something on the grass… a tortoise! What a lovely spot for him/her to wander at will!

Seagulls attack!

I got the fright of my life yesterday while out for a walk. I heard some seagulls overhead making a right racket above me. Then suddenly I heard a plop on the road in front of me. It was a outside round of a loaf of bread – dropped from a great height!!! It gave me the fright of my life… imagine getting hit on the head by that!!

And on that wholemeal note, I shall end Sunday Sevens. I’m pleased to say Littlest is fully recovered from his illness, and so far (touch wood) the rest of us have managed to dodge it.

I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Sunday Sevens #172 20.1.19

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Sunday evening again… another week flown by. I can’t believe how fast the days are going at the moment, we’ve had another busy week, but then I seem to always be saying that!! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

Sunlit walk home

Last Sunday afternoon we had a walk to the Alameda Botanical Gardens. The Little Postcards whizzed down the hills on their scooters – I had my heart in my mouth! After a lovely time playing in the park, we made our way home just as the sun was setting. It was lovely to see the place lit up with gorgeous golden sunlight.

Monday Med Steps

I started the week with a lovely trip up the Med Steps. It was a stunning morning. I even took a detour once I’d reached the top and walked up to O’Hara’s Battery for the first time (Gibraltar’s highest point). It was a lovely morning.

O’Hara’s Battery

A birthday walk

On Wednesday, it was the birthday of a good friend of mine. Along with three other friends, we took a drive across the border into Spain and went for a walk from Alcaidesa towards Gibraltar and back along the beach. It was such a lovely walk (if a little hard going on the legs in the sand). We had a very excited chocolate Labrador for company too.

We had such a lovely time we pledged to do it again on a regular basis.

Back to watercolour class

There hasn’t been much in the way of arts and crafts going on lately, what with the break for Christmas and general chaos since. This week, I made it back to my watercolour class and had a very enjoyable time adding some colours to my painting of the ceiling at Sacred Heart Church.

A close call

Mid week I got a rather nasty fright. I’d plugged the dishwasher in to do a load of dishes, left to bring the washing in and returned about 5 minutes later to see sparks and smoke coming from the plug. It was a bit of a wake-up call. I’m so glad I spotted it and was able to turn off the power when I did.

Crochet again!

So, as with all of my ambitious projects, when I started this jumper, I was very gung-ho and was confident it would be finished in time for me to wear it at Christmas. Well I finished the back of it by Christmas…. I made a bit of progress on the front this week!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series featuring seven photos from the last seven days & I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

I hope you have a good week!

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.