Bliss in stickers

 Really can´t quite believe it....

On a spur of the moment decision, Rebecca decided to bring Theo over and stay for a couple of weeks. I last saw them back in the beginning of March 2020 with Theo being a babe in arms to now being a little tornado.

She decided on Thursday and arrived Sunday morning, just in time before they changed the rules yet again. Theo was a good as gold on the journey and enjoyed looking out of the planes window. He was happy with his toys and books.

Theo certainly recognised us immediately and he has settled in well. We have been having great fun, he is really into his stickers and now I have a sticker wall in the kitchen. It´s the little things that bring such joy, seeing him interact with everything including a few things he shouldn´t lol, but then that´s what learning is all about.

I bought him some magnetic alphabet and number tiles which we have spent hours playing with using our fridge freezer as a base, Rebecca´s one is housed in a wooden case so ours is ideal. He loves taking things out and then putting them back in their little case.

We have been into town where there is a little playground for him to enjoy, along with a trip to the supermarket where he has enjoyed finding exciting new goodies to taste. We also popped into the bazaar and picked up a water jacket for the pool, he wasn´t very enamored with it and took it straight off. Luckily our pool has wide shallow steps so he will be able to play without getting into the pool properly.

Lots of hugs and cuddles, reading books, bath time, he is so patient with the cats too, after months and months of just longing for the moment, it´s hard to believe he is really here with his lovely Mum.

I have also been able to give Rebecca some quiet time of her own, especially as Theo doesn´t sleep very well, and we are all enjoying being all together at last.

Today Theo and I made a pasta box and spent ages playing with tubs and scoops, yesterday we turned the toy box into a water bath and got thoroughly wet, he was watering the plant nearest to him, then I said perhaps he should try another plant, so next load he toddled off to find another one. He understands so much and he loves his colouring books and crayons.

Look at those curls, just had to share 

Right has better go, bathtime soon and more Grandma (Yaya) duties

take care

xcx

Anniversary

Finally found my round to it, as I was going to post on Tuesday but things got in the way, like doing some indoor painting especially on one door. Really hate the smell of gloss paint, but it had to be done, one of those itches that needed to be scratched. As you can see it was long overdue!

A good tidy up on the shelves, old phone boxes thrown away, (the things we keep!) and the wood wall trims painted.

Tuesday was quite a special day for us as it was the anniversary of when we first met, 50 years ago! really! 50 whoa.

On Tuesday 22nd 1971 I was allowed to attend the Arbor youth club in Pyrford, Surrey. for the first time. It was quite a large building, with cafe, table tennis and snooker room, outdoor areas for 5 a side and a large hall where various activities took place, and where eventually I joined the Ladies weight training team and went on to be the Captain.  My older brother was a leader there and  I was only allowed to go as he could keep án eye´ on me. That went down well, not, but something I would take as long as I could go.

This rather nice looking chap kept walking passed me, very shy, but eventually someone introduced us and the rest as they say, is history.

Oh my, look at those white socks

Chris had booked a table on the terrace at Maria´s and had taken some pink cava along to chill, he also gave me a lovely bouquet 

We had a lovely meal, I chose swordfish, Maria presented the cava (no corkage) and in fact gave us a bottle of wine that comes with the meal as we left. Lovely gesture.

Well I had better go and get on with some chores, we are having visitors (all being well) on Sunday so a bit of a spruce up is needed.

Enjoy your weekend

take care

xcx

 

At last

 After 4 years of laying dormant and being left near the kitchen window, my Orchid has just produced this beautiful stem  although another flower has opened after taking this photo

I really thought it had had it, although the foliage was good, so nice to see it revive itself. Will have to look on google as to its further care.

Also in the courtyard, a second pot of lilies has flowered, I think I prefer this colour to the rather bold, brash orange ones.

I have knitted a little jacket and a pair of dungarees for Theo´s little rabbit. My idea was it might help him to learn to dress using the button and poppers on the straps of the dungarees. I made sure I fastened them well and will advise that he plays with them with parental supervision.

I found one of the old flower pots had cracked and was going to throw it out, but then I thought about it and decided to try to create a little fairy garden. I dug out the contents, saving the one little plant that had survived, found another couple of broken pots and started building. It isn´t the prettiest of pots but hopefully by the time its planted up you won´t see much of it. Unfortunately it is situated where we get full sun most of the day, it´s also very heavy, so it´s a bit of a slow process.

 Today we had a trip out to the foreign office in Alicante north, to secure our TIE´s, basically an up to date identity card. We had to wait as they were running over an hour late, but it was very straight forward having all the paperwork in place, so after finger prints were taken and being told the cards could take up to 4 weeks to be produced, that was it, finished. Collection is from a totally different office in Alicante, thank goodness for Google maps.

Better go and get on with the evening meal

take care

xcx

 

 

A finish

Finished Theo´s little jumper, weird pattern, short body but extremely long sleeves, so I changed it using the measurements for his jacket. Not overly happy with it and I don´t think I shall be doing another one.

 Still it gives him another jumper to mess about in.

We had a "little" harvest this week of the peas, Chris is one of those who likes to eat them straight from the pod, so I think a few went awol lol

We had a second similar picking a few days later, just enough for a taster.

Earlier in the year I had to prune back Rose´s rose, it had some sort of fungi and I wasn´t sure if it would come back, but I´m so pleased with it, flowering well

We had to retrieve our post so a little jaunt into Benissa. They have opened up a new Chinese bazaar, that makes 3 now! so I decided to have a nosey round. This one has a wider range of home accessories which gave a few ideas, not so much craft items as the other one, different items so it will be a case of hunting around between the two largest ones.

On my mooch I spotted some alphabet jigsaw puzzles, ideal for Theo. One has numbers on the back too, I shall keep them here for him to play with and plan to make some drawstring bags to hold the pieces once they are unwrapped.

 

They are all wooden, bright and cheerful and for 2.80 euros each, I thought quite a good bargain.

I also repotted my avocado plant. Grew this from the seed a couple of years ago, it obviously enjoys its new home and spreading its roots with its new growth. Wonder how many years I have to wait until it may produce fruit lol

 Our car is a little poorly at the moment, needs two new wheel bearings, so we are home bound until they can lend us a courtesy car and get it fixed. Never mind, the sun is out after our wet weekend 

take care

xcx

Quick trip

We managed a quick trip into Jalon, a nearby town that we really don´t frequent unless it´s for the vets. It has a funny vibe and doesn´t feel right.  They have a HELP charity shop there and I was hoping to find some suitable books for Theo to share during our video calls and to have here for when! they come over. Wasn´t a successful trip, the shop was really quite empty, then on the the vets to collect preventative flea treatments only he had forgotten to order them! Back on Tuesday.

I have planted okra again this year, putting more down than last as they seem to take so long to mature, also more french beans, as I noticed the snails have been busy again, despite putting crushed eggshells around the plugs. The same with the courgette, we have one more left, so have to barricade it in lol

Theo´s little jumper was nearly finished, or so I thought, but looking at the 2 glaring mistakes on the back, I just had to undo it, funny isn´t it, once you know it´s there it´s too hard to ignore.  The pattern is one row knit and the next P1 and knit 1 into the stitch below, never tried this before and somehow (lack of concentrations I expect) I had reversed part of 2 rows. Oh well on it´s way now.

A couple of years ago, Chris bought me some lilies, they have come up every year, but this year they have made such a lovely display. Just have to be careful to remove the stamens because of the furries.

 I´m also pleased the Gerberas are doing well, they are so colourful

Right, a jumper to finish, enjoy the weekend

take care

xcx

Dickie birds

 I received my first vaccination a couple of weeks ago, having registered on line. First I received a temporary SIP number (Spanish health care) and a couple of days later an appointment, although the appointment system didn´t seem to be adhered to, just a long queue. No real problems except with my dodgy immune system it exacerbated the fatigue, hey ho, overcoming that now.

Chris now qualifies for a permanent SIP card, so armed with lots of paperwork we went to the local health centre to register. I now have a temporary card which can be updated with yet more paperwork at a later date and Chris has his full one. Two big ticks on the ´to do´list.

The tray of peas have now been transplanted to their final site with round green beans waiting in the wings. Can´t say the same for the courgettes they just seem to be snail food.

Another hanging basket

This is our sage and rosemary patch, so pretty with all their flowers, gone a bit wild I think

and a sea view across the back garden - difficult to see, but it´s there

Getting to grips with one of the back beds, tough as old boots to weed.

With the warmer weather, out came the old flip flops, rather boring and very plain, so I jazzed them up a bit by adding a little bling with the glue gun

I purchased some chenille type yarn at the Chinese bazaar, 2e a ball, so for 5e I have a nice soft tactile cushion for the outside furniture. Never knitted with yarn this thick and needed 9mm needles, just plain stocking stitch, bit hard going but a nice result. As there was quite a lot left I picked up another one to make a second

Rebecca and I talk a couple of times a day, mostly with video so we can play with Theo and watch all his antics. The other day I was playing ´two little dickie birds´ with him, bit of a difficult concept for him only using two fingers, but at the end when Paul flies back he ran off and came back with his ball to show me. Well I suppose at that age ball and Paul do sound the same.

So I thought I would make some finger puppets for him to make it a bit easier

As he is not playing with them directly, I added embellishments and used the glue gun, so no sewing.

He loves to bring me things to show me and we join in together when he has quiet time with his books. Trying to make the most of a still very difficult time.

Well better be off, have a good weekend

take care

xcx

Big soggy

Well, the last couple of weeks seem to have run away from me.

It was my birthday on the 22nd and we decided to book into our little restaurant, Marias.  We haven´t had a meal there for about 18 months were looking forward to a treat. As it turned out the weather was atrocious, absolutely falling from the sky and at some points you couldn´t even see the road which is literally a few feet away from the place, due to the clouds. We had the place to ourselves though, which was quite relaxing not having to worry about distancing and the meal was excellent.

The wild boar came visiting again, this time digging up the ground behind the Naya, but at least it was easy to weed and flatten the ground again.  With all the rain the weeds in all the gravel areas have gone wild, so I spent 3 mornings weeding one area only, we shall have to spray it with a pet friendly spray as the areas are too large to keep up with.

A little bit of knitting, tweaking recipes, and chores, our kitchen floor tiles are white sunburst pattern, so you can image the muddy paws from all the furries straight in from the cat flap.

I suppose it´s going to be more weeding if the weather holds, it will look good when it´s done. Amazing how rescuing the pot plants from drowning in the courtyard from the deluge, they are now as dry as a bone, so watering time

take care

xcx