ONE PICTURE, TWENTY WORDS

It's the time of the month again to join in with ABI's monthly meme.

A selection of cakes at Sunday Afternoon Tea in our Drop-in Centre...we have ladies here who are beautiful bakers!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

Posted with Blogsy

HELLO....WHILE LOOKING UP AND DOWN!

At long last I've managed to find five minutes this week to sit down with my laptop, when I'm not searching for  Birthday presents or flights!

It's been a hectic week, and so far I've said:

HELLO to two afternoons trying to re-shelve the books in the Charity Shop Library..we have moved the Library to a different room, meaning (obviously) that all the books had to be moved too...unfortunately the person who moved them DIDN'T keep them in alphabetical order and it has been a mammoth task trying to get them back in the right order!!

HELLO to cleaning terraces and patios

HELLO to one morning working in the shop and one morning at the Drop -in- Centre

HELLO to last night of Line Dancing for the summer

HELLO to a very pleasant lunch out with friends

HELLO to someone having turned our temperatures up to an almost-constant 30 degrees from 9am until 8pm every day this week!

HELLO to having booked another few days back in Scotland later this month

HELLO to dad being back in hospital again...hopefully not for long, as they stabilised him quickly and there don't seem to be any added complications this time.

Given that I'm likely to be MIA for the rest of the week (due to ongoing Library and Shop refurbishment duties!), I just wanted to post my pictures for HELENA'S weekly photographic meme LOOKING UP AND DOWN:

LOOKING UP

I suddenly noticed this Hibiscus rose growing up through our neighbour's tree...it has obviously found a route through the fence (which is about 7 feet tall) and continued growing upwards...I  keep the bush pruned to about 3 feet on our side of the fence

LOOKING DOWN

the lowest flower on the Hisbiscus bush

I'm hoping to catch up with some blog reading over the weekend...until then I hope you are having a less hectic week than me and that you and yours are well!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

A SCRAPPIN' GREAT TIME.....

.....that's the title of my latest scrapbook page, which is -for the first time in ages- a double page layout.

I reckoned it was time to get the pictures of the BLOGGER'S WEEKEND on a page......

......so a multi-pic layout was called for.

I made one of MISS SMITH'S 'polaroids'

and also one of her JOURNALING TAGS....

.....and I layered up some random flowers from my stash:

I'll be back tomorrow with the story of this month's 'precious', in conjunction with SIAN'S STORYTELLING SUNDAY, over at FROM HIGH IN THE SKY.

Hopefully you are having a good weekend......a busy day for me  tomorrow: it's Afternoon Tea at the DROP IN CENTRE, so there's baking to be done...and then hopefully eaten by others, so that I am not tempted!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

THANK YOU....

.....for all the Birthday wishes, both on here and on FB! 

I had a very nice day.....and had THREE renditions of 'Happy Birthday'- one at Keep Fit, one at the Drop In Centre and one at Line Dancing! Word gets around quickly about such things in a small community!

I came in at lunchtime, to discover that Kirsty had made a batch of Fairy Cakes which I forgot to photograph, but remembered before I ate the last one with a cup of coffee this afternoon...

...she DOES make exceedingly good cakes!

It was a beautifully sunny day, and we headed to the coast for lunch....and I forgot to take photos AGAIN!

That allowed me to be back in time to go Line Dancing last night...a very nice Birthday indeed!

I managed to get another layout finished over the weekend...it's not the one I was intending to do- the printer had run out of ink, so I couldn't get my pics printed off...but I found these ones that I had printed ages ago-and had forgotten to anything with- so came up with this:

...using this STARTING POINT from SHIMELLE.

I made another journalling card using MISS SMITH'S TUTORIAL:

.....and I am now off to re-read the first prompts from her new class TELLING TALES, before I fall too far behind!

Hope you are all having a good week!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

HELLO MONDAY

This week I'm saying :

HELLO to almond blossom time in the valley....it's early this year, and with each day the sea of pink gets more spectacular!

HELLO to Kirsty arriving today :)

HELLO to learning to crochet!......a knitting and crocheting class starts on Thursday, at the Drop In Centre in the village

HELLO to TELLING TALES..... a new scrapbooking class with the talented MISS SMITH  

HELLO to making the final accommodation bookings for two mini-breaks in March.....when I will be meeting some of you IRL!!!!.....SO excited about this!

HELLO to being another year older!

I do hope the weather is improving in your little corner of the world, and that you have good things to look forward to this week!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx 

SIMPLY A MOMENT

JANUARY 17 8.05AM

My consciousness begins to stir and I half open one eye to check how light it is outside...as I do so, I am thinking 'What day are we at?'! It takes a couple of seconds for my still-sleepy brain to get the message to me that it is Thursday..... great!I don't have to be out particularly early, so I lean over and switch the electric blanket on and decide to have a sneaky extra ten minutes cosied under the covers. I also switch on the little blower I keep at the side of the bed to take the chill off the room, and as it starts to whirr gently I open my eyes properly to have a look out of the patio doors to check out how the day is looking.

I see the sun beginning to rise to the left of the house, and even through the voile curtains, it looks as there aren't TOO many clouds in the sky. It is very windy again, though...... the trees  are waving madly at me! I am suddenly aware of a gentle snoring on my left hand side, and turn to see Boo curled up in a ball beside me...she obviously has NO notion of rushing up either. 

My mind starts to go through the list of 'to do's' for today....Slimming Club this morning, Committee meeting this afternoon, baking a banana loaf for said meeting, sorting out bags of wool from the Charity shop for a new knitting class about to start at the DROP IN CENTRE in the village, and as the alarm on my mobile phone plays its merry (too merry actually!) tune, I know that it's time to get out of my cosy nest and start my day.

Thanks to ALEXA for the inspiration to 'Share a Moment' every month!

NB.....for anyone interested I lost all of a pound (0.4kg) this week- not a lot, but a start!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

STORYTELLING SUNDAY

 Yes, it's the last STORYTELLING SUNDAY of the year!  On the first Sunday of every month, a bunch of bloggers from various parts of the blogosphere get together and share stories- happy stories, funny stories, sad stories, long stories, short stories, stories with or without pictures- anything goes- even pictures with very few words, and EVERYONE is made very welcome by the lovely SIAN over at FROM HIGH IN THE SKY. 

This afternoon was to be the second of the monthly 'Afternoon Teas' that I help organise for the DROP IN CENTRE in our village.The afternoon is aimed at people who find themselves alone on a Sunday, which tends to be a very family-orientated day and therefore can be very long and boring for those on their own. 

I spent the morning putting up the Christmas tree and by this afternoon,with my merry band of helpers, had the place looking like a 'proper' tearoom as people started arriving. The urn wasn't far off boiling point, the tree lights were twinkling and people were just settling down for a chat ...when POW!- the electricity went off with a BANG! At first we thought it was an actual powercut but on checking, discovered that it was the fuse box...bearing in mind that the Centre is in one of the original village houses with very old wiring, we had basically overloaded it!

Whilst waiting for someone to come and look at it, more people kept arriving and we had to keep apologising for the lack of light, heat and tea. When it became apparent that it was a bigger job than the local handyman could cope with, panic was starting to set in...until I remembered the Cava (sparking wine) and fruit juice left over from the Christmas Bazaar and the tealights which had ,up until now, been for purely ornamental purposes. The outcome was a very pleasant afternoon, which everyone seemed to enjoy.

To read more seasonal  stories why not pop over to SIAN'S BLOG. On a personal note I would just like to thank Sian for another year of being encouraged to record my own stories, and to everyone else for sharing their stories too.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

IT WAS A GRAND OPENING!

I mentioned in my LAST POST that there was some doubt as to whether the new Drop In Centre  in our village would be officially opened this week. The mention of the Centre seems to have piqued some interest in some of you, so I thought I'd share a bit about it.

You may remember me mentioning in THIS POST (way back in August!) that I was hoping to get involved in a new venture in our village...well it was this new Centre,  called CASA DE ANIMO (THIS newspaper article describes it much better than I ever could!)

Although the Centre has been opened for a while now, the official opening by the British Consul was planned for Wednesday of this week (yesterday), and even though the elements and the National Strike were against us, it went ahead as planned.

Because of the bad weather, the ceremony itself took place outside the Centre

The local Priest blessing the Centre

The British Consul and our Mayor cutting the ribbon

Because of the torrential rain we have had this week, one of our local bar-owners had offered us his upstairs room for the celebratory drinks and buffet, rather than to have it outdoors as planned....even though we had provided our own drinks and food!

All-in-all it was a very successful if somewhat busy morning......sometimes my 'Life in the slow lane' isn't so slow at all!

I do hope the sunshine we usually have is with you this week!!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx