catch up

I hope every one had a great Christmas, enjoying the day in which ever way you chose

We had a great day, we were all here including Daniel, Shine and baby Leocia who flew in on the 23rd, Rebecca and Antoni joined us Christmas day, it was lovely having everyone together and celebrating Leocia's first Christmas.

It has been so hectic with the run up to the festivities, not only Christmas to organise, but Chris had a big birthday so I was organising a party for about 16 on the 21st doing all the catering myself.

Not only was it Chris's birthday but also the 40th anniversary of his first ever professional gig and he wanted to entertain our guests with a few songs.

It was a great evening enjoyed by all

Boxing day lunch, a good way to use cold turkey

Daniel, Shine and Leocia went off for a few days to explore Madrid and meeting a friend and

Chris has a new year's gig at a dinner and dance, so he is busy preparing a music quiz game which should be good fun. Me? I'm just trying to chill and catch my breath before Wednesday night

So just time to wish everyone a very

Happy New Year

may 2015 be every thing you wish for and more

take care

xxx

Demo

The other day, Rebecca and I went to a vegan cookery demonstration, it sounded fun and we felt it could offer alternatives to the dairy, egg free diet.  Oh but we were disappointed, the planning and presentation was very poor and certainly not hands on and the 'lunch' we were looking forward to turned out to be just a small taster. It was also very expensive considering what we got, no recipe sheets or introduction or alternative suggestions.  Oh well at least we tried something new.

I was pleased to hear my test results had eliminated anything 'nasty' so that was a relief, but it did show that my B12 levels were seriously low, I mean 254 instead of the 800-1000 mark opps!  No wonder I have been so wiped out and low.  I had an injection there and then and will need them twice a week for about 3 weeks, plus daily supplements, so fingers crossed things will be on the up.

Also, would you believe, a low range of Vit D, now I know I don't stay in the sun for hours like some over here, but even so who would have thought it, but the 'cure' for that are just vitamin drops that don't even taste of anything.  My cholesterol  was a bit high too even though we have a low fat diet, so something somewhere is going funny! Little by little, just hope the B12 kicks in soon.

I started knitting a little cardigan for Leocia, the pattern called for one ball each of three colours, but, how annoying, it should have read 2 of the main colour, so now I have three quarters of one sleeve done with the other one still to do and have run out.  The biggest problem is that the delivery charge for here is 6.00 irrespective of the size of the parcel.  Looks like I shall just have to buy more yarn  for other projects to make it worth while, think I can live with that! lol, so I made another little hat instead :-)

Hope your weekend was all you wanted it to be 

take care

xcx

    

Lovely gift

Ooh, I have a new follower, how exciting, welcome and thank you for having a peek at my little space.

Been feeling a bit under the weather, enough to admit to myself that I should really go and see the Doctor.  Apart from Well woman clinics, I haven't been to a doctor for ermmmm can't remember, years, so the dilemma was where to go and who to see.  As I am not under the umbrella of national health care I have to have private cover, which means I can go and see which ever GP I like.  I chose one that Rebecca has been to see and recommended, very good consultation, blood tests taken today and results Friday, not bad going. Nothing too drastic, just a hic-up

To cheer me up when hubby went into town the other day he came home bearing gifts, aren't these beautiful

  So bright and cheerful

Finished a couple of things for Leocia, love this little bolero and matching hat and the varigated yarn has lovely delicate colours and is really soft 

This is the first pattern I have ever tried where you incorporate the sleeves as you go, so there are no sleeve seams, certainly made the garment quite smooth.  Couldn't resist the hat either. 

Wasn't so happy with the mitts, the pattern calls for 4 ply, but this varigated yarn seems a little prickly to me, I made a couple of pair of these whilst in the UK and they were much softer.

I have already started another cardi but will keep this one for Christmas for her.

Yesterday was an amazingly warm day, in our kitchen courtyard we reached 31C but in the Naya by the pool it reached 36C (in the shade), we had a gentle hairdryer wind and although it was warm it was also dry, certainly above average temps for this time of year.  We are also having lovely sunrise and sunsets, a bit like this one

  

take care

xcx

Special bond

Last week Rebecca came up to stay for a couple of days.  I always love her visits, we chat and catch up, exchange ideas on many subjects like aromatherapy oils, vegetarian and vegan recipes and swap ideas for new juices, as well as being able to express our feelings about current issues that area affecting us, we are best friends as well as mother and daughter and I am very proud of our special bond.

We decided to go to the beach - I'm not really a lay on the beach and burn sort of person, I also detest having 'things' floating around your feet and legs etc when in the sea, however, to go shore hunting or building sand castles were right up my street when the kids were young.. Have to wait a wee while before that will happen again  Anyway we settled on Calpe port beach, a mix of rocks and sand and settled down, we must have looked a funny pair sitting there, I kept my very thin beach cover on to protect against the still very strong sun and of course Rebecca was under the parasols as her skin burns badly since the radiotherapy.

But do you know it was lovely! we chatted for a while then just laid there listening to the waves tumbling in , to be in the now, relaxing, instead of thinking of all the to do things.

towards Calpe main town

Over to Benidorm direction

As you can see Rebecca took the plunge and went for a dip, me? well I paddled but did get a wet backside when one roller was a bigger than the rest lol

We decided to visit one of the fish restaurants there and enjoyed  a lovely fish lunch including mussels, squid, salmon and swordfish.  The only slight thing that began to get really annoying were the looky looky's who were constantly coming round trying to sell their wares 

Time to go home - but a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days.

I have managed to get a piccie of the finished cot blanket for Leocia, i do like the randomness this varigated yarn produces and I have made three new items but I will post those another day as its a bit dark and gloomy here for photos today.

My supermarket delivery has arrived and is all away now - I ordered pumpkin and sunflower seeds but obviously got it wrong as they were still in their cases - I use them in salads and stir fries so couldn't be asked to shell them, we have too many almonds to shell without these, no problem, not right? immediate refund and taken back to the shop, couldn't ask for more! 

take care

xcx

New growth

During the last week or so our area has been hit by heavy storms resulting in some areas of flooding, its always the way nothing for months on end causing drought conditions then all at once.  The storms haven't turned into the dreaded gota fria as we experienced in 2007 and as usual our little micro climate caused by the mountains has escaped with only a couple of heavy showers.  At least it has enabled some of the plants to revive a little, but the most noticeable difference is the bancarles.  They have been totally fried, no vegetation just crispy  remnants underfoot, but since the showers we now have a little green hue spreading along, amazing, however they are also springing up in all the gravel covering too :-( We have managed to get out into the garden without it being to uncomfortable to work, but the soil is still like concrete, more rain needed!

Here is a very rare sight! all 8 cats in the house at the same time waiting for breakfast

These two photos were taken of Pinos village by Chris using the Go Pro camera strapped to the underside of the model plane.  This one is looking towards the Montgo range and you can see the plaza to the right

This one is towards Calpe and the sea, it also shows how dry and dusty we are.  When we were at the farm in Devon, we would sometimes get companies round trying to sell aerial photos, they always started off at some horrendous price which, of course I would refuse, but would make them an offer and as no one else would want the print it usually worked. So now its great that we can do our own, making a historical record.

Enjoy your day

take care

xcx

The wanderer returns

Home again, although it was a little bit dodgy for a couple of days due to a strike by Air France, but all was on time and we managed to extend by a oouple of days before they closed the route. 

It was a mixed bag of events, including some impromptu decorating.  Daniel and Shine rent a victorian end of terrace house, they are understandable loath to do much to it, but the owners certainly spared the paint, especially in the kitchen with mix match very dull colours on the unit doors etc.  So after discussions with them I set too and painted all the doors and a couple of walls which certainly brightened up the whole room and gave clean lines.  With so much else to do and adjusting to little one, this was one thing that they could tick off their list.

Unfortunately, yet again, my tablet just wouldn't behave and writing posts of even reading blogs and comments was impossible, so a bit of catch up is needed.

Antoni and Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed meeting his new sister, Daisy and as she was working in Taunton one day even visited us with Antoni returning with her so they could spend a day together at Alton Towers.

Daisy plans to visit here in January, so that will be another emotional reunion with their father.  All a bit complicated really.

Rebecca and I enjoyed time together too, with a little shopping, lovely lunches and just chilling out. here is the main reason for going over though

I took the cot blanket with me to finish off and check the size, but the photo seems to have disappeared, I also ordered some more yarn from Deramors the day before I left and was so surprised to find my parcel already there waiting for me.  Some lovely soft merino wool, including some 4 ply so I made a couple of pairs of winter mittens.

I shall have to sort through the photos and share the Welcome / shower party and share another time

.Have a great weekend, take care xcx

Now bearing in mind I usually sleep very badly and feel chuffed if I manage three hours straight with the rest in and out of sleep every hour or so, last night I managed not one but two stretches of four hours woo hop, now why do you need to know that? Well  there I was in this dream in a nice place with a waterfall cascading over the rocks, landing in a peaceful  lake throwing water droplets against the beautiful coloured leaves of the flowers and foliage when the rate of the flow suddenly got faster and louder until it was quite thunderous, at which point I decided to leave. I began to wake but the thunderous noise was following me coming through the levels of sleep it was like being smashed by a wild animal the more I ran the faster it followed. Where is this going you may well ask, bear with me, finally I woke but in the dozy sense of the word. I couldn't make sense of it, the thunderous noise was still there filling my ears, shaking the woollyness away, it suddenly dawned on me that it was..wait for it...raining! I reasoned the noise was the rainfall was overpowering the guttering, or a broken pipe, and was crashing down outside my window.  Now before you think my new place in the generations has addled my brain, my defense is that we haven't had any rain at home for about 18 months, not proper rain, I don't count the times when you can count the spots on the ground and they have been few and far between. What a strange way to start the day lol

Well better shake a leg and get going, lots to do,
Take care and enjoy your day
Xcx  

Cuddles

Tuesday was a very special day, I boarded a plane in Alicante in the late afternoon  case packed with goodies, oh and a few clothes, if i run out i shall just have to go shopping lol,   and three hours later I was having my first ever cuddle with my beautiful new granddaughter and her daddy of course.
Such a strange sensation as Shine said here we are go to grandma as I associate that name to my grandma and my mum, but here I was suddenly in that role, it will take a bit of getting used to.
Yesterday evening we went out for a bite to eat and Leocia was fast asleep just as Shine returned with her meal she woke for a feed. As mums know adjusting to snatching a few minutes in between demands can be challenging, but as soon as she had finished I took her so they could enjoy the rest of the meal in peace. Was there an ulterior motive, yep you bet as I got a lovely half hour of humming and swaying to the background music and storing up memories whilst gazing down at my beautiful girl who was desperately fighting with her eyelids, but in the end it was Grandma 1, Leocia 0 :-)

Rebecca and Antoni also caught a flight Tuesday heading off for an adventure of their own, but they were landing at Bristol.  Antoni discovered a few months ago that he had a half sister so after corresponding with emails etc they decided to meet for the first time. She lives in Bristol so that was ideal.  There was a little trepidation all round, but thanks to the emails any awkwardness disappeared and they had a lovely evening. They are staying for three days, meeting Daisy for most of them before getting the coach to join us in Exeter.

 Gosh, what an emotional rollercoaster for us all as we are all getting used to our new roles and the family is expanding. such a shame Chris couldn't be with us, but thank goodness for Skype.

I shall have to wait until Antoni arrives to learn how to put photos on my tablet as he is the computer whizz. Just wish he would do it a little slower so I can take the instructions on board lol.
Take care xcx

Praying mantis

Chris rushed in for the camera as he had spotted this beautiful creature, but he wasn't the only one, several of the cats were very interested in it too and wanted to 'play'. It was holding it's own though and with some distraction the cats got fed up waiting for it to move and went off to find something else to do, but Chris did rescue it on the end of a broom stick and relocated it. Such beautiful wings

praying mantis

We had a visit from our friend and neighbour and did a little bartering - she brought over a selection of chillies, ranging from hot to hotter including scotch bonnets.  We selected three plants for her in return as these produce little yellow chillies, again very hot,  they certainly put a sparkle in to a curry sauce.  

 I shall put them in the freezer as they are so much easier to grate when frozen and keep their lovely colour.

We swap other things too, such as I made her granddaughter one of the little rabbits and in return we got a huge bottle of first press olive oil, the flavour is very strong but used in the right way, quite delicious.

They have loads of olive trees on their land and each year put such hard work into laying down the nets, harvesting the olives by banging the branches with sticks or hand picking, then they take their bounty to Tarbena where they can watch them being pressed and put it in large containers. By putting the oil in decorative bottles they make lovely gifts.  It's still not over though as they then have to collect and clean the nets ready for the next year.

On the crafting front, I found a pattern for textural plaid stitch which I thought looked interesting, so I thought I would make a hot pot cloth, but as it was progressing I changed my mind, added a neck tie and made it into another bib.  

You can never have too many hot pot cloths, or bibs come to that

take care

xcx 

Our girls

Seven years ago today we found our 'girls', Tammy and Lucy. Two tiny kittens about 5 weeks old that were hiding under a bush near the pool  Obviously very hungry and not understanding why their Mum hadn't come home, sadly she never did.  We encouraged them from beneath the bush with food and brought them inside.

We had only been over here for 7 weeks and were not even thinking about another cat, (we had brought one with us) but as seems to be the way animals find you and it's meant to be.  It was a bit touch and go a few times with them but they soon thrived and grew

Here they are today, very happy and contented, and much larger! lol, Tammy follows us around, loves to be carried and is very jealous if we say hello to the other cats. Definately a daddies girl.  She was by far the smaller of the two, but that didn't stop her fooling us.  We were waiting to get them 'fixed' but the vet wouldn't 'do' them until they started calling, so we waited, Lucy began to call so she was done, but Tammy just didn't so we waited.  She had other ideas and one night went awol, yup you've guessed it off she went looking for a boyfriend, that sweet little butter wouldn't melt face was determined not to let us know before she had done something about it and produced three kittens herself..  We homed two and kept one

and that's how we ended up with four cats, how we ended up with a total of 8 is another story, opps, no 9 as Tom Ginger has adopted us now

take care

xcx

Baking and pentagons

We took advantage of Holland and Barretts penny sale and placed an order with them. This is where you can buy certain items and get the second for 1 penny. I know health foods etc are always expensive, but here they seem to be double the price, with limited range.  This may be different in the large cities but certainly here is becomes prohibitive. The great thing is we can order as much, or little, as we wish all for the delivery charge of £6.95. Considering we have received one large box with another still to arrive, makes this charge very reasonable.

We decided to purchase Dove's farm gluten/wheat free flour and Rebecca and I set about making some carrot, walnut and raisin muffins.  The mix was slightly wetter than usual but the actual taste was lovely, light, moist and moreish!

We shared them out so Rebecca could take some home and the rest certainly didn't last very long!

So last night I made some goat cheese and onions muffins

The goat chesse has a milder flavour than I guess cheddar would have but they were still tasty.  Wish we had bought a couple more packets, but there's always next time

I have been playing with pentagons and first I decided to use a 4" one with only 6 different fabrics doubled up, but soon realised just how big they were going to come out, so for the next one I reduced it to 2" and chose 12 fabrics, much better size and without two fabrics together.

Thought these would be ideal for the little ones and could be used for quite a few games

I found Amber, or furry purry as she is known, completely at home, nestled in one of the fabric drawers, didn't have the heart to turf her out

 Hope you are having a great weekend

take care 

xcx 

Wagons roll

I mentioned in my last post that we had some different visitors to the plaza.  We get people arriving in their cars to see what is in the ermita, we also get groups of walkers who use it as a lunch spot to take a break from their mountain trek.Some weekends we get families that come up to meet and let the kids play.  This time it was a group of four legged friends. I was first alerted by hearing bells jingling then stomping, looking out this is what I saw

Bygone age, it seemed a nice tranquil way of seeing the mountain though I did feel sorry for the poor horses having to pull the wagons in the heat (it was about 35C).

They all left after having their lunch and made their way down the mountain road.  I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be behind them going down as there are very few passing places and it certainly would have been difficult with the number of them.  Just hope they didn't meet any water lorries on the way.

A couple of weeks ago I managed to buy some sweet potatoes, I like to use them in veg thai curries or veg pate with lentils, or even just roasting them, anyway, a noticed on of them had little sprouts on the top, so I cut it off and placed it in some water.  Well this is how they have grown

What now? I have grown potatoes before, but not these.  So onto google, seemed straight forward, but the advice said to remove the sprouts and replant.  Now my green fingered friends, surely that means with a slice of the original potato, not just breaking the sprout off?  Any ideas?

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend and doing lots of things that please you

take care

xcx

Little bits

Haven't felt like blogging - didn't have much to say and what I might have wanted to say is probably best kept inside.  A bit blue too, but funny enough others in blogland have the same feelings, shouldn't be the weather as it's 32C at 10am and beautiful blue skies.  Anyway if in doubt, get the crafting out

Went into Calpe yesterday for a long overdue eye test, seven years opps! no wonder I needed new prescriptions and have been struggling with the close work.  So in a week I shall be singing the song 'I can see clearly now' Johnny Nash lol

I have been doing some knitting, stitching and crochet for our little Miss and Rebecca's friend Jo

Burp cloths, cotton bibs, bootees and a jacket for our little Miss

Similar for Jo, except the blue jackets has walked off!

ripple car seat/stroller blanket for Jo

and thanking everyone for your suggestions on quilting the little play mat/ quilt, that is finished too

Not as ambitious as some of the beautiful quilts we see, but I am still chuffed with it, a mix of hand and machine quilting.  You have to start somewhere! :-)

Talking of little Miss, we can say she has been named

Leocia Fleur Nathalie

beautiful!

Some household chores done! a nice cuppa and a few moments for me! ripple blanket, bibs or balls?

take care

xcx

ps. just had some different visitors in the little plaza, but I'll save that for another day

I would like to.....

....introduce to you

Our first Grandie, a beautiful little girl, born Saturday 9th August 2014 at 11.54am, weighing 7.2lbs

Although we were unable to be there, Daniel and Shine skyped two hours after she was born

these photos were taken from our computer screen, 

We shared another two hours with them, looking in wonder at this beautiful girl created in love

The baby has a full head of hair, about 2" long and long enough for Shine to be able to brush it!

She also has a very well developed set of lungs! which she showed off with great volumn and determination

They haven't decided on a name yet but they think Fleur will be among them

It feels really surreal to see my child nurturing his own child, still can't take it in that there is now another generation of our family.

Like me, her Auntie Rebecca is itching to meet her and have copious cuddles

xcx

Sand sculpture and a wedding

We had some errands to run in Calpe on Friday, one of them being to choose a wedding present.  Must say, it was one of those more pleasurable trips when everything seems to work.  We found parking outside the various shops we wanted and whilst Chris sat in a cafe I had the chance to whip into Casa, where I found certain items on 50% discount, so I was able to buy a few Christmas stocking items - the nearest I got to Christmas in July!  All shopping completed and all items ticked off the list.

We saw this on the beach, now that's what I call a sand castle!

how brilliant is that, along with the horse, the guy must have a full time job keeping it damp

Yesterday saw us in Villajoysa, just outside Benidorm

We were the official videographers for a beach wedding. Lovely setting and of course beautiful sunshine.

We actually stayed longer than scheduled, but we are so pleased we did, as we filmed many candid shots that would have been otherwise missed.  So important to go that extra mile and its lovely to capture the atmosphere etc that the happy couple may have missed.  We each had a video camera and so were able to film from different angles and mingle in different areas with the guests after the ceremony .

All in all an excellent result, now comes the processing of the files 

Its all about networking isn't it? I identified the wedding planner and he was really pleased to receive our business cards to incorporate into their packages, also the florist asked for a card for her forthcoming wedding, so with luck we shall be back there again :-) 

off to find somewhere cool to do some hand quilting

take care xcx

A lousy day

Don't you just hate it when your best laid plans just fly out of the window?

Well that's what happened yesterday

Rebecca had stayed over so I could attend her latest PET TAC scan, she had been very brave at first insisting she could go on her own, but sometimes Mum's know best and beg to differ!

I am soooo glad I went

She was given a very large bottle of jollop and a cup and instructed to drink a cup full every 5 minutes, unfortunately it had been flavoured with orange, to which, like me, she is allergic to.  So that went back and a fairly bland water type substance was substituted.

She finished the bottle which took about 40 minutes and was called in. I waited and waited, the room emptied and still I waited.  When she finally came out her right arm was sporting a huge bandage at the elbow, plus another taped pad on her left hand.

She did grin and ask how many kittens I had had whilst waiting

Apparently during the procedure of inserting the contrast into the vein something went wrong and it was panic stations as she was on the scan bed in terrible pain, they then had to insert a second dose into her left hand and the scan was completed.

The worst of it was they just wrapped a cool pack around with bandage and said go home and keep it cool!

Now with me, something like that doesn't sit very well, so after breaking her fast we headed off the the ER

It was heaving!

3 hours later we were seen, by this time the arm was so swollen and it had spread, a full examination then the consultant disappearing off to get the low down from Radiology only to tell us nothing could be done! ice packs, a review if the symptoms changed - oh and it would spread right up to the shoulder and take between 1-2 Weeks to go down!!! what!!!!! As if the poor girl hasn't been through enough

That was it, a blunder? perhaps, maybe who knows! so after 6 hours

We had to coordinate Chris and Antoni to meet up so they could rescue us and also drive Rebecca's car home

Our plans of a nice girlie lunch by the sea, a catch up on some projects we are interested in and a home colouring session to redo Rebecca's purple highlights all disappeared, whoosh gone, we were just two very tired, hungry, tee'd off girls with a da ja vu feeling 

We had both done our best at keeping each other cheerful and were so glad of each other's company

but not a good day!

At least today, so far! has been better, although the swelling has reached her shoulder and wrist, no other symptoms have appeared, so onwards and upwards with the frozen peas, I did joke and told her there are better ways of getting out of the washing up!

take care and enjoy your weekend

xcx

Any ideas welcome

We are apparently in a red danger zone now - very scary - and a little while ago we noticed the Cumbre del Sol is on fire.  This is where all the communication towers are as well as the urbanisation.  Even more scary!

The fire planes and helicopters are out using their buckets, fingers crossed they get under control very quickly.

On a different note, lovely ladies, I wanted to ask for your help please........

I found hidden in my stash this panel, I have put a border on and intend to make the binding by making the backing larger and turning it over on the front.

The question is how to quilt it!

As I have done very little machine quilting, I thought I could follow the straight lines and perhaps hand quilt the outlines, then straight stitch in the border ditch, but what else??.

So what do you think, any other ideas?

I would love to hear from you

thank you

take care xcx 

Busy busy

We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us, including a beach wedding where we are the official videographers. We met with the clients at the venue and can see it will be stunning with the blue sea, sandy beach and the ceremony under the palm trees and lots of opportunity of 'arty' shots.

Another wedding reception, this time of our friends son, they had already done the official paper trail in the UK and a blessing with reception for family over here, so this second one is a more relaxed affair for family and friends.

Then its our village fiesta, so three nights of music till gone 3am, Lots of hussle and bustle and traditions, plus we have a gig for a private bbq pool party which will be fun.

In between all that will be hospital visits for various scans and tests which stem from a regular Well woman check, so its all go, its also very hot, so having to keep cool!

We have now finished the hard landscaping for the old cactus garden, but its all on hold now as everything is starting to wind down for August and its just too hot to do anything unless its really early in the morning.

We can now plan the planting and decide on the colour of the rock infill, we are thinking volcanic for some of them which is a red/brown colour just to add some contrast from white!  During all this work our garden fork went missing, we looked but just couldnt find it, then tad dah...........

It had been completely enveloped by the wild bind weed whilst it was languishing against the back wall, the bind weed is a pain as it seems to be oblivious to the drought conditions and just keeps on tangling everything up, mind you it does have such vibrant dark purple/blue flowers which do look very pretty.

Enjoy your day what ever you are doing,   

 take care xcx

Wall art

I have been collecting the card tubes from the toilet and kitchen rolls, as you do! with a view to making some wall art. So I set too, first I flattened the card tube and pressed the edges down using a bone, (or ruler) then marked 1/2" lines along the tube

then cut them up

I had saved a printed page that at the time had come out too dark but it was ideal for this project.  I glued each strip onto the paper and let it dry.

Carefully cutting around the shapes using a craft knife.  I then played around creating a pleasing pattern, before gluing each piece into place.

I found an old frame, sanded it down and painted it, mounting the design onto thick card and this was the final result

Ok it won't make the Tate but I was pleased.

I thought it could be a fun thing to do with children or grandies, you could use any paper for the bases or even paint/spray the card without the inserts. I had a play with different shapes, curling pieces around a piece of dowel, rather like quilling.

Possibilities are endless, 

Enjoy your weekend

take care