frayed at the edge

Sunshine and showers

Yesterday we drove a few miles along the coast to Alcudia.  After strolling round the town, we of course went for a cuppa, sitting out in a lovely courtyard

I had trouble taking photos of the cakes, but did better with this photo of our lunch

it was raining when we got up this morning

so no 20 lengths of the pool

but the rain did go off for a while, and we went into town for a cuppa, and I managed to take a photo of my cake

sorry for the wonky spacing and any typos, but I can't persuade the Kindle to let me proof read/edit the post

 

Gratitude

One morning last week, I rescued a butterfly which was trapped in a spider's web in the garage.  It showed its gratitude by coming back in the afternoon and posing on the new planter in the front garden

 

but this bee wasn't so co-operative - you can only just see it below the big leaf

 

Relaxing!

After the problems I had last year using the Hudl, I thought I would try using the Kindle, and so far so good - this is our villa, which we are very pleased with.  We have just had lunch and Malcolm is already lying by the pool, reading, while I post this.  Hopefully I'll be back on Thursday with more photos!

Majorca

While on holiday, we may have a cake or two

 

delicious tapas

 

and even some healthy fruit

 

and we will enjoy scenery like this!

A few clues .......

....... to what my news is.  First (this photo is for Meredithe) some snazzy new summer shoes (bought, of course, from our lovely neighbours' shoe shop)

 

books to read and music to listen to

 

box sets to watch in the evening, while enjoying a glass (or two) of wine

 

now, this is a big clue ...... a new swimsuit and a bottle of lotion

 

have you guessed?  Yes, we are off on Sunday to Majorca for our annual 3-week holiday!!

 

we may have to go for pizzas one evening!

 

but worry not, dear peeps, you won't have to do without out me for three weeks, as I have scheduled posts to appear on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I might even pop in on Tuesdays and Thursdays to let you know what we are getting up to!  Please do still leave comments, as I enjoy hearing from you - although I may not reply to you until we are back home.

I hope you all have a good weekend, although the forecast isn't good - there is even talk of snow for the London Marathon on Sunday!   Love Anne 

 

 

 

Our holiday - part 3

A quick last look at some of the delights of our holiday, before catching up on what we have been doing since we got home

were we tempted to take on a refurbishment project?  NO!!

 

beer for Malcolm, wine for me ...... and my terrible taste in holiday reading!

 

pomegranates

 

sunset

 

sunrise

 

swordfish with mango and coconut sauce - delicious

 

Malcolm ate a lot of olives (I don't like them)

 

very old olive trees

 

and one last lingering look at the wonderful pool

 

back home, the rowan tree in the back garden was looking glorious.  Although it was a bit damp and grey on Wednesday morning, I took a photo of it, which is just as well, as soon afterwards it rained and rained, and when the rain stopped, half of the leaves had come off!

 

the creeper on the back wall is looking glorious

when we were on holiday, there was no sign of Christmas at all in the shops ........ then we came home to shops overflowing with Christmas stuff, adverts on the radio and television ........ and even my Christmas cactus has buds on it

 

at the weekend, we had two walks on the beach, which I will tell you about on Wednesday.  To finish today ....... how cute is this little seagull, which we saw on the beach at Bamburgh yesterday

Down to Earth

We were delighted to find a wonderful new shop and cafe had opened, just a short walk from our hotel

 

we went there several times for lunch ..... you have already seen the smoked salmon and egg that I had, and Malcolm enjoyed his quiche

 

and we also sampled the wine of the week

 

but I wouldn't want you to think that all we did was eat tasty lunches and dinners ....... no, we also ate delicious ice cream.  Mango and passion fruit for me, and rice pudding and caramel for Malcolm

 

to work off all those calories, we regularly walked the long way round from the hotel to the town centre.  Since our last visit, this amazing boardwalk has been built along the cliff top

 

the views are stunning ...... specially on the days that the sea was stormy

 

and of course we have to have some arty scenery photos!

 

and we mustn't forget the beach

 

I have one more batch of photos to share with you on Monday, but to finish, I have this stunning photo

 

it's just a pity that I didn't take it, but merely took a photo of this advertising hoarding!!

 

we'll be popping over to the flat tomorrow ....... hopefully the rain will stay away and we will be able to go for a walk on the beach.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

A foggy, soggy return!

So, where have we been for the last two weeks?  We have been having a very, very lazy holiday in Portugal, with some lovely sunshine.  Then we arrived back at Newcastle Airport yesterday to nasty fog, and this afternoon it has rained steadily!  We went to Carvoeiro, where we have had several very enjoyable holidays in the past.  We stayed in the same hotel as we did two years ago

 

we spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool

 

and enjoying an occasional glass of wine in the colourful lounge

 

of course we had lots of delicious meals

 

I have dozens of photos still to sort through, but you will have to wait until Friday to see a selection of them.  I have a lot of sewing and knitting to do between now and Christmas, so I am going to blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the next few weeks.

To finish ...... I have mentioned before that walks with Malcolm always seem to involve lots of stairs! 

 

 

Getting ready for the fair

On holiday, we were in a lovely new shop in Pollensa which sold all things soapy.  I spotted something which I thought I could make for the craft fair.  When I was in Berwick last week I was able to buy some lovely scented soaps, which you can see here cut up into quarters

 

I bored a hole in each piece of soap with a skewer, and tied some rafia round each piece

 

then strung the soap with shells and driftwood. to produce fragrant mobiles to hang in the bathroom

the next job was to cut up card to make price tags (the word blunt  on the rotary cutter refers to the fact that the blade is too blunt to cut fabric, but not card)

 

ready to stamp - if you didn't see the stamp when I made it several weeks ago, it says DriftAway

 

we have just about finished making things, the next job is to decide how to set up our table - I think we will have a trial run on one of the studio tables next week, so that we have a plan to follow when we set up on the Friday night.

 

I have been stitching away in the evenings, and have finished another block for "Twas the night before Christmas" - a jolly fat Santa

 

when we were in Majorca, Maureen wasn't that far away, as she was on holiday in Barcelona.  She found a shop selling beautiful Japanese fabric, and brought back this piece for me

 

I have been trying very hard not to buy quilting/craft books, but I succumbed to this one after seeing Joanne Sharpe on The Quilt Show

 

a lot of the book is about lettering in journals, but I like this little stitchery

 

we went out for lunch today, to the Jammy Coo.  Malcolm had a delicious parma ham, mozarella and olive paninni

 

while I tucked into a bacon, brie and cranberry bagel

 

when we finished, Delia, the lovely owner, tried to tempt us with a cake, but we declined!  To finish, I have two quirky photos from our holiday of modes of transport - neither of which you are likely to find me using!

 

A greedy person's paradise ......

.......... or should that be two greedy people's paradise!  Just feast your eyes on these beauties!!

 

but I wouldn't want you to thing we ate cake every day .......... sometimes we had ice cream instead!!

 

and of course, you can't visit Spain without eating tapas

 

on to other matters!  We had a potter round the charity shops in Berwick during the week, and came home with one or two little goodies.  My first purchases were actually new goods, A little tin (a girl can never have too many tins!) and a notebook (a girl can never etc!)

 

next was an unused stencil, a bargain at 49p!

 

what was this, a tin saying embroidery threads

 

oh my, just look at all these wonderful colours

 

and with the paper label removed, another smart tin for the collection (refer to previous remark about tins)

 

the last purchase was made by Malcolm ....... he hummed and hawed over this little teapot, which has markings on it which the charity shop staff thought were foreign silver markings.  It may be silver, it may only be silver plate, but it wasn't that expensive for such a decorative item

 

I'll be back on Monday with some sewing.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend - we will be busy making things for the upcoming craft fair in Berwick (on the 6th of June, from 10am to 4pm, in the Town Hall).  To finish, you know that I like silly things, and the artwork on this lorry made me laugh!