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

 

 

 

 

 

T is for

Hello Ladies, Happy T Day, my drink related photo this week is our breakfast place on the Marina, you can see we had already finished by the time I remembered to take a photo,

You can see the tables are spaced out and no one around as we left home before 8 am so not too many people about although as lockdown eases it’s getting busier, that worries me as we will soon be getting visitors from outside of Murcia, we have been virus free for about three weeks now so I think people are getting complacent, they don’t walk to the side sometimes when we pass, quite annoying as we walk in single file, the shops are still being careful, in fact I saw a spanish man sent out for not wearing a mask, another was asked where his mask was, oh in his pocket, really!

This is a road near our house, these trees are beautiful when the flowers are out but unfortunately they only last a short time, they are a pretty colour though. I believe they are called Jacaranda Trees. this year they seemed to have bloomed everywhere!

I have been doing my scrap pages and making cards for the Alpha Challenge, the first one E for exercise. I printed the BG and pieces for the decoupage, I think it's from an old La Pashe CD from years back,

The second card Just chilling, was for J, sometimes it's a small link to the letter!!! I found the image in an envelope when I was tidying my craft room shelves!

We've been doing one job per day, my job last week was to fix a leak on one of the steps leading under the villa, the rain water has been getting through from under the path, it's not high enough to use the space down there so we only had spare tiles under there, I also tiled the one step and the front and sides while I was down the hole, unfortunately I then couldn't step on the newly laid tiles, Steve tried to pull me out, in the end I had to get my foot on the narrow ledge and with Steve's help managed to pull myself out, not a pretty sight I can tell you, he told me afterwards that there was a massive spiders web with a giant spider down there, he knew I wouldn't go down there if I had known. LOL

I guess that's all my news for this week, nothing too exciting!

hope you are all keeping safe and well, Jan x

T is for Two New Grand Doggies

Hello Ladies , T Day once again, the last week seems to have past very quickly, after our morning walk we have been doing one job per day

I've been up on the roof of the shed painting the metal rejas over the ensuite window, that took two days because when we thought we had finished we went inside and realised how much we had missed from the other side, we have a fixed fly screen so we can't paint it from inside, the next day Steve was telling me where to paint from inside!! no easy task as it has swirls and curls all over the place. so trying to guess where he meant was hard going and I was in the hot sun!

Trying to get down was scary too as I didn't have anything to hold on to as it was all wet paint, the paint brush was stuck to my plastic glove and Steve is stood there holding the ladder telling me to let go and hold his hand, ha, ha no way, eventually he came half way up the ladder to help me.

Our Grandsons have been very excited as last weekend they collected their new puppies, our eldest DGS called his pup Freya after a Greek god and the younger DGS called his Millie! I was talking to our son on my iPad when my iPhone started ringing, it was our eldest GS calling me from the Garage, he wanted me to see the pups, he’s very excited and is taking his duties as puppy owner very seriously. The younger one said he's not sure he's as interested in puppies as his brother, that didn't take him long to realise it's hard work!

This is where we walked this morning, well most days, it's a Fiesta today, Murcia Day so it was quite busy even at 8.15 am when we arrived. we sit here as it's half way and admire the views, we usually come to this end with the family, just away from the rocks, it's less busy and near the car park, saves carrying all the gear needed when you have the GSs with you. It's very shallow until you get quite a long way out which is good for the youngest. They like to look between the rocks as there's very often small fish.

Sadly their flights have been cancelled , they should have been arriving next week for two weeks, we have also had to cancell our flights to see them in October as we have been told our travel insurance won't cover us for the virus, I'm not sure anyone thinking of booking to go to another country this summer have actually thought about this, We are still waiting to get a voucher from BA, fingers crossed we actually get one that we can use next year.

You can see the lighthouse on the left, the building with the white wall to the right is actually a cafe bar, it is on all different levels with tables on all levels with beautiful views, it has a small swimming pool at the bottom .

As you can see our family love to come up here for a drink when they are over in summer, the cafe is only during the summer months, not sure about this year though! Things are slowly getting back to normal although we are being super careful as people seem to forget they should keep their distance on the seafront, we seem to be the only ones dodging round everyone.

Thank you to everyone who came over for a visit last week, sorry to anyone I missed, I tried to visit everyone but I was confused by the double posts, thanks Elizabeth for linking me up!

Until next time, Take care everyone and stay safe Jan x

T for Tostada con Tomate

Good Morning Ladies, Happy T Day, the weather is beautiful here, rather hot when we have any jobs to do but a quick dip in the pool afterwards is always refreshing.

Last Sunday we went down to Bolneuvo for our walk and breakfast, Tomatoes on Toast, a dibble of Olive Oil, sprinkling of Pepper, delicious and A cup of Flower of Jamaica coffee!

This is the view from our table,

We extended our walk along the seafront, a five minute sit on the bench and then back down the paseo for breakfast, around the campsite and back to the car, it's a couple of miles and lovely views. While we were taking a five minutes break we were watching a man trimming the palm trees, the building behind him is a two storey building.

I love the way they chop them so the round bit below the leaves looks like a pineapple, he was just tied on with a line but you can see how he leans back and bearing in mind he has a chain saw hanging from his belt!!!

The Paseo, lots more people opening their holiday villas this week.

Bolneuvo is famous for the Sand sculptures, made by erosion from the wind and rain. Believe it or not people climb on them to take selfies, one part, you can just see to the right hand side a flat piece balancing on the top, that has fallen while Lockdown has been going on so it's all roped off as some fell on to the Car Park!

I thought this might make you smile, we see this lady on the other Paseo at the main beach, always makes me smile as she always takes her dogs for a walk, an unusual way to exercise them don't you think!! Taking three of them out in her shopping trolley.

I made this card for a challenge, it was suppose to be to use splats and sprinkles but when I went to post it I realised it was supposed to be a CAS card, hardly that but it's another card for my stash. I enjoyed messing with brushos but it ended up too dark so I sprinkled Gold Micra poweer on too, I die cut the TH Apothecary Bottles with some acetate that has bits in it, never used the die before even though I had it for some years, I used the poppy die to make the flowers, tied some gold beading around it with a tag, it took me two days to finish it!

Hope you are all well and keeping safe, you could almost think nothing had happened here apart from seeing people in masks, I must admit it scares me a little but people are keeping their distance although one lady in the supermarket was told off at the check out for going to close to the man paying, maybe she didn't see the great big orange strips on the floor!! some people, LOL Have a Happy T Day. Jan x

Friday Smiles

Hello Ladies, life seems to be going really fast now we are allowed a little more freedom, our region of Murcia have had no new cases and we have been told the last person has left hospital, that’s great news, Spain only had one death yesterday too, thank goodness, it’s so sad that so many people had died, Spain are having ten days of mourning for those who have lost their lives, our flags are all at half mast.

we are allowed out at any time and leave our Urbanización, that is wonderful. We now walk every morning, we do our shopping on the way home, in the port shopping seems very strict but more relaxing, no lines and not many people inside as all shops have gone back to normal working hours, still 2 metres apart, still masks, gloves and sanitizers at the door, I feel more relaxed, instead of rushing and getting home all shaky from the stress of it all.

Sunday we went to the smaller beach hoping it wouldn’t be too busy, most people walking were careful but some still won’t keep to the side so we were doing a zig zag along the seafront.

This is the view along the Paseo, a lot of the houses are empty, it surprised us as we thought most people lived here but obviously not seeing as only a handful had anyone in them , this weekend will be different as we are allowed to move around but only in Murcia so I’m guessing many will come down for a visit.

This is a restaurant where normally have tapas but they don’t open until 9.30am so too late for us, we are coming out early to avoid the late risers. They have a lovely garden and massive inside area where they have a BBQ area. Our family love to go there when they come over as they do a good selection of Tapas.

This is the view from the restaurant, there’s some lovely house overlooking the beach and sea, we would need to win the lottery to buy one though.

My biggest smile today is that it is our 49th Wedding Anniversary, not sure where all the years have gone, It’s also our sons 5 th wedding anniversary today, it was funny when he said he was getting married, we said how nice that they were getting married on the same day, our son said, is it really, LOL, Steve was looking on google to find out what anniversary it was for 5 years, apparently it’s wood, our son said no problems we have a wood shed full of it, our DIL shouted it’s not wood it’s fish and chips, Steve sent over the money to pay for the fish and chips and a bottle of wine, we aren’t going out, we still don’t feel safe but we will be have lamb steaks, scalloped potatoes with salad, I’ve made a butterscotch tart, we know how to celebrate, ha,ha,

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, keep safe, a quick funny that our DIL send this morning.

Jan x