07/06: ANOTHER UPDATE FROM FUERTEVENTURA

Much as I love this island, and our house here, I'm sad to say that I miss the ease with which I can Blog/email/text/phone back in the UK ..... that's probably a bit sad as this surely has to be a much better lifestyle where family values are so important and friends meet to chat over a glass of wine and plate of tapas - not just the internet or the dreaded FACEBOOK which I hate!!  But tonight I had time (and a good internet connection) so was able to look at all the recent Blog Posts i've missed and I felt 'deprived' .... that is so wrong!!!

So I'm a mixed up 50 something person I guess!!    perhaps its the onset of yet another birthday (20th June ) that has set me to thinking like this ....

Anyway,  yesterday we went to a birthday party and had a brilliant afternoon and met lots of people we knew on the island ... and many new faces.    Got home late afternoon/early evening and had a Siesta and then went out to a QuizNight  at 10pm and won first prize ... so the afternoon's alcohol intake didn't impact too much :-)

I won't post photos taken at the BBQ as other people's photos are never that interesting but this morning the weather turned very windy and we had light rain/heavy clouds till around 3pm ... David and I went for a walk round town with camera ready to photograph any interesting people/scenes but when the rain became heavier we retreated to a Spanish Tapas bar  for lunch.   We always try to avoid the 'British Bars' as we prefer to experience the local cuisine whenever possible (unless it has tentacles or facial features .... I'm not a vegetarian but I don't like to see eyes and recognisable bits inmy food)!!

Before the rain became too heavy I photographed lots of local gardens/views - this is probably the best time of year for local flora.   The colours are truly spectacular

This is a neighbouring property wall

  

 

When the rain stopped, the air became very clear and as we walked home via the beach path from town, this is the view of neighbouring lobos island and the calmest seas I've seen for some time on this island (which is famous for its high winds and excellent surfing conditions)

Whilst on the Beach path we noticed one of the empty properties had been adopted by a local moggie who was stretched out enjoying the sunshine next to the pool .... not the most attractive cat and he/she does not have a clipped ear/collar so I'll pass on details to our friend 'catwoman' who will look out for this one on her next 'neutering' run ......  small wonder the cat looked suspicious - I guess all the cats here mistrust English speaking ladies whose intent is to reduce the breeding cat population by whatever means necessary!!

05/06: CATS AND COOKING STUFF

Well at least I didn't title the blogpost 'that Cooking Fat'  (play on words for those who haven't cottoned on yet) :-)

I thought the cat looked kind of cute, if not happy to be woken from his doze.   Lynne our friend here on Fuerteventura works tirelessly to look after, rehome and neuter the feral and abandoned cats.     Twice a year she helps to round up cats not wearing collars who don't have the identification (tip of ear clipped) and a local vet neuters them.  If the neutered cats can't be homed they live in communities around the holiday complexes and Lynne (Catwoman) takes dry food and water round to 'food stations' at strategic points in the Town.   She's an amazing person and the town doesn't have a probably with skinny, sick cats begging from tourists as a result of her work.

We're going to a Birthday BBQ tomorrow afternoon to which all guests will contribute food and/or drink and as one of our friends is veggie I decided to make some curry puffs - using soya instead of minced meat.   As I've not done this before, and I've had to improvise with some of the ingredients here,  I wanted to do a 'test run' to check they'd be OK.   David was happy to play 'guinea pig' and pronounced them a success .... so I'll be baking another lot tomorrow morning.   Not good for the waistline but very tasty.

Our house smells like an Indian Restaurant now (but I'm not complaining as I love curry)!!

all thats left from this morning's baking session:

01/06: CANARIAS DAY - FUERTEVENTURA

I am struggling to type as have a problem with left wrist/hand.  I thought it was a recurrence of trapped nerve in neck which happened this time last year, but visited a chiropracter said it was too swollen for her to deal with so she directed me to the GP next door and after blood tests found I have some sort of bacterial infection - maybe a reaction to an insect bite (although i don't appear to have bitten).  So she administered a steroid injection (ouch) and i have a course of antibiotics.  Very pleased to say that swelling is much reduced but still painful and difficult to use fingers.   I have to revisit the GP tomorrow to check progress and ensure the infection isn't spreading

So here are a few pics taken at our local Campanario Centre (complex of small shops/bars built around a lovely courtyard where we often sit and enjoy a glass of wine and some tapas if we don't want to walk into Town - this centre is just 10 mins walk from our house)



This is the 'offending' wrist now that the swelling has reduced i'm left with blotchy red patches.

anyway its easier to show pictures than to type one-handed.  Some of these need to be colour adjusted as they were taken around midday in very bright sunshine, but a bit difficult for me to do at the moment but you can see what a great community spirit there is in the Town and pride in their National identity.
There were lots of market stalls selling local produce and BBQ stalls in addition to the usual Tapas bars so whilst I went round 'snapping' photos David walked around sampling the goodies!!

This cute little girl was raiding the flower beds to make a posy (bless)

I caught up with her a little later and she was happy to pose with her ill-gotten gains!

Age is no barrier!

29/05: CHECKING IN FROM FUERTEVENTURA

I'd planned to write a blogpost or two in the week leading up to our departure - but as usual life got in the way and I ran out of time.  I always have to do a last minute house clean before we leave so the 'house-sitter's' don't think I'm a slob LOL

So we left home in the very early hours of Sunday morning, landed in Fuerte at 11am, collected our hire car and did the 'heavy' shopping en route to our house.  We managed to open up the house, clear away the shopping and have David sat in front of the TV in time to see the start of the Monaco Grand Prix  which started at 1pm.

The weather is wonderful here ..... although it was also pretty good when we left Kent at the weekend.  

I realise its a long time since I showed new artwork.  Partly because I had a couple I can't show and partly because I was working on ideas for possible submissions to exhibitions.    I have some potential entries almost ready to meet the 7 July deadline for the UK coloured pencil society which runs for a month at Nuneaton later this year.  Unfortunately, the WIP pics haven't been backed up onto this travel computer so I'll have to wait till I'm back to reveal all :-) 

In the meantime here's a photo of my Grand-daughter I took on Saturday.  She is growing at a great rate of knots ... and showing she knows the importance of wearing a sunhat and sun cream to protect that delicate skin!!    She's 19 months going on 3 years old I think!!

I have my camera with me in Fuerte so hope to find some interesting things to photograph whilst here .....

It is Canarias Day tomorrow when the locals and particularly the schoolchildren dress up in typical Canarian costume.  It is a public holiday and there will be lots of mini celebrations going on around town.   It was great at the local supermarket this morning as there were plates full of 'tasters' of local cheeses, breads etc laid out so we could sample them as we shopped.   Goats cheese is the main industry on this island (apart from tourism).      

21/05: WYE BEAGLES DOG SHOW/AIR AMBULANCE

Yesterday David and I spent the day in a field in the grounds of Olantigh Towers, Wye, Kent.  This is the home of James and Jane Loudon, whose son, Alex Loudon, was famously dating Pippa Middleton (sister of Kate) until recently.   James Loudon is 'old money' and involved in lots of charitable works.  He is a huge supporter of the Air Ambulance Service.  This is the Drive and a Statue in the garden (photographed from the road outside)

Wye Beagles staged a public dog show which included a Kennel Club licenced Companion Dog Show and regional/national championship qualifiers for  Working Terriers & Lurchers.  There were also obedience classes, a novely scurry and Terrier racing plus a few 'funnies'  like waggiest tail, prettiest bitch, fastest bun eating dog etc.

David and I 'manned' the Air Ambulance stall at the Dog Show to help raise funds by selling novelty gifts and promoting the charity's lottery etc.   Although it didn't rain it was extremely windy and we were concerned about our little Gazebo and all the gifts blowing away. We didn't put it up to its full height and parked the car alongside to try to shield the Gazebo from some of the wind and thankfully the wind did drop a little by mid afternoon - but it was pretty cold.

I had plenty of opportunity to wander round to photograph the dogs and chat to people - I enjoy this kind of show where the dogs aren't all Pedigree and 'Best of Breed' - normal people/normal dogs - many of whom had interesting stories to tell.    Everybody loves the Air Ambulance so we didn't need to 'sell' it - most people know of somebody who has benefitted by its service (or are happy to contribute to keep the helicopter/medics flying in case they are ever in need of its services)

A huge thanks has to go to Alistair from Mallards Farm (close to where we live).   We often stop by the Farm shop to have a 'taster' of whatever seasonal fruit is on offer and to buy our fruit/veg.   Yesterday he donated several trays with punnets of the most delicious strawberries for us to sell at £1 punnet - proceeds going to Air Ambulance.   They were a huge success.    One chap who'd bought 2 punnets early in the day and gone home - drove back late afternoon to buy more but was out of luck as we sold out within a couple of hours. Read about Mallards Farm

Anyway, here are some photos of the lovely characters I met.

Sittingbourne Retired Greyhound Trust are always looking for good homes for retired dogs - He was such a big softie (loved being stroked/cuddled) and has a beautiful white spotted coat.   I'm sure it won't take long to find him a loving family home.

A couple of beautiful and very well behaved Shelties

This lovely man told us that he had always worked on farms but had a nasty accident in 1998 when he got tangled in a compost shredding machine.   Medics put him back together again but his lower face/jaw and left arm are held together with metal pins/plates and he has lots of scarring (thankfully he stopped short of showing them all to us) LOL.   He now works for two ladies, one of whom breeds Min Pins and the other runs a rescue kennel.    The lurcher shown here was recently found on the Romney Marshes - tied below water level and left to drown (!!!)  the other little dog is the result of his Affenpinscher (Monkey Dog) getting amorous with one of his bosses Min Pins .... funny looking little thing!

 and how cute is this little chap?

and this one:

Little Min Pin with attitude!

These two lovely characters are litter brothers .... not quite 'twins' though :-)

These are some of the Wye Beagles waiting for the huntsmen to take them into the ring to 'do their stuff'

and having fun in the ring

Tug of War (the dog won)!!

This Reggie who was watching the proceedings calmly looking very cute with one ear up and one down.  Unfortunately when he saw the camera he wanted to get closer so I lost the pose.  Somehow I managed to knock the camera setting from Autofocus to Manual focus so many of the pictures I took after this are fuzzy (I was soooooo annoyed when I realised but it was too late by then).

I have so many photos .... just another couple though as I need to crack on with some work!!

Some of the dogs weren't too sure about being in the limelight and needed reassurance from 'dad' 

and this final pic ... just because I think its 'cute'

 

Oh and I met up with the three lurchers shown in my last post (I photographed them a couple of years ago at a Fun Day at the Dogs Trust local to my home).    I think I said previously that they are  Mum and Daughters.    Its actually Mum (who is now 7) and son and daughter ... just to put the record straight.

17/05: GETTING ORGANISED ...... OR NOT!

We'll be heading off to the sun again shortly (9 days) so am trying to focus on all those jobs that need doing before we go (and house cleaning so the 'house sitters' don't complain)!!

In order to tidy my studio I need to be able to hang lots of pictures which currently have 'mirror plate fixing' rather than strings as that was the requirement of the recent exhibition/gallery/s.   In my studio I have a professional hanging system which relies on strung pictures - so having asked hubby several times in the last few weeks, he finally got cracking on this today and so I will be able to reorganise, move all the pictures currently stacked on the floor  and thoroughly clean my room tomorrow   YIPPEE!  and thank you David :-)

David also took off the back from the 'secondhand' frame I bought recently as I liked the unusual shape.    I've photographed the whippets with the mount/frame just laid on top to give a better idea of how it all fits and where I need to do more work ....   The glass is horribly dirty.   Originally I thought it was non-reflective glass but have since realised its standard glass which has a thick film of nicotine YUK!   I've given it 2 cleans but it will need more to totally remove all the yellow gunge ....

I also finished a cat (coloured pencil) picture I've been working on (sporadically for a few weeks) so I really do need to sort out what I'm going to submit to the UKCPS coloured pencil exhibition .....   when we get home from the sunshine it will be getting pretty close to deadline so I need to get my act together

but, in the meantime......

I've been trying to work out why my (ageing) camera has started making all my photos look very 'bright' and over-saturated with colour.  Normally, I just 'point and shoot' as I really don't like reading instruction books etc., but today I found a setting on the camera that suggested I could change the 'colour saturation' levels from High to Standard ..... How amazing is that????

So whilst experimenting I photographed some of our garden wildlife ... still not sure about the camera settings but I was really pleased with these Bumblebee shots - as I didn't do anything special - just aimed and clicked!!

We're seriously planting lots of bee friendly flower beds this year as we've been shocked to learn how many pollinating insects are in danger of extinction due to pesticides/wrong garden flowers etc .... without these bees/pollinating insects we may lose our fruit crops (so important in Kent/South East England).   So I was very happy to see this huge bee this morning - and obviously it has had a successful forage judging by the bulging 'baskets' on its legs.  

David suggested that I use the Bumblebee as the subject for my next coloured pencil drawing .... but not too sure yet.  It certainly looks cute and fluffy and I do have a few more (close-up)  shots to help with defiinition ... I'll think about it :-)

In a couple of these photos the  proboscis is clearly visible (nectar collecting tongue) although when I photographed the Bee I didn't know this.  I was just happy to see a huge Bumblebee busy in the Aquilegia flowers (which self-seed every year so I can't take the credit for planting these)

Shortly afterwards the garden was invaded by Starlings .... the babies all lined up on the fence whilst the parents frantically hunted for food to keep the babies happy (if not quiet) .... Starlings have to be one of the noisiest species of British bird????  Here are a few of the 'little darlings' ...

 

Poor parents .....

No wonder the fatball feeders get emptied so quickly ......   but the birds give us hours of pleasure with their antics in the garden so  ..... small price to pay to keep the feeders full (even this late into the year)!

OK enough for tonight .... tomorrow ... I CLEAN!!!!    Not being known as a 'domestic goddess' I may get bored very quickly and get sidetracked with the Blog

15/05: ALLSORTS OF STUFF

Its been a busy day (again) and a real mixed bag of weather.

This morning we went to the Air Ambulance HQ.   David (hubby) is a volunteer speaker for the Charity - his normal fundraising  'sessions' involve talking to business groups, retirees, ladies clubs etc about the wonderful work that the charity does.     Actually, I think everybody loves Air Ambulance - its a service that means life or death (literally) for many accident victims so people are always happy to 'dig deep' into their pockets/wallets for this wonderful cause.

David agreed to stand in for a volunteer who is sick and 'man' a fundraising stall at a small dog show this weekend.  He's roped me in to help him and I'm hoping that (a) the weather will be kind to us and (b) that I'll be able to get a few photos for my ref. photo files - I believe this is a Beagle dog show - such a lovely breed!    We have a table and some small advertising/gifts (keyrings etc) to sell.  We've also been provided with a small gazebo which will keep us dry in the event of rain (but isn't robust enough to withstand strong winds - so fingers crossed)!!

Here's a photo I took of one of the helicopters on standby today

I've been doing some tidying up of all the stuff I've stored over the years at Roxy's stable yard .... much of it won't ever get used again so I've put a mountain of things 'up for grabs' if any of the other horse owners want it.  Lots went to the Tip and some will go to 'Riding for the Disabled' charity another day.      Roxy has been retired for more than 6  years and I have no wish to have another horse after her ... I'm still storing her saddle and bridle (superstitiously I feel something awful will happen if I get rid of those just now).   

As you can see from the helicopter photo - we started out in sunshine .... by the time we got to the stable yard and I was tidying up there, and grooming Roxy the sky got blacker and blacker ...

and we had rain, hailstones and thunderstorms shortly after .... this is the middle of May and temperatures are more like March I think!

anyway,   I tried to photograph a coloured pencil drawing I've been struggling with.  This is a picture of 3 whippets I photographed at a Dogs Trust Fun Day a couple of years ago - Mum and 2 daughters.   Its my first cps drawing on MountBoard and I've had problems and not very happy with progress.   I selected this reference specifically to fit an octagonal/oval shaped mount/frame I have at home but really not sure if it works.  I need to get the back off the frame and fit it all together before making a final judgement. .....   will post more about it in a few days

The light isn't great but basically this is the drawing

I'm not au fait enough with photo-manipulation packages to draw the shape of the mount/frame but managed to get a simpler one - just to give an idea of where the crop would be

Right ... enough for today/tonight.

We'll be doing our Wednesday stint at Pilgrims Hospice eBay office tomorrow.    Hope to make a start on a coloured pencil entry for the UKCPS International Open Exhibition (Nuneaton) on Friday.  Deadline is July so I need to get cracking PDQ!!

14/05: ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN 'FIRST IMPRESSIONS'

Whilst enjoying our beachside walk along the Whitstable promenade on Saturday we were passed at great speed by a large adult man on a skateboard - propelling himself with a 'long pole'.  My immediate thought was 'what a pr*t' (!!!)

Yesterday on a different part of the beach walk we met the guy in question (with his collection boxes to hand) and found out that he is in training to be the first person to 'Spring Paddle' on a skateboard (that's what the long pole is apparently) from John O'Groats to Lands End to raise money for the Psychiatric Research Trust.  His journey will start on Friday 13 July (hope thats not a bad omen) cover more than 1000 miles and take 30-40 days to complete.

 His name is Patrick Jubb and he has  raised around £2000 so far.  If you check out 'Bigpush2012.com' you can see some Tweets from well known personalities supporting his cause .....   Stephen Fry,  Level 42,  Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), Steve Harley (Cockney Rebels).

So this is Patrick on his skateboard with his specially designed Spring Paddle for propelling himself along:




Whilst we were talking to Patrick and learning more about this fundraising effort - his son and dog were happily enjoying the sunshine and having a doze on the beach (bless)

So that was another lesson for me.    First impressions can be very wrong (although I still think its slightly odd seeing grown men on skateboards)  .... but .....  Boys & Toys eh :-)  Wishing Patrick best of luck for the journey and hope he raises lots more money for the cause.