Blue Peter

At last we have taken delivery of our new back/lounge door, we ordered this in June, it´s taken so long, I know every thing stops for August, but even so. Then we were given an installation date with the warning if we had to rearrange it would be another 4-6 weeks before another appointment. Really! This door was beyond repair, it was so ill fitting with an inch gap at the top and the rest deteriorating day by day. It was single glazed and let the elements in. Now double glazed, snug, triple locks and doing its job.

I painted the kitchen door today after the repairs , needs another coat, but so much better, on the hunt for the right paint hubby found the wood preserver for our double front door, so that was applied. The sun and wind dries everything out so much. So nice to get these little jobs out of the way and preserve what we have.

We were given an old drinks trolley which I think I mentioned, but now its finished so Theo can use it as an outside kitchen/work area. A good dose of Blue Peter, as in sticky back plastic for the storage bottles and the tops.

Mentioning Blue Peter, I actually appeared on the show in the mid 70´s, we were interviewed by John Knokes, who kept fluffing his lines, but I was part of a girls weight training team, we rehearsed, then went to recording, eventually we got there. On our way to our coach we met Dick Emery, who immediately went into his acting mode of Mr Lampwick playing with our weights and causing great fun, hilarious. I then met John Knokes again when we visited the ponds at Elstead in Surrey and he was walking his dogs, very nice, cheerful man. Many years earlier I was sent a Blue Peter badge as our guinea pig had given birth to 8 babies and I asked if it was a record, they couldn´t confirm but that was my first badge.

Continuing on with the blanket and here are the little stockings I´m working on.

More to do, 

Rebecca took some amazing photos of the decor in Morocco, I´m hoping at some stage they will provide some inspiration.....you can always hope lol

Dinner prep now

take care

xcx

  

A month

 Not quite sure where the month has gone since the last post. 

We´ve had lovely play days which I thoroughly enjoy, Theo is very inquisitive and loves to find out how things work, he loves his trucks that you can take apart with his plastic screwdrivers and reassemble, keeps you on your toes.  I bought some little scoops and more pom poms to go with our sparkly ones, he so enjoys sorting, transferring and filling the containers that I save, like the plastic herbs tubs etc. he does this with dried rice too, great to focus on dexterity. I´ve taken to adding a little something to his toy area for him to find, I wait until he explores rather than give it as a present. He is also in tune with his surroundings and offers kisses and comfort if say you knock yourself, its so adorable to hear him with his please and thank you. Yesterday we showed him something and he just said one word, ámazing´, he makes me smile and chuckle.

Antoni was all set to go on his company cruise, just around the Med, but then he tested positive for covid, then Rebecca did too, so that was that. It´s manifested itself to heavy cold with us. They are over it now and winging their way down to Morocco for a few days as I type this.

Several ´jobs´have been tackled, panels replaced in our en-suite, only waited 2 years, but whos counting...we investigated replacing our kitchen door, rain had got into the cat flap and caused some rotting, and the door was a nightmare as it caught everytime you opened it, after a quote of 2000e, Chris tackled the worst pieces, replaced the rain deflector, trimmed the door, now it opens like a dream, just needs to be painted inside and out and saved a fortune in the process.

We have some pretties in the garden, the Spanish rose and Bougainvillea making a nice display.

  The Gerber´s are still flowering too, along with the begonia, I bought some cyclamen from the chino at 2.50e a pot, well worth it.

I´ve been working on the crochet blanket, having shown Rebecca, checking for size, she asked for it to be at least double bed size... so that´s on going. I finished a jumper for Theo that I started ages ago but it wasn´t a priority as it was too hot, quite plain but give another jumper

The photo has made it quite dark, but it is really a pretty blue

I´ve turned my attention to Christmas items, you always think you have ages left to make things then find the time has all disappeared, I wanted to make some decorations that Theo might like to put in his room, so a couple of little  felt stockings and some sweet bobble hats. I thought Theo might like to make some too, obviously with lots of help, but for an older child these would be ideal, no glue and with parental prep easy to make. Just cardboard tubes, a little yarn and patience

Still more to go but at least I feel a little more creative 

Also been playing with ideas for napkin rings for the Christmas table, not sure at this point...I like to put a little gift beside each persons plate, so maybe some more little stockings.

We are having a mild time at the moment, warm winds from Africa drifting up to us and wrapping itself in a little cocoon, lovely

Well take care, thank you for reading my various ramblings

xcx

Something different

R, A and T had some friends over from Reading, they are Argentinian, a lovely couple and so nice for them to all meet up whilst they were over here for a month, with a little boy same age as Theo and a little 6 month old girl. 

We were invited to join them on a sunset cruise leaving Calpe, Chris has sea legs, I don´t, too many horror stories for me in boats, not my thing, we all met up at the port and I waved them goodbye. It was my intention to sit on the beach or rocks and take in the gentle surroundings and chill, however the weather decided against that, it was blowing straight off the sea and was rough, after walking to my spot I gave up and sat in the car with my crochet to continue with the throw.

Getting out passed the rock was apparently rough but smoothed over once round, very interesting to see the other side of the rock and take in the scenery. 

Theo wasn´t doing too well on the boat and kept asking to come back to me, bless, so when they were disembarking I was waiting and he ran straight into my arms for a cuddle, special. We then walked to one of the fish restaurants on the quay side for a bite to eat. 

These restaurants have all sorts of fish menus, obviously right by the landing area, but gosh some of them were eye wateringly expensive, 160e for 4 people or 190 for 6, these dishes  have everything though, but half the time you wouldn´t know how to tackle the variety of fish. Rebecca had monk fish and it was delicious, very meaty and filling. It is the most uglist of fish you can imagine when you see it in the supermarket and I wouldn´t know where to start to fillet it, glad they did it for us lol 

Tiny little shell fish as a starter, can´t remember the name but not very filling, bit like tiny clams.

The children were getting very tired so we made our way home but so nice to experience something different.

Moments to treasure

take care

xcx

  

Gently does it

Last week was so different, no Theo and his Mum popping up after nap time, but we did meet up for a nice meal in Calpe, the service was so slow, but Theo was very good and his reward was riding his bike along the sea front afterwards. The routines are quite different now Rebecca is working full time, bit sad, but life changes.

Spent a lot of the week making anklets and girls bracelets for my board at Maria´s. I also made some flower hair slides. I revamped the board to make it more aesthetically pleasing, have to wait and see if it works.

I started this post  a couple of weeks ago, but various things have got in the way before finishing it. I had an early morning call for help on the Friday, as Theo had been unwell in the night. With R & A both working full time I went to be with Theo for the day, he was fine, had a lovely day playing and having fun. Saturday afternoon I was feeling rather unwell, then it hit me, the usual tummy bug had been going around the nursery and I got it full blast. Oh what a pickle, desperately unwell, couldn´t eat a thing and even cooking smells were awful. On the Monday I managed a little bland white fish, then very carefully added to the diet, the fatigue was horrible and I am still not feeling 100%. Didn´t even want to read let alone do anything else.

Gradually I have been pottering, a bit of tidying in the courtyard and doing the crochet blanket. This Saturday Rebecca and Theo came up late afternoon and stayed the night, something they haven´t done for a while. I was so tired when they went home, Theo is a complete ball of energy, very inquisitive and full of go, but it was lovely to spend time together.

We had quite a rain storm at the weekend which the garden has been very grateful for and I can already see the plants perking up. Just hope my huge rosemary and sage bushes recover.

Well not much is planned, just taking things easy, an ideal opportunity to start on the garden tidy and pull weeds after the rain, to be honest, it can wait, they will still be there next week, just a bit bigger lol. It´s just rather a pull of getting started that I must and will resist.

take care

xcx

  

Busy

 There are still a few hot spots appearing from the fire, they have been using thermal imaging drones to detect possible problems then dealing with them, so grateful for technology

A busy week, we suggested that R & A could store their belongings in the casita, thus saving them 90e a month from being in storage, so we had Theo whilst they borrowed our car to move as many boxes as they could, then we had great fun cooling off in the pool, still more to do before the end of the month

I bought some cat litter trays only 2.95 each, we then used one for dried rice, using tubs and scoops for fun, hardly any spillage and the other I put in lots of sparkly pom poms of various sizes which was great fun for  sorting, colours, counting and then incorporating cars and lorries as transporters. That kept Theo entertained for ages.

Theo has been doing potty training for the last 3 weeks and he has taken to it so well, hardly any mishaps, he was ready and now he accepts it as the norm.

During our call tonight he said the car had a broken light because it hit a tree, I asked who hit the tree, "Oh Daddy did" lol out of the mouths of babes eh, lol

I have been making beaded anklets for my board at Maria´s, we haven´t been there for ages so it was nice to go and catch up, we came away with 80e from my board and post cards, wow, incentive or what to update and continue

Keep forgetting to take pics, must rectify that, anyway keep safe

take care

xcx

Update

Gosh what a week, constantly monitoring the situation, seeing the fire expand, licking its flames onto some of the larger towns. People rallying round to help others with accommodation and pet rescue. Then it suddenly spread sideways coming nearer, but that was hit with plane upon water plane and helicopters.

Then out of the blue, a weather front appeared and saved some of the towns with 43mm of rain in a couple of hours, it certainly helped the progress but not enough to extinguish it. Our valley didn´t get any rain, so we are still parched. When you consider the weeks on end we had so much rain earlier in the year it all just evaporates

Hot spots kept appearing and it would flare up again, apparently due to the ground being so hot  that flares keep appearing. 

There are 4 stages to the fire according to the authorities, stage one has been raging all week, but thank goodness, news has just come in that its reached stage 2, so under control but not out. 

The forest area will take ages to regenerate but as we know the seeds lay dormant then with rain they will spring back and start to spread, nature has it´s ways 

I suppose you could say life can be complacent, so never under estimate nature and enjoy today just because.

take care

xcx

Very scary

We had a thunder storm on Sunday, mainly in the next valley to us, only a little rain though, but the horrific part of natures storm is that it started a wildfire. This area is mainly campo with animals, forests and farming.

I woke Sunday night to smelling smoke in the bedroom then hubby said the lounge was filled with smoke too.  Then Monday came the news that the fire was out of control and spreading. We have access to a fire watch site which allows us to see what is happening. The air was acrid with smoke, our valley was filled with it and we could see the amber glow of the fire away in the distance. Unfortunately, August is when we have a lot of wind, not helping at all.

Again Monday night we had smoke hanging in the air in the house. Today it was reported that there are 26 plane and helicopters in the vicinity, 65 personnel, the fire was covering over 65km and so many town have been evacuated and over 1200 people displaced. It´s heartbreaking, on the site there are people people volunteering transport and housing for animals along with requests for housing.

This evening it is reported the fire has widened, encompassing more towns, villages, with more evacuees. Back in 2016 the area around Javea had huge fires, which were frightening and horrendous, but this one is 11 times bigger.

The advice is to prepare evacuation bags containing essentials, medication, documents etc, so scary, we only have a normal car so how would we transport 8 furries in their carriers also where would we go. We have two ways out, one is through very wooded  twisty road, the other our normal is similar. 

Imagination running riot at the moment, it spreads so quickly, the dedication of the personnel dealing with this are too be applauded, these brave people continuously bringing the water planes and those on the ground, they are amazing.

We are safe at the moment, wind change or mishap, I just ask for protection from the powers that be, all we can do is wait 

xcx