14th - 18th SPAIN

More visits to street markets. One being a Charity stall market, where I bought amongst other things a skirt and matching top for 1 Euro [80p]. A girl was sitting painted gold from head to top knitting, a donation in her cup meant I could have my photo taken with her.
On one of the very hot days we took a trip to the Ricote Valley [ Air conditioner in the car full on!] with a visit to Thermal baths to see the roman ruins.
Wednesday saw us back at the Camp Site just up the road for the quiz evening, we went early enough to eat before the fun began. Having again won biscuits and wine for the worse score in the quiz! we stayed for a game of deal or no deal, where Pauline was chosen [by admission ticket] to play the game, she won 25 Euros.



Street Market at Alcazares



"Gold" lady sitting knitting



Archaeological ruins



Map of the Ricots Valley



Ricote Valley



Colourful rock formations



Water Wheel



More progress on the X stitch



Me paddling in the sea



Chris enjoying the sea

Wash basin in the toilets at Des Mares

Chris enjoying a Tony Burger!

Pauline chosen to play Deal or No deal

Pauline with her 25 Euro winnings.

11th - 13th SPAIN

During these few days we seemed to cram in a lot of activity. Pat took us to a very nice Hotel on the sea front for Happy Hour, then across the promenade to Pier Restaurant for a three course meal for a mere 69 Euros. The setting was wonderful.
One day was spent with borrowed sewing machines working on designs Pauline and I had taken with us to Spain to teach Pat a few new things. The room fans kept the temperature in the house bearable while we worked on samples and bottle covers etc..
Back to Lui's Lounge for his wonderful fish and chips on the Friday.



Chris using the new vacuum cleaner



Progress on the Amish X stitch

Pat, Pauline and I have a sewing day

Sewing completed on the sewing day

Brian and Chris enjoying Happy Hour

Eating dinner with Pat Brian and Pauline on the Pier

Starters on the Pier Restaurant



Fish & chips at Lui's Lounge



The BEST Fish & Chips

8th - 10th SPAIN

This is a re-cap of our second week in Spain.
The temperature was in the low 30's most of the time but reached 35 degrees one day.. very hot!
A trip through the countryside to see the Design House was very interesting, we passed a Restaurant at Rebate that is on our list for next year.
Asked the villa owner, Mike, if we could book for 4 weeks next year and as the vacuum cleaner had broken we bought a new one as our deposit!
Our friends Pauline & Brian arrive to stay in the villa next to ours, so we start with a meal out at Route 66.



Swimming pool viewed from our roof



Washing on the roof dry in 1/2 a day!



Sun set from the roof



Restaurant at Rebate



Olives growing in the Rebate grounds



Turtle at Rebate



View from the Grand Design House



Grand Design House

Pauline & Brian join us for meal at Route 66

2nd - 7th September in SPAIN

Now back from our three week holiday I intend to update my blog with the photos I took and places we visited. We flew with Monach Airlines into Alicante airport collected our hire car from Firefly, stopped for some food shopping and arrived at San Javier Villa late evening.

Chris spent a lot of time sunbathing on the roof, while I stayed more in the shade doing my cross stitch. Pat our friend and neighbour who lives permenantly in Spain took us to a quiz night on Wednesday and we all won packets of biscuits, great fun evening at the local Camp Site.
There are many street markets in this area and a visit to the local market was a must to buy fresh vegetables and see the colourful stalls. Friday the camp site, Lui's lounge, had fish and chips on the menu, they had run out when we got there but we had an alternative nice meal.
Saturday the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning struck, this was the only day we saw rain, so we visited a new shopping complex a few miles away.


The colourful San Javier Market



Health & Safety!! men installing solar panels



Starting my Amish X stitch



Chinese Warehouses full of "goodies

Blog iPad help needed

Do any of my blog mates know how to put a photo taken with my iPad onto my blog?
I have tried everything I can think of but just cannot do it!

Saw flamingos this afternoon and people taking mud baths in the sea and would like to show you all!

San Javier Spain

Monday we left home for our flight to Alicante, it was a good flight of just over two hours. Collected our car then got lost looking for the Hypermarket where we stocked up on food for the next few days.
Arrived at the villa near midnight local time.

Spent Tuesday sorting ourselves out with a quick shopping trip to one of the many huge Chinese shops. These shops sell everything you can image except food.

I managed to do a little to my Amish x stitch embroidery, Chris got his first taste of the sun up on the roof.

Winter Machine Embroidery Swap

Sixteen people have signed up for a swap I am in to make a 9 inch block on the embroidery machine entitled Winter.
I wanted to make as many as I could before going away and with luck all sixteen will be finished this afternoon.
I'm not sure where the snowflake pattern came from, I'm afraid I'm not very good at labelling my discs when I buy patterns. At school my report always said "Diana could do better!".

Agh!!

What is the worst thing that can happen a day before you are going on holiday?

OK maybe it's not the worst... but my washing machine packed up with a load of very wet soggy washing in it!

Luckily Chris will have a go at anything and has it in bits all over the kitchen, which means I can hardly move in there to get it sorted out before leaving the house in a friends capable hands.

Success he has managed to at least get the machine working enough to get the load finished, but dare I risk more?

Funny how we often come home from holiday with a suitcase full of dirty washing but I have never gone away with dirty washing... but hey there is a washing machine in the Spanish Villa we are renting..

Grandma to the rescue

Arriving home last night I was asked to have the granddaughters from 8.30 this morning, and then take them to Summer School for 1pm and collect them at 5pm.

"Oh and by the way" Abigail needs a necktie in shocking pink for a performance this afternoon, she is a biker.

OK a necktie is not to hard to throw together.

The girls arrive and Abigail said she really needed a leather jacket as well ! A quick search of my cupboards and I found some black leather, goodness knows why I had it! cut out a waistcoat and hoped my sewing machine would sew it.

To make it look more "biker" the girls sorted out sticky sequins and had fun sticking them on the leather in a V shape.

I think she looks great.. but then maybe I'm biased..

Sue Sewell workshop

Thursday was spent in Bedford with Sue Sewell's group and Annette Valentine teaching us many little projects. It was a lovely day with and I came away with lots of ideas and two completed bags.

12 of us enjoyed the day

My two bags

The Frog

Have you noticed the frog on my side panel?
If you move your mouse around on the green square he follows it.
Sometimes it's the little things in life that amuse me!

Postcards

Today has been busy, firstly a trip to the gym. Then after recovery time [these old bones ache] Chris and I tackled the front garden.. it was desperately in need of weeding and pruning.
A quick lunch then caught up with the ironing [ luckily there was not too much].
I felt I then deserved a sit down so worked on some postcards I had started to make.
Many of the postcards I make go for swaps with a postcard group, but I also like to make them for friends and my granddaughters.
I use Sticky both sides Rufflette pelmet vilene, which is not very good for my machine needle, so always replace it after sewing postcards.

Re-cycling fun ideas

Last night we had a meeting at church and as one of the organisers we decided on the theme of fun re-cycling.

Penny showed how to make fabric softener and displayed earrings on a cheese grater. She also planted a geranium in a pair of kids jeans for a fun outside feature.

Katie explained about fixing jars to the underside of shelves for storage, punching holes in cans and using with a tea-light for outdoor decoration and a few other useful tips.

Katherine showed recycled fabric made into quilt blocks and two great bags made from old jeans.

I made a bird feeder from two wooden spoons and an old pop bottle, a pretty rag wreath for decoration, planting in old margarine tubs, some quilting ideas and using a skirt hanger to hold your recipe book while cooking.

It was a great evening and topped off with lots of goodies to eat.

Katherine and Katies display



Penny's display




My display



A quilt for a new baby

A friend at church is expecting a baby in a few weeks, so I made her quilt suitable for either a boy or a girl. It is backed with fleece to be cuddly and warm, or nice on the floor to lay on.


Close up of the design




Baby Cooksley's new quilt



Bump Bump Bump

Another day of Green laning in the Land Rover.

The September edition of the magazine Total Off-Road has a series of Tulip Maps for an off road course in Northamptonshire, so we decided to make the most of the nice sunny day and follow the route.

I like reading the Tulip maps now I have worked out how to read them!

The route stared in Newton Bromswold and ended 58 miles later near a pub somewhere [ not sure of the villages name!] It was a very bumpy route with huge ruts, but the ground was very dry and so no mud.

reading the tulip maps

Trees heavy with Sloes

Rutland Water from the Byway

Fields now harvested for the winter

New trainers just for Off roading.. guess they will not stay clean long!

Raspberries

Everyday I am picking lots of raspberries from the plants my sister gave me last year.
We love raspberries with ice cream, in a jelly and crumble.. yummy