Here we are on 1st October – how on earth did that come around so quickly? I heard the word Christmas mentioned this week in relation to booking nights out… not sure I’m ready to think about such things just yet! Here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens 🙂
Ape spotting
I decided to build on my Med Steps progress last week and head back up the Rock again on Monday morning. Last thursday there were literally dozens of apes but my camera was firmly zipped in my bag and I wasn’t prepared to unzip it and get mobbed by the apes thinking I had food, so they stayed unphotographed.
In reference to a comment on last week’s Sunday Sevens by Denis (Haiku Hound) in New Zealand, these photos are with him in mind. They were taken on my phone. I walked slowly through the pack and I have to admit being a bit scared by them for the first time in many years. There was lots of clicking noises going on – and don’t think they appreciated my company. Dressmaking class
Work is moving on a pace in my dressmaking class. I still love this Kate Fassett fabric I’m using to make my blouse. I bought it from Black Sheep Wools in Culcheth near Warrington in spring. They have a lovely fabric section in addition to the gorgeous range of yarn there.
More Med Steps
Being a glutton for punishment (or perhaps just a bit porky and needing some excercise) I headed back up the Med Steps again on Thursday morning. It was so lovely and cool (unlike on Monday when I nearly melted in the sun). What a difference the cool weather made – I got to the top
A book recommendation
This week I finished a book I have been reading and I had to give it a mention. Daughters of the Dragon is a fictional story but is based on real events. It tells the story of a Korean ‘Comfort Woman’, in other words, a child who was forced into sex slavery by the occupying Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. 200,000 such comfort women were abused in this way. It is very hard to read in parts but a truly gripping tale. I can highly recommend it if you would like to know more about this hidden history.
An evening by the boats
I had a lovely evening out with a few friends this week with this backdrop. It’s really rather special isn’t it? Sometimes I forget how beautiful it can be here and then I get stopped in my tracks by a view like this…
It’s finished
Those of you who followed the progress of my summer craft challenge this year will be familiar with this mandala in various states of development. Called Jenny’s Mandala, the pattern came as a kit from Little Box of Crochet. It was named after the daughter of company’s founder, who very sadly died of cancer in spring. Such a beautiful and poignant project to work on.
I’m linking with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins the creator of Sunday Sevens.
This week feels like a return to normality after a very long summer of excitement. We had a full week of school, no special events and a routine seems to be developing. There is a lot to be said for a routine, and I’m quite happy that we are settling back into one again after almost 4 months!
Sunday lunch
White Chocolate and Vanilla Creme Brûlée-mmmm! It was as tasty as it looks, in fact I wouldn’t mind another one now!!! 😉
Last Sunday was our last Sunday with my Mum and Dad. They had been over for almost 3 weeks and were able to help us with childcare so we could attend the Music Festival without the two youngest Little Postcards who weren’t over keen to attend. They also enjoyed the National Day classical concert (with the Royal Philharmonic Concert orchestra) along with National Day the following day.
As it was our last Sunday together, we all went out for a lovely Sunday lunch. We waved them goodbye midweek. It’s been strange without them around…
Life’s a beach
Now that’s what I call a Monday morning. After making beds, doing the school run and finishing my errands in town, I treated myself to an hour of Crochet on the beach! Shh, don’t tell the Little Postcards I went without them 😉
Back to dressmaking class
Talking of routine, it was so nice to return to my dressmaking class this week on Tuesday. I ended the last academic year by cutting out my fabric for a blouse all ready for my September return. Princess line seams are now done!
Breakfast by the boats
On Wednesday morning I was invited to join some lovely friends to celebrate the safe arrival of a lovely little baby. We had a celebration breakfast down by the marina at Queensway Quay and it was a beautiful morning as you can see.
Crochet mojo relocated!
I haven’t got round to doing much Crochet since my summer craft challenge finished at the end of August, but my Monday morning beach Crochet and a tight deadline worked wonders for relocating my crochet mojo! This little chap hopped off to join the new baby who the breakfast was for.
Med Steps magic
It’s been literally months since my last trip up the Med Steps (May I think) so I hauled myself back up them on Thursday morning. By heck, it was hard work – it took about as long to get to the top as it did to go up and come back down when I was at my fittest in May. I won’t leave it so long before my next trip up there. It was worth the effort though, autumn crocus were dotted around and only the very tops of the boats out in the Med were visible above the sea mist.
Interesting Levante
We have enjoyed some time without the Levante cloud recently but it didn’t stay away for long. It was creating an interesting swooping effect on Friday morning!
That’s all for this week’s Sunday Sevens. I’m aware that lately my only posts have predominantly been my weekly ones; Sunday Sevens, photo challenge and my craft challenge in the summer. Things have been a bit hectic of late, and they don’t show any signs of calming down (all good things though thankfully). I have a mountain of photos from our summertime travels and other posts up my sleeves but time has not allowed me to sit down and write them, I have also been pretty crumby at keeping up with everyone else’s blogs too, for that I apologise.
Fingers crossed things will calm down and I get can get busy blogging again properly before too long…
I’m linking with Natalie of Threads & Bobbins for the Sunday Sevens weekly blog series.
Sunday Sevens number 90?? Crumbs have I really been doing it that long? I hope I’m not boring you! Thanks for coming along for the ride! 😊
So here’s this week’s installment of Sunday Sevens…
Another beautiful evening sky
I thought the clouds looked particularly pretty on Sunday evening last week. Unfortunately the camera on my phone didn’t quite do them justice. We are being really spoiled with gorgeous sunsets this summer.
End of term for dressmaking class
I can hardly believe that I have reached the end of my second year of dressmaking classes with the immensely clever Dorcas Hammond (you can read all about Dorcas in this post). It may seem a silly thing to do to end the year with the beginnings of a new project, but for various reasons I got a bit behind with my work this year.
I am now all ready to get cracking in September stitching this gorgeous Kafe Fassett fabric into a blouse.
Last watercolour lesson of the term
Similar to dressmaking I had my last watercolour lesson this week and again I spent my lesson working on a new project. I am attempting to paint a sunset I photographed a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed playing with the colours to find the right tones for the sky and sea. I do fear that the trial run may turn out better than the real thing though!! You can also see my post about my hugely talented watercolour teacher Deborah M Lawson here.
Crochet therapy
Life seems to be very hectic at the moment, it shouldn’t surprise me but it always is at this time of year. As the school year draws to a close and we are inundated with notes and emails detailing special days and meetings and a flurry of birthday party invitations for children whose birthdays fall during the long summer break.
There have been days when I am sure I have had steam coming out of my ears and I’ve been contemplating running away and locking myself in a darkened room until September. However, I did make it to the weekend and next week is the last week of term for the Little Postcards. I did realise this week that I need to keep crafting to retain my sanity, so whenever I could, I grabbed a crochet hook and got busy on the border for this blanket.
Poniente breezes
Something which has gone in our favour this week is is the fact that the wind direction changed. Of late we have ‘enjoyed’ a Levante (easterly) wind which has brought with it hot and humid weather, this week we received a welcome break with Poniente (westerly) breezes bringing much cooler weather.
You could see the North Moroccan coast really clearly on Friday but blimey the water in the Strait was choppy. I don’t fancy being on that little boat!
Another blanket finished
TA-dah! The latest Sixty Million Trebles blanket is completed. This one is the result of a collaboration and was created by the Gibraltar Crochet Collective, I just joined it and added the border. This is a slightly smaller baby blanket and will go with two others to a drop off point in England when I am over visiting family this summer. For more on Sixty Million Trebles, you can see their website here.
Yesterday the organisation revealed the big news that they have reached the 3/4 point in their goal of reaching 60 million treble stitches. Hopefully they will hit 60 by the time the blankets are shipped to help Syrian refugee children in September.
Summer craft challenge 2017
Last year during the school summer holidays I challenged myself to do a little bit of craft every day in order to maintain my sanity. I amazed myself at managing to fulfill the challenge on all bar one day over the eight week long school break.
This year, I have decided to do the same thing. I began my challenge yesterday seeing as it was the first of July and it felt like the start of summer proper. I wonder whether I’ll be able to maintain my challenge again this year? Fancy joining in? If you do, you can follow my progress on Instagram, just use the tag #summercraftchallenge2017 with your creations.
Thanks for joining me this week. Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins
Hello there, I hope this week’s Sunday Sevens finds you well and happy. If you saw my last post, you will know that Postcard from Gibraltar is now the ripe old age of two years old! In some ways it feels like I have been writing these posts for ever, but in many other ways it feels like only recently I plucked up the confidence to start typing out my first blog post. Thank you to all of you for the positivity you have showed me over this last two years.
Now you see it… Now you don’t
Well, Gib didn’t quite totally disappear, but you get the drift! Last Sunday we had talked about taking a trip into Spain, but we ended up staying a lot closer to home and heading down to Europa Point. We had visitors this week in the form of Mr Postcard’s parents and we went for a walk at Europa Point, the Little Postcards had a play at the park and I took my father-in-law for a walk down to the Europa Foreshore.
While we sat chatting at the park I was watching the Levanter cloud coming and going over the peak of the Rock of Gibraltar. I kept taking pictures in the hope I would catch it completely obscured but this is as close as I got.
Dressmaking class
In this week’s dressmaking class i actually managed to get some sewing done! I have lots track of the number of weeks I have spent drawing my new pattern. I am currently working on a blouse and boy, oh boy, it’s been a long drawn out affair. Well, the pattern is finished and this week I got the chance to actually sew. I made a sample collar ahead of the real thing. It was a relatively painless process, let’s see how the real thing turns out….
Chocolate cake and watercolours
We had a real treat at our watercolour class this week when one of my fellow students arrived bearing cake. She was weighed down with homemade flapjack and chocolate birthday cake from her daughter’s birthday party the day before. I was ‘forced’ to have a tiny sliver of flapjack and then was presented with this gorgeous piece of cake. It only slightly distracted me from finishing off my mussel shell…
Sports Day
I know I have featured a photo just like this one before in Sunday Sevens, but it never fails to amaze me when I take a seat at the Victoria Stadium for one of the Little Postcards’ Sports Days and see them running their races at the National Stadium with the Rock of Gibraltar as a back drop. It’s such a far cry from the school field behind a row of terraced houses that I competed on when I was trying to balance a clay egg on a table spoon!
Season of sea mists
We have had some belting sea mists this week. I know it is the season for it, and perhaps with the very hot weather we have been ‘enjoying’ of late, it has added to the phenomenon. Some days it has come all of a sudden and taken me by surprise, other days I have been able to watch it slowly creep up the Bay from the Strait and towards land. I love listening to the huge tankers almost singing to each other with their fog horns.
Dolphins!
As we had our special visitors this week, we decided to go out on a dolphin boat trip one afternoon when the Little Postcards had finished their half day at school. We were not disappointed as you can see. We saw literally hundreds of them. I took lots of photos on our trip and I will share some more of them in the next few weeks.
Against all odds…
You wouldn’t think that a pavement at the side of the beach would be the most fertile place for a flowering plant to thrive would you? One evening this week we took a trip to Catalan Bay to have dinner on a balmy summer evening and as we walked to the restaurant I spotted this plant growing up in a crack between the paving blocks. I am not completely sure what it is, but it does look a bit like the Hawaiian Busy Lizzies my Mum used to grow on her her kitchen windowsill and a woodier version of the Busy Lizzies I used to have in a hanging basket by my front door back in England (I may be way off the mark with this). Anyway, whatever it is, it made me smile.
I hope that this has been a good week for you, whatever you have been up to. Thank you for stopping by, and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post comments on my blog and who have responded to my Tweets this week too, that has made me smile as well.
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.
Hello there, this Sunday Sevens is being sent from sunny (well ok then, cloudy but dry) Manchester today as I am back in the UK on a flying visit to see my parents. Mr Postcard is back at home in Gibraltar with the Little Postcards and awaiting my return later today. It’s been such a luxury to be back in my childhood home again – just me, and to be spoiled by my Mum and Dad.
A new crochet project
Last Sunday really wasn’t up to much weather wise and we found ourselves sheltering indoors to stay dry. The highlight of our Sunday afternoon was a trip to Morrison’s supermarket café just so we could get out of the house for an hour! What else is there to do when you are house bound than start a new crochet project? 😉 I just can’t help myself.
This lovely yarn is Luisa Harding Pittura which I bought online a few months ago and was just waiting for the right project to come along for it. That project is the Spun Gold shawl by Kat Goldin of the Crochet Project. You can find it here: Kat Goldin’s blog. It’s working up really fast thanks to the quintuple trebles which pop up every six rows or so. It’s my first attempt at this stitch and so far so good, they are looking pretty even.
February weather
It’s been a bit grey and gloomy in Gibraltar all week, although it hasn’t rained all the time, it has threatened it for most of the week. This was the scene across the Bay of Gibraltar as we headed out to school on Monday, we rushed out and I rushed back home quickly in the hope of dodging the shower which was dumping it’s load across the Bay.
Whoops – spot the mistake…
So dressmaking class this week didn’t exactly go according to plan, last week’s faux pas is obvious above (note the extra bits which had to be added to the hem of two panels of my princess-line dress to-be).
Can you spot the other mistake? Yes, I managed to sew both sides of the back of the dress the same way, so I have two left back sections instead of a left and a right….. Cue trip back to the fabric shop to buy some more gabardine (I couldn’t face unpicking the princess-line seam and the double row of zig zag I’d sewn to neaten the internal seam edge) and a good deal of catching up to do next week. Whoops!
Feeling virtuous
I don’t normally post pictures of food, but I am trying to be good at the moment, we have two family weddings coming up in the next few months and I really could do with shedding a spare tyre or two. This week I have been mainly eating salad and soup and lots of fruit and veg but no pasta, rice, spuds or bread.
I got the chance to go out to lunch to Wagamamas in Ocean Village one lunchtime (my first visit) and I had this gorgeous chicken salad. It was soooooo nice and ticked all the right diet boxes too. 🙂
Off to a flyer
Thursday morning was looming ahead of me. I had an appointment and my watercolour class both at different ends of Gibraltar and no car so I set off walking in my wellies (it had been wet and was threatening more rain) and loaded up with bags containing everything I needed for the morning ahead. Imagine my joy when a friend pulled up next to me as I felt the first spit of rain and shouted ” Do you want a lift?” Thank you! I didn’t think twice. I made it into town dry and with time to spare for a coffee! Hurrah!
(There’s no watercolour featuring in Sunday Sevens this week as what I produced needs more work… I’ll share what I’ve been doing next time).
The weekend starts here…
On Friday evening I ran off and left Mr Postcard and the Little Postcards. I flew out of Gibraltar to Manchester to visit my Mum & Dad. I have never sat out on the viewing platform at the airport before, because I’ve usually got small people with me. This time though I was able to sit and relax with a G&T before take off… such luxury!
Shopping!
I had a lovely time at the Trafford Centre yesterday shopping with my Mum. We don’t get the chance to do that kind of thing very often and we both really enjoyed it. We both had success and got most of what we’d gone for… hurrah!
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins blog.
From making clothes for her Pippa doll out of scraps of discarded fabric, to creating the dress worn by Miss Gibraltar the night she became Miss World and setting dozens of sewing students off on their own making and designing careers, Dorcas Hammond tells me how she turned her passion into a creative business.
Christened with the name of a seamstress from the Old Testament, it would seem that Dorcas Hammond was born to sew. Her father, who Dorcas describes as a very religious man, had liked the name and as his wife was a keen seamstress herself, he thought it appropriate to name his second daughter Dorcas. Little did he know at that time, what an accomplished designer and dressmaker, she would later become.
Dorcas began sewing at a very young age. Her mother made curtains at home and she picked up the remnants of curtain fabric and hand sewed them to make dolls clothes. By the age of six, she was using her mother’s sewing machine in secret with the help of her older sister, Ingrid. “When my mother was out, my sister helped me get the sewing machine to work” she told me. The pair would operate the tredle-powered machine until Dorcas was able to manage on her own using her tip-toes to reach the pedal.
Her secret was only discovered when “the ironing lady (who came to the house) said she needed two sheets sewing together but as my mother wasn’t there it couldn’t be done. I told her I would do it and machined them together for her … the ironing lady told my mother that it was me who had done the sewing”. After being rumbled for using the sewing machine, Dorcas’s mum put her to work doing embroidery but she hated it, “I remember embroidering this bird and it was rubbish, I just wanted to sew”.
Later on in childhood, she would make simple clothes using Burda and Simplicity patterns and experiment with her cousin. They would lock themselves into a bedroom and measure, sew and fit the clothes. No one was allowed to see what they had done until they were completely happy with the finished result.
Dorcas’s passion for sewing continued into her teens, she began making clothes for clients at the age of 18 while working in a cosmetics shop on Main Street. Each lunchtime she would rush home at 1 o’clock, her mother would have her lunch prepared for her and she’d spend her lunch break sewing garments for clients before returning to work at 3pm for the second half of her shift.
In the evening, Dorcas would begin her sewing work again with the help of her mum. “My mother would go to bed when she got tired, but I would carry on until I’d finished. I couldn’t sleep until the garment was on the hanger – sometimes I’d sew until 2am”.
Sewing has run in Dorcas’ family for generations. Her grandmother had a workshop with her own mother making clothes. When Dorcas told her mum that she would like a workshop like her grandmother’s (at a time when no one else had one in Gibraltar), her mother said she was crazy and said she was to keep working at her job in the shop.
It wasn’t until the age of 26, when she’d been married and had her two sons and “had a load of problems that I decided it was the time to do it”. The ICC shopping centre had just opened in town and she opened her first shop there.
At that time, Dorcas created her garments using manufactured patterns but soon discovered that they didn’t always work well for her clients. “Someone would want a dress with a sleeve from this pattern, the skirt from another pattern and a top from the other pattern”. Dorcas then had to decipher how she was going to join all the elements together.
She’d had no formal training but was given a book of instructions on how to cut your own patterns by one of the ladies who did sewing for her. “I still have that book to this day” she says, “it was very old but I went through it and as I have always had a good eye, I knew some parts were wrong for what I was making. It was the first steps to the pattern cutting system I use and teach now”.
The first made-to-measure garments Dorcas created (using her own patterns) were for her mum before implementing the method in her shop. Because she’d not been formally taught how to make the patterns properly, Dorcas says she was always scared that she wouldn’t have enough fabric to fit the garments properly. As a consequence, she cut huge seam allowances. It wasn’t until she went to a crash course in pattern cutting in Madrid in 2000, that she learned the seam allowances only need to be 1 or 2cms.
While in Madrid, she was asked by one of the teachers why she had come to the course as Dorcas had created the best sample jacket sleeve the teacher had ever seen. It was thanks to this compliment that Dorcas left filled with the confidence to truly believe in her designing and dressmaking capabilities. That was almost seventeen years ago and since then her business has gone from strength to strength.
Alongside her dressmaking and designing business, Dorcas inadvertantly ended up teaching the skills she’d developed over the years to others. During the time she had run her shop, people had occasionally asked her to teach them dressmaking. She also took on interns every now and then from University, however it was an ecclesiastical request which set her on the road to teaching properly.
“I was at a song contest and Father Caruana asked me if I would teach some of his social cases. By the time I said yes, a room had already been set aside at Nazareth House and six sewing machines had been bought”. Dorcas spent several years volunteering at Nazareth House teaching not just sewing but life skills to the young women who attended the classes. She says “we discussed things like what you should wear to go to a job interview and how to behave” a bit like a mother or big sister might.
The lessons came to an end when Father Caruana died, but there were still a few students who wanted to carry on being taught. Eventually, Dorcas needed to find new premises for the lessons and converted the rear of her workshop into a classroom and began the Dorcas Hammond Fashion Academy. After perfecting her own method of pattern cutting, she compiled all her notes into a four year course to teach dressmaking, from beginners through to tailoring and wedding dress design.
Dorcas says she has had many highs throughout her career including fashion shows in London, Marbella, Morocco, Madrid and Portugal. She designed and created the Gibraltar National Costume worn by the Miss Gibraltar contestants when they attend pageants, and is most famous for creating the dress worn by the 2009 winner of Miss World, Gibraltar’s Kaiane Aldorino.
Kaiane Aldorino wearing Dorcas’s National costume
Dorcas says she still gets a thrill out of making dresses “I love what I do… I get butterflies in my stomach when it looks good”. The biggest highlight for her though, is seeing her students go out from her Academy and make the most of their great potential. So far she has seen former students go on to study fashion at University, get PGCEs and go into teaching themselves and one has opened her own fashion boutique. “I want them to achieve what I haven’t and fulfill their dreams” she says.
So what does the future hold for Dorcas? “Well I’m a chicken” she says. “If I haven’t done more things it’s because I take a long time thinking about doing them. When I was young I just jumped into things, but not so much now”. Her small alterations and dressmaking shop developed into a fashion design business and academy and the next step will see her selling her fashion designs online. “Some days I wake up and I say who will buy my clothes? But then I think if other people can do it why can’t I?”
Dorcas is currently working on her first online collection and is looking forward to launching it later on in 2017. You can find Dorcas at her shop on Governor’s Street and on Facebook and Twitter as Dorcas Hammond Fashion Design.
Hello there, believe it or not, this is the 200th Postcard from Gibraltar blog post! When I started this little blog back in the summer of 2015, little did I know it would still be going strong 18 months later or that I would start podcasting!
Thank you so much to you all for your likes, kind comments, and all round marvelousness. The virtual support I have received over the past 199 posts has been very much appreciated.
The past seven days have brought us another mixed bag of weather here in Gibraltar with strong winds and rain interspersed with some lovely sunshine. I hope you’ve had a good week. Here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens. Polluted sunset
We had a lovely sunset again on Sunday evening. Sadly though we couldn’t go outside to fully enjoy it. The toxic smell of chemicals from the Cepsa plant across the border in Campamento was so strong that it caught the back of my throat. Plumes of black smoke were seen billowing out from the chimneys at the oil refinery and blew right across the Bay.
Clearly in contravention of EU rules on pollution, the plant’s immediate neighbours must have been choked with the smell. So dangerous and so frightening. It’s no wonder that the number of people in this part of the world suffering from asthma is higher than the average.
Starting as I mean to go on…
This year’s Med Steps 5 challenge is just 3 1/2 months away so no time like the present to get fit so I can achieve 5 times round again this time! Monday morning was utterly glorious, so I left the unmade beds, laundry and breakfast dishes to go for a walk. The jobs were still there for me when I got home but I felt a whole lot better for it.
Gib & Rocksy
Do you remember Gib from Sunday Sevens #67 22.01.16? Well I thought he looked a bit lonely, so he’s got a new friend. This is Rocksy. They are the mascots for a new crochet group here in Gibraltar; the Gibraltar Crochet Collective. We have a Facebook page which tells you where we are going to meet each week if you fancy joining us.
Dressmaking class
The pattern is drawn for my princess line dress in my dressmaking class, it’s time to get cutting…
More Med Steps
This photo was taken from the sitting position! Phew after doing the steps on Monday, my legs were a bit stiff when it came to Wednesday’s attempt…
Watercolour class
At this week’s watercolour class, I went back to the primulas I was working on last week and finished them off. They now have a terracotta pot to sit in and their leaves are finished. I’m pleased that I managed it without making a mess. I had to be talked into going back to this by my teacher Deborah M Lawson but I’m glad I did. And finally…
Do you think someone had a bit of fun at work one day??!
I have walked down this path quite a few times… this week I walked up it for a change and spotted this!! Is the stick man walking like an Egyptian or just doing the funky chicken do you think?
Thanks for stopping by! Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog.
As the clock ticks inexorably towards midnight on 31st December and we close the door on 2016, I thought it was time to take a look back at the year we have just had. Most of the newspaper reviews I’ve read so far have focussed on the negative aspects, celebrity deaths, the seismic political changes afoot both in Europe, America and the rest of the world, and general doom and gloom.
I am very fortunate in that for us, in our little corner of the world, apart from the uncertainties of Brexit and what that could mean for us in the years to come, we’ve had a pretty good year. Looking back at all the interesting things we’ve done makes me think about how fortunate we are. If your 2016 has been a difficult one, I sincerely hope that 2017 will be better for you and your loved ones.
January 2016
The New Year saw us spending a few days up the coast from Gibraltar on the Costa del Sol, but we were back on the Rock in plenty of time to see the Three Kings Cavalcade. It was also back in January when I went for the first of my strolls around Gibraltar the first one was an homage to the many beautiful balconies, the second one paid tribute to the many steps we ‘enjoy’ here!
February 2016
February brought us some misty and stormy weather, but there was plenty of indoors activities to keep us busy here in Gibraltar. The second annual Gib Talks event saw speakers from all walks of life take to the stage for short talks on a huge range of subjects. Later in the month, the extraordinary Gibraltar Womens Association celebrated their 50th Anniversary, I found their story fascinating.
March 2016
In March, we were blessed with some beautiful sunny days with bright blue skies. Along with completing a tin man outfit for World Book Day, I finally managed to finish my Attic 24 Cosy Stripe Blanket after a year of hooking! We made the most of the lovely spring weather and took a dolphin trip out into the Bay of Gibraltar. There was also a beautiful exhibition in Gib celebrating women’s creativity.
April 2016
During April we made another short trip up the coast and headed inland to Ronda a beautiful Andalucian town. I was very productive at my dressmaking and home furnishing courses inserting my first invisible zip and producing curtain tie-backs for the public transport fan in my life. A tall ship called into port at Gibraltar and members of the public had the chance to go on board and have a snoop around.
May 2016
May meant Med Steps for me big time as I completed my final training sessions for, and then finished, the Med Steps 5 Challenge with my two stepping buddies. It was a rather intense day but we were so proud of ourselves for climbing to the top of the Rock five times in quick succession. We also managed to raise a fair amount of sponsorship money for the brilliant Cancer Relief Gibraltar. Some of my sponsors are readers of this blog and I am so touched that you took the time and effort to support our fundraising efforts – thank you.
As I spent so long prattling on about the Med Steps during my training, I figured I should tell you all about it: The Med Steps: a few facts & figures . May also meant saying goodbye to a good friend to me and my blogging adventures. One of the sad things about living an expat life is that many of the friends you make are in the same boat as you and therefore may not be around for long Saying goodbye…
June 2016
June was a very eventful month not only for me but for Gibraltar and the rest of the UK as a whole as BREXIT loomed large (this post was my most read of all time and by a very long way). Six months on, we are still no further forward knowing what it all means.
Another unexpected thing to happen to me in June, was when I chose to go back up the Med Steps one foggy morning. I thought that the mist would make the climb cool as the summer heat had begun to build. I was wrong. As I climbed up the Rock, I climbed out of the mist and fog. I was nearly roasted alive, but I did manage to take a rather good photo of the Rock emerging out of the mist below (see second left image on the bottom row above). I got loads of likes and shares and retweets with that picture taken on A mini stroll in the mist!
11th June 2016 marked International Yarnbombing Day 2016 and I had a little go myself with my first guerrilla crochet project as I attempted to Yarnbomb the Alameda Gardens to celebrate the park’s 200th anniversary.
July 2016
July equals the beginning of the very long school summer holiday in Gibraltar. As I stared down the barrel of 8 weeks of no school and the prospect of entertaining the three Little Postcards I felt a little overwhelmed. In an effort to find some way of surviving (with my marbles intact) I decided on day one that I would set myself the challenge of doing something crafty every single day of the holidays…. and the Summer Craft Challenge was born. One of our summer holiday outings took us up into the Upper Rock Nature Reserve to visit one of Gibraltar’s newest attractions, the Windsor Suspension Bridge .
August 2016
August, for us, was mainly spent in England. I travelled back with the Little Postcards to spend two weeks based in the North West with my parents (with a lovely trip down to Berkshire to visit friends) and then two weeks with Mr Postcard visiting his family in East Anglia. We were blessed with the best of English summer weather. When the sun shines – there really is no better place to be. Our East Anglia holiday base was Southwold in Suffolk, it gave us the perfect opportunity for multiple visits to a special place for us Southwold Pier .
The end of the month brought the school summer holidays to an end. After eight weeks of full-time kiddiwinks and eight weeks of the summer craft challenge, I was very proud to still be in full possession of my marbles (I think) and I also managed to do something crafty on every day except for one (the day we travelled back to Gibraltar). The final instalment of my challenge is here.
September 2016
September is always a very busy month in Gibtraltar. Just after the children return to school, we all have a day off for Gibraltar National Day on 10th September. Around this time we now have the Gibraltar Music Festival to enjoy too. This year saw the Stereophonics headline and Europe played the air guitarist’s dream of The Final Countdown live on the Rock.
Towards the end of the month, I was able to fulfil an ambition of mine to visit the Yarn Festival of Yarndale. It was everything I had expected and more, with bells on. My absolute highlight was meeting my crochet hero Lucy from Attic 24 and being able to give her one of my Llanitas (Llanita, the Gibraltar Yarndale sheep that is). The sheep were made to raise funds to support a children’s hospice in North Yorkshire, I made two and they have both gone to live in Yorkshire! My Yarndale 2016 (featuring Llanita’s Yorkshire adventures)
October 2016
In October I was still determined to keep up some of the crochet momentum I had achieved during the summertime and finished off my contribution to the Sixty Million Trebles project. I made a rainbow granny square blanket which will go towards the World Record breaking attempt to create a huge crochet blanket made up of sixty million treble stitches. Each treble stitch represents a displaced person or refugee. After the world record attempt the giant blanket will be made into smaller blankets and handed out to charities in the UK and those helping Syrian refugees. The organisers also hope to raise a considerable amount of funds too to help Syrian refugees.
A big event locally was the fourth annual Gibraltar Literary Festival 2016 I was lucky enough to be able to attend several events this year and really loved it.
November 2016
At the beginning of November we had just one Bunny in the Postcard household, then one Sunday afternoon during a walk through the Alameda Gardens, we found some abandoned rabbits. One of them, Blizzard, came home with us (Blizzard turned out to be a girl and she is now known as Snowflake). It was back in November when I had my first attempt at Podcasting I had such fun making it, and hope to be able to share another one with you soon.
December
In December we sadly said goodbye to Bunny Postcard. She had only been with us for 11 months but she’d quickly become a much loved member of the family.
This month I also headed out for my most recent stroll, to see some of the Christmas lights we have on the Rock – amazingly it was the 16th stroll post I’ve written this year. I also took the plunge (literally) and joined with the annual Boxing Day Polar Bear Swim at Catalan Bay – I’m still feeling proud of myself for doing it!
Thank you so much for joining me this year, I have loved having your company and enjoy reading all the lovely comments. Here’s to next year, who knows what it will have in store for us all, here’s hoping it will be a good one.
Well Christmas is literally round the corner and all the associated events are stacking up. This week I have had one Christmas party and a school nativity – which was incredibly cute. My parents arrived from England to spend Christmas with us just in time to see the school performance, so for once I Littlest wasn’t craning his neck to see just me in the audience.
Here’s this week’s rather rushed Sunday Sevens – there hasn’t been a great deal of spare time this week to put too much thought into it. I’m not sure whether next week, as the schools close it will improve matters for me or not! Still I have a few more child free days to attempt to get organised before the big day….
It’s up
It would appear that I am the meanest Mum on the planet for not allowing the Little Postcards to put up the Christmas tree in November or indeed the first week of December. But at last it is up. We got a real tree this year (unusual for us). As my parents are over visiting for Christmas it’s a bit more special this year and warranted a real tree I thought.
All change
There have been so many changes in Gibraltar since we arrived a little over 7 years ago. It’s even grown quite considerably as more land was reclaimed from the sea and several large buildings have sprung up along with three large government housing estates. This is the latest development near the centre of town and it’s huge. I wonder if the powers that be realised it would be so tall when they agreed to it?
It’s finished!
Just in time for the end of term, my top was finished in dressmaking class this week. I’m really pleased with it. It’s fully lined and will be very useful in the summertime.
Bunny vet trip
Snowflake, our newest furry companion, went to the vets for her second scan to check for baby bunnies along with her jabs. As we found her abandoned we had no idea as to her age, health or whether she was expecting the pitter patter of tiny paws.
We were relieved to find out that she isn’t in the family way and she’s perfectly healthy. Did you know that rabbits can give birth to a litter of 12 baby bunnies? Eek!
If you missed my post about how Snowflake came to join our family, you can see it here.
All posted!
This was my last Christmas card being posted. Phew what a relief! I sent around 60 and spent a small fortune on stamps but I like to do it still. It’s a weight off knowing that’s one pre-Christmas job ticked off the list!
Christmas Jumper Day
We all did our bit for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day. On seeing me on Friday morning Littlest said “Ooh Mummy I love your sparkly pigeon jumper!”
Saturday night giggle
I must have walked past this shop dozens, if not hundreds of times since we’ve lived here and I never really read the sign properly. It caught my eye when I was out last night and it really made me chuckle. You can’t beat a bit of frish frut.
So there you have it, I had my last watercolour lesson of 2016 this week too, but as I only got part way through a painting which isn’t wonderful I shall save showing that one until it’s properly finished.
Where ever you are and whatever you are doing next week, I hope it isn’t too hectic for you. I’m just taking one day at a time and doing my best to remember which school function, special outfit, party, event I am supposed to be ready for at a time too – there’s so much going on! Take care and have a good week!
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins.
Hello again, wow, it’s been quite a week with everything that’s been going on on the global political scene. I can’t help but feel uneasy about what the future may hold for us all, but I’m staying away from politics and looking at the smaller, positives that have happened this week for us. Here goes….
Med Steps in the November Sunshine
View across the Strait of Gibraltar from the start of the Med StepsOn Sunday afternoon after we had returned from our mid-term break up the coast, and after I had finished unpacking and got the first load in the washing machine, I headed off on my own for a lovely walk up the Med Steps. It was such a stunningly beautiful November day and it was a crime to stay indoors. The younger Postcards were more content to stay at home and reacquaint themselves with all their stuff after a week away so I made the most of the peace and quiet.
It was the first time I’d attempted the Med Steps for ages and it took me a while longer than on previous occasions because I kept stopping to look at everything. Unlike back in the spring, when everything looked so luscious and green, a lot of the vegetation was crisp and brown after the long, hot Mediterranean summer days but here and there there were little shoots of fresh green sprouting through and even some dwarf narcissi.
As I reached the midway point, I was greeted with this stunning view back towards the north.
Crochet-on-the-go
Monday meant one of the Little Postcards returned to school but the two other had an in-service day. The lovely sunny weather continued on from Sunday and after the joys of ironing and putting away of clean laundry, we headed down to Europa Point for a bit of fresh air. After a scoot around the park, they found a new friend to play football with. While they were happy having a kick around on what could be the most southerly football court in Europe, I enjoyed a spot of crochet in the sunshine. (I can’t call it a pitch because it’s made of concrete and surrounded by chain link fencing…. so surely it’s a court?)
Dressmaking class
Tuesday morning and all three of the Little Postcards were in school for the first time in two weeks (thanks to a virus and then mid-term) and I headed back to my dressmaking class. At last, after weeks of planning, pattern cutting, fabric cutting, pinning and tacking, I got the sewing machine out! I completed the princess-line seams on the lining and then promptly ironed the bust seam flat and reduced it from a 3D piece of fabric to a 2D one…. whoops.
The morning after the night before.
So, on Wednesday morning, we awoke to the news the America had nearly elected a new President. By the time we were on the school run, the result was pretty much sealed. In tumultuous times, I find it’s sometimes good to just stop and take a deep breath and realise that life goes on. The world kept turning and the boats were still out in the Bay.
Watercolour class
It’s been three weeks since my last watercolour class and I’ve missed it a lot. Us students often joke that our teacher should charge us more for the therapy we get from her classes. Work continued on my interpretation of the beach huts in Southwold. Slowly but surely I’m getting there…
Blue skies
We really have been blessed with the weather this week. You can’t help but feel positive when the sky is as blue as this can you?
Stunning sunsets
The lovely clear weather has resulted in some lovely sunsets for us too. This one was last night. Although the sun’s been shining away, you can’t help but notice it’s November as there’s a distinct chill in the air once you are out of the sunshine.
We often joke that you can very rarely sit out on our balcony because it’s either too hot or too cold. In the summer time it’s like sitting on a spit roast when the sun’s shining on the front of the building, in autumn and winter, once the sun drops it’s suddenly really chilly. I know, I know, I’ve turned into a softy… you wouldn’t think I’d been brought up and spent the first 30-odd years of my life in the north of England would you?
Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog. Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you have a good week ahead.
