watercolour class

Sunday Sevens #57 13.11.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 11 Comments

Hello again, wow, it’s been quite a week with everything that’s been going on on the global political scene. I can’t help but feel uneasy about what the future may hold for us all, but I’m staying away from politics and looking at the smaller, positives that have happened this week for us. Here goes….

Med Steps in the November Sunshine

View across the Strait of Gibraltar from the start of the Med Steps
On Sunday afternoon after we had returned from our mid-term break up the coast, and after I had finished unpacking and got the first load in the washing machine, I headed off on my own for a lovely walk up the Med Steps. It was such a stunningly beautiful November day and it was a crime to stay indoors. The younger Postcards were more content to stay at home and reacquaint themselves with all their stuff after a week away so I made the most of the peace and quiet.

It was the first time I’d attempted the Med Steps for ages and it took me a while longer than on previous occasions because I kept stopping to look at everything. Unlike back in the spring, when everything looked so luscious and green, a lot of the vegetation was crisp and brown after the long, hot Mediterranean summer days but here and there there were little shoots of fresh green sprouting through and even some dwarf narcissi.

As I reached the midway point, I was greeted with this stunning view back towards the north.

 

Crochet-on-the-go

Monday meant one of the Little Postcards returned to school but the two other had an in-service day. The lovely sunny weather continued on from Sunday and after the joys of ironing and putting away of clean laundry, we headed down to Europa Point for a bit of fresh air. After a scoot around the park, they found a new friend to play football with. While they were happy having a kick around on what could be the most southerly football court in Europe, I enjoyed a spot of crochet in the sunshine. (I can’t call it a pitch because it’s made of concrete and surrounded by chain link fencing…. so surely it’s a court?)

Dressmaking class

Tuesday morning and all three of the Little Postcards were in school for the first time in two weeks (thanks to  a virus and then mid-term) and I headed back to my dressmaking class. At last, after weeks of planning, pattern cutting, fabric cutting, pinning and tacking, I got the sewing machine out! I completed the princess-line seams on the lining and then promptly ironed the bust seam flat and reduced it from a 3D piece of fabric to a 2D one…. whoops.

The morning after the night before.

So, on Wednesday morning, we awoke to the news the America had nearly elected a new President. By the time we were on the school run, the result was pretty much sealed. In tumultuous times, I find it’s sometimes good to just stop and take a deep breath and realise that life goes on. The world kept turning and the boats were still out in the Bay.

Watercolour class

It’s been three weeks since my last watercolour class and I’ve missed it a lot. Us students often joke that our teacher should charge us more for the therapy we get from her classes. Work continued on my interpretation of the beach huts in Southwold. Slowly but surely I’m getting there…

Blue skies

We really have been blessed with the weather this week. You can’t help but feel positive when the sky is as blue as this can you?

Stunning sunsets


The lovely clear weather has resulted in some lovely sunsets for us too. This one was last night. Although the sun’s been shining away, you can’t help but notice it’s November as there’s a distinct chill in the air once you are out of the sunshine. 

We often joke that you can very rarely sit out on our balcony because it’s either too hot or too cold. In the summer time it’s like sitting on a spit roast when the sun’s shining on the front of the building, in autumn and winter, once the sun drops it’s suddenly really chilly. I know, I know, I’ve turned into a softy… you wouldn’t think I’d been brought up and spent the first 30-odd years of my life in the north of England would you?

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog. Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you have a good week ahead.

Sunday Sevens #52 9.10.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 8 Comments

 

Despite the fact we are well into October now, it’s been very warm again here in Gibraltar. As I sit at the dining table writing this, I have steam coming out of my collar!!

This week has been a rather busy one for me, there’s been nothing in particular, just lots of different stuff going on, so there was no midweek post from me this week. I hope you’ve had a good week, whatever you’ve been up to. Without further ado, here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens:

Across the Strait

This photo kind of sums up the weather we’ve been having for about half of this last week. I took the photo on Sunday afternoon when we took the Little Postcards to Europa Point park to let off a bit of steam on their scooters. You know when they are bouncing off the walls that you need to get out and exercise them like dogs!! The sky was crystal clear overhead but in the distance across at Morrocco there was a hazy mist which looked like someone had taken an eraser to the bit where the mountains touch the sea!

So for most of this week, in the afternoons  it has been clear, bright and hot (especially when standing outside the school gates waiting for the bell to go!) but the mornings have been misty and town was sitting under a heavy Levanter cloud with gusty winds whipping up the dust.

Dressmaking class


Sewing continued on the sample top I’m working on in my dressmaking class. The photo doesn’t show it to advantage as the back is still unfinished and open. Part of the exercise for this sample is to make up the front, then remodel the arm holes and neckline. This is before the remodelling takes place.

In addition to working on my sample top, I have also been making a skirt for my Mum who has been over visiting at the moment. A straight skirt with a small slit at the back and in a colour to compliment her new winter coat is underway. After several fittings and alterations, I am now about to machine stitch the side seams and hand sew the hem. Hopefully it will be ready for her when she returns before Christmas.

Watercolour class

After two weeks of pencil sketches, I finally got around to mixing some paint colours and worked my current project at my watercolour class this week. I just love the brightly coloured beach huts at Southwold, and wanted to work on a painting to reflect that. I’m working from a photograph taken by Mr Postcard of a stretch of predominantly blue and white ones, but have used a little artistic licence and injected more colour based on photos I took on our visit in the summer. I’m really enjoying painting this one. 🙂

Sea mist


We had everything crossed on Friday evening. After dropping my parents off at the airport to fly home, we returned to find our home had been engulfed by a real pea-souper of a sea mist. Just as their plane was due to land it got thicker and thicker.

Miraculously the plane landed. The two photos above were taken 30 minutes apart. The first one is of a tree about 100 metres from our apartment – there was no point taking one of the sea, it would have just been grey!

I’m very pleased to say that Mum and Dad made it back home safely and we look forward to seeing them again just before Christmas.

Autumn leaves


It’s October, and of course that means autumn. I do love autumn in the UK in a kind of bitter sweet way. It’s such a beautiful season with the colours of the leaves on woodland walks but it also spells the end of summer and all the fun which that season promises. Back when we lived in England, I kind of dreaded winter with the grey damp urgh kind of weather it could spell for weeks between the odd beautiful crispy frosty day.

One benefit of living here in Gibraltar is that although we do have seasons, they aren’t quite as noticeable as in England. Summer is undboubtedly hot and sunny and winter is often damp and grey but not quite as cold and depressing as I remember English winter days to be. That does mean though that spring and autumn aren’t quite as obvious as what’s experienced in the UK.

I remember feeling a bit homesick that first autumn after we moved to Gibraltar and I just couldn’t put my finger on what the problem was. Suddenly it hit me, the vast majority of the trees here on the Rock are evergreen and that meant there are very few leaves to crunch through and collect with little people. Autumn always used to mean Sunday afternoons spent at one of our nearest National Trust sites or parks collecting sticks, conkers and brown, red and golden leaves of all shapes and sizes to bring home. That just isn’t an option here.

In recent years though, a few new trees have been planted here and some of the ones in Commonwealth Park (which was built a couple of years ago) are deciduous. It was so nice to sit under the browning leaves on a bench for a while yesterday as the Little Postcards played football. We were all in T-shirts and shorts so it’s not really like autumn, but it was nice to pretend.

A new crochet project


After finishing my sixty million trebles blanket last week, I was free to crack open some of the lovely new yarn I bought at Yarndale a fortnight ago with a clear conscience. The gorgeous mohair and bamboo Louisa Harding Yarn I bought from Esgair Fibres had been calling me from my stash and really needed to be worked on as soon as possible! I’m using it to make a shawl/scarf for when the weather here turns a little bit fresher. It’s so lovely to use, the constantly changing colours which change even within just one treble stitch are gorgeous and it feels so nice between my fingers as I hook up another row.

 
PS : just one more thing…

A couple of people asked to see the finished picture that I posted two weeks ago from my watercolour class, here it is, mounted and ready to go to its new home in England.

 

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

(Natalie, if you’re reading this I hope you’re ok! You’ve been very quiet lately.)

Sunday Sevens #51 2.10.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Let the sewing begin!

Three weeks into our dressmaking course and we have finished with the pattern drawing and cutting and we are now in the process of constructing a sample top. Because it’s a sample, we are just using curtain lining material to make it, hence the rather boring photo. I’m eager to get this finished and move onto the next ‘real’ project.

Bunny bombshell

Bunny Postcard had a trip to the vets this week. We had been meaning to take him for months so that he could have some vaccinations to allow him to play out in our back patio. Now the weather is beginning to cool a little bit, we thought he might like to have a hop about outside. The first thing the vet said when she saw Bunny was ‘Oh what a lovely girl’. I thought nothing of it, thinking clearly she’s made a mistake…

Once the full medical was done, including checking his heart, ears, eyes and teeth, the vet cottoned onto the fact that we had never actually officially been told Bunny’s gender. Well the big news this week is that Bunny is officially a girl! It’s taken a bit of time for that news to sink in in certain quarters, but I’m thrilled to know that at last I am no longer the only female in the Postcard household!

Suspension 

When I flew back from Yarndale last weekend, not only did I bring with me a suitcase full of yarn and wonderful memories, I also brought my Mum and Dad with me too. They hadn’t been to see the Windsor suspension bridge yet so one afternoon this week, while the Little Postcards were still at school, we took a walk up the Rock and along the bridge. I have to say, since my last visit, a discernible creak has developed as you walk from one side of the gorge to the other which did put me slightly on edge. The view is still as stunning as ever from there though.

Not much painting going on…

Inspired by our summer holiday in Southwold back in August, I decided that my next paining project should include some of the beautiful beach huts you see along the seafront. Last week I spent the entire lesson trying to sketch out the huts freehand, and not using a ruler. Unfortunately due to the composition of the photo I’m using and it’s perspective, even when just one line was out of place, it made the whole thing look wonky and a bit rubbish.

This week after a quick refresher lesson on perspective, horizons and eyelines, my teacher very kindly gave me some tracing paper to get the skeleton of the picture down onto the paper so that at least next week I can start painting. Shhh, don’t tell anyone I cheated 😉

Interesting keyhole



I went exploring over the border in La Linea on Friday morning looking for yarn shops (not that I need to buy any more after Yarndale last weekend mind you). I had heard there were some and that they sold nice stuff. Thinking ahead to Christmas presents and such like I thought it was worth following it up.

Almost next door to a really lovely yarn shop, this most unusual keyhole caught my eye on the front door of an old building. There’s some really lovely architecture amongst all the late twentieth century and more modern apartments and shop fronts if you keep your eyes open. Next time, I need to take my camera with me….

Cake anyone? 

Yesterday, if you were in Gibraltar town centre there’s a good chance you were  ‘encouraged’ to part with your cash for raffle tickets and cakes for the Scouts. As two of the Little Postcards are in Scouts, there was a bit of baking going on this week for the annual cake stall fundraiser. My fairy cakes aren’t in this picture, they were hidden down at the other end of the stall… I photographed the pretty cakes instead 😉

Rainbow hope blanket completed


Begun on the last day of August (the very last day of the school summer holidays) and completed on the last day of September – it’s taken me a month to complete my contribution to the Sixty Million Trebles project. The blanket I made will join hundreds of others and be joined to make the worlds biggest ever blanket. It will be used to yarn bomb a site in London before being unpicked to make ‘normal-sized’ blankets which will go to charities in the UK and Syria.

The project is being run to raise awareness about the plight of the sixty million refugees who are displaced from their homes around the world at the moment. It will also raise funds for the cause too. It’s hoped that sixty million treble stitches will be crocheted to represent all the people who have been driven from their homes. Where ever my Rainbow Hope Blanket ends up, I hope it brings some hope to whoever receives it. This 36″ square blanket adds 10,656 trebles to the current count of almost five million.

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Nat at Threads & Bobbins. For more information about it, and if you would like to join in, why not  pop over to her blog.

 


Sunday Sevens #49 18.9.16

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Bus stop crochet

This week has seen me with actual free time during the day as all three Little Postcards went to school for full days for five whole days. I can’t tell you what a difference that has made for me in terms of being able to get things done. The house has been cleaned, the ironing is up to date and I even managed to fit in a bit of crochet too. I’m working away on my #sixtymilliontrebles blanket and trying to do a little bit every day.

When it’s finished it will be added to many other blankets to make the biggest crochet blanket in the world which is being created to raise awareness for the sixty million refugees in the world today. It will then go on to be a blanket for someone who needs it either in the UK or Syria. For more information on the project look out for sixty million trebles on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Back to school for me

The time came this week for me to return to school myself. I’m now in my second year at the Dorcas Hammond Fashion Academy in Gibraltar. Last year it was all about skirts, this year I’m learning about tops and dresses. We hit the ground running this week with our first lesson in drawing our own pattern to make a vest top. It’s been interesting and challenging so far, although reassuring that I haven’t forgotten everything I’d learned last time!

Here comes the rain

If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you may remember me banging on about the weather here in Gibraltar since we returned from our holiday in England in the summer. It’s been really unbearably hot with a scorcher of a heat wave. On Tuesday, the rain came in spectacular style with thunder and lightning and with it came cooler weather… what a relief!

Normal service is resumed…

Once the rain had cleared off the sun came back but with less ferocity. This is the kind of weather when it’s a pleasure to live here, clear blue skies and sunshine but actually being able to function without wilting and needing several showers a day! I took this photo on a walk by Rosia Bay on Thursday morning, it was just so blue and beautiful.

Back to painting class too

Another of my regular weekly classes started up again this week, my lovely, relaxing watercolour classes. Oh how I have missed these lessons over the long summer break. I had grand plans to paint when I was on holiday this year and managed to get to my destination with the correct paper but had forgotten to pack my paint and brushes! I had hoped to do a bit more painting during my Summer Craft Challenge, but as it requires a bit of space, time and equipment it didn’t really happen during the school holidays.

This week I finished off a watercolour of the Rock of Gibraltar and discussed some ideas about what my next project will be. I have been greatly inspired by our English seaside holiday this year, so hope to recapture that on paper soon. Whether it will look anything like I have in my head is another matter!

A Pokemon birthday

We have been celebrating a birthday again in the Postcard household this week. I was given a design brief of the Deathstar from Star Wars for the cake. After Googleing images of Death Star birthday cakes, I soon came to the conclusion that it may be slightly beyond my skill set. As Pokemon is currently on trend in our house I figured I couldn’t go too far wrong with a Pokeball cake instead. It went down very well with the birthday boy and tasted ok too. Everyone was happy and that’s another party out of the way – phew!

Bumper harvest


Here’s something to make you allotment holders and veg patch devotees chuckle… This year we treated ourselves to a fig tree, they grow like weeds here. There’s one at the end of our road which is cut back to a stump every year to stop it overhanging the road, and every year it grows back as big as ever and is laden with fruit.

Our little tree which is no more than a metre tall had about a dozen fruit on it earlier in the summer. ‘Not bad for the first year’ I thought. I watched the largest fruit swell to the size you see in the supermarket but it looked a little under ripe to pick. A day later, it was perfect – so perfect the ants had invaded and were devouring it.

What a shame – but never mind there were still plenty of others to have a go at. Each time I was on the patio hanging out washing I noticed that the remaining figs were growing fewer in number everytime I looked. Either something or someone had been pilfering our figs – they hadn’t fallen off as there was no sign anywhere in the garden of the fruit.

Yesterday while doing the laundry I spotted we had just two left on the tree, so I picked them – that way we can at least taste them when they ripen (I hope they ripen ok when they are picked!). It’s a mystery as to what’s happened to the rest of our crop… and to think I had envisioned making all sorts of recipes with our home grown figs. They are a rather puny couple of specimens, but at least they have done zero food miles 😉

 

Thank you for joining me for Sunday Sevens again this week, it’s been lovely to have your company!

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

 

 

Sunday Sevens #38 3.7.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 8 Comments

Well it’s certainly summer here in Gibraltar, someone has turned the thermostat up on the heating and we’re cooking nicely. We have reached that delightful stage of the season where, in our non air conditioned apartment you stick to the chair if you stay in it for too long! Sorry for that image 😛 . Here’s a little look back at what I’ve been up to this week. It’s very floral; flowers and gardens seem to have been a theme this week.

Watercolour class

I got back to my watercolour class this week after a 4 week break and it looks like my time off has had an effect. Not too happy with this offering, it either needs more work or a bin! We were working from a painting which my art teacher found on a greetings card. The original was really lovely – you’ll have to use your imagination I’m afraid.

Frangipani

I love seeing these frangipani blooms when they open. As far as I am aware there is just one spot in Gibraltar where they grow. It’s on Queensway just next to Commonwealth Park. Sometimes I park my car in the carpark next door to Commonwealth Park and I get to walk past these beauties coming and going from the car. They really are stunning at the moment – so tropical looking. 

There are some gorgeous pink ones growing there too but the flowers are quite high up. I have stood on my tiptoes trying to get a decent photo but so far have failed, I’ll keep trying and will share it if I’m successful. If you see soon loony stretching to take a photo which is complete out of my reach – please resist the temptation to push me over 😉

Dressmaking class

I’m really making headway with my final skirt at my dressmaking class. As you can see from the photo the waistband is going on. Unfortunately, when I tried it on the front pleat sat right on top of my stomach, drawing rather a lot of attention to it (not a good look), so I have had to unpick the front to adjust the pleat. Hopefully I’ll get the skirt finished next week as it’s our last lesson of the academic year.

Oleander trees

We have had a few school friends round to play in the afternoons this week as all the government schools in Gibraltar are on half days (finishing at lunchtime). I have to admit that I’m struggling with it a bit this year. There is always a ratcheting up of stress levels as the school year comes to a climax with sports days, beach days, pyjama days, parties and concerts and all the associated outfits and rehearsals which go with that. Put that on top of the usual jobs you have to do but with only 3 hours each week day child free in order to do it, I have to admit I’m shattered. How parents who work for a living manage I have no idea.

This week was week 3 of 4 half day weeks so I’m almost on the home straight. Each little Postcard had a friend over this week to help make the afternoons run a little smoother (read sibling tension here). One day we went to the park for a while before heading home for lunch and I found myself gazing up into the beautiful pink blossom of the oleander trees above. Aren’t they just beautiful? They have frilly double blooms and remind me of the dresses the ballroom dancers used to wear on Come Dancing when I was little. It was such a delight to see them, a real moment of stopping and taking a deep breath in amongst the chaos of our current weekly routine.

Operation patio tidy

Summer time generally means spending more time outdoors and our poor patio has been neglected of late. There is major construction work going on in the building directly behind ours so there is noise and dust from about 7:30am until at least 6pm on week days. That and having an audience of builders in hard hats looking down on you kind of puts you off having a cup of tea in the yard during a quiet moment.

I took a bit of time while the builders had downed tools to have a potter this week. I painted a wall – it looks lovely and bright in the sunshine now – especially against the bougainvillea. We have had mixed results with our trees this year. Our lemon and orange trees have blossomed twice and had baby fruits on them but they shrivelled up and fell off. Our new almond tree looks dead too so that’s not so good either, but Mr Postcard pointed out that we have baby figs growing on our little fig tree so we’re happy about that. The stephanotis is looking good too with it’s white blossom, the leaves are a tad dirty in this photo due to the thunder storm we had this week which brought loads of Saharan dust with it.

And relax…..

On Friday evening I took the little Postcards to Queensway Quay to meet Mr Postcard for an after work drink and dinner. That pint of San Miguel really hit the spot after such a busy week!

Reliving my childhood

We made our usual Saturday trip into town yesterday, we had a few bits we needed to buy for the week ahead. On the way back to the car we all had Slush Puppies and went to sit in Commonwealth Park. The park was almost empty (as you can see) I reckon most of Gibraltar had gone to the beach. We sat in the sun slurping happily and watched the little Postcards doing roly-polies down the hill.

That’s all from me this week, I hope your week has been good for you. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series featuring seven photos from the last seven days. The series was the brainchild of Natalie at Threads & Bobbins, if you fancy joining in check out Natalie’s blog for more details.

Sunday sevens #32 22.5.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 16 Comments

Hello there, I do hope you’re having a good weekend. Well summer seems to have arrived here in Gibraltar this week, Thursday saw the hottest day of the year so far, with highs of 26 degrees. The flip flops are out, the toenails are painted and we’ve had our first barbecue of the year!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series which features seven photos from the last seven days. It was devised by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog. Pop over to her blog to find out how you can join in.

Sunday = rest day!

After the exertions of the Med Steps 5 Challenge last Saturday, Sunday was a rather quiet and stationary affair. We did manage a walk to the botanical gardens and a trip to the supermarket but mainly it was spent at home. We made a pleasant discovery on our balcony when we found that this flower had opened without us even noticing the bud had formed. I do love my hibiscus.

Watercolour class

This week we continued our study of orchids. I finished off last week’s attempt and worked on a couple of other styles too. Still more work to do on these though…

Dressmaking class


I have done absolutely no sewing at all in my dressmaking class for the last two weeks – it’s been exam time (well sort of). In order to test the knowledge we have gleaned so far, we were given a series of skirts to make mini paper patterns for. It was just to reinforce what we already know and to push us a little to experiment and consider how other styles we haven’t yet tried are put together. 

The first few were relatively easy. The last two though, my word – my brain hurt! (The one above was one of the tricky ones). I had to go outside and have a walk to try and process what I was trying to achieve. I’m pleased to say that with a little gentle pushing in the right direction by our lovely teacher, I got there in the end. I was a bit of a zombie for the rest of the day though – I only seem to have limited brain cells available these days!!

Town scenter florals


Town scenter… do you like what I did there? No? Sorry, I won’t do it again! Walking through the new park in the centre of town this week I was overwhelmed by the beautiful scent of Jasmine. The old wall, the entire length of the park, has been planted up with Jasmine and they are in bloom right now. They look beautiful against the old brickwork and the smell is amazing. 

Crochet crazy


Wednesday was rather pleasingly filled with crochet loveliness. First, I had a lovely response to my Med Steps Crochet wreath post. The highlight being that Lucy from Attic24 who had inspired me to have a go in the first place said on Instagram that she thought it was lovely! Hurrah for that – it made my day 🙂

Secondly, I went to the post office to collect my latest edition of Simply  Crochet magazine which contained a kit to make a bright flower brooch. I had intended to crack on with my spring cleaning, but got ever so slightly distracted 😉

Med Steps… a return trip.


I did say in my last post that I would stop going on about the Med Steps but it would appear from many of your lovely comments that you’ve become rather attached to them. Well I guess I have too, as on Thursday morning I took a walk up there again. It was a lot quieter than last Saturday and it was a lot hotter too. I think I may have to stop the morning walks there as the sun’s beating down on you at that time. An alternative route will be found and Med Steps will soon have to become an afternoon or evening destination.

I was thrilled to find out this week that the Med Steps 5 Challenge raised over £7,000 for the Gibraltar Cancer Relief Centre. Our little gang of girls who walked up the Rock together managed to raise a fair chunk of that, over £1,700, which is utterly amazing to me. Our lovely friends and families have been so generous as well as a few lovely ‘blogland’ friends too. (I didn’t ask for sponsorship through the blog as I don’t like to, but a handful of lovely people actually contacted me and asked if they could support our efforts). Thank you all for helping us to help this wonderful cause. Xxx

He’s back!


Our eldest arrived back safe and sound from his week away in England with school. He had an amazing time rafting, canoeing, quad biking and learning archery among many other exciting things. I know he and his friends have made precious memories which they will cherish well into adulthood. Thank you to the teachers for looking after their precious cargo so well and bringing them safely back home to our families.

It’s been a busy week here chez Postcard, I wonder what the next seven days hold in store? Until next time, thanks for stopping by…

Sunday Sevens #29 1.5.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 8 Comments

Hello there, happy May Day to you all. I hope the sun’s shining where ever you are and that you’re enjoying a good Bank Holiday weekend. 

A message has just popped up to tell me this is my 100th blog post – how did that happen??

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog. It features seven photos from the last seven days. To find out more about it or to join in, pop over to Natalie’s blog.

Med Steps…

Well my Med Steps training has continued this week as we are now less than two weeks away from the Med Steps 5 Challenge on 14th May. There was a bank holiday in Gibraltar on Thursday (one of our usual training days) so training has had to be fitted in around the family a lot more than usual. My first trip up was on Monday and as you can see from the photo above it was very cloudy. That made for great stepping conditions, it was cool, there was no sun and there was a double bonus of climbing up into the cool, damp cloudy conditions at the top – just when you need it most. There was no one else about; I had the whole Med Steps to myself. The wild flowers were looking gorgeous even though there was no sunshine. They are so beautiful up in the Upper Rock at the moment and probably at their peak before the hot summer sun scorches the ground. I can feel a wildflower post coming on – only problem is I don’t know most of their names…. I’ll need to do a bit of research.

More Med Steps…

My BIG Med Steps training session had to be done  yesterday morning. I decided to forego my Saturday morning lie-in, and set my alarm so I was well on my way up the steps by the time the clock struck nine. I was also on my own and I’m very proud of the fact that without anyone with me to egg me on, I managed three times round solo for the first time. I’m feeling quite proud of myself but am feeling a little bit achey as I write this. The countdown is on now though so I need to step it up a gear next week I think…..
Watercolour class

Last week I had a bit of a go working on a looser style as I painted some bird of paradise flowers. I had another go at improving them this week but it didn’t go well so I gave up and started preparation work for my next project. You may remember from my post on doors that I had a go at painting one of the old doors I had photographed. I really enjoyed doing that so I decided that now is the time to start work on my next architectural painting based on a photo I took a while ago of a particularly beautiful window in the town centre.

The painting so far…

 

I found myself with a bit of time yesterday between climbing the steps, doing the washing and heading out to a kids birthday party, so I decided to crack out my paints while everyone was happy entertaining themselves. I’d been practicing how I was going to paint the reflections on the window panes – something I’d never attempted before. I had a lot of fun with it and am very happy with the result. I just hope I don’t make a mess of the rest of the painting now!!

1st holy communion season


Gibraltar, being a predominantly Catholic place, is currently in the middle of Communion and Confirmation season. My two eldest are of the ages that their school friends are celebrating these milestones of growing up. Being a non-Catholic family it’s not something we do, but it’s lovely to see their fellow students in all their finery heading into church for this big event. For those of their friends who were receiving their Holy Communions on Wednesday, the weather was beautiful and allowed for sunny photo shoots with friends and family in the park. They looked lovely.

Off the beaten track

Considering how small Gibraltar is, I find it amazing that even after almost seven years of living here, I am still discovering new things. On Friday I took a slight detour off Main Street along a side street I must have walked past hundreds, if not thousands of times during our time here and found these windows up above my head on a residential building.  I have never seen anything like this in Gibraltar before, where the windows have been bricked up and then images of windows painted over the bricks! That’s certainly one way to liven up your facade!

Cake!

Another discovery on that street was a lovely little cupcake shop. It would have been rude to return empty handed from there don’t you think? It tasted as good as it looks. The diet went a bit out of the window, but I reckon I burned it off on the Med Steps the next day 😉
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great week!

Sunday Sevens #27 17.4.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 22 Comments

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at the Threads & Bobbins blog. It gives you a chance to reflect some of the things you’ve been doing in your week through a series of seven photographs. To find out more, or to join in, pop over to her blog for more information.

I hope you’ve had a good week, it’s been a busy one here and I can’t believe Sunday’s come around so quickly again!


Med Steps training

A certain seriousness has come into our training for the Med Steps challenge this week with the realisation that we have just a month left to build up our stamina to manage 5 times up the steep climb to the top of the Rock in one day. The charity event, which raises money for the Cancer Relief Centre here in Gibraltar, is open to individuals and teams (some of whom actually run up!?). You can enter a team of 5 and each individual can do  it once or like us (in our little team of 3) you can all do it 5 times. We won’t be breaking any records and the event is open from 9 until 5 on the day so there’s a very good chance we’ll take a long time to complete it. 

One morning we all got together for a team training session – our first collective one for weeks, and did twice round. It’s starting to get really rather hot and this photo was taken on our second circuit (not too far from the top) when I stopped for a breather and some water. We are praying for overcast weather on the big day so we don’t all keel over from exhaustion and sun stroke – I fear some unflattering head gear may be de-rigeur. I’ll keep you posted on our progress, we are stepping up our training this week….

Postcard family bake-off 

We have a Postcard family birthday coming up soon and one of the little Postcards thought we should have a baking competition to decide on the birthday cake of choice ahead of the event. Sadly it was not in the luscious English countryside and neither Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry nor Mel or Sue were in attendance (probably for the best). 

Now, I do enjoy eating cakes but am not the world’s best baker by any means. In the interest of family harmony, I ‘threw’ the competition (shh – don’t tell anyone) by making millionaire’s shortbread ably assisted by the smallest Postcard while another young Postcard made a chocolate fudge cake with a garnish of sweets! The chocolate fudge cake won as it was a ‘cake’ and did taste rather good. The millionaire’s shortbread was incredibly sickly although it did improve on chilling. Now I have to make another cake in time for the birthday celebrations!! Just as well I’m doing the steps a lot in order to burn all of this off!

Final home furnishings class

This week, we had the last of our 12 home furnishings classes and we made curtain tie-backs. You may notice they are the same fabric as the cushion I made last time for the transport fan in my life – I hope he likes them!  The Transport for London inspired material came into my possession after reading  Nana Cathy’s blog post about The Remnant House (a great fabric shop in York). I had a look at their website and bought myself some great fabric to make things for my boys. So thank you Nana Cathy for telling me about this fab shop. I hope one day to visit it for real, although I fear I’ll end up adding considerably to my stash and to-do list when that time comes! 

If you are in Gibraltar or nearby, and fancy having a go at learning to make curtains, cushions and tie-backs, I was taught by Dorcas Hammond of Dorcas Hammond Designs. She’s very experienced and a great teacher. Pop into her shop on Governor’s Street or find her on Facebook to get more info on her classes.

Dressmaking class

Sewing has begun in ernest on my first ever lined skirt in my dressmaking class. I had to unpick and re-sew my invisible zip but apart from that it was a good lesson this week and I’m pleased with the progress I made. Fingers crossed the rest of the skirt will go well 🙂

Watercolour class

  
In watercolour class this week, we focused on skies and the different techniques you can use to paint them. One of the most interesting finds was that by painting a thin wash of raw sienna first even under blue you can get a really nice glow. I’ve got work to do on my cloud formation as they are a little sausuge shaped for now but it was fun.

A nocturnal visitor

Spring must be here because for the first time this year I spotted one of these little chaps on the bathroom window. You can see the lizards or geckos even in the middle of winter here if it’s a sunny day. They crawl out from their hibernation place and bask in a sheltered sunny spot, but they disappear long before the sun goes down and the temperature drops. This week though, we have started to have a few warmer evenings and so this little chap was lying in wait for an unsuspecting moth to come fluttering next to our bathroom window and pounce! It’s quite spectacular when it happens – like a mini version of ‘Wildlife on One’ on your window!

Bunny update

Bunny’s doing well and his fringe is continuing to grow, however because of his long hair/fur he has a tendency to get dreadlocks and matted areas despite regular brushing so we are going to  have to take him to the vets soon to have a bit cut out near his tail. It’s a bit close to his tail for us to want to attempt to cut in case we hurt him. He also needs some injections so that he can have a hop about on our back patio too… poor bunny it’s as bad as having to hoodwink kids into going to the clinic for jabs 🙁 not looking forward to that.

I hope you have a great week, goodbye for now!

Sunday Sevens #23 20.3.16

~ Making Stitches ~ 14 Comments

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins. If you fancy joining in, pop along to her blog to find out more.

This week began in a blaze of spring glory with blue skies and sunshine, we ended it though, with a rather damp and soggy weekend! Welcome to spring in Gibraltar…

 

First trip to the beach of 2016  

After a glorious weekend with a dolphin boat trip, a trip up the Rock in the cable car and another visit to the beautiful Alameda Gardens, we made the most of the extra time off school afforded us by Commonwealth Day and an in-service day for teachers. We had our first trip to the beach this year, a picnic on a bench nearby, then football, basketball, and a feat of civil engineering in the sand. Apart from one other small group, we had the beach to ourselves. It was great, and a fantastic chance for the little postcards to get some fresh air! I do love the beach out of season. This photo shows Catalan Bay, our base for an afternoon and several hours squabble-free play time. 
 

Cockerel on the loose  

Now to non Gibraltar residents to sight of a loose cockerel on a wander may not seem out of the ordinary. There aren’t many ‘farm’ animals on the Rock so this majestic bird took us quite by surprise on our walk through the Alameda Botanical Gardens this week! He was a very impressive looking chap, I only managed to grab this photo as he was disappearing off into the bushes. 

 Seagulls 

There are so many seagulls knocking about in Gibraltar at the moment, I think it may be mating season. These little chaps may look delicate and light on their feet but when they land on our roof they sound like they’re wearing clogs and doing a spot of Morris dancing! They are so noisy, especially in the early hours of the morning.

 Model Soldiers 

We stumbled across a model soldier exhibition in the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery during a wander in town. I had no idea it was on, and it’s not necessarily something I’d actively seek out but the workmanship which had gone into putting on the various exhibits was very impressive.
 

Watercolour class 

I’ve missed my watercolour lessons for the last couple of weeks and it was great to get back to it again. This week I spent my lesson doing a study of freesias, they were a beautiful colour and the scent was amazing!

Earth Hour  

We did our bit for the environment last night and celebrated Earth Hour with our lights off. Scrabble (not real Scrabble as you can see – Scrabble Twists & Turns) with 3 children in the dark/candlelight adds a new dimension to proceedings. Tiles were lost off the table and cheating went on undetected. Thank goodness it was just an hour!!

Palm Sunday  

As a child at Sunday School I remember the excitement of being given a palm cross on Palm Sunday. For us children, it meant that Easter was around the corner and it’s guarantee of a school holiday and a few chocolate eggs. 

They had an air of exotic mystery about them though. Where did these palm crosses come from? The ones which arrived at our church were made by a charity in a third world country and always seemed so exotic to me growing up in the north of England. Here in Gibraltar, where palm trees are ten a penny, churches are actually decorated with real palm branches on Palm Sunday, I wonder what my 10 year old self would have made of that?

Whether or not you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a peaceful and happy time with your loved ones. Until next week, bye for now.