frayed at the edge

Tenacity

Just before we went on holiday, we found another wasps' byke in the summer house

 

 

I reached up to take a photo of the inside ........ and then realised that the wasp was inside!!

 

 

This one was attempting to build its new home on Malcolm's Bintang Beer sign, which he got in Indonesia

 

 

Then today, we opened the summerhouse to have lunch ....... and there was yet another byke!  These wasps are tenacious little blighters!

 

 

After all the rich food and cake I consumed on holiday, I was amazed to discover this morning that I have actually lost a pound over the last two weeks!  However, I thought I should have something healthy for lunch, and made myself a large salad

 

 

If you look closely, you will see the one thing missing is tomato - I've mentioned before that I just don't like the taste of raw tomato ....... not even fabulous ones like these that I spotted on holiday

 

 

One evening as we were heading to Puerto Pollensa for dinner, we were rather startled to come round a bend in the road and see this

 

 

The early evening breeze was providing ideal conditions for some high speed fun

 

 

As I headed up the stairs to bed one night, I thought we had a visitor ...... but the gecko was on the outside of the window.  We had a gecko which lived behind the cooker in our house in Indonesia - it didn't have a tail (they can shed their tails to escape from danger) ..... so we called it Stumpy!

 

 

A bit of fun to finish with.  One day Malcolm was exceedingly cross when we came back to the car in the supermarket carpark to find another car parked so close to ours that he had to get in the passenger door and climb over to the driver's side

 

 

So why was Malcolm so cross?  Because the car park was almost empty ....... so why had this driver chosen to park so close to our car?!

 

 

Fun in the sun!

Just a quick post ....... as this is the second attempt - I wrote the first one, clicked on 'publish' ....... and it vanished, never to be seen again!

So - we had lots of fun, lots of sun, lots and lots of delicious food, wine and, of course cakes!!  The sun was shining when we arrived at the villa

 

 

Stuart and Alison didn't arrive until much later, so didn't see the sun until the next morning, when we headed into town for a cuppa and cake.  Malcom's cake didn't fit in the box, and unfortunately my photo was blurry, but these tasted every bit as good as they looked!

 

 

On the way back to the villa, we were glad that this tractor was going the same way ..... the road wasn't wide enough to pass a car, never mind squeeze past a large tractor!

 

 

Thank you for visiting and leaving comments while I was away - I have read all the comments, but it will take me a few days to visit all of you in return.  We missed the last of the electioneering here (we voted by post) ..... then we discovered that there are elections soon in Majorca!  Do you think that this Julia Roberts look-alike will get lots of male votes?!

 

While we are away .....

.......... the garden will go on growing, so we can look forward to the grape vines having far more leaves

 

 

the aqualegia will have flowered

 

 

This is the plant that we think may be a wisteria - wouldn't it be wonderful if we came back and found it had flowered!!

 

 

We get back tomorrow - but too late to post ..... so I'll be back 'live' on Wednesday!!

Shadow Shot Sunday

Some fun shots taken in the garden!  For more shadow shots, pop over to Hey Harriet

 

 

 

 

What threw these shadows on the sheet?  Lets go round the other side and see ....

 

 

 

 

....... the pergola, bird feeder and thermometer!

Ouch!

This was Malcolm the Saturday before we left .......

 

 

........ sitting with an icepack on his poor sore finger

 

 

What happened?  He somehow managed to catch it when he was shutting the garden gate

 

A little light reading

We buy books in charity shops to take on holiday - by the time you read this post, I will probably have read most of these!

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

These shadow/reflection shots were taken recently, when we went for a walk along the river in Jedburgh.  For more shadow fun, visit Hey Harriet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excess baggage

Do you remember when all you needed to take on holiday were a few clothes, swimwear and lotion.  But now packing has to include this little lot!

 

Be prepared!

After all those years of being prepared when I was in the Brownies and the Guides, I still like to have and not need, rather than need and not have ..... so these always go in my holiday packing!

 

 

ps - the little orange gizmo is for zapping insect bites!

A leisurely weekend

I promised to tell you today where we are going on holiday - so I won't keep you waiting any longer!!  We are off tomorrow to Majorca, back to Pollensa, where we have now had several holidays.  Stuart and Alison are joining us, although we are travelling separately .... we fly from Newcastle, and they fly from Edinburgh.  We have a very early flight tomorrow, so we will get there well before them, giving us time to shop for essentials ....... beer and wine bread, milk, tea, coffee etc.

We pottered about on Saturday, getting things tidied up, sorting out what we want to pack.  Then on Sunday we headed first to Jedburgh, to get the Sunday papers.  On the way, the drivers of two cars which were coming towards us flashed their lights and gestured for us to slow down.  I just had time to get my camera out to take photos of the problem

 

 

 

It was another glorious morning, so we went for a walk round the town, calling in first at the gardens at Mary Queen of Scots' house.  This old apple tree was delightful, clothed in blossom

 

 

 

As we walked on round the town, I found another postbox to add to my collection.  This is a Victorian one.

 

 

We sat by the river and enjoyed an icecream - sorry no photo, as we had to eat quickly before it melted!  Then we had a short journey to the Oxnam Quilt Show.  Among the members of the group are Annette and Cathy from Borderland Fabrics - you will recognise this first quilt ...... it is Cathy's version of the 'row quilt', which inspired several of us to make similar ones

 

 

Annette made this quilt for her grandson Harry - he doesn't just like tractors ...... he likes John Deere tractors!

 

 

Another tractor quilt ....... the one that I made for Linus.  It was included in a display of quilts which have been donated (after the exhibition it will be given to a sick child)

 

 

On our way home from Oxnam, we were stuck behind a slow-moving car and horsebox.  But that gave me more time to take these photos

 

 

 

It's Monday, so of course that means the knitting update.  This week's project was a pair of baby sandals.  Not having a baby about the place to model them, I had to stuff them with some wadding to take the photos!

 

 

 

I've sorted out two small projects to take with me

 

 

 

I have done some posts to appear while we are away - including Shadow Shot Sunday.  They are just little posts, but I hope you will visit ...... the blog would be very lonely without you!  Please still leave comments (I love getting comments!), and I'll catch up with them when we get back.