Rough times….

I have been feeling pretty rough all week with a nasty cold.  It’s really floored me over the last few days!  The weather is pretty rough too!  We were woken in the night by the noise of the wind.  Luckily we haven’t had it too bad here, not so much rain, but the poor people down in the West Country have been well and truly battered and flooded.  Hope none of you have been affected.

I ventured out this morning to take Merlin for a sunny but windy walk by the sea, hoping to blow away those cobwebs!  I took my camera with me:

 

Hope you are keeping snug and warm.

I’m back! With ‘Simply a Moment’

Sorry about being missing for so long – nearly 1 month!  Not sure why exactly, although I have been busy with Christmas preparations, of which more about later in the week.  I love to get organised in November so that I can just enjoy the Christmas spirit in December and have time for some crafting of my own.

Alexa over at ‘Trimming the sails’ suggested that we take ‘Just a Moment’ each month and write about it.  You know me, I can’t resist documenting the everyday – photos, writing, scrapbooking, – so here’s my contribution for November:

It is 7.20am.  I am woken by Maurice’s bright, jolly voice, ‘cup of tea for you’.  It’s something he does every morning – and I love him for it!

I struggle to open my eyes and wake up.  Too many times I have fallen back to sleep and woken half an hour later to cold tea. It’s quite dark, the gold curtains glow faintly with the light outside.  I look at the shadows amongst the folds as they hang.  It must be quite dull outside.

My bed is big, warm and comfortable. We’ve thrown off the blanket during the night – too hot- and it lies in a heap at the bottom of the bed.  I move my legs tentatively testing for how sore they feel after my exercise at the gym last night.

I am thinking about the day ahead, coffee with friends later on this morning, always a joy!  First though I must get out of bed, dress in dog walking clothes and take Merlin out.

The radio has been on since 7am but I haven’t heard it up until now.  Chris Evans is shouting excitedly.  It’s ‘Children in Need’ day and people are ringing in with pledges of money for the worthy cause.  In the background, I hear the rest of the family moving about and getting up.

But, I’m staying here, sipping my warm tea – comfortable and warm in my big bed.

 

Back later in the week with some crafting!  See you then

Garden Photography

Yesterday we went on a photography course at Nyman’s Gardens, a National Trust property about 45 minutes drive away.  Our tutor was David Dixon, a National Trust photographer, and fungi enthusiast.  The day was misty and gloomy, which we didn’t think boded well for photography, but it turns out that the weather was perfect for the type of close up garden photography we were going to do.  We were instructed to bring along tripods.  Now I don’t use my tripod very much and never know which knob to turn to change which angle!  I also have trouble getting my camera level.  Maurice had Dad’s old tripod, which David suggested he should throw away when we got home!  It was very flimsy and did look like it might blow over in a breath of wind.  (Christmas present ideas, new tripod and spirit level!)

After a little talk and a slide show (do look at David’s website, especially his fungi photos) we went out into the garden to find fungi.  I know very little about fungi, but the spot we found had 4 or 5 different species all growing under one tree.  With our cameras attached to tripods, we were able to shoot at f8/f16 despite the gloomy conditions.  David urged us to take our time over each shot, better to have 20 or 30 good shots than 100s of ‘average’ snaps (tell me about it David!)  We all enjoyed getting down low to really look at these fungi, and notice the colours, texture and shapes. 

I am quite pleased with these 3 taken of the lime walk:

Next we all clustered round this yellow maple tree.  Love the contrast between the leaves and the trunks.

David was very keen to show us this little Star fungus, which is quite rare.  He couldn’t wait for us to go so he could sneak back and photograph it himself! 

Storytelling Sunday–Dressing up

A day late, but here’s my story for Sian’s Storytelling Sunday.

Sian’s theme for October bearing in mind it is Hallowe’en at the end of the month, is ‘dressing up’.  I am afraid we are not really into dressing up in our house, unless you count DD in her short dresses and enormously high heels for a Saturday night’s clubbing!  But we do dress up at our crop once a year!  Each year, as Christmas approaches we all dress up in red and green, take a group photo, and then we scrap it at our December crop.  We love our December crop, we have Christmas music, party nibbles, then we go back to Janet’s house for party games and a takeaway Chinese!

This year there are less of us, and we decided to dress up in blue and silver.  Looking good eh?  Can’t wait until December now

Back row, Me, Janet, Muriel   Front row, Sue, Sara, Lorna

Sunny Spain?

Just got back from a few days in Spain.  We were hoping for a few days of warm sunshine to relax and lie by the pool or on the beach, but to be honest the weather wasn’t that good!  It was warm, and we did sit by the pool and on the beach, but it was either windy or cloudy or both!  Then at the end of our holiday it rained!  Big black clouds came rolling in from the sea bringing torrential rain.  You may have seen it on the news, if not have a look here.  We were not that far south, but still experienced torrential rain, especially on our drive back to Valencia airport yesterday.

We stayed in our friend’s villa on Cumbre del Sol between Javea and Moraira on the Costa Blanca.  Here’s an aerial view. 

 

There is a spectacular view from the Cumbre, and we really enjoy sitting on the terrace just looking at the view.

As I said we did spend some time at the beach, here’s Maurice and Lucy at the Arenal at Javea.  It’s a gorgeous sandy beach, with a promenade with shops, restaurants and bars right there on the beach.  You can see that the sun is behind cloud, however, this is my favourite place.

Here’s another favourite beach, El Portet, just to the north east of Moraira.  We really enjoyed watching a couple of families with little toddlers playing in the sea!  It was lovely when we first arrived, but you can see how the wind got up late morning, and made the sea much rougher.

We ate really well!  When we arrived at the villa all the supermarkets were shut as it was Sunday.  We were really thankful that the previous occupants of the villa had left some fresh food, plenty enough for lunch!  Spain always seems to have much fresher, bigger fruit and vegetables than the UK, you can really taste the sunshine!

We ate in restaurants most nights, and had breakfast at the Arenal Beach on the first morning, YUM!

We loved sitting in the sunshine sipping cold beers or lemonade (it was really windy the day we sat here, but lovely and sunny)

I was intending to swim every day.  Here I am in the pool on the Cumbre just 5 minutes walk from the villa.  It is a lovely pool, but this was another windy day and it was freeeeeezing!  I was trying to swim for 30 mins but just had to get out after just 15!  I can usually stand cold water, but the wind was just cooling me down too much.  Bit of showing off here, with photos of me in my swimming costume, yes, the Boot Camp really has helped!

There’s usually a lovely sunset over the mountains:

Sadly on our last full day the weather had really turned, so we decided to motor down to Benidorm, about 1 hour’s drive away.  We had never visited Benidorm before, but knew of it’s reputation!  We were quite amazed at how high the buildings are!  and how 1970s it looks, although I think quite a few of the taller buildings are much newer than that.  The sand is absolutely golden and it is a beautiful beach.  So we walked along, found a restaurant and sat for a couple of hours people watching and looking out over a rather rainswept beach!  Apart from the fact that we were eating grilled sardines and mussels, and it was still quite warm, it could have been the UK!

Although we were a bit disappointed with the weather, and I was disappointed not to meet with my blogging friend Alison after all, (she had to make an emergency dash back to the UK), it was a lovely late summer break.  And it was really lovely to spend so much time with Lucy!

Back to normal with a bump – just been grocery shopping and the shelves are full of Christmas goodies already!

Simply a Moment

Inspired by Alexa, I took a moment on Saturday lunchtime and made notes and took photographs to document ‘simply a moment’.  Here it is:

It is 1.25pm on Saturday 15th September 2012.  I am sitting in the conservatory with Maurice having just eaten lunch.  We had muffins with bacon, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, with orange juice to drink.  It is warm and sunny outside, but the sun has yet to come round onto the conservatory.

The kids are both out, there’s just us and the dog, who is hanging expectantly about us waiting for scraps. 

The table is an old oak draw-leaf covered with a pale blue tablecloth with white polka dots.  There is a pile of sticks on the table, waiting to be painted a la Alisa Burke, and Motorcycle News, which Maurice is reading.  The rest of the conservatory is messy with Lucy’s washing hanging on a dryer, and a big cardboard box with stuff spilling out fo the top waiting to go to the shed.

There is a lovely green view from here out onto the garden, with a backdrop of trees from neighbouring gardens.  There is a new shed in progress of being erected on the patio outside. The sun is noticeably lower in the sky now it is September, but is shining on the leaves in the pots outside, and I can see little white butterflies fluttering about in the gentle breeze.

The radio is playing – Tony Blackburn’s top 20 from 1974.  Here’s the top 5:

5 John Denver – Annie’s Song

4 Sylvia – Viva Espana

3 Donny and Marie Osmond – Leaving it all up to you

2 Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting

1 Osmonds – Love Me for a Reason

We are talking about the music and how we remember these songs!  Sadly, I can remember all the words!!  We’re talking about a family member expecting a baby, while a small airplane flies overhead, and the beep of the microwave interrupts us as the milk for our coffee is ready.

Pass the Book

Fancy a bit of scrappy inspiration?  A few weeks ago, Alison passed this book on to me.  Could it be your turn next?  Please leave a comment below and I’ll choose someone next week to send it to.

It’s an interesting book, with some great ideas for using texture on scrapbook pages and cards.  It’s very bright and colourful with lots of big clear photos of scrapbook pages and step by step instructions.

PS, I am going to meet Alison in person in a couple of weeks!  We are hiring a friends villa in Spain which turns out to be very close to where Alison lives, so we’re meeting for coffee and chat!  Can’t wait!