Our life in Spain: Almonds

Almonds

Hi peeps! Thank you for reading my blog.  Today a little more about our life Spain. It's almond time! The trees are laden with almonds. It is the main crop in this area. There are fields and fields full of almond trees.  Apparently they don't need irrigation. As water is precious in this hot and dry climate, a lot of people grow almonds. There are many almond trees near our house.  The almonds flower in late winter (end Feb beginning of March), and then they slowly mature and round about now their skin bursts open (see photo), and they will fall.  I have collected quite a few in this state. The nut needs to dry for a few days and then I crack/bash the nut and I have a raw almond. I love them roasted in the oven and often just eat them as a snack. But I also love baking so I love using them in and on my cakes.  On an industrial level I don't quite know how it works but I do know that the almonds are exported. It's strange that we can't buy almonds locally. If I need almonds outside this season, I buy them in the supermarket like e everybody else. What we do buy locally are the shells. We use them as fuel for our stoves in winter. My husband and I buy a lorry load between 3 families in September. They get delivered in a friend's back yard and we spend a weekend bagging them up. (a standard bag being about 25 kilos).  Here is a photo of our stove. This particular one is a dual burner. One side burns almond shells and the other side is a wood burner. The wood burner is used most when we have the heating on all day in the winter. The almond burner can be lit easily and quickly so is ideal for short periods. But if we have no wood we can burn it all day too. It kicks out a lot of heat, but has to be refilled regularly.  This is my story about almonds. Hope you found it interesting.  Thank you for stopping by, God bless and..... Keep scrapping!  Lisca

Wednesday peep of my desk

Hi peeps,

Yesterday was Wednesday and some people show what is on their desk.  I took a photo of my desk, not because there is so much going on. I have no scrapbook project on the go at the moment as I haven’t had much time this week.  But I did buy a few bits and bobs which I want to show you here.

I got these cute little punches. There are footprints, musical notes, bows, and leaves. I’m going to have fun with these. I also bought two pairs of tweezers. I always seem to lose them.

I have been looking for a long time for a set of  palette knives Now I’ve found them and here they are.

Then there are all these recycled bits and bobs like clothes tags and product labels. I have a button and a little bottle that once contained insect repellent to go in an electric socket. I thoroughly washed it and I will use it to mix inks or paints.

Even bottle tops can be useful. I saw a video of how to flatten bottle tops in the BigShot die cutter. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmb_y9I-jWo) , so I collect bottle tops. Not easy these days as we use cans most of the time.

That’s it for today folks. Thanks for stopping by.

God bless and.... keep on scrapping!

Lisca

Totally Happy

Totally Happy 

CSI - Color, Stories and Inspiration had a lovely colour palette this week (Case file 133), so I felt I had to do something with that pink and orange.

Here is my interpretation of case file 133. Once again I used stuff I had lying about like the ribbed wrapper of a roll of biscuits and the pink tissue. Also I stamped onto the back of a clothes tag.

I thought the color palette was gorgeous and I used all the colors.

As evidence I’ve chosen an animal (butterfly), a flower (pink petals make up a rose) and a tree (which is in the photo). There are polka dots and I added clothes pegs as I thought that was what was needed, but I’ve just noticed it’s clothes pins. Oh well.....

The idea came from a prompt from ‘Sunday Scribblings’: “What would you do if you could not fail”. The answer to that was: ”Run a marathon!” Now I don’t run and never have, but I have done a marathon at walking pace.... a strollerthon. 

My testimony is the journaling on a string, even if my string became a twig but I did use the words ‘delight’ and ‘simple’.

The journaling reads:

“To do a marathon for charity at walking pace      is simply a delight: Strollerthon”

The company my husband worked for (Cadbury’s, that made chocolate bars) organized a marathon for charity. For those people not wanting to run, they did a ‘Strollerthon’ through London. It was much publicized and was attended by thousands of people. Just ‘our’ factory sent four coach loads! It was so exiting travelling to London and walking along all those famous places! My husband played his guitar on the way too. I can’t  remember how much we raised for Save-The-Children as it was in 1992, but I do have very ‘Totally Happy’ memories of that time. 

Thanks for stopping to read this and thank you for your comments, which I always find very exciting.

God bless and.... keep scrapping

Lisca

Scrapbook page 'Spa'

Hi everyone,

I’ve done another challenge for CSI Color, Stories and Inspiration. This was their ‘Case File’:

Under ‘Evidence’ a punch was mentioned, which inspired me to dive into my punch drawer and use a punch I hadn’t used for a while. I punched 100 little squares from the patterned papers I chose according to the colour scheme.

The photo I used was taken in 2011 when we went on a spa break at a resort near Bristol (UK) for a special birthday.  No photography allowed inside the spa but the restaurant was no problem. It was so relaxing to be able to go to a nice bistro restaurant wearing a bathrobe!

The journaling around the edge reads:

For my 60^th birthday my husband Graham treated me to a spa weekend at Longleat Center Parks. There was a wide selection of indoor and outdoor saunas as well as steam rooms with different themes and fragrances. Lunch at the restaurant was included. What a luxury to lounge around in our bathrobes and sample the lovely bistro food. I felt very pampered indeed! (And so did Graham).

The idea of lots of little squares I have scraplifted from a layout by Zeneva Kovic (Lily Bee August Sketch Challenge). Thank you Zeneva.

That all for today.

Thanks for looking.

God bless and ..... keep scrapping!

Lisca

Mum's 90th birthday

One of the reasons I’ve been away was that my mother celebrated her 90^th birthday. We decided we’d celebrate in it Marbella, Spain, where my sister and her partner have a holiday apartment. Marbella is a bit posh but it’s fun sometimes to see ‘how the other half live’.

Marbella is a resort on the south coast of Spain.  It has a marina of course. (I warned you it is posh!)

In the centre there is a lovely park full of exotic plants and ceramic seats along the paths.

One of the main squares in the old town is called Plaza de los Naranjos (= Orange Tree Square). Perfect for sitting down to an ice cream....

Mum had quite a few cards to open for her birthday.

We’d hung up some decorations the night before and my sister had ordered balloons (with 90 on them). 

Here is the birthday girl with her balloons.

Mum gets a big kiss from my sister and me. She is a fantastic mum and I wish her many happy and healthy years!

This was another glimpse of my life here in Spain.

God bless and.... keep scrapping!

Lisca