Day 5 Watching the Vuelta cycle race

After a little shopping this morning, I needed a cable needle ! we spent a restful day until this evening. The Vuelta Cycle race was ending stage 6 in San Javier, we took up a position at 5pm in the 35 degree heat and waited for it to arrive in Los Alcazares. Decided I could not face the crowds of people at the finish line. It was exciting watching all the police motorbikes and cars of the different teams, eventually the helicopter was overhead and the cyclists appeared. I just clicked away at my camera hoping for some good shots.

Waiting for the cyclists to appear

I've never seen so many police motorbikes

OK where is Peter Sagan?

Overhead helicopter for TV shots

I dont remember them coming to San Javier before.

The back of the pack

Day 4 Christmas socks

The temperature is way in the thirties, so time to start knitting Christmas socks!
The day started with breakfast on the front deck with an air display by the local equivalent of the Red Arrows, well actually there was only one doing acrobatics, but it was entertaining.

Preparing breakfast

I absolutely love knitting and wearing hand made socks so brought a number of skeins of wool with me. It has probably been fifty plus years since I knitted anything with a cable stitch so thought I’d start with the One Tree Heel socks I found on Ravelry.
I think it’s a rule when you go on holiday to forget something... yup no cable needle! a large bodkin will have to do.

Cannot give credit to the designer as i is not on my pdf printout

Day 3 home for the next four weeks

The next four weeks we have booked the same villa we stayed at in January. The owner gave us a good deal and it has everything we want in a rental. Lousy photo from our last visit!

After five hours in the car, with the sight of yet another huge accident, a lorry had rolled over a number of times across the central reservation and landed on its side, from Zaragoza we arrived at Roda, on the Mar Menor. The villa is on a golf complex and the service guy, Mike met us with the key. Having had a quick cuppa we went shopping and with a loaded shopping trolley unpacked and dinner thrown in the oven, it is time to relax and enjoy the holiday. 32 degrees at the moment outside, but the air con is keeping the house just pleasant.

2nd Night from France to Spain

Zaragosa is our next overnight at the Tulip Inn.  Don’t you just love the colour of this place.

Uneventful journey across the Pyrenees into Spain, other than passing a vehicle that had take a long brick wall out and gone over the edge! The hotel was very comfortable and clean, but no drink facilities in the room, glad I always travel prepared with mini kettle, cups and drinks, we also have cereals and bananas for breakfast to save a little on the travel costs.

Day 1 August/September holiday

We are spending the first night of our holiday in Poitier France, having traveled from home through
the Euro tunnel. Left home at 3.15am! Yawn! Managed to get on the 6.35 train through to France. Clocks went forward one hour.  Good journey with a couple of stops for food and to stretch our legs, everywhere is really busy, hardly a parking space at the service stations. A lorry had taken out a section of the metal rod barrier and made for looong delays on the north side of the road.

Arrived at 3.30pm. Our Kyraid hotel for the night in room 007 same as we had last time we were here. Very tired so ate at a diner then hit the sack.

Pitsford Church

Decided to visit Pitsford church, which is only a couple of miles from home, to see if I could find the burial site of my Gt Gt Grandmother Hannah Hickerson.

Although I didn't find any family graves,
it was nice to think of the times my family would have attended this pretty little church.

Ruby Wedding celebrations

My cousin Helen and her husband Chris celebrated their Ruby Wedding in style, firstly with a party for friends and then a dinner with family. It was lovely to be part of the family lunch party and meet up with cousins I had not seen for quite a long time.

Left: Chris, James [ son] Helen & Chris, Jess [daughter] and husband and his mother.
Right: Sheila and Steve [ 2nd cousin] Margaret and Norma [in law cousins] Ian and Jackie [2nd cousin]
Christine and Mike [cousins] 

Great company and interesting wall art, a mix of old cutlery nicely framed.

Helen and Chris

The cake was even made with a red sponge!

Stars of America

Back in 2009 [YES NINE years ago] I started making Stars of America from Carol Doak's book

I love Carol Doak's method of paper piecing and each star is named after a USA State.
Having visited 31 different States I thought this would be a nice way to remember my travels.

The book comes with a CD for printing off the patterns

I printed the patterns onto thin cheap notebook paper and although I have finished making the stars I still have a lot of paper to remove!! Why of why did I not remove it as I went along.

This is definitely a UFO that needs completing, so I will take it on holiday with me and try at least to get all the paper removed. Watch this space.....

Early morning visitor

Every morning I like to go out and feed my fish and the past few days I have had someone looking at me, so I figured he deserved to have a photo on my blog.

I don't know a toad from a frog and guess he will not turn into a Prince but I love seeing the wildlife in the garden and hope he finds lots of slugs to eat.

Always playing catch up

I seem to spend my life playing 'catch up'. Everyone said when you retire you have no time and they were correct.

We have taken a number of walks, one of our favourite is along the Brampton Way train track.

I am able to walk further with my bionic knees as the path is level.

Completed a pair of Jelly Roll socks in Truly Hooked hand dyed yarn

The girls came to stay for another couple of days and we had a busy time making chocolate chip cookies, that were so yummy. They also made a large batch of BBQ sauce which will keep us going for a couple of months.

There was lots of game playing and a new version of a Ticket to Ride arrived from Amazon in the morning while they were here, so everything got dropped until we had a practice game. 

After lunch we played most of the afternoon. This is the fourth version of this series of games that we own between us. Brilliant game.

Squishy mail [hand dyed yarn] arrived from Dina's Home of Crafts with a little gift of three knitting markers and a small lavender bag. The girls soon set to and wound it into cakes for me.

I plan to take this 75% wool 25% nylon yarn on holiday with me later this month.

I spent a sewing day with the ladies at Bedford and I made an arm 'thingy' to hold all my bits and pieces while watching TV and sewing or knitting. I like the fact it closes up to carry it.

The kit by Debbie Shore looks good on the arm of my chair, and everything was included in the package.

Finally I have started to put a few things in a bag ready for our holiday. First thing a casserole dish, yes I know not the first thing most people would pack, but every time we go to a villa I end up buying one so I figured it would be better to take one with me this time!

August has arrived with a heat wave!

August IAM meeting was as usual full of chatter and some craft work, a number of items were brought for show and tell, but I forgot to take any photos!

The girls arrived for three days and it was go go go from the minute they arrived.
Monday was the funeral of the nicest person you could wish to know, Kim my 2nd Cousin, she lost her long fight from Cancer and is now at peace with no more pain. The Crematorium was packed including standing in the aisles and doorway.
Chris dropped me off and he took the girls to a petting farm and motor museum, meeting me later at the Wake. Not our usual day with the girls but it turned into a nice day.

There is nothing like cuddling a bunny, even when your almost 11 and 14.

Tuesday we decided to have a games and rest day [ not sure it was much of a rest for me but hey ho!.]

Eleanor was really tired after her Jamaican holiday and fell asleep in my computer chair!
Abigail wound wool from Swift to winder ready for me to take on holiday

Fun with flying bubble machines, while Grandad bbq'd burgers for lunch.

They flew in the bushes, pond and just about everywhere.

After the burgers we had s'mores. The girls lit a throw away bbq and started the cooking 

 

Squashed between two melting chocolate digestive biscuits we all made such a mess and laughed till it hurt!

Wednesday was an aMAZEing day !
A visit to Wistow Maze for Chris and the girls, while I wandered around the shops and sat in the Bistro with a hot chocolate.

Hope they know Left from Right, the maze is about 2 to 3 miles of walking
with clues to find on the way.

From a viewing platform outside the maze I managed to spot them

Chris pointing the way. The Maze is definitely not as high as last year, when you could not see over the top.

 Well worth a visit, each year is a different design and covers about 8 acres. Opposite the maze is a row of shops, Bistro, and garden centre, plus a small model village, so something for everyone.

The train was going around the track

Everywhere is so dry

Normally there would be water in the canal and ponds but due to the drought we are in the waterways were empty.