A Postcard from August 2024

September 1, 2024September 2, 2024 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Ostell Bay beach, Friday 30th August 2024

Hello there, and hello September! Blimey that summer went quickly didn’t it?! And check me out posting on the first day of the month!

It’s been a funny kind of summer for us, as it’s been the first full summer of my current job – last year I worked 100% from home and that meant I was always around for the boys. They are now old enough to manage without me in the house all day every day, so for a chunk of the holidays this year, I’ve been out at work.

That led to the inevitable Mum guilt of not being around for as many days out as in the past but we did manage a few, and here they are…

At the start of the month we had a nice warm, sunny spell which was a relief after a particularly damp and grey time of it. We are very lucky to have the Cheshire countryside on our doorstep, so getting out into the green is quite easy. One day, when both myself and Eldest were off work, we all managed to get out for a lovely walk along the canal towpath towards Lymm and back again. I love this walk, whether in winter (with the reward of a bag of chips at Lymm) or as was the case this time, an ice cream in summer. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air!

A visit from special friends

Last month we were so happy to play host to a couple of friends who we’ve known since our time in Gibraltar. They moved back to the UK well before we did but we have stayed in regular contact and it’s so lovely to get together with them when we can.

They arrived in Manchester for a weekend with us and as their previous visit north had been during Covid times which rather restricted what we could do (although obviously not in lockdown though), we were thrilled to take them on a bit of a tour of Manchester.

As one of them is a newly qualified art teacher, I thought she might appreciate a trip to Manchester Art Gallery.

There was a fab exhibition on featuring outfits from a whole host of fashion designers from Balenciaga to Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood to Chanel. It was a real treat!

Also, while they were up visiting, we took them to do one of our favourite summer traditions; a walk around Marbury Park in Cheshire, followed by ice cream at Great Budworth Ice Cream farm. I even blogged about this tradition in one of the first ever blog posts on here back in my Postcard from Gibraltar days 9 years ago!

As well as having a dairy herd at the ice cream farm, there are several goats and a rather cheerful looking donkey, who stole the show!

Our final week of August was spent north of the border in Scotland, but I rather think that deserves a blog post of its own, so when I have the chance I will sit down and write that, watch this space!

International Granny Square Day

International Granny Square Day falls in August and this year I was in work on the day itself. I spent lunchtime at work scrolling through Instagram looking at so many gorgeous squares and feeling frustrated that I hadn’t been able to make any myself. So, when I got home, while making dinner for the family, I may have slightly overdone a few bits and bobs while I made these two podcast related granny squares of my own!

What I’ve been listening to

Well my audio book library card has had a fair bashing lately – I’m totally hooked. So much so, I’ve been having to catch up on my favourite podcasts! I have almost finished the four Thursday Murder Club books – I’m in the last few chapters now. I can highly recommend them if you’re after a light, funny and at times emotional read/listen. I can see why Richard Osman sits at the top of the best seller charts with them – he’s such an observant writer.

Podcast News

There was just one Making Stitches Podcast episode in August – I decided to take a short break as it was proving difficult to keep up the schedule with the boys on holiday. In this episode Dr Gemma McKenzie spoke to me about the crochet exhibition she is planning to raise awareness about human rights around childbirth. It’s an area I admit to not knowing much about but I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and am interested to learn more because of it.

If you haven’t already listened, you can find our chat here along with details of how you can contribute granny squares to the Threads of Protest Yarnbomb.

Crochet News

I almost forgot to add this exciting bit of news which happened in August too – my second design for Inside Crochet magazine was published. I really enjoyed making this soft, textured book for toddlers to celebrate autumn.

That’s all for this time. Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time, take care!

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #001 2.8.20

August 2, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Hello there and happy Sunday!

You may have spotted that this isn’t a Sunday Sevens post. I decided that after 230 weeks of Sunday Sevens, it was time for a change. The Sunday Sevens phenomenon was first created by sewing blogger Natalie, at Threads and Bobbins. Her idea was for bloggers to share seven photos from the previous seven days in a series of posts which were markedly different from their usual crafty or lifestyle posts.

Lately, because of the move back to the UK, I have had weeks without Sunday Sevens, Sunday Sevens with far more than seven photos and some with far fewer. Bearing in mind I have just moved countries with my family away from the Gibraltar named in my blog title, I thought that perhaps I should focus more on the ‘Postcard’ part instead.

So this will be my new weekly (when I can/when I remember) post. I can’t guarantee how long or picturesque they will be going forward, but I will try to share a bit of beauty each week.

So here is my first Sunday Postcard offering:

A postcard from Gibraltar

I have to admit it feels very strange writing blog posts from England without the feeling that we will soon be getting back on a plane and heading home to Gib. I’m sure in coming months, especially when the weather takes a turn for the worst, I will really miss Gibraltar, the mild (and sometimes very wet) winters, the fact I spent more time each year in flip flops than in boots, our beautiful views and of course our lovely friends. But, at the moment I’m really enjoying our new life here in Manchester. (The above photo is of a Gibraltar postcard I came across when I was packing up to move).

Grey skies

One of the overriding questions I’ve been asked since our move from Gibraltar is ‘Are you missing the sunshine?’ The answer is ‘no, not really’. We certainly don’t have blue skies everyday up here in the north west of England, but I’m really enjoying the wide open spaces, the greenery and having special people I’ve been far away from for almost 2 decades living round the corner.

Hob-nobbing with the stars

Earlier this week, before the new tighter Covid restrictions came into force, we had a visit from some very good friends. We took them to Media City to show them the Blue Peter Garden and where many of their favorite TV shows are filmed.

Although many people were wearing masks (including us), and there was a slightly subdued atmosphere there, you couldn’t get away from the fact it’s a rather exciting place. We even spotted a few familiar faces from the world of showbiz as we had our lunch out in the open air.

Can you spot those green houses and jazzy garden sheds in the photo above? Those could be booked out for lunch! You could have your own bubble in a glass bubble! What a fab idea.

Below is the closest I can get to a photo of open water for you these days… it’s the Manchester Ship Canal!!

A woodland walk

On Thursday we had a really pleasant walk back to a favorite place of mine, Marbury Country Park in Cheshire. There’s a gorgeous woodland walk via Marbury Mere and the nearby canal as well as wide open spaces for picnics. Not to mention lots of gorgeous greenery.

An old friend

A long time ago, long before our move out to Gibraltar, I was given this rose called Wee Cracker. It lived in a pot and followed us on various house moves in the north of England until we headed off to Gib. Since then it has lived in my parents’ back garden where my Mum has lovingly nurtured it until the day I could have it back. It was waiting in the back garden of our rental home when we arrived three weeks ago, and here it is looking lovely – the first bud opened yesterday.

That’s all for this week, I’ll leave you with this collection of pictures from last month – a very busy one for us! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

End of summer catch-up

September 14, 2019 ~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello everyone, sorry for the radio silence for the last few weeks. It’s been a hectic time with one thing and another so Postcard from Gibraltar took a bit of a back seat, all being well Sunday Sevens will be back this weekend and normal service will be resumed!

In the meantime, here’s a bit of a catch-up from the last few weeks…

Mid August I took the Little Postcards away with me to visit my parents in Manchester.

We had a great time. It was so lovely to see them as they haven’t been able to make it over to see us this year and they noticed a big difference in the Little Postcards and how much they’ve grown. Aside from seeing friends and family it’s also lovely to do things we can’t do in Gibraltar. Like foraging for berries, and then enjoying them in the tastiest Apple & bramble crumble. (We jettisoned the elderberries- not sure what to use them for).

It’s become a bit of an annual tradition on our summer trips back home to visit Marbury Park for a picnic and then call into the Great Budworth Ice Cream farm for ice creams on the way home. I wouldn’t have felt right if we hadn’t done it this year, so we did!

And of course, the reward for the walk was some super duper raspberry ripple!

We took a trip into Lancashire to visit my lovely little brother and his wife. They drove us to Rivington Terraced Gardens where we had a picnic and a fabulous woodland walk climbing up a huge hill. We could even see Blackpool Tower in the distance!

After our week or so up north, we took the train down south to visit some very dear friends of ours who used to live in Gibraltar.

Grey’s Court National Trust property is just a short drive from where our friends live and we enjoyed a lovely trip there in the summer sunshine!

All too quickly though, our time in England came to an end…

Bye bye England!

As we headed home from Malaga airport, it didn’t take long before the sweaty Levante cloud came into view….

A couple of weeks ago it was the annual Gibraltar Fair with the usual churros, rides and this year Jedward too… we didn’t stay late enough to see the former Eurovision & X Factor pair. I hear they were ‘entertaining’.

As the fair drew to a close, so did the school summer holidays for many young people including my 3. Lots of others though, are still waiting for their new school buildings to open next week.

Last weekend the Gibraltar Calling Music Festival was on. A highlight for me was Liam Gallagher. I’ve seen Oasis play live a couple of times and I was really looking forward to seeing Liam. He didn’t disappoint.