T is For New Place fr Breakfast

 Happy to say summer has finally arrived, weather sunny and warm , we had our first swim on Saturday, quite cool getting in at first but lovely once I started swimming. My DH doesn't swim he just gets in the water and goes round the edges cleaning and skimming the top, I swim around him LOL

Yesterday as usual we had our walk around Bolnuevo, this is a beach bar they erect every summer, they have a few in the Puerto too.

This is Las Redes, the same name as the one I think I mentioned that had to close down on the sea front.

Not the same staff so we think it's been taken over, shame as the other staff were really friendly, the girl here couldn't smile if her life depended on it!

The small outside terrace, just across the other side of the road they have a large dining area.

The inside of the restaurant, through the window, there's a few tables to the left behind the window too, I like the nets and beach theme they've used.

You can just see the Jamon with a cloth over it on a small table, you can have some thinly sliced on the tomatoes but I prefer it with melon.

Our breakfast, Tostado Con Tomate, We like pepper with our tomatoes but there was more pepper in the little packet than normal!! I do love the fancy plates they use.

The bread is lovely, I think they bake it themselves as it always tastes as if fresh from the oven.

Lovely coffee and my ticket to the T Party for this week.

Our circular walk is just over two miles and ends just down the road from the restaurant.

The wet weather we’ve had has bought out the ants, they have been coming out of the grout between the tiles in the conservatory, I hate them and get quite obsessed with them so I’ve been spraying the grout , I’ve found dead ones the next morning, we’ve had a few small flying ants too but not as bad as other years, it’s my ongoing battle!

Later this week we will have to dig out the grout and see what's happening under there.

I made this card to honour a friend on 

Splitcoast Stampers, she was chosen as Stamper of the week, we had to choose a card from her gallery to make, I tried to copy the Moroccan tile effect, this was the only paper I had that looked anything like a tile, everything was from my stash, the accordion flower die I’ve had for years, it’s hardly been used, like many things in my craft room!

Finally managed to wash the Duvet so I can store it for the summer, we only use the thin summer weight Duvet so luckily it fits into my washing machine, we actually had to put the fan on in the bedroom last night as it's very humid with the rain and now the heat drying everything.

We are also preparing for our family arriving next week from San Francisco, they are in Cuba at the moment, pictured in a Pink Cadillac, haha, they are flying to New York and then Berlin before arriving here so I'm guessing they will be quite happy to chill out by the pool for two weeks!

Happy T Day Ladies

Jan x

T is for Tuesday

 Thank you all for your visit last week, kind comments and Anniversary wishes.

I'm sure most of you will recognise this man, the famous Robin Hood, this statue stands outside  Nottingham Castle, our son recently flew from San Francisco to England for a wedding and decided to do all the touristy things as he hasn't been back for about ten years.

As a child I hated having to visit Nottingham Castle when we had visitors, but loved going to Sherwood Forest, in those days you could go inside the trunk of the Major Oak, supposedly the tree that Robin Hood lived in. The last time we went it was roped off as the roots are being damaged.

One of my favourite programmes as a girl was The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Richard Greene, I've never really enjoyed the films made about Robin Hood Since as in my mind Robin Hood is Richard Greene, although I think Erol Flynn played him too and many others.

He also sent this coaster, it's an old saying from Nottingham, it means  "Hello my Dear", or words to that effect,  haha, duck was used by the older generation when I was a girl although I doubt anyone else says it nowadays only my husband as a joke to our neighbour who is also from Nottingham!

We had a lovely meal on the Paseo last Thursday but after taking this picture I totally forgot to take any of the food. We had homemade chicken croquettes, I had Pork Medallions, Steve had BBQ ribs, all delicious.

This photo looks out towards one side of the Marina, the boats are on the other side, the tall building is a restaurant with amazing views. There are quite a few restaurants over there, Italian, Moroccan, German and an ice cream parlour.

My drink this week is a bottle of Gin, Nordes, we bought this on the boat coming home  in March, it’s actually made in Spain, I think I should have googled it before buying it as it says it has a flowery taste with herbs and spices, I liked the bottle, LOL  but it was far more expensive than I would pay for Gin, it's actually on offer in our local supermarket for less than we paid on the boat which is supposedly duty free!! I’m saving it until our eldest comes over as he likes the occasional G&T in the summer.

I've also made some Kumquat Gin, I think it tastes good but I will see if our DIL likes it, our son bought some Pink Gin, Strawberry flavoured, at Christmas it was delicious so I'm experimenting!!!

Our weather has improved but we were still getting thunder during the late afternoon and evening, some rain but it quickly dries, Steve has been trying to empty the water butt as it is sludgy at the bottom but every time he uses the last drop it's rained again! It's played havoc with the pool as it's been bringing down red sahara sand, always makes a mess and takes quite a bit of cleaning, with our family arriving in a couple of weeks it needs to be sparkling clean!

 Take Care and Happy T Day Ladies

Jan x

T is for Celebration

 Hello Ladies, Happy T Day.

I mentioned my Mothers  Day card last week and totally forgot to post the picture!

It folds flat to post, my son said he read an article about how they are all cut on machines, that’s how they make them so precise!

Yesterday was our Wedding Anniversary, 52 years! Hard to believe it’s been so long although of course my husband likes to make all the jokes about it being far too long!

 We actually met when I was 14 and he was 16 at the local youth club so it really has been a long time, haha, we lived within ten minutes walk from each other from being born and our parents both moved and we still lived fifteen minutes walk away,  We actually went to the same school from the age of 5 until 11, even had the same teachers but never knew each other!

We decided to go to a restaurant at Bolnuevo, we used to go there occasionally for breakfast but they never seen to open early enough for us, well we had a drink there but when we saw the menu we didn’t see anything that took our fancy so we paid for the drinks and drove to another restaurant!

We’ve very often thought of eating here as they are really friendly, not the best photo but my husband had to take in from our table under the shaded patio. It's quite big inside but it's lovely to sit outside in the shade.

We had a salad to start, a menu del Dia always starts with salad and bread, forgot the photo!!

Our starter, Guiso de Cerdo, stew with Pork. very tasty as it had a small amount of chilli in the sauce.

Our main course, I had Pork chop with fries and the obligatory egg, for some reason they always seem to put a egg with chops.

My husband had Cerdo de Mano, Pigs Trotters, I know, awful, but he loves them, they are very popular in Spain.

The waiter laughed when I ordered mine, I think he saw my face when my husband ordered the trotters.

I also had a glass of white wine and my husband a glass of non alcoholic beer, we decided against afters so my drink for today is my cup of coffee.

I only remembered the photo when I was halfway through it but it shows the name, our favourite coffee, flower of Jamaica 

We've still been having a lot of rain, sometimes torrential, yesterday was the first dry day for over a week, it was quite hot walking as we were later than usual, the car thermometer showed 27c as we were driving home, we heard someone say it was 30c in Murcia city.

Lastly, I join the card making challenges on Splitcoast Stampers, recently I've been joining a few other challenges, this was my monochrome card, this paper must be over twelve years old, some of the colours in the set I didnt like but I love the black and white ones.

Enjoy the rest of your week ladies, hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend and Whitsun Bank Holiday for those of you in England, we actually got married on Whit Saturday, it was also our sons 8th Wedding Anniversary too so at least he had a long weekend to celebrate, apparently they went to the movies with our Grandson!!

Jan x

 Another Tuesday, another T Party thanks to Elizabeth and Bleubeard, thank you ladies  for your visits  kind comments last week.

I had two lovely Mothers Day cards, my son who lives in SF always sends cards on American MD , this year I had two cards, one from my son and one from my GSs, who knew they had cards for Grandma on Mothers Day, I’ve seen these cards on Pinterest and wondered how they are made so I was really pleased to receive one, I now know it’s beyond my capabilities to make them

This week I have photos of our Monday morning walk last week, it's Bolnuevo, the same beach I posted a photo of last week.

The start of our walk, this used to be a dry river bed that only had water in it in when we have loads of rain but it seems to be holding the water this winter.

You can just see the Flamingo, never seen one here before,  they are found on the coast road near Alicante on the salt flats, pink of course through eating the crustaceans .

My coffee, sitting looking out over the beach, the Restaurant is called The Oasis, in the summer they have live music apparently, we've never been as it doesn't start until 10pm! If we lived closer we might have given it a try but we have to drive there so too late for us.

It's a big restaurant and even have seating across the road on the beach in the summer.

This is looking through to the back of the cafe part, it also leads to a lovely patio area on the other side.

Another part of the restaurant, seating made from palletts, a novel idea, these are the seats that they take onto the beach.

The other side is the restaurant where they have an outside grill and BBQ.

They do amazing tapas and in the summer we sometimes come here for dinner and share a few dishes, lovely when it's too hot to eat a big meal.

On the way home we called at Mercadona to buy some fish.

Our GS loves to come and look at the Squid and Cuttlefish.

We bought Trout and a Plaice, you can see the young lady filleting our fish, My husband usually does it but it's the first time we'd tried the plaice so he thought he'd let the expert do it.

The girls are amazing , not a job I would like to do.

These are the rock formations opposite the beach, they now have a fence around the bottom to keep people from climbing them to take photos..

We saw this strange insect on the villa wall, we take photos for our youngest GS who loves to see them, he always asks us to save them until he comes over.

He tells us it's a stick insect although I thought they didn't have such long legs.

We had torrential ran and thunder and lightning last night just after we went to bed, rained off and on all night too, we’ve had to miss out morning walk but hopefully we will manage to get out later, I hope it’s sunnier wherever you ladies are!

Happy T day

Jan x

T is for Too Many meals

 

Tuesday again, how the week flies, yesterday our car had to have its first ITV as the car is four years old, can’t believe we’ve had it so long already, its a test for smog and road worthiness, i know it’s not something that is done in the States, well definitely not done in CA, it is in England, it’s called the  MOT, 

I thought I’d show some of the meals we had in San Francisco, we flew out on January 8th until February 24th, we actually got to celebrate our sons Birthday just before we came home!

My husband is a big basketball fan and our son works just around the corner from the Chase Centre quite handy for parking when we go into the city.  That's his Office building in the background.

Steve was really pleased to see it in person and have his photo taken although sadly he didn’t get to see a game this time.

Our son took us to S F Kebabs, not being a huge fan of Kebabs, i haven’t eaten one for over thirty years, I was a bit wary. 

                                

I hope the bottles on the counter can be my ticket to the T Party for this week, I forgot to take a photo of our sodas.

As you can see an extensive menu so we let our son choose the food.

we had the platter of dips, stuffed vine leaves, (not to my taste), the vine leaves I mean, falafel and pitta bread which was lovely but far too much even for three of us, in fact if we go again I would just have that.

I had already eaten some of my wrap with Lamb meat before I remembered to take a photo, I didn't managed much more than that so I took the rest home.

Now we know why our son is always telling us he’s put on weight as he sometimes comes here for lunch!!!

Our walk last Sunday along the seafront at Bolnuevo, we like it here when it's busy in the puerto, it's always much quieter although sadly they've demolished our favourite breakfast place, apparently all these years it's been illegal, it's a tiny bar area so they added a huge conservatory on the side without planning permission so now it's gone.They have opened up around the corner with new owners and the Tostada con Tomate is lovely!

Weather is hot here but seeing as we usually leave home at 8.30am and do our circular walk, breakfast, shopping and collect the post we are home before it gets too hot, hope you are seeing some sun wherever you are.

Happy T day

Jan x

T is for Totally Forgot!!

 Thank you for your visits and kind comments last week, it was good to be back and catching up with everyone.

I've only just realised it's Tuesday, yesterday was a Red Day as it's called in Spain so a holiday, all shops apart from at the beach are closed, totally put me off as I thought yesterday was Sunday as it was so quiet.

This is the Harbour in Whitstable where our son lives, I took this on Christmas Eve from a restaurant, we met up with DIL's sister, Nephew and Mum who was over from Poland.

The beach here is pebbles but it has a quaint high Street and is know for it's Oysters, they have Oyster beds that are visable at low tide.

This is Herne Bay, a few miles from where our son lives, we come here to walk as it's flat so an easier walk than where our son lives.

This is a view of the Band Stand, I think they have concerts in the summer but to the left there's a lovely Italian owned cafe, we take our GSs there for ice cream when it's warm weather.

The Pier is still here although it was much longer but a storm blew part of it away so this is all that's left, it has a small funfare at the end of it.

We saw this last October, I was quite fascinated by them, One man asked if I wanted to try it!!

No way, the sea is too cold for me in England.

I made this card for our GS who had his 7th Birthday last Saturday, they were late deciding what to do for his Birthday so two of his friends already had parties booked so although he didn't have his own party he spent the weekend at his school friends houses, he did have a Birthday cake, he was eating some at 7.30am when we rang to wish him a Happy Birthday!

My ticket to the T Party this week, a set of stamps, these came free with a craft magazine my son bought me, hopefully they will come in useful!

Have a great week ladies.

Jan x

T is for Travelling again

 Hello Ladies,

It's been a long time since I joined the T Party but Elizabeth was kind enough to invite me to join the Ten Year Anniversary so I thought I would try and catch up with you all, I hope you are all well and enjoying life.

We finally travelled to San Francisco in January, it's been two years since we last went over due to Lockdown and worrying about catching covid whilst traveling, we didn't intend to go until this Autumn but our eldest son in England invited us to join them for Christmas so I suggested we book flights while we were half way there!!

As usual we drove up to the North of Spain to Santander stopping enroute. We left home at 8am and drove for two hours to Albacete where we stopped for breakfast at the Restaurant of the five brothers, Beicon Bocadillo and coffee, always a welcome break.

This was the Nativity Scene in the Restaurant window, these are typical in  most towns in Spain.

The second half of the Nativity Scene

Our journey through Spain took us around Madrid and on to Lerma where we stayed the night within walking distance of the town, the Plaza Mayor is up through the cobbled streets and quite a climb but it is well worth the walk as it has bars and restaurants and the Palacio Ducal De Lerma, it is a Parador nowadays and quite expensive!!

The Puerta de la Cárcel leading to the Plaza Mayor.

Lovely cobbled Streets, we didn't realise we could drive up there but I think we needed the exercise after six hours of driving.

The Palacio  Ducal de Lerma from our hotel

 After a quick breakfast we started on the final leg of our journey, we couldn't belive our car was covered in ice!

As always we had the spot the bull competition, I lost as usual!

We are heading to Burgos and on to Santander. As you can see there's hardly any traffic, most of the journey is like this apart from near and around Madrid.

Only a couple of hours to go and the temperature was still only -1, something we never see at home.

Our hotel, Hotel Bahia on the seafront and opposite the Ferry terminal

Beautiful Hotel, right on the edge of the town.

The parking is below ground and has lift for the car, quite terrifying for me as I hate lifts!!

View of the Cathedral from our hotel room, floor to ceiling window, scared me to even walk past it.

A beautiful room, it even had a hallway!

The bathroom was really big and luxurious too

This was the Cathedral from the other side.

Having a coffee and croissant in the hotel cafe the next morning we could see the ferry had docked.

Our cabin was on deck 8, one of the small windows at the top, below are the restaurants and the shop.

My ticket to the T party, Onboard we had meals included, three course which we good but the same on every sailing, this was our afters, very tasty.

Apparently there was too much wastage so theyve stopped providing inclusive breakfast and evening meals but I'm not sure they've reduced the prices!

This is the ferry arriving in Portsmouth which is a naval port hence the Spinnaker Tower, it's the first time we've seen it lit up, it changes colour as you pass.

You can actually go up the tower to see the views.

We still had two hours drive to our sons but luckily we were off the boat in record time on on our way.

Sorry for the long post and if it's something I've shared before, I've kind of lost track after all this time.

Jan x