watercolour

Sunday Sevens #7 22.11.15

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Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads and Bobbins blog. It features seven photos from the last seven days.

1 Watercolour class

This week at watercolour class, we worked on poppies again. This time we were were inspired by a beautiful photograph of poppies which my teacher has. Unfortunately she doesn’t know who took the photo so I can’t credit him/her but I’m rather pleased with the result.

2 Dressmaking class

Ta-dah! I have completed my first ever wearable skirt! I’m rather chuffed with it. It’s ready just in time for Christmas party season and will go nicely with a sparkly top I think. Next project: a gathered skirt.

3 The Rock!

One late afternoon this week, I found myself on Eastern beach looking up. It’s really quite imposing that rock of ours and because it’s always there I sometimes forget about it. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, it’s still here…

4 Sunshine!

On a different afternoon this week I ended up at Camp Bay (also known locally as El Quarry, as once upon a time it was one), on the South-western side of Gibraltar. It was a really glorious day, the sun was bouncing off the sea and was really quite dazzling. On days like this it feels like an English summer’s day when you are in the sun, but if you head into the shade it’s starting to get a little bit chilly. I know that for those of you experiencing frost and snow at the moment, my concept of ‘chilly’ differs from yours, so please excuse me :-).

5 Greenery

This little green oasis is one of my favourite spots here in Gibraltar. It’s called South Bastion and is a regular stop off on the tourist trail as visitors stop to take photos of the statue of Nelson which is close by and it’s directly opposite the Trafalgar Cemetery. I love it here as it’s always lush and green and I’m a greenery loving kinda gal. Sadly, it’s not quite as tranquil as perhaps the photo suggests as it’s right next to a busy road junction, but it’s still lovely.

6 Christmas projects 

It’s officially started, I have begun my Christmas makes. Here are a few snowflakes I’ve had a go at, hopefully they will be a little less curly when I’ve had a chance to block them. Just over a month to go!

7 Christmas lights, again….  

Please indulge me just one more photo of the amazing light show we witnessed at the Gibraltar Festival of Light Christmas light switch-on ceremony on Friday evening. It was a really lovely event and featured, along with performances by local children of singing and dancing, a great light show beamed onto the City Hall. If you missed my last post about the evening, you can find it here.

That’s all from me for this week, I hope you are having a great weekend. Thank you for stopping by.

 

Sunday Sevens #6 15/11/15

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This week’s Sunday Sevens started rather flowery, but ends sadly with Gibraltar’s tribute to those affected by the terrible events in Paris on Friday.

Sunday Sevens is a blog series created by Natalie at Threads and Bobbins. It features 7 photos from the past week.


1 Watercolour class

This week has been a little bit thin on the ground for inspiring photos, so I decided to have a theme, no prizes for guessing that it’s flowers. Monday, for me, meant a return to my watercolour class after the midterm break. We worked on a number of pieces but this is the only one which I managed to complete, a little anemone.

2 A surprise on the balcony

My dressmaking class on Tuesday didn’t yield anything in the photographic sense but I did make some progress, I am hoping to be able to reveal what I’ve been working on soon… Meanwhile, while hanging out the washing this afternoon I was surprised to find this beautiful hibiscus bloom. The plant hasn’t given us many flowers lately so I presumed it was having an autumn/winter rest but this beauty opened up without me noticing.

3 Armistice Day

My only crochet since our return from Spain last week has been this little poppy (pattern from Simply Crochet Issue 24). Being over the border last week I was unable to buy a poppy to mark Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday so I made this. I did manage to find a Poppy Appeal pot to make my donation though afterwards.

4 Gibraltar Literary Festival Day 1

Thursday saw the start of the 3rd Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival and I attended a talk at the Garrison Library. I am in the midst of writing about my experiences at the festival for a post coming soon, so in the meantime, here’s a lovely lantana flower from the Garrison Library garden.

5 Gibraltar Literary Festival Day 2

Friday was a history sort of a day for me at the Literary Festival, so here’s a Tudor Rose from the cover of Dan Jones’ book ‘The Hollow Crown’ (one of my purchases – shh it’s our little secret!).

6 Lilies 

I LOVE flowers and when we lived in the UK I had cut flowers in the house most weeks. When we moved to Gibraltar, I soon discovered that cut flowers don’t last five minutes before they droop and look a bit worse for wear. Now we’re in November though and the heat of the summer has subsided, I treated myself to some lilies and lisianthus this week and they look fab.

7 Tribute to Paris

 

Last night Gibraltar paid tribute to the victims of Friday’s dreadful events in Paris by lighting Moorish Castle with the French tricolore.

Sunday Sevens #3

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Hello there, I hope you have had a great week. It’s been a fab one for me as I have had all my nearest and dearest close by. My parents flew over at the start of the week followed by my brother and his lovely fiancée. It’s been wonderful. So here goes, here’s my Sunday Sevens for this week:

1 The wet stuff


Blimey, we haven’t half seen some rain here in Gibraltar this week. The start of the week brought with it autumnal deluges. I rather stupidly stopped to take this photo of a normally busy Main Street on Monday morning en-route to my art class, I thought it quite entertaining that the gardener who’d been giving the trees a haircut had just downed tools and scarpered as soon as the rain came. I should have done the same, as moments later, it got really heavy and I ended up looking like I’d been for a swim fully clothed! The raincoat which stands up to English & Scottish rain was no good – full plastic wet weather gear is the only option I’m afraid!

2 Watercolour class

 

I’m rather pleased with this one. It was kind of copied from an illustration in one of my teacher’s art books but I’m pretty sure it’s not an anatomically correct poppy. I don’t think the leaves are quite right but I like it none the less.

3 Collecting visitors

  

I can’t tell you how much I look forward to my parents arriving for a visit. When we lived in the UK, although we were living in different counties, we saw each other most weeks. The biggest draw back about living here in Gibraltar is being so far away from family. It was so exciting to watch their plane land and meet them at the airport this week. 

4 Tropical blooms

  

I always smile when these gorgeous frangipani flowers appear each year on Queensway, here in Gibraltar. They remind me of a trip we took to Thailand a few years ago. It was a great trip and I remember seeing these ‘in the flesh’ back then and thinking they looked so perfect. I’ve seen many artificial versions since then, but you can’t beat the real thing.

5 Grab the chance when you can!

I’ve been frantically busy this week and have been working towards a deadline for what I’ve been knitting. It’s going to be a gift and needed to be ready by today. That meant that in any spare moments between appointments and commitments, I had to shoehorn in a bit of knitting time. I succeeded in getting a few rows in during a football training session this week. I got a few odd looks from a couple of the Dads there along the lines of “who’s the weirdo with the knitting?” but I don’t care!

6 Super sunset

If you follow me on Twitter (@postcardfromgib) or Instagram (@postcardfromgibraltar), you might be aware of my fixation of taking photos of sunsets. We experienced an absolutely stunning sunset on Thursday evening and just wanted to share it with you, even though it’s a bit grainy.

7 Saturday night out 

 
Having visitors gave me the perfect excuse to have a lovely evening out. I had a great meal in Queensway Quay with my Mum & Dad last night. Mr Postcard stayed home with the boys which meant we were able to have a good chat without interruptions! Lovely food and lovely company, a perfect Saturday night out!
  

Sunday Sevens #2

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Apologies if this is a little samey as last week’s post but I fear, dear reader, that my love of routine will be a theme with my Sunday Sevens posts. My weeks are a little predictable with kids and school and everything that goes on around here. Predictability is good though in my opinion, as without routine, I may lose my marbles!

1 Watercolour class

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This week we continued our theme of practicing painting flowers, I only finished a couple of small pictures this week and both were of alliums. I normally like to paint more precisely when doing flowers but was persuaded to be a bit more experimental this week letting the colours run and leaving negative space for the stems rather than painting them in. I’m not sure about the background colour on this one, and the flower heads aren’t exactly spherical as they should be but it was fun to be a bit freer and experiment a bit.

2 Dressmaking class

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Do you see that? It’s a zip and I inserted it! I’m so chuffed with it. It almost looks professional. I have now officially finished my sample top of a skirt with darts, facing and a hook and eye. I also did this sample zip, which means…. I have now got to start on the real thing and in theory make a proper skirt that I could wear (chews fingernails in nervous anticipation). It was so straight forward cutting and making up the samples, but when my teacher told me to go ahead and cut the material for my skirt I lost all my confidence. I’ll keep you posted on my progress…

3 Powercut

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Wednesday morning meant most of Gibraltar woke to a very gloomy wet day and no electricity. Power cuts seem to be a regular fixture these days unfortunately. Gibraltar generates all its own power by burning oil at a handful of power stations. Over the past few years old age and a large fire in one have restricted the capacity the electricity board has for generating electricity. Political wrangling has delayed the building of a new gas-powered power station. Gibraltar is in the Med, it has a lot of sunshine, it is surrounded on almost all sides by the sea, it is also close to the Atlantic Ocean and all the wind that it cares to send this way. Why then, do we not harness these amazing natural resources and generate our electricity this way? Surely Gibraltar could be a world leader in green energy with all these resources, but instead we burn oil and are planning to burn gas as our next method of generating power. But what do I know?

In the meantime we are left with rather annoying and at times, rather long power cuts. This one lasted five hours. Thank goodness Marks & Spencer had a back-up generator so my morning coffee could be replaced with a croissant and fizzy energy drink. Walking along Main Street that morning was like being on the set of a zombie movie as people trudged slowly and miserably to work and school with bleary eyes. Obviously it wasn’t just me suffering from a lack of caffeine!

4 A sunny autumn walk up the Rock

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If you have seen my last post you will know that I had a rather lovely walk up the Mediterranean Steps this week. It was stunning, hot and I’m still aching a bit but I really enjoyed having a bit of time to myself and being able to take in all the tranquility and beauty the Upper Rock Nature Reserve has to offer.

5 Knitting

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My knitting has continued and developed from last week, from green to rust and cream intarsia. This was my first attempt at the method. For those of you who have no idea what I’m on about, it’s a method you can use when changing colours several times in the one row. Instead of stretching the yarn you are not using across the back of the work and reintroducing it later (which can make your finished piece look bumpy and out of shape) you use several smaller balls of wool with a separate length of yarn for each part of the pattern. Have I lost you yet?! Anyway, it means lots of little bits of dangly wool which can get very easily tangled, especially when you are interrupted many times in the process. Not sure it’s something I’ll attempt again in a hurry, but it’s a lot neater than the alternative.

6 New School

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Back in September two new schools opened their doors to pupils for the first time in Gibraltar, St Bernard’s First & Middle Schools. Yesterday they had an open day when the public was able to go in and have a snoop about. They are really amazing. This photo is of the atrium of the Middle School, the class rooms lead off each floor to the sides and to the front the library and art room have the most amazing views out across town and into the bay. The glass roof above opens and closes to allow for natural ventilation. The schools have been built in the old St Bernard’s Hospital building which has lain empty for several years since it moved to new premises down beside Morrisons. I was pleased to see that some of the original features were kept during the renovation work like archways, the staircases and a lot of the facade of the building. What an inspiring place to be able to go to school!

7 Sunday morning relaxation

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Mr Postcard has gone on football duty this morning so I have a few minutes peace and quiet to myself. Happy Sunday everyone!

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Sunday Sevens #1

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Over the past few weeks I have noticed a few of the blogs I follow are taking part in a series called Sunday Sevens. It’s a perfect medium to give a brief round up of your week in the form of seven photos and a few words about each of them. The idea was first devised by Natalie at threadsandbobbims.com What a good idea – I have been inspired!  So here goes with my very first Sunday Sevens…

1 Watercolour class

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As, I imagine, is the case with many craft loving folk, my desire to make stuff on a day to day basis is usually thwarted by everyday life and even when I have a quiet few minutes to myself there’s always that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that I really should put the washing out or get the dinner on. However, since my boys started back on full-days at school in mid September a rather lovely routine has developed for me on my early weekday mornings. Mondays mean watercolour class, this week we did a workshop on flowers one of which is above. I painted a butterfly a couple of weeks ago but didn’t know what it should sit on, perhaps a daisy-like bloom like the one above?

2 Dressmaking class

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Tuesday mornings now mean dressmaking class. Apologies for the uninspiring picture to illustrate it, but I am just practicing the waist band of a skirt before making it up for real. I learned a bit of dressmaking at school and have had a few botched attempts since but I’m very pleased to be taught by a very talented lady with years of teaching and dressmaking behind her. I’ll tell you more about her when I have a bit more to show for my efforts! I’m pleased with my neat seams though.

3 After-school activity bustle

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Wednesday was busy and not at all creative, but my youngest and I stopped to have a laugh at our long legged shadows while rushing to collect one of his siblings from an after-school activity!

4 Knitting

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Despite learning knitting before crochet, I’m not much of a knitter. I find it much harder to follow knitting patterns and drop stitches from needles in between knitting sessions. Tension is also a problem for me, so all in all it’s not usually my craft of choice. I dusted off my needles on Thursday though as I have a fab pattern I want to make up for a gift for someone special. Depending on how much like the pattern it is, I may or may not share my finished item with you ;-).

5 Leisurely breakfast

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On Friday I had a rare day free of any appointments or obligations – it was lovely! Time for a breakfast of Pan Tumaca (crushed tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and salt & pepper on a toasted roll) alongside a large cappuccino – bliss!

6 A cosy Saturday night in

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It rained yesterday evening, which was really great for the plants and for us as we were all indoors (less so for those braving the elements). It made for a lovely autumnal atmosphere as we settled down to watch Strictly. I snuggled under my cosy stripe blanket (using the wool pack and pattern from Attic 24), Mr Postcard cooked up his speciality chilli using his homegrown chilli peppers and red peppers. It was just perfect!

7 Feeling Misty

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Today we woke up to mist and rain, it was lovely! I’m saying that because we’ve not seen weather like this for such a long time and when we were out in it, we caught the dry gap between showers. With a bit of imagination, we could almost have been in the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands (I did say almost). After a very hot summer and autumn so far, I’m embracing the cooler weather, it reminds me so much of home. Perhaps I won’t be so up beat if it continues for several weeks/months, but for now I’m enjoying it. I’m off now to dig out the wellies and waterproofs ready for tomorrow morning’s school run. Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Art on a Thursday evening

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This evening saw the official opening of the Gibraltar Fine Arts Association’s National Celebrations Exhibition 2015, a showcase of Gibraltarian artistic talent (and there is a LOT of talent round these parts!). Organised by the Fine Arts Association and Fine Arts Gallery in Casemates Square (below), this is the second exhibition of its kind and is a great way to see many interpretations of the Rock and it’s people. It kicks off the beginning of a week of celebrations of the Gibraltarian national identity and the right to self determination ending with National Day next Thursday, 10th September. 

  
The competition was open to all artists from those already well established on the local art scene to others perhaps starting out on their careers. There was a good turn out on the exhibition’s opening night in the atmospheric Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery with representatives from the worlds of business, politics and of course the arts.

  
When opening the exhibition officially, the Minister for Culture, Steven Linares quoted a visiting artist from Almeria who had been astonished at the wealth of talent in a relatively small area. He stated that when an art gallery had been opened in Almeria, where there is a population of over one million, just 15 or 16 artists had exhibited their work there, yet in Gibraltar (with a population of just 30,000) there are over fifty good quality artists.

  
The theme for the contest was ‘Our Gibraltar’, the result being that the vast majority of the work showed images of the Rock and its people. There were dramatic paintings of the Rock in all it’s splendor, views of the beaches, seascapes, architectural images and views of the town centre. 

  
The exhibition included work in oils, watercolour, pencil, ink and collage, there was even one picture which had been created on an iPad! The competition was won by Leslie Gaduzo with his view of Waterport Road. He can be seen here with some of the other winners, the sponsors, organisers and the Gibraltar Minister for Culture.

  
If you should find yourself in Casemates Square between now and 15th September I’d really recommend a visit. I’ll leave you with my personal favorite; Alameda Gardens Phone Box by Linda Alcantara.  

 

Summer hours

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When we first arrived in Gibraltar, we were introduced to the phenomenon that is ‘half days’ or ‘summer hours’. This means that for the last 3 to 4 weeks of the school summer term and the first couple of weeks of the autumn term, school finishes between 11:45am and 12:45pm depending on the age of the child. Yes, that’s right 11:45am – the school day still starts at 9am, so for the very youngest students (Nursery & Reception) they have a school day lasting just 2 3/4 hours!

I completely get why this happens – it gets too darn hot in the summer time and despite the fact this is a nation well accustomed to the hot sunny weather, the school buildings are without air conditioning. You do get to a point when an open window and electric fan don’t quite cut the mustard in the midday heat. It’s not really conducive to a comfortable learning environment. 

On the flip side, if you are in a family where both parents work, or you are on your own and work, how on earth do you deal with childcare? It’s an annual headache for several of my friends who resort to flying grandparents in to take a few weeks hands-on child caring duty or face paying additional childcare costs to have their little darlings looked after while they finish their working day. In fact the half day situation, paired with an 8-week-long summer break from school, is the primary reason why many of us stay-at-home mums stay-at-home in the first place. There is only so much flexi time an employer is willing to flex in order to cater for such prolonged child caring time.

Fortunately for me and my family I don’t work (well, I don’t do paid work). This means that the 2 3/4 hours I have between 9am and school pick up time are incredibly precious. It serves as an annual reminder that this is my last chance to get jobs done unhindered and uninterrupted. It’s a last opportunity to fit in a trip to the hairdressers or get some jobs done in the house, to nip out to the gym in a last desperate attempt to get a body which won’t frighten young children on the beach or just to sit down and have a cuppa in peace.

For me, today that meant a flying trip to the supermarket and then my watercolour class. I’ve been learning to paint with watercolours since October last year. My teacher, Deborah M Lawson is a very talented and very patient lady. Myself and my fellow students agree that our Tuesday morning classes not only produce sometimes surprisingly good results but are also a form of therapy, giving us the chance to calm down and zone out of whatever is going on in the rest of our lives. At times, Deborah’s lounge (where she holds her classes) echoes to the sounds of our hoots of laughter and other times you could hear a pin drop as we try to get our heads round a new technique she’s encouraging us to experiment with. Today, we did a study on trees to varying degrees of success…

   
These are just first attempts I hasten to add! There’s quite a bit of work still to be done. Sadly I have just two watercolour lessons left before we break for the summer, I’ll miss by weekly dose of colour-filled therapy!


So after my art class a quick dash got me to school in time for the 11:45 pick up and an afternoon of fun lay ahead. I’m not 100% sure how we filled it, there were computer games, a piano lesson and a trip to the pool. It’s now after 11pm and I’ve just got back from my twice-weekly trip to the local recycling bins (the glamour!). I think it may be time to hit the hay before it’s time to start all over again!

  

Please excuse the grainy quality of this image but this is the view from our local recycling bins, I had to share it. It makes the trip worthwhile!