Sunday Sevens #115 24.12.17

Hello there and happy Christmas! We’ve finally reached Christmas Eve and whether you’re ready or not there’s no escaping the fact that the big day day’s tomorrow. I think I may finally be ready, but there’s always something I forget to do…. what will it be this year?!

Here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens:

It’s Christmas!!!!

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Gibraltar is looking as festive as ever, the town centre looks lovely all lit up. I haven’t taken too many photos of the lights this year, but you can see last year’s light show here.

If in doubt stick a sunset picture in!

We had a lot of cloudy evenings of late and although we have had a few glimpses of the sun going down between the clouds, a proper sunset as it were has been pretty rare lately. This lovely one was last Sunday night.

Favourite church ceiling

Oh how I love the interior of Sacred Hearth Church here in Gibraltar. It has got to be one of the prettiest church ceilings around. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a service here this week and had loads of time to admire the stars and stained glass windows as beautiful Christmas carols were sung.

Wintery watercolour

At my last watercolour lesson of 2017, we painted some suitably wintery pictures. I love how the snow just ‘appeared’ after sprinkling some salt onto the wet painting – just magic!

Southwold comes to Gibraltar

As I walked along Main Street this week with Eldest, he spotted something I’d walked past several times without noticing (in fact it could have been there for months). Our favourite place for holidays (Southwold, in Suffolk) is featured on the side of Marks and Spencer in Gibraltar! The pictures in the photo shoot must have been taken on Southwold Pier and on the beach near by. You can read all about Southwold Pier here.

Star Wars

We had a trip to the cinema this week as schools closed for Christmas, to see the new Star Wars film. I really enjoyed it, not as much as Force Awakens, but it was still really good in my opinion and a great start to our Christmas holiday as a family.

Beautiful day at Catalan Bay

Yesterday, the last Saturday before Christmas, we decided to avoid the shops at all costs. We figured that if we didn’t have all we need by now, it was probably too late anyway (time will tell if I did forget anything after all). We headed round to the eastern side of the Rock and had a wander about in Catalan Bay. It was beautiful there – not a queue or harassed shopper in sight.

I have decide to include a couple of extra Catalan Bay pictures as it was just so beautiful there and there may be some people reading this who are in need of a dose of blue sky…

That’s all from me for Sunday Sevens this week. Where ever you are reading this, I hope you have a lovely Christmas with plenty to eat and surrounded by your loved ones. To those of you who find this time of year difficult, I hope you find peace and know that you are in my thoughts.

Happy Christmas! x

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Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #68 29.1.17

Hello there! Welcome to Sunday Sevens number 68… here’s a round up of what I’ve been up to this week 😊.

Sunday beach walk

If you saw my post midweek, you will know that last Sunday afternoon, we made the most of the lovely weather and went for a lovely walk along Catalan Bay beach. The beach in winter is a really special place I think, all that wonderful nature and no one else there to spoil it for you! Here’s my post in case you missed it.

Med Steps


I made it up the Med Steps this week at long last. There has been talk that our Med Steps 5 team from last year may have another attempt at 5 times round in one day again this year…. if that’s the case, we need to get an awful lot of practice in!

Little Box of Crochet


I have long been an admirer of Little Box of Crochet from afar. The monthly subscription box looks like a fab idea, but my experience of monthly magazine subscriptions coming out to Gibraltar put me off (like issues going missing or several all arriving at the same time). I recently saw that there were some one off purchases available on Etsy so I bought a box. 

This week I got the card in my letter box to tell me a parcel had arrived for me at the post office- it was my Little Box of Crochet. I’m thrilled with it, but am saving it until I have some free time to enjoy it properly :-).

On the subject of Crochet…


There’s a new crochet group starting in Gibraltar. Remember Gib the crochet ape from last week’s Sunday Sevens? Well he’s now the mascot of the Gibraltar Crochet Collective. If you are in Gib and want to join in, please have a look at the Facebook page to find out more.

Watercolour lesson


I have really missed my watercolour lessons. I hadn’t been able to make it to one since before Christmas as I was poorly one week, then I had a poorly Little Postcard off school the next. This week I managed to get there at last! I really enjoyed having a go at painting these primulas.

A Saturday staple


Every Saturday lunchtime something happens here in Gibraltar… we almost always seem to be on Main Street or in Casemates  and we get to see the historical reenactment of the Ceremony of the Keys. Former service men parade down Main Street in historical uniforms and the tourists love it. Here they are in action.

Sunset from my window


We had a lovely sunset last night, and this is the view I had looking at it from our dining room window. Isn’t it lovely? Sometimes I have to pinch myself about how lucky we are to have this magnificent view.

Looking ahead…


This is something for next week, well next month actually. There is so much wonderful creativity going on in Gibraltar that I have decided to dedicate a whole month of posts on my blog to creativity here on the Rock… I can’t wait to get started – February I’m ready for you!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog

A stroll around Gibraltar No. 20 : Catalan Bay beach

Last Sunday was such a beautiful day we just had to get out and soak up a few rays. We aren’t huge beach-goers during the summertime but we do like a nice walk along the sand off season. One of the benefits of beach visits in winter is that it’s usually very quiet!

Unlike my other ‘strolls’ this one doesn’t have much text, I shall let the photos speak for themselves…





We spotted the large waves were crashing onto the rocks at the far end of the beach so we went to have a closer look…



We got a bit close…

Quick! Get out of the way!

I think we gave the folk watching from the road a laugh as we jumped out of the way. I almost went backwards over a rock but I managed to right myself and I think I carried it off with panache 😉

We do know how lucky we are to have this on our doorstep… very lucky indeed.