summer

Sunday Sevens #223 24.5.20

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Hello there, is it just me or are the Sundays coming around faster than usual at the moment? It only seems like the day before yesterday I wrote my last Sunday Sevens. Quite remarkable really considering what quiet lives we are living at the moment.

Anyway, just one day late, here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens on Bank Holiday Monday (it’s a rather floral one seeing as it was Chelsea Flower Show week!):

Lockdown Crochet 🧶

I’ve not shared my Pandemonium CAL progress with you for a while. Here’s where I’m up to now, I’m a bit behind (a couple of weeks behind I think) but it’s been busy behind the scenes at Postcard Towers, so Crochet has been relegated. I’m pleased to say it’s made an appearance at last. I did the yellow and black v stitch on the 3rd anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing. I thought the yellow and black bee 🐝 colours were appropriate for that day.

Rainbows 🌈

I had a couple of trips into town this week and both times I parked in Midtown carpark. As I waited for the lift I spied rainbows on the floor. The sunshine was coming at the right angle through the louvred glass windows. I love it when I see them.

A walk around the Rock

Midweek I found myself on my own for a few hours and took off on an adventure I haven’t ever done before, to walk all the way round the Rock. It was a beautiful day and a lovely walk which took about two hours. I hope to share a post about it soon when I get the chance!

Where flowers bloom, so does hope

In autumn / winter last year I saw an Instagram post by the lovely Nancy (@avocadofairy) about a maker (@thepaintedanthology) who paints nice words on slate, pots and other items. I decided to buy one myself. Little did I know when I bought it how pertinent those words would be this year for us all; “where flowers bloom, so does hope” ~ Ladybird Johnson

Agapanthus surprise

I was doing a spot of gardening in our patio this week and to my great surprise I spied a gorgeous agapanthus bloom poking out above the bougainvillea. I have had bad luck with agapanthus over the years. I tried to grow them in the UK without success. I have lost count of how many I have planted since we arrived in Gibraltar thinking that at last the climate would be on my side here.

I had forgotten about this one out back and given up hope after it put on a rather weedy show. But look at it now! What a joy and a perfect compliment to the pink bougainvillea.

Jacarandas

My word Gibraltar has some beautiful jacaranda trees in bloom at the moment. I don’t know whether it’s been a particularly good year for them or whether I’m just noticing them more but there are so many dotted about town and they look gorgeous at the moment.

Podcast latest

Marisa Alcock aka Mariwish

This week’s episode of Making Stitches features my friend Marisa talking about her childhood here in Gibraltar and her love of crochet. You can listen to it here.

That’s it for this week on Sunday Sevens, I hope you have a good week.

End of summer catch-up

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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.

And there he was up on stage in his trademark coat even though it was swelteringly hot!!

I will share another highlight of the music festival in Sunday Sevens….

Sunday Sevens #200 11.8.19

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Did you catch the title of this post? Sunday Sevens number 200 – eek how did that happen? Have I really been writing about what’s happened during my weeks for 200 weeks? If you have been with me from the start I reckon you deserve some kind of reward for your stamina! Thank you to everyone who’s been reading my posts for so long whether you’re a newbie to Postcard from Gibraltar or have been dipping in and out for years, I appreciate your company – thank you!

By the way, I had lots of fun walking around the town centre looking for ‘200’s for this photo collage (thank goodness Gibraltar’s dialing code is 200!!).

Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

Beach day

Last Sunday and Monday were spent doing laundry from our trip to Portugal last week and putting our home back together after having contractors in to do some much needed jobs in our absence. Tuesday, though, was a beach day. It was lovely down at Sandy Bay. I stupidly thought that after a long summer of using factor 50 suncream I could throw caution to the wind and go down to factor 30. I was wrong. a bit of previously unexposed flesh couldn’t cope with it and I got a bit frazzled. That’ll teach me. I’m back on The factor 50.

Market day in La Linea

I’m on the hunt for some fabric to recover our dining room chairs. I have a design in my mind and headed to La Linda’s Wednesday market to try and buy some. Unfortunately the stall holders didn’t have what I wanted. We did have a nice lunch at Cafe Modelo in La Linea town centre (their chips are really rather nice) and had a bit of a walk about – it made a nice change,

Lovely sunset

On Wednesday evening we enjoyed a glorious sunset over the Bay. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Thursday swim

I took the Little Postcards to the Europa open air pool on Thursday, it was lovely. I didn’t take any photos in the pool but am always amazed at the waterfall above it.

Bougainvillea blooms

I have included this bougainvillea a few times in Sunday Sevens over the years. It always seems to be in bloom and was laden with flowers when we walk past it this week.

Squeezing the last bit out of the day

On Friday we stayed on the beach until the last rays of sunshine had disappeared over the Rock. The Little Postcards were having so much fun in the sea and burying each other in the sand. It seemed such a shame to leave.

Busy day in the Bay

I happened to look out of the window yesterday and thought it looked really rather busy out in the Bay. There were ferries heading back and to to Morocco and tankers bunkering in Gibraltar waters as well as huge container ships heading to Algeciras port. I think the only day it’s quiet out there is Christmas Day.

And that brings this week’s 200th Sunday Sevens to a close.

I forgot to include this last week… here’s a little compilation of my July highlights.

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 6)

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And so we are now two thirds of the way through our school summer break here in Gibraltar, and so far, I’m pleased to say, we have all survived!!

Here’s week 6 of my summer craft challenge…

Day 36 Saturday 3rd August

Last Saturday we made our way home from our lovely holiday in Portugal. I managed a little spot of crochet while we sat in the border queue to cross back into Gibraltar.

Day 37 Sunday 4th August

Sunday was all about post holiday laundry duties and putting our home back together after the contractors had done their stuff while we were away.,.. as I write this on Saturday, almost a week later, the apartment is still a work in progress! On Sunday, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for crochet but I did find ten minutes to flick through the latest edition of Simply Crochet. Does that count?!

Day 38 Monday 5th August

A plump Dino body in progress in front of the telly…

Day 39 Tuesday 6th August

A Dino tail in progress on the beach…

Day 40 Wednesday 7th August

Dino arms today…

Day 41 Thursday 8th August

This is pretty much all I can show you of this little chap for now until he’s gifted in a couple of weeks’ time. I promise I will share a picture then…

Day 42 Friday 9th August

Another spot of beach crochet and another little dinosaur part…

And that brings this week’s Summer Craft Challenge to a close. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Sevens #199 4.8.19

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Hello there! I hope you’re well and have had a good week. Last Saturday we packed up the car and headed off on a road trip to Portugal…. here’s some of what we got up to:

Olá Portugal!

We drove to the lovely seaside town of Alvor in the Algarve. We have visited this part of the world before and spent some time on day trips here before but really fancied being able to spend the evening enjoying the many bars & restaurants rather than just grabbing a quick lunch or ice cream before heading back to our accommodation. This time we rented an apartment in the fishing town and really enjoyed all it had to offer.

Alvor medieval fair

For most of our stay there was a Medieval fair going on at night. There were multiple food stalls, entertainment with ye olde worlde musicians and characters wandering about. There was even a medieval merry-go-round – it didn’t get many takers as far as we could see, the more modern one with hobby horses and fire engines next door was more of a pull for the little ones.

Down at the waterpark

We had a day at a water park on Tuesday – not something you’d normally catch us doing but we met up with old friends while we were away and one of their sons had his birthday last week so this was his choice. I was very brave and went on the ‘Disco River’ slide and screamed all the way down. Littlest asked me not to ride with him again after that…

Beach day

The Little Postcards had a great time last week, not only did we go water sliding, we had 4 trips to the beach. I have to admit, this one is rather spectacular don’t you agree?

Chocolate heaven!

Now do you remember those evening delights to enjoy in Alvor? This has got to be one of them. (I may be regretting some of the naughty things we ate now I’m home and reunited with my scales :-/ ) How about this for a build your own dessert? What a treat…. I went for chocolate centre, dark chocolate coating with Oreo and KitKat crumbly topping on mine ;-).

One last Portuguese sunset

And so our time in Alvor came to an end, a lovely holiday and some lovely memories.

Back home!

There she is! The Rock in which we stand, back home to Gibraltar, just in time for a plane to land and another to take off again!

Thanks for stopping by! Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

If you would like to see a bit more about Alvor, you can pop over to my post all about it from four years ago.

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 4)

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Good evening, here’s week 4 of my Summer Craft Challenge…

Day 22 Saturday 20th July

Back on the aqua blues after that pop of colour last week…. do those bobbles remind you of anything?

Day 23 Sunday 21st July

…more waves.

Day 24 Monday 22nd July

… and still more waves!

Day 25 Tuesday 23rd July

And here is my first row of land… a spot of wet sand!

Day 26 Wednesday 24th July

I have a grey stripe now…. looks a bit like pebbles don’t you think?

Day 27 Thursday 25th July

We spent a lovely hour in Catalan Bay on Thursday evening which made me think perhaps it was as good a time as any to reveal that this year my seaside blanket will be made with a Catalan Bay theme – I can’t wait to capture some of the colours of those Catalan Bay homes!

Day 28 Friday 26th July

Today I did a bit of planning for my Sandy beach rows, then a spot of ruffling…

We have had a rather busy week this week and as it’s the summer holidays I’m taking a little holiday from my phone as from tomorrow. I’ll keep up with my Craft challenge and will tell you all about it when I return!

Until then, bye for now and thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Sunday Sevens #196 14.7.19

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Well, last week I promised a Sunday Sevens full of sport. We have had a truly wonderful week here in Gibraltar with the NatWest International Island Games. 21 visiting teams from islands as diverse as St Helena and the Isle of Man, Menorca and Greenland competing in 14 sports.

I have had such a busy week and it’s getting late on this Sunday evening, so I shall just let the pictures speak for themselves this week. Here’s what we’ve been watching….

Sunday – 10 pin bowling

…and clay pigeon shooting.

Monday – Basketball

….and beach volleyball.

Tuesday – cycling time trials

…and athletics.

Thursday – more beach volleyball

…and swimming.

Friday – tennis

…and more athletics.

…phew, what an amazing week it’s been.

Well done to all the athletes, support teams, organisers and the 700 volunteers from our community here in Gibraltar for helping make this a truly fantastic event. I’m just sorry it’s ended so soon! What will we do next week?

I hope this week has been a good one for you, normal Sunday Sevens service will be resumed next week!

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

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 2)

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Week two gone already! It’s been a very busy one here with the Island Games (more on that in Sunday Sevens here tomorrow). Here goes with this week’s crafty endeavours…

Day 8 : Saturday 6th July

Saturday was a very grey and cloudy day here in Gibraltar which made it perfect weather for me to sit out on the balcony and do a bit of catch up on the Coastal Crochet CAL without getting sunstroke. That’s week 6 complete (just another 7 weeks’ worth to catch up on now…)

Day 9 : Sunday 7th July

Sunday was a busy day going to see some of the Island Games events but there’s nothing like a spot of crochet while the sun goes down to unwind!

Day 10 : Monday 8th July

One last row of aqua inspired blues before a change of colour….

Day 11 : Tuesday 9th July

And this is the colour change I opted for, the rather aptly named ‘shrimp’. The perfect colour for for a spot of bobbling on the beach!

Day 12 : Wednesday 10th July

And the bobbles continue…

Day 13 : Thursday 11th July

A spot late night of bobbling in front of the TV.

Day 14 : Friday 12th July

Well I’ve been bobbling since Tuesday and I’m still going!! There’s a lot of work in these bobbles and it’s been a busy week, so my crochet windows have been small. I’m hoping next week will offer more time with my hook…

Thanks for stopping by! If you would like to join in with the summer Craft challenge, just upload a photo of your crafty work onto Instagram with the hashtag #summercraftchallenge2019

Just in case you were wondering, I’m currently working on the lovely Changing Tides Blanket CAL by Eleonora from Coastal Crochet.

Summer Craft Challenge 2019 (Week 1)

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And so it begins… school’s out for summer and as in the previous three years I decided that the only way to survive the long 9 (yes, 9) week-long school summer break is to find a few moments each day to do something I love (not just drinking Mojitos – although this was a particularly lovely one) but making something or doing something crafty.

Although I only work a small part-time job, this academic year has been a very busy one for me with other projects going on. All of those things are coming to a hiatus during the summer months which is giving me the perfect opportunity to pick up my crochet hook, needle or paintbrush and get cracking in amongst the usual arguments, suncream & sand that punctuates the summer months.

Each day I will attempt something crafty and post it on Instagram using the #summercraftchallenge2019 hashtag. I’ll also publish a weekly round up of my crafty endeavours – this forces me to actually stick to my summer resolutions! If you would like to join in, please do and use the hashtag on Instagram too, I’d love to see what you’re up to as well

Here goes with Week 1:

Day 1 : Saturday 29th June

I may only be on week 4 of the Coastal Crochet CAL when the CAL is already in its 12th week, but I have plenty of time to play catch up this summer!

Day 2 : Sunday 30th June

A spot of long waving in front of Glastonbury on the telly!

Day 3 : Monday 1st July

Got the long waves finished on Monday night.

Day 4 : Tuesday 2nd July

Now for the turn of the blue waves on Tuesday.

Day 5 : Wednesday 3rd July

Life got in the way of crochet on Wednesday…

Day 6 : Thursday 4th July

On Thursday I did get the time to pick up my hook, I managed a lovely row of granny clusters… My photo from Tuesday made an appearance on Eleonora’s Thursday round up of her Changing Tides CAL (from Coastal Crochet) which was a lovely surprise (top left).

Day 7 : Friday 5th July

Another busy day meant no crochet for me, work, swimming with the Little Postcards and then the Calentita Food Festival last night! I’m not doing too well with this year’s challenge am I? Never mind… here’s where I’m up to so far. Better luck next week I hope! Still at least I’m now on week 6 of the Coastal Crochet CAL I’m very slowly catching up!

If you want to join in (and do a better job than me) of posting a crafty photo each day on Instagram throughout your summer, please do join in with the hashtag #summercraftchallenge2019

Sunday Sevens #194 30.6.19

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Greetings from a rather warm and sunny Gibraltar. All the schoole broke up for the summer break here on Friday, so we’re now officially ‘on holiday’ (well the young people are at least!). Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

San Juan

It was the festival of San Juan along the Spanish coast from Gibraltar on Sunday evening last week. Mr Postcard popped over to have a walk and see some of the traditional fires which are lit on the beach. He took this photo (I was at home with the Little Postcards).

Tranquil evening light

I found myself in town at ‘golden hour’ as the sun was going down on Monday evening, it looked so tranquil looking out at the Upper Town from the multi-storey car park, and at odds with the crazy busy day I had had beforehand.

End of term at Dressmaking class

This week was the end of term for my dressmaking class, and I’m really pleased to say that I finished my top!! It’s been four years now that I’ve been attending Dorcas Hammond’s fashion academy and it’s such a highlight in my week. I shall miss it over the summertime. Here’s the finished article…

I’m watching you!

We have some rather large waspy type creatures in Gib in summertime. The Little Postcards get crazy when they arrive in our home with their long dangly legs. I haven’t been able to catch one in flight yet to take a photo. We did find one of them in their own home this week though.

One was spotted in our back patio and it headed to our bug house which is made of short lengths of bamboo in a box. I caught him watching me!

Beautiful sunny weather

We have enjoyed some beautiful sunny warm weather this week. It’s been a pleasure during calm shady moments, but rather hot and sweaty while trying to get things done. I do appreciate that our highest temperature so far has been around 30 degrees Celsius rather than the mid 40s like some of our European neighbours have experienced – that would be a whole lot hotter!

School’s out for summer!

So, here were are, mojito time – school has finished for another academic year – which is ever so slightly frightening as that means my boys are getting older. As of September I will have no children in first school and two in secondary, which is a bit mind-blowing.

Armed Forces Day

It was Armed Forces Day yesterday and that had significance for me this year as a few weeks back I made a ‘Flag of Thanks’ which will be currently being displayed in a church in Salisbury for Armed Forces Day, and which will eventually be added to other flags to make bedding for homeless veterans. (Look for #flagsofthanks on Instagram)

In Gibraltar, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment had a ceremony yesterday to mark a ceremonial changing of the Governor’s guard. It was quite a spectacle, and something for the unsuspecting tourists to enjoy.

That’s it for another week, I hope it’s a good one for you!

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