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