Days 3-10

Maybe this should have the far more interesting title of 'Our Family Holiday in Calella'

I took over 200 photos whilst we were away and have decided to do an A-Z to give a snapshot of what we saw and what we did.

A is for the stunning Architectural detail on some of the old buildings in the town of Calella. I have taken a load of photos of balconies, doors and shutters!

Blue, need I say more?

C is for the amount of Chips eaten this week! We were half board in our hotel with all you can buffet for breakfast and evening meal. S ate a good selection, T being a bit fussier these days stuck to pasta and chips!

We passed this statue of Dancers every day on the way to the beach, it looked fabulous against the blue sky.

The Eyes have it!

I love this Flower, can't remember the name of it, but I do like the ditsy little petals.

Can't go to Spain and not take a photo of a red Geranium. These pots and flowers covered one of the outside walls of our hotel.

All being in one room with limited space didn't stop T and S playing Hide and seek. Just love this photo!

Smurf flavoured Ice cream anyone?

Big Jump into the pool.


A Kiss for Dad.

Street Lighting.

Nearly every day we visited one particular snack bar so the children could have  long tall cool delicious Milkshakes.

At a pedestrian crossing you press the button and a timer comes up and counts down the time in red to show how long there is to wait until the lights change and the traffic is stopped. Then whilst you are crossing the Numbers count down in green showing how long you have until the traffic will move again.

Just one of the Old balconies, the date on this is 1832.

I think this is an agave, even if it isn't it's definitely a Plant.

'Quick turn around and see what's behind you!' I leave you to guess what happened a few seconds later.

Five minutes walk from our hotel there was a park which we visited a few times and that's where this Row of trees are.

Completely gorgeous Saddlebags. 

The Tiled bottom of a balcony.

A beach Umbrella.

A View over the town from the top of the park

and this was the View to the side.

I can't tell you how much fun was had in the Waves. T and S spent so much time in the water, they both love swimming and playing in the sea or the pool.

Yellow tiles.

An eXtra long straw in those tall milkshakes.

Zarrapastroso. Apparently this means shabby in Spanish. This is one of my most favourite photos. I think this is very zarrapastroso in a very chic way.

Hope you enjoyed my selection and made it to the end!

Day 1 and 2

Hello everyone! We've been away on a jolly holiday to Spain. I am behind with reading everyone's blogs and there is plenty to be done here at home too. However, I am hoping to now start blogging each day of the school holidays, even if it's just a single photo of something which captures some part of our day. I think today's photo maybe a pile of the washing that needs to be done!

So it's back to the beginning of last week. T had a friend stay over on Sunday night and so he was occupied for most of Monday too whilst they played on the x-box and generally just bodged about together. S played outside with G and then went to play at a new friend's house for a while. 

It was splendid being able to sit outside and enjoy some sun.

On Tuesday there was last minute holiday shopping to be done and then it was home for a water fight. Very sensibly I chose to stay indoors and watch.


Here is S reloading

T and S discussing their strategy for getting G who was hiding round the other side of this wall

And then it was just blast and run!

Day 3 was the day we flew to Spain. Our flight was from Bournemouth, but not until early evening so we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to a car boot in the morning. That's for the next post, meanwhile I'm off to reload the washing machine.

This past week....

..... has just been so busy. S has left Infant school. G and I went to her Leaver's assembly on Tuesday afternoon and I'm so glad I picked up a couple a few tissues to stuff in my pocket on the way out of the door. On Wednesday the children could go in dressed as a favourite pop star/ sports star/ character from a book. S loves Tracy Beaker and so went as Tracy's best friend Justine Littlewood. The girls are full of attitude and I tried to get S to give me a sulky 'don't mess with me face' but she kept laughing, this is the closest we got!

On Thursday G and I went to Winchester.

We wandered round by the Cathedral to see these bollards I had read about recently. All painted in the style of different artists. My favourite though was the one done for the Jubilee, bunting and strawberry jam, what's not to like?

We spotted this in the window of a sweet shop just down from the train station where G bought the most sour sweets in the world. 

For lunch we went to the same place as the four of us went on our day trip to Winchester last January. Great art work in the Ladies!

 Lots more great art work on the back of the local buses promoting what the City has to offer.

On Friday I finished work for the duration of the school holidays and in the evening I went out with lots of people from the charity shop. I did my last shift on Wednesday and the manageress also left this week. Plus another of the ladies had her 70th birthday in this past week so there was lots to celebrate.


Talking of birthday's I had one of those yesterday.
Oh my I'm 44 now!


Along with my sister, mum and some friends and their children, the four of us packed up a picnic and went to the local park armed with bats, balls, parachute, frisbees and a hula hoop and spent all afternoon eating and playing, mostly in the sun which was a bonus.


As usual I was completely spoiled and received some fabulous presents. The wheel fell of my shopping trolley a few weeks ago and couldn't be fixed and so G bought me a new one. Not just any design though, oh no I now have a red and white polka dot one!!! Just how gorgeous is this!!! T said 'you should have seen your face when you saw it', I think I must have looked very happy indeed.

From T and S I had a CK floral flask of fabuloussness, a pretty polka dot mug and the sweetest egg cup complete with a soldier shaped toast cutter.

If you have been reading my blog for a  while you will know that my sister and I only buy each other birthday and Christmas presents from the charity shop/jumble/car boot etc. Here is a selection of the items she has found for me this year, a ring, a brooch, a bangle, a beaded bracelet, a money box and 5 tops. 

What a lucky girl I am.

A Torch and A Trail

The Olympic torch made a stop in our City on Saturday evening.

The weather wasn't kind to us and we all felt pretty damp and soggy as we waited in Mayflower Park,

but we did enjoy the entertainment, watching dancers and listening to Wretch 32.

The torch arrived on the ferry from the Isle of Wight and then did a lap of the City centre

before coming back to the park so the cauldron could be lit.

Today the sun shone and so we packed a picnic and went for a walk on the Cobbett Trail in the nearby village of Botley.

One of the first things to catch my eye was this beautiful honeysuckle growing over the wall of the Old Rectory.

We all liked this little wooden cabinet sat in a hedge as a means for selling eggs from a local farm.

As we came into the village there were lots of really picturesque buildings 

and a penny farthing in what looked like a shop window but it didn't look as though the shop was actually in use.

This bath planted up with lavender was on the corner of a road which led to a bathroom fittings shop!

Just off the main High Street is what I think was called Malthouse Lane which was a previous winner of a prize in Britain in Bloom and it was full of flowers. This little row of cottages were really pretty with the white window boxes and the lamps.

Slightly further along was this white washed cottage with a pretty blue wooden porch

and on the opposite side of the road ran and old brick wall which as well as having this wonderfully weathered door set into it, it had a profusion of cottage garden flowers running along the length of it.

And we weren't the only ones enjoying them.

According to an information board we found the Quay at Botley was once a thriving hub of activity when the waterways were used to transport goods, but now it just provides somewhere to sit and watch the river go by

unless of course you venture down to the water's edge and get stuck in the mud.

 Silly photo of T which just had to be included.

This lovely looking place is Steeple Court Manor where William Cobbett' s sister and brother in law lived. Very nice indeed.

Just as well we were all kitted out in wellies as as well as the mud there were plenty of puddles on the walk and S decided that the best course of action was to hopscotch through this one!

As we neared the end of the walk we wondered if we would get the chance to picnic looking at the clouds above but we needn't have worried as although there were a couple of spots of rain it didn't amount to much.

Just had to take a photo of this crisp G found, he reckons it is shaped just like a Trojan helmet!

Final photo is a bit random but I had to include my new set of polka dot tupperware type boxes and the strawberries I hulled using my new top tip.