T is for thunder storm

 Since last week we had another small job to do, my husband said he would make me a fly screen for my craft room window, I've only had the craft room for eighteen years so maybe it could have waited for cooler days, my fault really as since we put the fly screen over the door it blocks out the breeze, I mentioned this and so he went out to buy the bits and pieces.

We started at 7.45am as it was slightly Misty and lovely and cool, so the first three sides were quick but doing the top part, again it was a concrete pillar with metal rebars, the drill actually stopped working but luckily my husband still had the old plug into the electric type, then the raw plugs were too small then the screws were too small so an hour later , in the sun we decided enough was enough, two hours we’d been up there, we still haven't put the mesh in as it's been too hot, maybe tomorrow, early.

Good news, our vaccine passports arrived by post, that’s ticked off the list, I was excited when I saw it was front the health authorities thinking it was my new medical card, oh well at least one of the three documents we are waiting for has arrived.

Reading Elizabeth’s blog and seeing the photo of her Poinsettia, well this is mine from last Christmas. It’s slowly going green, I’m assuming in the winter the flowers will appear again. I did keep in the the conservatory until it started to wilt in the heat,  then I took it outside in partial shade, didn’t like that either, now it’s in the shade and it’s growing again.

We have trees over here that have flowers that look like poinsettias, one village has them growing along the road and the trees look quite bare but have the big red flowers on them. I had a poinsettia a few years ago, planted it in the garden and it grew into a small tree until my husband decided it needed trimming, sadly it died, I was quite annoyed and banned him from touching my flowers after that

Walking around the Marina last week we saw this beautiful ship, it’s from Gdańsk in Poland, I'd love to know if it actually sailed from there, we’ve been told  you can pay to look around, a bit disappointing as we thought you could go on a trip, it has a pirate flag and thought our GS would enjoy it.

It's beautifully made and even has guns on the top deck at the front.

It' very hot and humid at the moment so we've had to start using the air con during the night, I haven't been spending much time up here in my craft room, half an hour and I'm melting!!

Yesterday afternoon we had rain, slowly the sky became darker and darker, suddenly we heard strange banging, it was massive hailstones, they were bouncing off the villa, we were sat outside and they were actually hitting us underneath the roof, it was quite nice until the lightening came, I had to go inside, scares me. This was 2pm believe it or not.

The bits are hailstones that have smashed up.

The thunder rumbled on for a couple of hours but after that everywhere was so dry you wouldn't believe it had rained.

Part of Our beach has washed away so it roped off for now and the main street in the Port was flooded, again, some had photos that looked as if they had snow on the ground.

Although I didn’t join the ATC  swop due to the slow postal service I have made one for the occasion.

 A crafting friend send me the vintage ads I used for the BG and I added brown glitter to look like hot chocolate, also my ticket to the tea party for this week.

Thanks you to all my lovely visitors last week, after seeing the awful floods in so many countries I hope you ladies are all safe and well.

Jan x

T is for

 Time to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard for another T Party, soon comes around, I sometimes find it hard to remember what I’ve been doing since the last weeks Party!  

It’s been slightly cooler weather, still hot but bearable,  we had a couple of small jobs to do but we’ve been up early to do them, my husbands main weekly job, sometimes twice a week is cleaning the pool, the wind brings dust that sinks to the bottom of the pool so it’s an ongoing task, 

I think I mentioned that we had a trip to buy a fly screen, the sort that has hanging strips, well my husband put up the hooks, it was hard going as the beam he had to drill has metal bars running through it, anyway he finished and we hung it up and we were both speechless, it was too short, of course I got the blame, my husband insists he told me 230cm and I wrote down 213cm.

 It wasn’t wasted as I now have it hanging outside my craft room door! we’ve been all over to find a longer length, eventually we went to  visanfer builders merchants who have some made to measure, chose the colour, clear with gold spirals, who doesn't like a bit of bling, paid a deposit then the girl rang to say they can’t make it, we went back to ask if any of the others on display could be made in that length, she rang to say yes but unfortunately only white, oh well, matches the door! At least when it arrives we just have to hang it up. Our next project is making a fly screen for he small window in my craft room, it’s all go being retired you know !!

So had another visit to the Chinese restaurant,  if we arrive at 1pm we are usually the only ones in there and it’s cool, we ordered the duck and chicken, again, this time my husband decided  to try the bananas and I had the apple fritters with honey., I think the heat was getting to the waitress, she tried to pour my wine into the glass without taking the cork out, made us all laugh, she pointed to her head and said it’s too hot!

Luckily the Apple fritters in Honey were a smaller portion than the bananas, thankfully!

Tomorrow lunchtime we are planning to try a restaurant we haven't been to before, it's been recommended to us by some friends.

This is our BBQ area although it’s now our seating area, it’s lovely and cool now we’ve had the roof put on and having a gap around the top means we get a lovely breeze, most days, the flowers are all artificial, it takes too much water in the heat to keep them alive so this year we bought more pots and flowers, I bought the trailing plants to hide the drain pipe so I’m quite pleased with it now

I tiled the walls, with help from my husband, he was the labourer for that job, the brick pillars were just concrete so we covered them with handmade bricks.

I made a bacon, tomato and cheese quiche for dinner, it lasted two days with salad, I made it with creme fraise instead of cream, it makes the filling really creamy, my husband also made the potato salad with it instead of Mayo, I don’t like Mayo so I really enjoyed it. I usually put out the meal because, as you can see, this is my husbands idea of a small portion,  he then complains when I can't finish my meal!!!

My drink this week, I haven't had Lemon Barley water for years, I spotted it in the  local English supermarket, I do get tired of drinking water so it's been a refreshing change.

Nothing too exciting to do in this heat, it's getting harder and harder to park at the beach now the holidaymakers are here and that's at 8.30am when we arrive to walk, apparently it's hard to see the sand during the afternoon as there's so many people on the beach.

Hope you are all keeping safe and enjoying the summer, take care.

Jan x

T is for Toooo Hot

 This last week has been soooo hot, Tuesday morning we  had our appointment in Murcia to have our paperwork checked and fingerprints done, firstly we were miles early, the motorway was manic but we parked and had a coffee sat in the shade, parking was €1.50 for the day but some people wouldn’t pay so left their cars on the road, both sides, so we had entertainment when the police arrived and put parking tickets on all the cars, one man spent ages arguing with the police , foolish man,

We went inside and after going through the scanners the joy of a massive room with aircon,  all went without a hitch, driving home the car showed 37c,it was 39c but dropped slightly, 

as soon as we got home we put our documents away and went straight in the pool, the water was 31c, 

Wednesday we went to Cartagena to buy some solar lights for the BBQ patio but had to take our receipt to Jose so he can get our appointment next month to collect our TIE cards.

 It was quite funny as we decided to have breakfast in our town before driving to Cartagena, we went to a cafe we’ve never been to before, first we bumped into our friend Pedro, we haven’t seen him for over a  year, then when the waitress came with the coffees and tomatoes on toast we asked for pepper, she said yes I Remember, we were puzzled,  she then said she knows us from the cafe on the marina, honestly everywhere we go we bump into waiters who we know from different restaurants, the man from the BP Garage, we have been here a long time though!!

A funny story, years ago my husband had to show photo ID to the young lady to pay by credit card for his diesel,  he showed her his photo and said look Tom Cruise, so yesterday he filled the car and he went in to pay, she was training a new girl, she said here's Tom Cruise, my husband, always the joker lowered his mask slightly and said, no George Clooney, he said they both fell about laughing, I wonder why!!!

We always know when it’s officially summer, the floating slides

The grannies seats in the sea as we call them, I know some of the ladies are most likely my age or possibly younger but not in my mind! I really can’t think of myself of that age, well until I try to get up off my knees or bend down, LOL

Someone had a lucky escape, this boat was rescued two miles out from Cartagena, we thought it had hit the rocks near our beach, apparently the helicopters etc were called and everyone was rescued but they towed the boat here to have it repaired in our Marina, it’s now in there being repaired, that will cost a pretty penny I'm sure, our sons friend had a boat, he used to say BOAT stands for Break out another thousand!!!

My ticket to the T party this week, coffee, beer and wine, delicious fried bananas in honey, we had a Chinese meal last Friday, we had sweet and sour chicken, again, with  duck in orange sauce, forgot to take a photo but I was very naughty and had this for my afters, my husband was a good boy and only had coffee, it was delicious, they also do apple too, might have to try that next time!

Yesterday we had a heatwave, 40C, it was so hot we had to go inside at 3pm to escape the heat, even with swimming it was horrendous with the humidity, at 10pm it was still in the 30's, we had the aircon going all night but I woke up this morning wrapped up in the sheet! Apparently it's going to be 10c lower today so fingers crossed.

Have a Happy T Day ladies, thank you so much to everyone who paid me a visit last week and the kind comments, they were much appreciated. Take care and keep safe.

Jan x

T is for Tuesday, already!

 Is it really Tuesday already, the week really flies by,  it’s been quite relaxed this week, an early morning walk, breakfast and shopping or collectling meds, nothing exciting really.

I have been trying to craft but since I was ill I can’t seem to get my mojo back, I’ve had the odd hour here and there. I join the challenges on Splitcoaststampers but I’m so far behind, I have about three different ones on the go, I start off well and then my idea floats away.

One of the challenges was anything faux , I’m made faux metal,  this is the front of one of the photo journals, I’m making one for both sons, I’m quite pleased with it as I didn’t want anything flowery.

 I rummaged through my stash looking for textured pieces to stick on it before covering with silver gaffer tape as we call it, I think it’s really called insulation tape. I had to smile as I ask my husband if he had any, he never batted an eye lid or even asked me what I needed it for, he just said he would look in his tool room, he didn't  have any so he went out to buy some for me, what a star he is.

Of course since I took the photo I've added some Indigo Gilding Wax on some parts to darken it! This is the point when I usually ruin things just going one step to far, luckily this time it's OK

I’ve been making strawberry jam and lemon curd to use the fruit, I have to pick the strawberries twice a day as they ripen so fast, the tomatoes are now beginning to ripen too. We asked Alvarro who owns the cafe where we eat breakfast if he would like a bag of lemons, he said yes please so at least we can give some more away as the fridge is full!

My drink, a coffee on the beach.

First time we had been to this cafe, very slow service so wouldn't want to go when they are busy

As you can it's right on the beach

This is the view to the right of the cafe, how lovely to have a holiday home right on the beach although they have been demolishing some further along the road that sit on the beach so perhaps not!!

Well must dash as we are off to Murcia to have our finger prints taken for our new TIE card, have a Happy T Day and keep safe.

Jan x