T is for Trouble

 Hello Ladies, firstly I need to say sorry for causing mayhem last week, I was a bit scared of commenting after I read the post about my link in case it caused problems,  I hope this week will link as it should, I'm still not sure why it was taking me into edit after I had published my post.

This week I will show my T related drink first before I forget, another Takeaway cup I think from the ferry coming back last year, we spent most of the time in the cabin but ventured out once for a quick coffee.

This week we were allowed to venture to the nearest town Cartagena, we haven't been but somehow we feel free just knowing we can, LOL crazy but luckily we are happy to walk, shop and potter around at home.I have been baking, I've tried to use a few lemons so I made a lemon loaf cake but it only used one lemon!!! 

The top has lines where I tipped it out of the loaf tine when it was too warm and it rolled over on to the top, still tasted lovely, sometimes when it's a few days old I warm a slice and have it with Greek yoghurt, I like it warm with custard too.

I made some some lemon curd,  that used six lemons! I try to give the lemons away but all of our neighbours  have lemon trees, the lady next door takes a few every so often, I leave a bag on the gate, she only likes two at a time, for her G&T, they last her for ages, usually if the family are coming over I slice and freeze them for their drinks.

Lots of new buds on the trees too, last year the lime, grapefruit and orange trees only had a few fruits appear, not sure why, I had a good crop of Kumquats so lots of marmalade, I've also put some Kumquats in Brandy, no one actually drinks brandy so I thought I would use it, I'm trying to make a liqueur, well that's the plan.

Must dash the wood delivery has arrived, a ton of logs to stack!!

Keep safe everyone, thanks to the ladies who were brave enough to visit lat week.

Happy T Day

Jan x

T is For

Hello ladies, Thank you to those of you who came over for a  visit last week, It was good to join the T gang again.

 

Wednesday was full of excitement, we were allowed to leave our area and go to the next town for the first time since before Christmas,  We could hardly contain our excitement, LOL

We needed tomatoe plants and some more bark for the garden so we decided to go to the Nursery over there In Totana, first we went for a walk on the seafront, it was cloudy but warm although there was a few waves, we don’t usually have waves here so it’s always interesting when we do, 

 

 

We had our Tostada con Tomatoe at the Cafe on the Marina, sitting on the terrace, social distancing of course, first time for about three weeks, delicious, our favourite breakfast.

I tried to get a good photo of the Almond trees but I'm not sure if they aren't quite in bloom or the blossom has almost finished.

I love to see the goats just across from the Nursery, looks like they were eating left over lettuce stalks, they are usually standing on the top of bales of hay looking around, playing king of the castle! Sometimes we have to wait while they cross the road, takes ages as they have to nibble on every blade of grass, that is until the farmer gets tired of waiting and sends his dog to round them up!!

I love the way the sisters who run the Nursery have trimmed these olive trees, reminds me of South San Francisco, they have trees that look like this, always fascinated me when we used to take our DGS to his Daycare.

Sadly they didn't have any Tomatoe plants or Basil, what a shame we will just have to go again next Month!!

My DH had his 70th Birthday last month, we didn't go out as we are being careful due to his health problems but I decided to make him a card for his special birthday.

I cut the card on my cricut and found a photo from when he was three years old, very cute with his curly blond hair, he was so pleased with it he has still kept it next to the TV.

I hope you are all keeping safe and enjoying better weather, lots of snow around the world, even our four year old GS in England is tired of it now. I'm thankful we don't get any where we are.

Jan x

T is for Too Long

 Hello Ladies, 

Long time no T, It’s been quite a while since I last joined the T party,  actually I was quite shocked to see it was last June, with the heat and the amount of holiday makers that arrived where we live we decided that we had to stop walking and having breakfast out so I didn’t have any new photos to show and it was even too hot to go into my craft room so I just gave up and spent my days reading and chilling by the pool.

We did go to the UK last August as we had already booked a ferry thinking we would taking our GS to school, thank goodness we took the chance as it seems we wont be able so see them for a while yet. we decided to leave a day early to escape the heat, we thought we would drive just over half way to Bilboa and enjoy the aircon in the car.

We booked a hotel in Aranda de Duero which is just north of Madrid, the hotel was amazing but the rooms could have done with a spruce up, our room overlooked the vineyard.

 

The hotel foyer had all the old items used in the vineyard.

 

 

 

 

Obviously it was all about social distancing so breakfast wasn’t a buffet but there was plenty of choice .

We drove the couple of hours up to Bilboa to a hotel for our last night in Spain, it was the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in, the couple who ran it were really lovely, we felt sorry for them as they only had one other couple staying there, apparently they have lost nearly all there bookings due to the virus. 

 

 

 

The room wasn’t  massive and didn’t have brilliant views but the shower was big enough for a whole family.

It was quite odd as at breakfast we had plastic gloves to wear while making our own toast whilst wearing our masks of course and choosing our food, also all the cutlery, cereal etc was all in plastic bags, 

We enjoyed our ferry crossing as usual, calm seas, we had to stay in the car until we were called to our cabin, we were one of the last to get on the boat, by the time we had paid for WIFI and got to our cabin we were already sailing. View of Bilboa, not the most thrilling views from the boat as it’s the industrial part of the city.

The first two weeks we had to quarantine, after filling in forms to enter the UK no one had been in contact to check that we are staying indoors, a bit annoying when you read about people walking into the country by the thousands and most likely not bothering to quarantine at all. We did enjoy spending time with our family and meeting our GSs new school friends during the last week as he had just started school.

Sadly our son in San Francisco had his flights cancelled last June and our flights to see them in October were also cancelled, we were lucky that we had all our money refunded by BA and Brittany Ferries let us move our crossing free of charge so we still have one crossing already paid for waiting to be used, eventually!

We are still in a mini lockdown but life goes on and we have managed to get all our jobs in the garden done as they had been put off for so long due to keep going away to visit family.

we can get takeaway coffee so my ticket to the T party is my cup, quite a cheerful one I think.

 

My computer is going into the workshop for a few days to be cleaned and updated so I will say bye for now so I can unplug everything ready to go tomorrow, hope you are all keeping safe and well, 

 Looking forward to visiting you all to see what exciting things you are up to.

Jan x