Mediterranean Steps

Friday photo challenge (week 38) Autumn

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We may not have autumn in the same way as in the UK with falling leaves and all the beautiful colour that goes with that, but we are experiencing autumnal mists at the minute.

Yesterday’s trip up the Med Steps was very atmospheric. Don’t think it was cool though, I was really hoping for a bit of cool weather because it’s been so very humid since the height of the summer. It was warm and humid all the way up until the ninth set of steps towards the summit and all of a sudden I walked into a cool blast of breeze coming up from the sea – it was so welcome!

It’s this cool air which causes the Levanter cloud to form on the top of the Rock, and that cloud is what seals the hot humid air in for those underneath, yuck!

Many of the plants on the side of the rock are dead and burnt to a crisp after a long hot summer, but this clump of purple flowers took me by surprise. Not everything has gone to sleep!

Friday photo challenge (week 32) Steps

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I don’t wish to sound like a broken record, but for this photo challenge, there can only be one venue… the Med Steps!

For those of you who haven’t seen it already, here’s my most popular post of all time…. The Med Steps: a few facts & figures.

And I almost forgot, my second ever Stroll around Gibraltar post was about the many steps you can find on the Rock.

2018 Friday photo challenge (Week 28) Favourite

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Favourite… that’s a bit of a loose prompt. Favourite what? Well this photo seems to be a bit of a favourite over on Instagram – it’s had more likes than any other on my account. It dates back to April last year.

My favourite photo taken in Gibraltar has to be this one, taken after walking up through the mist and low cloud on the Med Steps.

My favourite pass time has to be crochet…

And my favourite finished blanket so far has to be this rainbow granny square one…

Next week’s photo challenge is button.

Sunday Sevens #137 20.5.18

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This Sunday Sevens is being sent by a rather worn out Postcard from Gibraltar, the reason why will become apparent in the sixth photo!

Sunday sunset

We had a beaut of a sunset on Sunday evening. So colourful. I’ve not included a sunset in Sunday Sevens for a while, so thought I’d put this one in.

It’s starting to look like a dress!

At last at my dressmaking class I am seeing progress. My dress is looking like a dress! Now time to fiddle with the frill!

A farewell lunch

An arty friend of mine is leaving Gibraltar and returning home to the Netherlands. This week I met her for lunch along with another arty friend to say farewell. We had Indian Tapas. It tasted as good as it looks.

Sunny morning walk by the sea

On Wednesday morning I went for a bit of a walk, I went for a coastal option rather than climbing up the Rock like normal. It was beautiful as I walked through Catalan Bay.

Experimenting with backgrounds

My next watercolour painting will be of nasturtiums, and I’ve been experimenting with the background to set them off nicely. I want a traditional Gibraltar stone wall, but how do I do that without drawing atttention away from the flowers? We’ll see if I can pull it off or not!

Med Steps

So yesterday was the Med Steps Challenge. It was really, really hard work – but then it wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy would it? Not got much to add to that, still feeling rather tired!

Royal wedding fever

Royal wedding fever hit Gibraltar yesterday. I missed most of it slogging up the Rock, but had a quick trip to Ocean Village later on and there was a lot of well dressed people hitting the cava. One or two looked like they had started at breakfast time and were pushing on through to the FA Cup final. I think there may be a few sore heads around this morning!

That’s all for Sunday Sevens this week, thanks for stopping by! I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for this weekly blog series.

Friday photo challenge (week 20) Challenge

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This, my friends is the Med Steps. Tomorrow it’s the Med Steps 5 Challenge, when around 200 brave/crazy people will attempt to walk it 5 times all in the name of charity.

The walk/climb takes you from the south west side of the Rock of Gibraltar, along paths, through a tunnel and up many, many steps round the south edge and up the west side to the summit of the Rock. It’s quite a climb.

I will be one of those walkers tomorrow morning, all of us raising much needed funds for the wonderful Cancer Relief Centre here in Gibraltar. Wish us luck!

(For more info on the Med Steps, this post may help you, and my experience of last year’s Med Steps 5 Challenge can be found here).

Challenge is the theme for this week’s Friday photo challenge, next week, it’s floral.

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.

Sunday Sevens #134 29.4.18

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Hello and welcome to this Bank Holiday edition of Sunday Sevens. We are enjoying a 4-day weekend here in Gibraltar with Workers Memorial Day tomorrow and May Day on Tuesday. Fortunately, we enjoyed some rather nice sunshine yesterday, although we have had heavy rain and thunder storms overnight, so it’s turning out to be your usual British bank holiday! However you are spending this weekend, I hope you’re having a good time 🙂

Heavy seas

Last Sunday I took a walk around the eastern side of the Rock and was mesmerized by the waves. They were crashing on the rocks below like billy-o and were quite hypnotic to watch.

Poppies & partridges

Poppies and Barbary partridges were the order of the day for my Monday trip up the Med Steps. These were the first poppies of spring this year and are always such a treat to see.

Just killing time with a crochet rainbow

One afternoon I found myself with some time to kill in the car while waiting to pick up Little Postcards. Fortunately, I came prepared with my crochet. A lovely way to while away a few moments.

Another painting finished…

At my art class this week, I finished off my freesia painting. That’s four now that I have done in this style and I’ve really enjoyed painting & drawing them (all four are below). The first one (the purple iris) was a copy of a greetings card, which my watercolour teacher had by an artist called Judy Ball. The original was a lino print rather than a ink and watercolour picture.

I then copied that style to do my own compositions of daffodils, tulips and freesias.

Gib Rocks

The Postcard from Gibraltar ‘Gib Rock’ has been set free in the beautiful Alameda Botanical Gardens. It was left in a particularly tranquil spot, one that’s special to me, because it reminds me of my lovely Gran. She sat in this area for a while on her only trip out to Gibraltar to visit us. If you should happen to see my rock, I’d love to hear from you 😊.

Out of my window

I love that whenever I look out of my window here, my view is always changing. I glanced up while on the phone one lunchtime this week and spied this old fashioned ship picking it’s way amongst the bunkering tankers and cargo ships. I have a great app on my iPad called Marine Traffic (a bit geeky I know) which lets you see the name, country of origin and destination of many of the ships out in the Bay. Sadly, I was too busy to take the time to find out about this one. It does look rather magestic don’t you think?

And finally, time for something different…

I spotted this little chap in the middle of the lawn behind the Gibraltar Register Office this week. I hadn’t walked that way for quite some time and had never seen him before. I think he’s rather sweet, and I think Gibraltar needs more garden gnomes!

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

Sunday Sevens #131 15.4.18

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Hello there, and welcome to this week’s Sunday Sevens. It’s been a bit of a busy day, hence the lateness of this!

Sunshine ☀️

After a dodgy start, last Sunday was glorious. In the afternoon we took the Little Postcards to the park to run off a bit of energy ahead of school starting back the next day. On our return, Mr Postcard and I, took a few minutes to sit out on the balcony before dinner to soak up a few rays – rain was forecast for the next seven days – you have to take the opportunity while you can!

Back in the groove

Oh, how I missed my crochet while I was in the UK over Easter. I took a portable project with me but sadly the hook recommended was too small for my tension and although I had the next size up with me that was too small too… I did the first two rows of 300+ stitches and frogged it three times before giving up.

There was a lovely looking yarn shop in Sidmouth where we stayed but it was closed (understandably) over Easter weekend, and in London, we took a big diversion one day to visit Loop in Islington (a gorgeous yarn emporium). They had every size hook imaginable in stock apart from the size I needed – grrr! Never mind, I got to scratch my crochet itch on our return and managed to catch up on about 3 weeks worth of rows of the Coastal Crochet Seaside Stash Busting Blanket.

Med Steps training

I’m committed to doing the Med Steps 5 Challenge again in May this year, but so far my training hasn’t gone to plan very well. On Monday I managed a first for this year, twice round! The second trip was not easy at all but it feels like I’m finally getting somewhere!

As you can see above, I started the first trip up in drizzle with a rainbow in the Bay and finished the second in sunshine….

Back to art class

It feels like it’s been a long, long time since my last watercolour class. It’s got to be about a month since I last put pencil or brush to paper. This week I headed back to my class and began a new ink and watercolour painting, freesias this time.

Happy post & a bumble bee 🐝

I have been meaning to go and pick up a parcel from the post office since we returned from our Easter trip to England and a message on the radio gave me the kick up the behind I needed. The parcel post is moving locations across Gibraltar this weekend, to make way for a new school building project.

I didn’t want my parcel to get lost in the move, so hot footed it over to pick up my latest Little Box of Crochet. Being a native Mancunian, I just love my bumble bee brooch! I also have a friend who’s expecting a baby girl, so I have just the person in mind for that crochet project, once it’s complete!

Wet, wet, wet!

This week, we had storms on Tuesday and again on Thursday. It was pretty wet for us on Friday too but I persevered and climbed up the again on Friday. The Steps were closed on Wednesday and Friday after the storms so I went up the road on the other side instead. I’m chuffed with myself that I managed 3 training sessions in total this week.

Football crazy

Yesterday meant lots of football, and with it lots of very welcome sunshine. We had a league match to attend in the morning for one Little Postcard and then a 5-a-side tournament in the afternoon. Never a dull moment in this house!

And that, as they say, is that. Sunday Sevens complete for another week. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have had a good week and that the week ahead is kind to you.

I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for the Sunday Sevens blog series.

Sunday Sevens #130 8.4.18

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Hello there from Gibraltar on the last day of the Easter school holidays. Life will hopefully fall back into some sort of routine from tomorrow. We’ve had a lovely week and a bit of family time with travel to the south of England, which we all enjoyed, but it will be nice to get back to normal again… here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

Down on the farm

On Easter Sunday we piled into car and drove from our holiday home in Sidmouth in Devon to a fabulous farm shop and café for breakfast. Greendale Farm Shop, just outside Exeter, has won awards and I can see why, it was fabulous. We had great breakfasts ranging from a mini full English to bacon butties, omelette to waffles and ice cream?! The shop was excellent, as was the farm itself.

The Little Postcards were mesmerized by the free range chickens who followed us wherever we went. As for Oscar the ostrich, the jury’s out. Just for the record I was informed that there was a more than passing resemblance between myself and the pot bellied pigs (see what I have to put up with!).

Train travels

We were on the move again on Monday, we travelled from Devon to London Paddington. The train was terribly overcrowded, we stood all the way from Exeter to London 🙁 it was so overcrowded even the toilet door handle was shocked:

I stood next to it all the way :-/

Being tourists

On Tuesday we met up with some old friends who used to live in Gibraltar and did a spot of sightseeing. (It was lovely to see them again.) First stop was St Paul’s Cathedral. I had never been inside before and was mesmerized by this place which, when I was a little girl in 1981, hosted the fairytale royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Di.

I had a Ladybird book of the royal wedding which I knew off by heart cover-to-cover preparing myself for my own wedding to a Prince…. I did indeed meet my prince, Mr Postcard, our wedding was a rather more low key affair but no less special 😉

Flying high

On Wednesday we took a bit of a tour around the capital for the benefit of a Little Postcard who has a thing for public transport, we rode the Tube, the Docklands Light Railway, a regular train which ran on part of the soon to be opened Cross-Rail project and hitched a ride on the Emirates Airline cable car. It gave us a great view across the O2 towards the City, and despite the rainy weather was lots of fun.

A perfect spring morning

On our last morning in London, we woke to blue skies and set off for a bit of a walk to make the most of the good weather. We headed to Kensington Gardens and as you can see it was glorious. What a charming park, despite being busy with people it didn’t feel overcrowded and it was great to get a fix of green in the Big Smoke. Many of the trees were starting to show signs of spring and it was so good to see.

Heading home

On Friday we headed home to Gibraltar. Before setting off from Blighty we had an overnight stay with more friends in Sussex and we headed out for a walk near to where we were staying. On that walk I spied these pretty primroses. I do love visiting England in the spring. The sprouting trees and hedges and spring flowers hold such promise of the beauty which is yet to come. Thank you England, we had a lovely trip!

Back down to business

Too much time has passed without Med Steps training, so once my washing airers were full of clean wet washing and I could wash no more, it was time to hit the steps again yesterday.

I have to admit feeling a little disillusioned and unmotivated about my training of late as life and bad weather have rather got in the way. However, as I stepped I plugged in my headphones to listen to an amazing podcast. It was the latest in the Blogtacular Podcast series and featured Lauren Mahon, the author of the blog Girl vs Cancer.

It was incredibly powerful as she spoke of the importance of support services to help people undergoing cancer treatment. It reminded me why I was training for the Med Steps 5 next month, which raises funds for the Cancer Relief Centre here in Gibraltar so it can offer a whole range of much needed support services to those undergoing treatment as well as their nearest and dearest. I’m back on track now!

Thank you for stopping by and reading this Sunday Sevens. I’m linking with Natalie from Threads & Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #129 1.4.18

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Happy Easter and welcome to this Easter Sunday edition of Sunday Sevens. Last week we were on the slopes, skiing in the Dolomites. (If you missed my Postcard from the Dolomites, you can find it here.) This week we started off back at home in Gibraltar but once the Little Postcards broke up from school for the Easter break midweek, we found ourselves heading back to the airport to fly to England.

Back in Gibraltar

Ah! Look at that sunshine breaking through the clouds. After the wettest March on record in Gibraltar, it was so lovely to see the sunshine at Catalan Bay on Sunday.

Back in training

Monday morning and I got my first chance to climb the Med Steps since 27th January! Bronchitis and then very wet and windy weather rather got in the way of my training for the Med Steps 5 in May.

I went up alone on Monday and managed it ten minutes slower than on my last attempt, partially due to my decline in fitness, and partially because of the copious amount of apes which were sitting in the way on the steps. There were lots of baby apes and some rather fearsome parents so I wanted to give them a wide berth!

I have a lot of training to do before May!

Happy birthday Grandma

My parents left Gibraltar mid week, but before heading back home, my Mum celebrated her birthday with us. It was lovely to be able to spend it with her as most years we are apart. We had a birthday meal out to celebrate the occasion, and this was my dessert – a panacotta which tasted as good as it looked!

On the road again…

Bright and early on Thursday morning we hit the road again, with children this time, bound for Malaga airport and a flight back to the UK for an Easter break…

Hello Jurassic Coast!

We flew to Bristol, then drove down to Devon, to Sidmouth to be precise so we could visit the Jurassic Coast. Living where we do, means that we don’t really ‘holiday’ in the UK. We visit at least once a year but the main purpose of the trip is to visit family and friends. This trip though, was mainly for sightseeing with a couple of visits to see friends.

Snow!

Before Friday, Littlest Postcard had never seen snow before. Driving between Lyme Regis and Sidmouth, the wet weather took a rather colder turn and the rain turned to sleet, then snow. Such excitement! It didn’t stick unfortunately as the ground was too wet, but it still counts I reckon!

Hello Exeter

Yesterday we travelled to Exeter to meet up with a couple of old friends from our university days. It was so lovely to catch up with them after many years. It was my first time in Exeter too (if you don’t count traveling through the station). It’s a beautiful city, very reminiscent of Norwich and a bit like York too. I would’ve liked to have explored a bit more than we did but time was against us.

However you are spending your Easter I hope you are having a happy time with your loved ones. Take care until next week. Here’s a few photos from this last month – as always, it’s been a busy one!

I’m linking with Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for Sunday Sevens.