sunset

Sunday Sevens #100 10.9.17

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Welcome to the 100th Postcard from Gibraltar Sunday Sevens! I can’t quite believe this little weekly Sunday post has reached such a big milestone, and it couldn’t have landed on a more appropriate day than Gibraltar National Day could it? What’s more, this isn’t any ordinary Gibraltar National Day, it’s the 50th Anniversary of the Referendum in 1967 in which almost 100% of the Gibraltarian population voted to remain British. (I didn’t plan this by the way, I’m not that clever, it’s just a happy coincidence).

This week’s Sunday Sevens is rather neatly bookended by two amazing musical events…

End of the party…


Bearing in mind this is such a milestone, you would have thought I would have packed it full of gorgeous photos wouldn’t you? Sadly, this week hasn’t been the most photogenic one for me! I begin this post with the last photo from my previous post taken in the early hours of Monday morning (thankfully it was a Bank Holiday here in Gibraltar!). 

This year’s Gibraltar Music Festival (known as MTV Presents Gibraltar Calling) came to a climax in the early hours of Monday morning. I took this photo as we were leaving in the middle of Fat Boy Slim’s set (we were being sort of responsible and getting Eldest back home before he or we turned into a pumpkin). For more on the festival, you can find yesterday’s post all about it here.

Moody skies


Things got back to normal again on Tuesday, children went back to school, and a bit of a routine developed again. This long summer break has been lovely but it is nice to have some structure back in our lives again after so long without it! I spotted this cruise ship coming into Gibraltar on Tuesday morning as the Little Postcards were getting ready to head out to school. The tourists on board didn’t get the best of Gibraltar’s weather that day sadly.

Almost missed it!

We had a couple of nice sunsets midweek, I was sitting out on the balcony after dinner and found myself gazing off into the distance in a world of my own when I suddenly realised the sky was looking pretty. I hadn’t even noticed the sun was setting until the last moment. I grabbed my camera quickly before the sun slipped down behind the hills.

Happy post! 


Oh I do love it when I get my monthly subscription from Little Box of Crochet. This lovely little box contained not just a crochet kit, but a cross stitch kit too curtesy of the Geeky Stitching Club! Oh dear, looks like my To-make List is getting longer and longer…

More crochet…


Talking of crochet, I’ve kind of lost my crochet mojo this week. After over 60 days of Crochet during my Summer Craft Challenge, I lost my momentum this week. I’ve only picked up my hook once. I’m hoping this little cactus kit from Simply Crochet Magazine will work its magic and get me back into my rhythm. 

A hole with personality 😉


Please tell me I’m not going mad and this hole has a face… it caught my eye as I walked past and I had to go back and look at it again. From a different angle it looks nothing like a face but straight on it has a pair of shades, a nose and a mouth!! 

It’s on a wall close to The Mount on Europa Road if you fancy having a look yourself. I reckon he has a look of Elvis don’t you?! 

All set for National Day

Gibraltar is resplendent in red and white all ready for this weekend’s celebrations. On Friday I took a walk into town for the first time in ages and ages and got to see all the decorations up close rather than from a car window. Gibraltar really does go to town each September and this year more than most.

Classical celebrations 

Last night I was lucky enough to return to Victoria Stadium, the scene of the first of this week’s photos for another musical concert. This one was by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was amazing. Titled ‘A celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum’ it had the feel of Last Night at the Proms. There was a mix of well known classical pieces such as Pomp & Circumstance and Nimrod from the Enigma Variations and movie soundtracks including Star Wars and Harry Potter. 

In addition to the orchestra, we were entertained by the Gibraltar Regimental Band and a local choir. The solo singers were amazing too – they performed a few opera pieces and rousing renditions of Rule Brittania, Jerusalem etc. The female soloist, Laura Wright is a regular at major sporting events singing anthems, the male soloist is perhaps one of the best known opera singers in Britain today; Wynne Evans of the Go Compare adverts. What an amazing night and wonderful atmosphere, and a world away from what we experienced a week before. At just £5 for a ticket it was a fab opportunity to hear some first class musicians.


And that brings this week’s Sunday Sevens to a close. (I know it should be seven photos from the past seven days and not nine, but it’s a special edition!)

I’m linking with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins for this post, as Sunday Sevens was  first created by her. Thanks Natalie for such a great idea – who would have thought I’d get to 100!

MTV Gibraltar Calling 2017

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Last weekend Gibraltar welcomed MTV and a host of stars for the MTV Presents Gibraltar Calling music festival. Now in it’s 6th year, this is the first time the music festival has been organised by an external company. Back in 2012, Jesse J headlined a much smaller day-long event. Last year it was spread over 2 days and had four musical stages. This time beginning later in the day and over just two stages, we were interested to see what MTV would bring to what already seemed to be a rather eclectic but winning formula.

Day 1 : Saturday 2nd September 

Our first band of the day (the festival was opened by local band Afterhours) was The Amazons from Reading. They were amazing, very reminiscent of the grungy Indy bands of the early/mid 90s a bit Madder Rose/ Buffalo Tom/ Afghan Whigs and right up my street. 

Next up on the Main Stage was Spanish all-girl rock band Hinds, who did a fab job warming up a slightly reluctant crowd I thought. I hope the small numbers who went to see them were just because they were unfamiliar to the Gibraltar crowd and not because of where they come from. They were full of energy and put on a very enthusiastic show.

Hoards of folk streamed into the stadium in time for current pop artist Charli XCX. 

Charli XCX

At this point, it was my cue to head to the Classic Stage (I guess it comes to us all sooner or later) to see a couple of artists who formed part of the soundtrack to my late teens : Rozalla and Black Box. I had a great sing-along to Everybody’s Free and Ride on Time! (Just as well the rest of the family were enjoying Jonas Blue and couldn’t be embarrassed by my Mum dancing).

I caught the end of Jonas Blue and a bit of Years & Years before heading back to the Classic Stage for my headliners of the day.

Years & Years
The Village People
Saturday’s Classic Stage headliners were The Village People. Never in my wildest dreams did I think one day I would see them perform live! After all those years growing up in the 70s and 80s with them as the soundtrack to my childhood on the radio and in my Dad’s car… They didn’t disappoint playing so many hits.

The Village People know how to please the home crowd – while performing ‘In the Navy’ they whipped out some Gibraltar flags to do their semaphore with. As you can imagine, that got a great reaction from the crowd.

Rounding off their set with, you guessed it, YMCA, they led the crowd in a dance lesson. Apparently we’ve all been doing it wrong all these years! 

For me, Village People and The Amazons were the highlight of day one of the festival. We did stay to hear the start of Saturday’s headline act; Ricky Martin, but he’s not really our cup of tea. We heard ‘Shake your Bon Bon’, and ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ and headed home to miss the crowds.

Ricky Martin


Day 2 : Sunday 3rd September 


At last year’s GMF I heard Layla Bugeja play for the first time, tucked away on a tiny stage behind the boathouse. The acoustic set she played with her Dad then blew me away. Since then, she has performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. This year, she played with her band on the Main Stage opening Sunday’s lineup. 

With a decent crowd of family, friends and well-wishers she kicked Sunday’s day of music off in great fashion.

The Vaccines
Next up was The Vaccines, who in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion joked that Gibraltar was in Spain. The crowd took it in far better humour than when Paloma Faith made similar comments a couple of years ago.

The Kaiser Chiefs were the next to grace the main stage, and for their second appearance here in Gibraltar. Back in 2015 they supported the headliners, Kings of Leon. Despite playing a long set the night before at the Bingley Festival in Yorkshire, they were brilliant. Front man, Ricky Wilson wowed the crowd with his energy, running back and forth across the stage, hitching a ride one the tv cameras and generally singing his heart out. I’m so glad they came back to see us again!

The soundtrack artists to countless M&S Food adverts, Clean Bandit took to the stage next, after pulling out of the 2014 GMF at the 11th hour. They put on a very good show and had the crowd singing along to their hits. 

Clean Bandit

As the sun went down, Bastille took to the main stage and thoroughly entertained the crowd.

Bastille

Their backing videos really added to their set, no prizes for guessing where their political tendencies lie…

Then it was time for some more Mum dancing with Bananarama. What fun it was. The duo, of Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin (who are about to be reunited with former member Siobhan Fahey) belted out hit after hit; Robert De Niro’s waiting, Love in the First Degree, Venus etc. They didn’t take themselves too seriously and appeared to be having as much fun as the fans even getting a bunch of them on stage to dance and sing along with them.

Bananarama


What can I say about Craig David? Well, he was brilliant. I didn’t know what to expect in the run up to the festival, so guided by Mr Postcard, I watched some YouTube videos of his most recent performances and was very impressed. Singing his oldest hits and then rapping and DJing during the TS5 section of his set he had the Gibraltar crowd hanging off his very word- what a performer!

Last of all, Fat Boy Slim….

We ducked out of staying super late on Saturday night as Steve Aoki came on after Ricky Martin, but we decided to try and catch the beginning of Fat Boy Slim. His music and stage show were mesmeric although incredibly loud (or perhaps I’m just getting old).

We wimped out after about half an hour and headed off to get the night bus home (yes we are definitely getting old!).

Our verdict on the new MTV takeover of the old Gibraltar Music Festival? There were definitely some improvements this year, the improved access to the classic stage and food court area and the large shaded areas provided much needed respite, and the standard of the artists was very high. Starting later in the day was positive for dodging the sun at its hottest but the knock on effect was that acts went on until well beyond midnight (not so good if you have any kids or young people in your party).

A couple of things we did miss though was the extra stages we had last year, that meant there was always something to see or listen to and this year we had periods when there was no one playing. Also, the sets seemed a bit short for some artists (30 mins) when you know they could go on a lot longer.

All in all it was a good weekend’s entertainment and good value for money. Thank you MTV!

Summer Craft Challenge 2017 (week 9)

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Welcome to the slightly late final edition of my Summer Craft Challenge 2017. A return to school for the Little Postcards and the wonderful MTV Gibraltar Calling music festival this weekend slightly threw me off track… here goes!

Day 57 : Saturday 26th August

Saturday was our last night in beautiful Carcassonne.  I will always remember Carcassonne when I wear this shawl once it’s finished.

Day 58 : Sunday 27th August

Back in Toulouse on Sunday the colour blue began to emerge in the yarn. I’m really enjoying the colours of this Scheepjes Whirl yarn.

Day 59 : Monday 28th August

With a few hours to kill between checking out and heading to the airport it meant a little while in one of Toulouse’s gorgeous public parks crocheting on a bench…

….and then more time for hooky on the plane. I ended up sitting next to a lovely Spanish lady who loves to crochet too. She showed me her bag which she had made herself.

Day 60 : Tuesday 29th August

Back at home in Gibraltar now, with just the chance for a couple of rows between the multiple loads of post holiday laundry!

Day 61 : Wednesday 30th August


Time for a change today and a return to this lovely ‘Jenny’s Mandala’ from Little Box of Crochet. I know I have said it before but I just love how the pattern and look of the mandala changes with each new row.

Day 63 : Thursday 31st August

More mandala time, and as the sun went down on Thursday, it went down on the school summer holidays and indeed my summer craft challenge for this year. I felt a glass of wine was in order to celebrate over 60 days of craftiness (I missed just 2 days this year) and to spare a thought for all the wonderful teachers who will be nurturing all our kiddiwinks over the next academic year.

My Summer Craft Challenge this year has been such fun and has come with us all over the place on a mini European tour. Europa the Unicorn, who I made on the very first day of the challenge back on 1st July has been to the U.K., France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. I have been getting weird glances from not just my children, but passers-by as I have been attempting to take photos of her in various locations, I have been disowned on more than one occasion.

Thanks so much for joining me! 

Sunday Sevens #99 3.9.17

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Last Sunday we woke up in Carcassonne and packed up and headed back to Toulouse for our final day and night in France. One week on, we are back at home in Gibraltar and school has restarted, the events of a week ago, almost feel like a dream already! 

Back in Toulouse

On our final afternoon in Toulouse we went out for a walking tour once we had returned the hire car and done our packing. We headed past the museum (above) and into the beautiful cathedral of St Sernin. I haven’t had the chance to download any photos off my camera yet, so sadly this is the only one I snapped on my phone. You can just about spot the spire of St Sernin poking up on the left.

One last trip to the park

Between checking out and going to the airport, we had a few hours to kill on Monday morning, so we headed back to the beautiful parks. I can’t get enough of these floral bridges linking them together. The play park was beautifully equipped for the youngest Postcards, what a wonderful place to end our holiday, there was even a coffee bar and cafe under the shady trees.

Back to the queues

Once back home, we had to head into Spain to do a spot of back to school shopping. The long queue back into Gib reminded us why we don’t do it very often…


#InstagrammerOfGibraltar

This week, I was very honoured to be featured as Your Gibraltar TV’s Instagrammer of Gibraltar. It made my day! 

End of the summer…

Thursday’s sunset marked not just the end of  August, but also the end of the school summer holidays in Gibraltar. Rather annoyingly, the children returned to school on Friday for 3 or 3 and 3/4 hours depending on their ages, and they won’t return until Tuesday as we have a bank holiday this weekend. Doesn’t strike me as being the best planning, but what do I know?! 

Dinner out

Friday night meant a lovely dinner out for me with my Mum and Dad. They arrived in Gibraltar on Wednesday and are over for a few weeks. It was so nice to catch up with their news and fill them in on all our holiday adventures. 

Gibraltar calling …


It’s that time of the year again – Music Festival time. This year it’s been run by MTV, and is being broadcast all over the world. Yesterday was the first day and featured artists as diverse as The Amazons, Jonas Blue, the Village People And Ricky Martin. Doing the YMCA dance with the Village People has to be my highlight of the day!

It’s hard to believe that we are into September already, the long summer holiday has flown really quickly for me. Mind you, we have beeen incredibly lucky to be able to have several trips away to amazing places; Portugal, Rome, and France in just one month! Watch out for up coming posts with loads of photos of these beautiful places.

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

Sunday Sevens #98 27.8.17

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Bonjour and welcome to this French edition of Sunday Sevens. We have been enjoying a week in the south of France, beginning in Toulouse…

Green Toulouse

I’m really impressed with Toulouse, it’s a beautiful city which is full of fantastic architecture, the public transport is clean, reliable and just great. Even the bridges are beautiful and floral in Toulouse… have you ever seen anything as lovely as this?? This was one of the bridges which link several parks together. What a great idea.

Don’t look down…


I’m not a fan of heights (staying in a holiday apartment on the 17th floor of a tower block meant issues for me) but I overcame my fears and went for a ride with the whole Postcard family on this lovely Ferris wheel. Situated on the bank of the River Garonne, it was a perfect vantage point to watch the sunset over Toulouse on Monday evening.

Astronaut toilets


On Tuesday we took a trip out to the Cité de l’Espace, a museum for the European Space Programme on the outskirts of Toulouse. There was a fascinating IMAX film about the international space station and another about the Aurora Borealis. We even got to see Venus through a huge telescope in the observatory. The highlight for the Little Postcards was most probably finding out about how astronauts go to the loo… 

Planes, planes, planes…


On Wednesday we paid a visit to the Airbus factory in Toulouse. They do guided tours and take you inside to see where the giant, double decker A380 planes are assembled. We have a huge transport fan in the factory, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close to these amazing planes. 

For security and to prevent their trade secrets being leaked you aren’t allowed to take any photos on the tour. It was really interesting (even for someone like me who doesn’t really even like flying ). The photo here is of an A350 just after take off on a test flight.

Carcassonne 


Straight after our Airbus tour, we set off for Carcassonne, the highlight of the whole trip for me. After reading the Kate Mosse book, Labyrinth a few years ago, I have wanted to visit this medieval city which is one of the main venues in the story. It was a beautiful as I imagined. 

We loved it so much that we changed our plans and decided to stay for 4 nights. That way we had the chance to really explore properly.

A riverside walk


The Cité of Carcassonne sits on a hill beside the River Aude. We took a lovely wander down by the river and sat on the bank watching the ducks and a little terrier diving in to retrieve his ball!  It is such a lovely spot. 

Window shopping in Carcassonne 


Away from the medieval Cité, Carcassone has a lot to offer. We stayed on the same side of the River Aude as the Cité but across the river is a bustling modern city. Some of the shops were amazing. I love window shopping when I’m abroad, you see so many interesting things. This cheese shop really caught my eye, you’ve got to love a heart-shaped cheese!

Thanks for joining me again this week. I’m linking with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins who first created the Sunday Sevens weekly blog series. 


Sunday Sevens #96 13.8.17

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Hello there! I’m sending this Sunday Sevens from the beautiful city of Rome…

Gibraltar sunset


We haven’t had a Gibraltar sunset for a while in Sunday Sevens and as last Sunday I did nothing of note, due to being under the weather, that’s my photo of the day. 

A windy, Sandy Bay


At the start of the week we had some very breezy weather. We had planned to go down the beach at Sandy Bay for a few hours but the conditions were so windy we aborted the plan for fear of being sandblasted.

Clear view across the Strait


Wednesday was a beautiful evening and the view across the Strait to Morocco was really clear.

Another trip away!


Thursday saw us getting onto another plane, this one from Malaga airport and bound for the eternal city of Rome. We were so excited for this holiday, I have wanted to visit Italy for a long time (as a big fan of pizza, pasta, ice cream and coffee) aside from the gastronomic adventure, I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in the sights and sounds of the place.

Now that’s what I call a ceiling


Our first full day in Rome was dominated by a guided tour of the Vatican. We had an amazing guide and we all learned so much. I was amazed by how much Middle Postcard knew about the Sistine Chapel before hand. He answered so many questions posed by our guide. I guess he must be paying attention at school after all!

It’s the Collosseum!


I can’t do our Ancient Roman experience yesterday justice in a paragraph. Suffice to say it was utterly amazing to discover how sophisticated the Romans were, so long ago. What a day!

I have taken a few (ahem a lot) of photos of our holiday in Rome, look out for a future postcard from this amazing place!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins. It features seven (or perhaps more) photos from the last seven days of your week. If you are a blogger and would like to join in with the Sunday Sevens community, then pop over to Natalie’s blog to find out how you can get involved.

Sunday Sevens #91 9.7.17

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And so it begins…. schools have broken up for summer here in Gibraltar and the eight week-long summer holiday is underway.

I will continue posting Sunday Sevens, the photo challenge and my summer craft challenge throughout the summer but as for any other more considered posts – well we will just have to wait and see. I see days filled with beach outings, picnics and other child friendly activities and hopefully a bit of adult relaxing too.

Here’s to summer fun!

A sunset walk

I’m pretty sure I have posted a photo like this once before after a similar evening stroll to the recycling bins – ah the glamour!  Still the view makes the task a bit more appealing :-).


Casting my vote

This year’s Gibraltar National Day marks the 50th anniversary of the referendum when Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain British. For the past month or so, there has been a special exhibition of press cuttings and Pathé news reels of the time. 

Part of the exhibition features a polling booth where you can cast your own vote in a mock second referendum. School parties have come down to see the exhibits and the children have also had the chance to vote in a childrens’ referendum. I cast my vote too!

First figs 


We have figs!! Last year our little fig tree did bear fruit but something or someone snaffled them before we got the chance to harvest any for ourselves. This year we were rewarded for our patience and we have 2 ripe fruits. There are more still to come as well!

Cake!


We have had two birthday celebrations in the Postcard household this week. One required a home made cake. It was rather tasty 😋 

Nothing to see here…


Diamond the Postcard family pet rabbit has got a new party trick.. He loves jumping up onto the sofa during his evening romps around the lounge and making me jump out of my skin. I’ll be sitting there watching telly or crocheting and bam he’s suddenly up beside me! He’s such a cheeky monkey.

Instagram milestone


This week my Instagram account reached a bit of a milestone. It now has 500+ followers. Fancy that! Thank you to everyone who’s stopped by and said hello 😊

Beautiful Europa Point

Yesterday morning I took a little stroll to the lighthouse at Europa Point. It was a gorgeous morning without a cloud in the sky. Trinity Lighthouse was looking fab with her new lick of paint and the scaffolding taken down.

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series featuring seven photos from the past seven days and was created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins. 

Sunday Sevens #90 2.7.17

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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

Sunday Sevens #88 18.6.17

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Hello from a very warm Gibraltar. Blimey summer has definitely arrived. The temperature has risen considerably and I don’t mind admitting I’m wilting a little! It’s ok in this temperature when you are on holiday and doing nothing in particular but it’s hard work when you still have to cook and clean and rush around doing things. 

Anyway, enough moaning – we are never happy with the weather are we?! Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens…

Sixty Million Trebles corner to corner complete 

This blanket was started during Lent when I was crocheting a granny square each day. On days when I was super keen and wanted to do more crochet I did a bit of this. Once Lent was over I put it aside to do a few other bits and pieces and only revisited this last week when I headed back to Manchester to visit my parents. 

It was completed on Sunday and I took it to the pool for an arty photo shoot 😉 it’s comprised of 10,608 treble stitches and brings my total Sixty Million Trebles tally up to 33,864 for my three blankets to date. 

For those of you who haven’t heard of Sixty Million Trebles before it’s a charity and awareness raising appeal to make crochet blankets totalling sixty million treble stitches (one treble stitch represents one refugee in the world – figures from the UN in 2016). The blankets will be sent to Syrian child refugees. For more information see: the Sixty Million Trebles Facebook page.

Walking 

I abandoned the car for most of this week and decided to walk whenever I could. It meant that I wasn’t able to fit quite as much into my child free hours while the Little Postcards were in school, but I did enjoy being able to appreciate my surroundings a lot more. There are so many interesting buildings and nooks and crannies here in Gibraltar which you can drive past in a blur so easily. 

I won’t have a body fit for a bikini, but I have walked a good few miles this week!

Watercolour seashells 

I put the finishing touches to some of my seashells this week at my watercolour class. I have really enjoyed painting them and have come to the conclusion that perhaps I’m better at small focused pieces than larger landscapes and compositions. 

Trumpet flowers

I have to confess that I don’t know what these flowers are called but I have seen quite a few about of late. In fact there are a lot of gorgeous plants in bloom around Gibraltar at the moment. They seem to be at their peak before getting frazzled in the hot summer sun. 

A new hobby?


“Not another one?” I hear you say. Well there is blogging, taking loads of photos (although I am not a photographer by any means), sewing, painting, crochet, reading… I really don’t need another one but I may have found a new way to dodge doing housework! 

A friend of mine is a rather accomplished ‘felter’ – is that a word? (Well someone who makes delightful pictures with felted yarn). This week she very kindly showed me how to do it too over the course of two lovely lunches and afternoons. 

I took loads of photos and at some point in the next few weeks I hope to be able to share my foray into felting with you too. Ooh it’s such fun! 

Summer hours

The time has finally come, that time of the year where you no longer have to make school packed lunches, but you do have to come up with afternoon entertainment for the kiddiwinks. Friday saw the end of full days for school children in Gibraltar. With just three weeks left until the end of the summer term, it’s half days from here on in. 9am to 12 noon for first schools and 9am to 12:45 for the older children. 

Hmmm, I will be so happy not to have to figure our what tasty delights to put in the lunch boxes of an evening until mid September, but crikey, what am I going to do with them for all that extra time? I don’t remember constantly asking my Mum what her plans for the day were as far as entertaining me and my brother were concerned, but that seems be the norm for me and the mums I’ve spoken to. We may be exploring boredom and room tidying in the coming weeks… I cannot face the beach everyday! 

A roof with a view

I shall round up this week’s Sunday Sevens with a photo of last night’s Saharan Dust sunset. It was lovely and completely different from the rainbow sunsets we’ve had in recent weeks. I grabbed my camera as I spotted some seagulls sitting on a nearby roof enjoying the view as much as me!

We are enjoying a Bank Holiday weekend this weekend, schools and many workplaces are closed tomorrow in honour of the Queen’s birthday. That means that many Dads who are able to enjoy Father’s Day today, can get a second lie in tomorrow too! However you spend your day, I hope it’s a good one for you.

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

Sunday Sevens #81 30.04.17

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Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens. My Med Steps training is going well and hopefully I’ll be ready in time for the Med Steps 5 Challenge next month…

Med Steps – twice

I managed twice round again in my Med Steps training last Sunday, it was a gorgeous sunny day for it and not too busy. If there are lots of other people around I find it quite hard to regulate my speed, I either end up going too slow so I don’t tailgate other walkers or attempt and overtake and go faster than I should and wear myself out!

On my second trip up the steps, my eyes were drawn by the colours of the sea. I am in the middle (well, start) of the latest Little Box of Crochet project and the sea & stone of reminded me so much of the yarn I’m using at the minute.

A tight squeeze 

On my trip up the Steps on Monday my legs were very tired, so I just had the one trip round. On the way back down I spotted this passenger ship being carefully parked in the dry dock. It looked a tight squeeze even for a relatively small boat. It’s not just car drivers who need to hot parking skills in Gibraltar then…

Dressmaking 

My sleeves are set in! It’s taken 2 weeks of jiggery pokery but they are in. Just got to sort the sleeve linings and the hem… hmm I wonder how long that will take??

Down in the Dell

On Wednesday I got the chance to go behind the scenes at the Alameda Gardens. I went to record the interview I used for my most recent podcast on the children’s gardening club there and their attempts to crowd fund a bio dome classroom. I was able to sit in the Dell under the Codali Bridge to record the interview – I felt very privileged to go there as it’s not open to the public.

Med Steps in watercolour


The Med Steps are on my mind a lot at the moment, this time last year I diverted my fixation into crochet and made my Med Steps wreath. This year I’m trying to paint them in my watercolour class. We’ll see how this turns out…

Rainy afternoon fun…


You can’t beat a jigsaw on a wet bank holiday afternoon… and Friday was just that. It was Worker’s Memorial Day so schools and many places of work were closed, just in time for the heavens to open. A month’s worth of rain fell in six hours apparently. 

From this…


….to this…


Crikey, it’s been so very wet. Yesterday wasn’t much better than Friday. We headed into Spain to do a spot of shopping and have lunch and the top picture was taken as we crossed the runway towards the frontier. By evening though, the clouds parted to produce this beautiful sunset.

The last day of April 2017


April began for me with fish and chips by the North Sea while on holiday visiting family and has drawn to an end with a gorgeous sunset over the Bay of Gibraltar. There’s been lots of crochet, Med Steps trips and perhaps a chocolate egg or two eaten in between too!

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