Sussex

This week’s Friday photo challenge features two clocks I saw last week on our Easter trip to England. The first being the clock of St Paul’s Cathedral in London as seen from the stone gallery around the circumference of the dome.

The second being the clock on the steeple of St John the Evangelist church in Burgess Hill in Sussex. We visited this church on a family history quest and found the war grave of Mr Postcard’s great great uncle who died aged 18 in World War 1. It was a beautifully maintained church and graveyard and a very special place for us all to visit.

Next week’s photo challenge prompt is: transport.

Last week I should have included a monthly round up for March but didn’t manage it owing to being on holiday, so here it is, one week late:

Cosy

Over on Instagram there was a plethora of cosy crocheted and knitted items, blankets, socks to name but two. A very cute sleeping cat showed up too, but poor old Alison in Andalucia (@alisoninandalucia) was struggling with a cold at the time and was staying cosy under a blanket with a hot lemon drink.

Best Friend

Sandra at Wild Daffodil told us the story of Maggie who loved shopping with her best friend!

On Instagram chocolate featured more than once, I had to admit it’s a good friend of mine, although I do pay a price for this friendship! Also a very special rescue cat by the name of Zac who is Susan’s (@BlueJake235) best friend. Janet Bryden posted a photo of herself and her husband and best friend as they are celebrating 40 years of marriage this year – congratulations to you both 🙂

Communication

Snail mail was a popular choice for communication over on Instagram, and I have to agree. You just can’t beat a letter through the post can you? My favourite photo for Communication has to be Sandra’s (@capanosandra) it showed her holding someone’s hand along with some rosary beads, prayer being the form of communication she had in mind. It is a very powerful photo.

Spring

I love Sandra’s take on the Spring Equinox over at Wild Daffodil.

On Instagram, there were spring flowers a plenty. Daffodils, crocus, bluebells and cherry blossom all feature. It wasn’t looking too spring-like up in Yorkshire for Saffy (@bumblebluebee07) though, icicles featured on her feed! Susan (@bluejake235) stole the show though with her spring lambs – aaah!

Rainbow

You really can’t beat a rainbow to lift the spirits! A couple of Instagrammers opted for woolly rainbows like me, there was variegated rainbow yarn knitted into a pair of jazzy cosy socks and an extremely cute crocheted rainbow bookmark by @hookstitchsew and as for ‘real’ rainbows – @bluejake235 took the biscuit with a beautiful rainbow snapped next to a waterfall in Iceland.

If you want to join in with the Friday photo challenge, it’s not too late. You can dip in and out as you wish. Just leave a link to your blog in the comments below or use the hashtag #postcardfromgibfridayphoto and then we can all see your pictures.

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.