Plants in red

We had a drive into town yesterday to visit the cooperative

They are a little limited on choice but very good prices. We bought 6 lollo rosso  lettuce, 4 ensalada tomatoes (these are the large spanish ones) 3 courgette, 4 peppers, parsley plant, Dahila tuber all for under 7 euros.  I am completely out of English prices for Dahila tubers but thought 1.95e was a good price for a large one. They hope to have cherry toms in by the end of the week.

We continued in the other direction towards Calpe to the garden centre, they were offering discounts between 20 and 40%, the hidden gem was you had no idea what the price was until you got the the cashier. We mainly wanted potting compost, but of course I couldn´t resist a look around the plants.

I was so pleased to find Viola´s, delicate and such happy little faces on them and such a pop of colour when using in salads. A citronella plant will come in handy to try to deter the mozzies, along with a couple of petunias and a little plant with sweet tiny pom poms of colour, haven´t a clue what they are called though. Funny enough a pot of spearmint and basil jumped into the cart too.

We returned home a different way, a short cut that cuts off a fair distance, takes us through a tiny hamlet of Lleus and brings us to the bottom of our mountain road. Oh my word, it´s quite hairy in places with very tight bends, up hill and down dale, a single track road, (luckily little used) but oh my word bumpy doesn´t begin to describe the surface. Very rural Spain, lots of trees, wild rosemary etc so quite pretty.

I found a little lantern that was rather weather beaten, so after sanding it down I brightened it up to make a colour splash in the courtyard. Then I spotted a ceramic plant dish so it got the same treatment,

Lots of potting up to do,

take care

xcx 

Play date

As I have mentioned before Rebecca and Theo join in with sensory and music lessons, all now on zoom and the other day family were invited to join in 

We all had our props, floaty material, a teddy bear,  shakers, a heart shape cutout for playing beek a boo and something to act as a drum.

The main frame is yourself and your family with little windows so you can see what others are doing. It was great fun to be able to participate and watch Theo´s reactions to the music, although he wasn´t really into it that day.

Thursday morning Theo received another set of vaccinations, then later in the day Rebecca received her covid vaccination, not a good combo but it was what is was. Luckily neither of them had any real reactions, apart from Rebecca having a very sore arm and nausea for a couple of hours. She was given a little card with various details on it as proof she had had it, hopefully the jab will offer her some protection as a vulnerable person and as no one knows what will happen to travel arrangements in the future it may enable her to come out and see us. Then she received her Gov letter saying to still isolate until the end of March, she was not a happy bunny.

Hubby has taken up a new hobby, painting

His medium is acrylics and he has been enjoying experimenting with colour and texture, light and technique. Have to admit I was rather envious when I saw the finished paintings, I can´t draw for toffee.

We quite often get rolling cloud formation falling over the mountain, this was his first effort

He was experimenting with colours, the fairy house is in the garden

Felix was next, in fact his Mum liked it so much he had to paint another one and send it to her

A scene of Calpe at night

He has more on the go too, he paints in the naya, but today has been cold, windy with sea fog and low cloud, not a good combination, so he was rather thwarted. 

Right, best get on with our evening meal, hope a good weekend was had by all

take care

xcx

 

Sunshine

It´s a nice bright day, blue sky but a little chilly. A little bit of sunshine makes all the difference.

Managed to sow some seeds, chives, okra, cilantro, toms and take some mint cuttings.

We need to get some more potting compost and lemon tree feed before we can proceed with too much more, but it feels good to have a least started.

A couple of months ago we had an unexpected visitor who decided to stay, she just walked into the courtyard and made her presence known, settled herself in and made herself at home. She was only about 5 months old and quite tiny. She has just finished her first calling, our boys (who have all been fixed) were quite upset they couldn´t help her. So today Tiggywinkle (hubby named her)  has gone to the vets, poor little thing, never been in a car before and got car sick so disgraced herself. We lost our Felix a few weeks ago, he was only 3, so we are still on 9 furries.

I´m sure there must be invisible signs along the road, pointing the way to the mad cat people, lol

A few months ago I found a lovely fun pattern for a boys jacket with dinosaur spines running along the hood and back, it was quite fitting for Theo who has a little theme running in his bedroom of dinosaurs and of course the ones I had already made him. It was a little large for him at the time and Rebecca used it as a coat jacket over other tops. It suits him and looks super cute.

I´m knitting the same pattern again at the moment, only this one will have a collar instead of a hood. Then I had a request for another jumper, so that´s on the go too.

Our next door neighbour returned to Berlin the other day, but insisted we help ourselves to the lemons from his tree.

The aroma of freshly picked lemons was quite heady, but they are sweet with good skins ideal for grating. I use quite a lot of lemons and zest, I made up garlic, lemon juice, honey and olive oil for roasting veggies including brussels sprouts, then use the zest for a little zing.

Yesterday I tried a new recipe, Mung bean curry, combining the spices from scratch rather than paste. I used it as a side dish, it was rather yummy. Usually I just sprout the mung beans, so this was a great idea for something different. No presoaking or boiling and they cooked quite quickly. Ideal for vegetarians too.

I thought I had better clarify my last post, reading it back it implied we had taken off on a recent jolly, not that the trip was 5 years old now. In fact we haven´t been anywhere apart from the odd supermarket trip and to collect our mail from the correos.

take care 

xcx

5th equals wood

 Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary, 

Where did that go? 

We drove to Gibraltar with Rebecca and Antoni and stayed in a nice hotel just outside the town. Our room had a balcony which jutted out just above the rocks with the sea gently lapping below, with quite large fish swimming about.

After the ceremony we took a guided tour of the rock, including a visit to St Michaels caves, which was quite stunning. I dislike caves, tunnels etc, but it was very beautiful and intriguing. Of course the monkeys were about, getting up to mischief and pinching anything you had if you didn´t hold tight.

There was a stunning light show and as the colours changed it enhanced all the features.

Next was a visit to the tunnels, again very interesting to see and read about their excavation.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable which made it even more enjoyable.

We enjoyed a beautiful meal in the evening, wandering

 around and even visited a casino which was in fact a large floating boat. We didn´t play anything, just had a drink at the bar, but we could say we had been in one.

We had our church blessing in March, so another anniversary, this time family and friends were there to share, so it was a totally different day.

The furniture in the courtyard has quite deep seats, which I find a bit uncomfy, so after a rummage in the stash I found some material I had been given which had come from swatches of a curtain company.

Although it was two tone, it looked a little boring, so I made some prairie points to lift it a little. 

Quite pleased now

Must make another one.....

take care

xcx

Howling winds

 What a night!

We have been having more high, gusting winds up here and last night it started up again, we already have quite a few displaced roof tiles which will be attending to and more clearing up, but in our bedroom we have a door leading out to a small balcony, the wind seems to make a vortex around the door and makes a terrible noise keeping us awake, we call it the snoring door.

I thought I would share a few of the items I made back in the summer for Theo.

They were going to sensory and music classes, which have now transferred to zoom and not so effective, so I made some shakers from small water bottles, filled with coloured bells and glittery pom poms, with ribbons, (lids tightly secured with hot melt glue)

I´ve since made a couple more for me to use with him during video time

A couple of soft play books, which he loves, different textures, I used the internal wrapping from cereals to give each page a nice crunkly sound

Separate pages, then sewn together

A waistcoat for Christmas 

A sensory bag, filled with all sorts of fabrics, ribbons, textures, the idea being to play taking the items in and out of the bag.

There´s more, but I think that´s enough for now.

take care

xcx