Crafty in the Med

I am here to enjoy meeting other bloggers and to share my love of craft ,mostly crochet, my thoughts and my daily happenings here in Alicante,Spain, my adopted country. I belong to a local choir because singing and music makes me happy. Flea markets and book shops are two of my favourite places to be. I read lots......sci´fi/fantasy,buried treasure, and off world adventures. I have a passion for history! I walk and walk and walk for about 10 months per year during the hot months I swim.

Monday 17 October 2016

Practically Biblical

The countryside around Agost, the pottery village.

I was going through my photo files on my computer this weekend to reduce the size of the main folder as it is pretty large. It is an enjoyable but difficult task as I find I am reluctant to delete photos but some are really just repeat shots at a different angle so they have to go!!!  As I said an enjoyable task as I frequently pause because some photos make me reminisce. In fact I rarely finish the task!

Such was the case here ......hence these photos.
When the beach is out of the question....yes it does get cold in Spain. I say this because people have commented to me before now that they thought Spain was hot all the year round!!
Well it "ain't"!!
It gets cold here!!!

We do have long summers and relatively mild winters; January and February are usually colder. We then transfer our Sunday outings to going up into the mountains for a ramble.

This was one such ramble last winter up to the mountains behind the village of Agost.

olive and almond trees

I always find that this particular part of the Agost countryside reminds me of biblical scenes:








Someone lives here!   There is a Via Pecuaria ( King's Highway) which runs all the way through this person's land which means he/she has to allow access to the public.














Oh! dear Sr P saw something!!!!



Naughty! Naughty!!   pinching a few almonds !!!
and we had a little snack on our way back down to the village! :-)


Agost Pottery Kiln



keep well


Amanda :-)









Monday 3 October 2016

Family pack

I don't send Christmas presents!

I have a lot of close and extended family scattered around the globe!  
We were seven sisters so we are a big family and our offspring,as is nature's way,have mostly had children too. I am very family orientated so I like to keep in contact with my family and thanks to facebook I am even able to be in contact with great nieces and nephews who live on the other side of the world;some I have met, some I have not as yet. 


 As family relationships go, as I am sure you know or have experienced, for a multitude of reasons some family members have no desire to be in contact. I respect this of course as many may not feel like me where family is concerned,especially extended family. 
They naturally have their own lives to live! 
Nevertheless I go out of my way to stay in contact where possible. It is important for me ... perhaps ... it is because I live out of my country.

Understandably where Christmas presents are concerned it is impossible to send out presents to everyone. I also think I cannot send to one or two at Christmas even if I want to,as it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the family.  However,in my book there is nothing wrong with sending "when I want to gifts". Don't you think the best sort of gifts to give are "when I want to gifts"?  After all there is no feeling of obligation just the delight of thinking about that person,buying or making something for them and the enjoyment you presume they will have on receiving a gift for no particular reason. 

This is the reason I made these triangle scarves that and also because of the approaching Autumn chill in the UK. Actually I started by making one for my great niece and then I thought I could make some pink ones for her two little girls (yes,I have great great nieces!!! ) and then I thought it was a bit mean not making one for their Daddy too. 

There you have it a family pack !




My own pattern...I think!  I hesitate when I say this because it is based on a basic shawl pattern that I have used time and time again. I have no paper pattern for it or remember one. I remember using this stitch way back in the late 70s for a shawl I made my sister but I certainly can't recall where the shawl pattern came from or if it was one that was shown to me.   The edging on the grey shawl is my own stitch. The edging on the other shawls comes from a picture I saw on Pinterest of a Road Trip shawl from ZootyOwl's blog. 
The ID buttons are my own invention;a crochet circle with popcorn or frilly chain edging and the initial is in Glitter Glue for children...easy,peasy!!!  The hearts are made up from memory but definitely someone's pattern.The big tassels I made myself and the little silk ones I bought.
This has been a great stashbuster too as I used bits from here and there. I think the yarn I used was mostly Katia Planet and Schachenmayr Coats Bravo. 



 ID button M for Mummy. I embroidered this initial .


 

ID button D for Daddy in glitter glue.




ID button for little Edith





 ID button for little Lottie

and Pooh Bear back on his modelling job again as I have no Littles to model for me.





Keep well

Amanda :-)

Welcome Tasha my latest follower! Thank you for calling in to my blog! Have you got a blog link I could go to as well ??  :-)