Bits of this and that.

Finally a couple of crafty finishes!

They are only small, but they are finished.

Remember in my last post I showed the beginnings of two little Christmas ornaments? They really didn't need much more doing to them, and I had them finished in a matter of minutes the other day.

A cute little quilled wreath.

 And a little crochet snow flower.

I used to do some quilling years ago, but wandered away from it, as you do. Well a facebook pal posted images of some quilled cards and it kind of got me going again. I dug out my papers and had a little play. I have one or two other items in mind.

 My poor finger really aches when I try to crochet for any more than half an hour, so I pulled out the secret stitching. I posted the very beginnings of this project way back at the beginning of September.

It was just an orange blob at the time, at least now you can see that there are some flowers.

I have to say, looking at the model picture on the front of the package, I was hoping for a lot more reds and a lot less orange.

Cross stitching seems to be the way forward at the moment. So I'm off to stitch.

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The first round of forms has been signed off by the relevant bodies and returned to me.

Round two will go in the mail later today. Fingers crossed for a speedy return.

Has any one seen it?

My Mojo. I left it somewhere.

I just can't seem to settle to anything at the moment. 

My blue and white crochet is lying neglected.

The pink and yellow one is all put away in a bag behind the sofa!

 Poor Santa is abandoned in a corner.

 I did fiddle with some Christmas ideas, but even they stalled/

 Maybe once my hand improves.......? 

As you see it's still all wrapped up in the elastic dressing. There is a little improvement, the swelling is all gone and the bruising has cleared too. It doesn't hurt quite so much when I wallop it on something, but I still can't bend my pinkie.

I don't wear the dressing 24/7 any more.

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So, if I'm not crafting what am I doing?

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Filling in forms.

Immigration visa forms.

Medical declaration forms.

Criminal records bureau forms.

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Making lists.

Lists of things I need to do.

Lists of Christmas gifts!

Lists of what needs to be packed into a container.

Lists of things I have to sell/give away.

Lists of people we need to inform.

The grocery list!

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On a cuter note.

My beautiful Grand daughter Faith.

 Playing Peek - a - boo!

Maybe my mojo went to hide behind her blanket?

Flora and Fauna of Gozo.

All of these pictures were taken in the gardens around our villa.

 Maltese wall lizards come in various shades of brown and green.

They can grow to about 25 centimeters long, but we didn't see any that big.

They scampered about during the day eating mosquitoes and ants and other small insects.

When the wall lizards went off to bed, the Maltese geckos came out to play. Every night there were two who clambered over the fly screen on the kitchen window. This guy is about 2 inches long. 

There were lots of palm trees and other greenery growing in the garden as well as some beautiful flowers.

This chap landed right in front of me. There were many dragonflies buzzing about, but they weren't very cooperative when I tried to take pictures. One chap I particularly remember was huge. His body was the size of one of my fingers and his wingspan was easily 4 inches.

 This big grass hopper hitched a ride all the way home from town sat on the bonnet of the car.

There were several species of butterfly fluttering by. They too were less than cooperative when I got the camera out. 

 We also saw some huge black bees. 

Shopping wise, I didn't really do much. We had bought lace last time we visited but this time, nothing really caught my eye.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Gozo through my eyes, well our Villa anyway!

I'm off to crochet for a while.

Gozo, the accomodation

This is our second visit to Gozo, we were there exactly two years ago and  loved it so much, we vowed to return. We took my brother and his wife along with us this time.

We stayed in a very spacious 4 bedroom villa. I know we didn't need that much room, but Angie and I fell in love with the pool....

Up the steps behind the car, we were greeted by this shady and welcoming front door.

The 15 x 12 meter pool was beautiful. I spent a lot of time in there, keeping cool just swimming about. Angie joined me often, she enjoyed the spa area. 

The men folk just seemed to enjoy leaping in, making a big splash, then climbing out again!

The villa was sat in the middle of nowhere, our nearest neighbours were a long way off.

This picture really doesn't do much for the view we had from the verandah. We could look out over farmed fields to the Mediterranean sea.

The temperatures were as cool as 26 C in the early mornings. The warmest temperature we recorded was 31 C, but we are sure it got a little warmer than that!  With humidity in the region of 80%, it felt pretty hot to this manxgirl! 

More tomorrow.

Home again.

And keeping warm.

I'll post holiday pics over the next couple of days.

In paradise

We are off on our travels to again, before I managed to show you all of the last trip.

This time we are on Gozo with my brother and his wife. I see lots of relaxing and swimming in the next few days.

I got a new toy!

When I was sorting out photos the other day, and realising that I didn't even know what some of the images were, I got to thinking. I wondered if a second camera might help, perhaps if I were able to take my own photos, maybe I'd find it easier to recall what was going on at the time?

Then I remembered one of the ladies on the tour had a tablet, she took notes, after each photo.

Here's my new toy.

Just in time to play about a bit, before we fly off to Gozo for a week.

A Samsung Galaxy note 8.

Cool huh? It's about the same size as a kindle, so sits nicely in my hand, and I've installed the kindle app, so only one gadget to take along! :-)

Speaking of my hand, after my fall and a week with a huge cast, it was a relief to get home on Tuesday and have the cast removed by the local A&E department, they gave me a much neater dressing.

YAY! I could crochet again.

Must dash, I'm off to fracture clinic to have it x-rayed and checked on.

The bruising and swelling have gone, but I still can't bend it.

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More holiday pics later today, or maybe tomorrow.

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Everything after this was sent from the Note last night.

Trying out my new toy. I'll tell you more Tomorrow!

Eastern Europe Part Three, Krakov

 We had pretty much the whole day on the coach again, as we travelled to Krakow, it was broken by a 2.5 hour stop at Auschwitz. As we had spent a whole day there last year, we didn't take our camera in.  

On our arrival in Krakow we saw a great citadel which we recalled from our last visit.

Other sights seemed familiar too. We were sat right at the front of the coach, just behind the driver, a great place for taking photos!

 After a good rest overnight, we set out on a walking tour with a local guide. I really can't remember the names of all the places she took us too, or all of the stories she told us.

I do remember that she took us to the citadel.

 We got to go inside and have a much closer look.

 We could even see the remains of much earlier buildings on the site and this bronze told the story.

 After lunch we got on our coach and headed to the Wieliczka salt mine.

We had to climb up some steps from the coach park.

That's where I fell and dislocated the very tip of my pinkie finger! Earlier in the day I had treated myself to a little scarf to keep my neck warm, I tucked my sore hand in that and went into the mine for the three hour tour!

 It was amazing down there.

These horses are not real, they stopped using horses down there in 1990s.

 Tony took dozens of photos. I won't bore you with all of them.

The great halls were amazing and stood within them any Lord of the Rings fan could easily imagine herself in the Mines of Moria. The halls were so vast.

 Everything is carved from the rock salt.  Even the chandeliers.

 Our guide Olga told us the story of the dragon.

 In places the salt steps were so steep or worn away, or just too precious to walk on, so great staircases had been built for the feet of the thousands of tourists.

 As well as grand halls there were many small chapels.

 We went down over 600 feet, our guide told us that the mine goes much  deeper than that.

She was amazed when at the end of the tour, while waiting for our turn in the lifts Tony spotted something on our drivers shirt.

Olga said that this was the only living thing other than humans she had ever seen in the mine.

 Tony managed to take it back to the surface where he let it go on some rose bushes.

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After a very long visit to Krakow University hospital, (4 Hours) where they put a huge cast on my arm, Tony and I got back to the hotel at nearly midnight! Our companions had been out for a Polish folk evening.

 At least there was some quilty inspiration at the hotel, look at the beautiful runner which lay over our bed.

Next stop, Budapest.