Six Word Saturday

Six word Saturday

Not Rafa, but a great contender!

Andy Murray (Wikipedia)

The fizz went out of my Wimbledon this year with the early departure of Rafa, but I’ve been very impressed with the performance of the “dour Scot”.  So I’ll be lending my support tomorrow afternoon, when he takes on the monumental task of preventing Roger Federer attain seven Wimbledon titles.

C’mon Andy!

Got an opinion you want to share?  Six word Saturday is a great platform, thanks to Cate of Show My Face.  Follow the links and buttons for more information.

Six word Saturday

These boots are made for walking!

Saltwick Nab from the cliff top

Looking back at Whitby harbour

As usual, my week included its fair share of walking.  It’s been muggy, stormy and grey much of the week but, undeterred, the boots have come out.

A little closer to the Nab

On around the bay

Whitby is a little tacky, like many a tourist town, but it has an endearing quality, and is everybody’s choice of the place to go for fish and chips.

The catch has gone- straight to “the chippy”!

Harbour trips, just £2.50 a go!

You can take a Vintage Steam Bus tour, or sample some of the quirky shops.

Whitby ducks- one of my earliest memories!

Love a bit of fudge.

All kinds of “glam” at The Shepherd’s Purse

Yes, please!

You can’t leave without buying some Whitby Jet!

A look back at the Abbey, and it’s time to go.

Now you might think the boots would be tired, but my Thursday Nordic walking group think differently.  By complete contrast, we’re off to the Tees Barrage next.

The Barrage dams the River Tees, and there’s often a playful seal in the water, looking for company. This morning, the White Water facility is in use by the lads from the fire brigade, doing their fitness training.  After a pause to admire, we follow the river bank to the Infinity Bridge.  There are foot and cycle tracks on both sides of the river, and damp runners and cyclists pass us by. (just a bit more rain)

Isn’t this bridge just magical?

End on a high- my favourite shot!

Time to hang up my boots for another week.  Come out with me next time?  I’m sure Cate, of Show My Face, will be my generous hostess again on Six Word Saturday.  Follow the links to join in, or view my previous posts on the button.

Six word Saturday

Help me with my awards dilemma?

On 2nd June, I received the Illuminating Blogger Award from Two Black Doggies.  Isn’t it beautiful? You don’t have to be a dog lover to follow this excellent blog.  There are some wonderful travel features and photographs, which are right up my street.  Many, many thanks for considering me in this category, Sam.

On 8th June, I received the Very Inspiring Blogger Award from Megtravelling.  As the name indicates, Meg enjoys her travels, maybe even as much as I do, and I’ve spent many happy hours looking over her shoulder.  This award is very much appreciated, Meg.  Thank you!

On 10th June, I was pretty in pink with One Lovely Blog Award.  I’m fairly new to Grandmother Musings and very impressed with the humorous but practical approach to life that she brings to her blog.  Many thanks for nominating me, and I look forward to getting to know you better.

Do you have a time thief?  I suspect many of you do.  As a retired lady with “time to spare” I am full of admiration for those bloggers who are parents and work for a living, yet still find time to blog.  It’s a good job I came to blogging late, as I know I’d never have kept up.

I started blogging to enable me to do something that I love to do- write, with a little humour, about my travel experiences.  It has been wonderful, so far.  The warmth and support of the blogging community far exceeded my expectations.  I’ve learnt a lot (and forgotten much of it again) and made so many new friends.  Every day brings new and fascinating posts to read.

Do you see where this is heading, in relation to my six words?  When I received my first award, I was ecstatic!  Somebody out there loved me! Too strong?  “Liked my writing” is probably a better description, but I’m very much someone who needs approval.  Despite thinking I’m a bit of a free spirit, I’m often guilty of trying too hard to be liked.  So it is with trepidation that I say that the awards system gives me a bit of a problem. I understand and applaud the premise behind it.  It is a wonderful way of encouraging new bloggers and extending their network of followers and friends.

The difficulties arise in fulfilling the tasks imposed by the awards, and even more so, for me, in finding people to pass the award on to.  Very many of the bloggers I follow deservedly have every conceivable award in the book.  But it isn’t always easy to see who holds which award, and I’ve spent lots of time searching through blogs trying to find out.  Additionally there are those people who are averse to the awards system, some of whom display “award free blog” logos.  I respect that, and at least you know where you stand, then.  I find it quite embarrassing to pass on an award whilst not knowing if the recipient will be delighted, or not.

So where does this leave me?  Well, I intend to produce an Awards page for my blog, so that it’s obvious to anyone which awards I have collected.  But I don’t want to bore you all senseless with facts about me, when I’d so much rather spend the time on other things.  If anyone is kind enough, in the future, to nominate me for an award, I will receive it with hugs and kisses, and do my utmost to show appreciation.  What I don’t want to do is donate the time to finding candidates to pass it on to.  I would very happily share any of my awards with all of my followers.  Believe me, I am very appreciative of you all.  A nicer bunch of people I have yet to meet.  So if you’re reading my blog and find an award that appeals to you, I’d be delighted for you to take it up.  Please check out the blogs that have given me these amazing awards by following their links.  You won’t be disappointed.

I’m hoping that you’ll humour me with this, and not shun my future posts.  I did say that I need to be loved, didn’t I?  But that time thief is lurking.

Many thanks to Cath of Show My Face for enabling me to have this conversation with you.  I’ll be back next Saturday, when I shall be more succinct, I promise.

P.S Oh dear- already published and I’ve realised I’m remiss!  I was intended to include a link to the originating blog for the Illuminating Blogger Award.  Not good at this, am I?  Here it is:-  http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/

Six word Saturday

A place to settle and stay

This week I travelled to Wisbech in Cambridgeshire to visit a recently retired friend.  We shared a flat together in London many years ago, and it was lovely to see her settled into her new, peaceful environment.  My photo gallery is a brief summary of our week.

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Grateful thanks, as ever, to Cate at Show My Face for hosting this space, and giving us the opportunity to share our week in six words.  If you’re curious about the rules, or thinking of joining in, follow the link above, or in the header.

More of my weekly exploits can be found on my Six word Saturday page.  See you next week?

Six word Saturday

I had a right Royal week

Did you?

It was all a bit of an anti climax when life went back to normal on Wednesday, but wasn’t it great while it lasted?  The water pageant fully lived up to expectations, despite the dreariest of weather.  I was smitten by the sight of Charles and Camilla dining al fresco with the crowds in Piccadilly.  Grace Jones had me mesmerised by her hoola-hooping ability.  Madness on the Palace roof?  It only needed Jubilee scarecrows to make my weekend complete.

Elwick is such a pretty village, and was enhanced by its patriotic finery.

 Though I couldn’t quite fathom why the lion was sleeping on the front lawn?

I was proud of the village for their efforts this year.  There are lots more photos in https://restlessjo.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/jubilation-in-elwick/

I had hoped to visit Castle Eden Village to check out the royal theme going on in their scarecrow festival too, but a combination of atrocious weather and French Open tennis kept me away.  Probably just as well.  You can have too much of a good thing?

Time to ask for a rousing cheer, in good old English fashion, for Cate of Show My Face.  It’s thanks to her I get a chance to sum up my week in six words, whether she’s happy or sad.  Follow the link to see what it’s all about, and join in.  Why not?

The button below will take you to my previous 6WS’s.

Six word Saturday

60 years is a long time

Queen Elizabeth 2nd and Prince Philip – Coronation photo from Wikipedia

On 2nd June, 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 2nd took place.  She had already acceded to the throne in February 1952, on the death of her father, King George 6th, but the mourning period precluded any form of celebration.  When it finally took place, it was certainly an occasion to remember, and was the first coronation ever to be televised.  Norman Hartnell designed all the outfits for the Royal Family, and the Queen’s white silk gown was embroidered with the floral emblem of each of the countries of the then Commonwealth.

60 years on,  England is gearing up for a long weekend of celebration.  I guess we wrote the book on pomp and ceremony.  The water pageant scheduled to take place on the Thames should be truly spectacular.  Local hamlets and village halls are bedecked with bunting.  I’d like to wish everybody a joyful weekend, however they choose to celebrate, or even if they decide to ignore the whole thing.  Personally I’ll be in Hart Village for the lighting of the beacon, and fireworks afterwards.  At some point in the weekend I’ll probably have Coronation Chicken, a favourite of mine, but which I only recently realised was devised in honour of Elizabeth’s coronation.  And of course, I’ll be raising a glass (or two).

I’m trying to keep this post brief (sighs of relief all round) but it seems like a good time to share the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award, passed on to me by Francine in Retirement.  What can I tell you about Francine that many of you don’t already know?  She’s a warm hearted lady who gently encourages each of us to fulfill our true potential.

I’ve shared more than enough about me in recent weeks, so intend simply to pass on this award to all the lovely ladies who are kind enough to follow my blog.  How empty would my life be without you!  Please follow the link to Francine’s blog for details, and take up the award as you wish.

It just remains for me to thank Cate of Show My Face for hosting Six word Saturday.  We’d love you to join in – the rules are simple.  I’ll be here again next week.  Take care till then, and have a happy Diamond Jubilee.

Six word Saturday

A hodge podge of a week!

In a week where the finals of the tennis in Rome were rained off and had to be played on Monday, my week was out of sinc from the word go.  Two of my passions collided and I left my walking group to their own devices and hovered near the TV.  Happy to say that Rafa won, so it was worthwhile!  It was a grey day anyway.  (I know I’m sad, but a passion is a passion)

Heat then wrapped around our blessed isle and on Wednesday, after t’ai chi, I met a lady friend, thinking we’d have a lovely walk on our Headland beach.  Well, we did, but it was enveloped in thick fog!  Normally it looks like this:

 

But not today.  Sadly I didn’t have my camera- sometimes it seems rude to be snapping away when you are enjoying someone else’s company.  I wished I had though because I would have loved to capture the eeriness of the lonesome sailboats wending their way out of the harbour.

More than that, I could have shown you the great conversion job that’s been done to the chapel, now Mary Rowntree’s Victorian Tearooms.  The project had lots of council opposition and had been ongoing for years.  The result is fabulous. Have a  look at http://www.stanlaundon.com/heruteu.html  It has some wonderful photos of Old Hartlepool and if you look down the left hand sidebar there is just one shot of Mary Rowntree’s.  If you click on it to enlarge you’ll get some idea of the place.

Thursday, as some of you know, I was Nordic walking and riding a steam train in North Yorkshire.  I couldn’t wait to write this post :  https://restlessjo.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/steams-up-in-north-yorkshire/ but here are a few extra shots if you don’t have time to read it.

Grosmont village

“The Green Knight” steams in!

All aboard!

Oops, silly me! You get the picture, anyway.

And finally, the picnic spot

I guess that’s worn everybody out with my week!  As usual I’m saying thank you to Cate of Show My Face for coming up with the idea of Six word Saturday, though I know I abuse it.  She’d love you to join in.  The details are in the link and in the banner at the top of the page.  Thanks for reading, and please, if you have the stamina, come back next week.

Kreativly tagged!

Such a lucky lady I’m feeling today.  I’ve been given the Kreativ Blogger Award by Sam of Two Black Dogs  I’ve often admired this logo in other people’s sidebars.  Now, if I can just remember how to put it there, I’ll be able to admire my own!

I had a thoroughly good time reading the blogs of my fellow nominees and have made some lovely new friends, so thank you Sam, both for the award and for putting me in such good company.  Sam blogs very appealingly about dogs (of course!) and “other things she loves”, so off you go and take a look.

As is traditional, I now have to share 7 things about me, and nominate 7 other Kreativ bloggers.

1. “Can we just go to the NEXT corner?” has been my gambit on family holidays for years.  They’re ahead of me now though, and usually either turn back when it suits them or sit down, pointedly, and wait.

2.  My need to try something new when presented with a menu has led to some serious disappointments.  Starving hungry one evening in Italy I looked aghast at a dish of sea creatures in their shells sitting in a dish of tomato sauce.  Not my kind of thing at all, Michael with his “safe” choice smugly looked on while I dipped bread in the sauce.  Much worse the time I walked him and son James for miles across Lisbon, seeking out a recommended Chinese restaurant.  We passed several and each time they would stop, eye up the menu, and say “this one looks ok”.  Not good enough, it had to be this specific restaurant, so when I ordered crab curry they definitely had the last laugh when I was presented with a bowl full of legs, and couldn’t eat a bite!

3.  I’m a pretty average cook, and fly into a complete panic if I have to entertain.

4.  Still talking culinary, we’ve had a barbecue at the house in Tavira for 8 years and only ever used it once!  I’m clueless and Michael is completely disinterested in donning a pinny.

5.  I must get some things right, I guess, because my lady friends and me have been hosting monthly “girl’s nights” for 40 years, and they still all turn up when it’s my turn to cook (or maybe they’re too inebriated to mind).

6.  I was brought up largely by my maternal grandmother, long since deceased, bless her.  Mam and Dad went their separate ways when I was quite small.

7.  I have two amazingly talented and gifted children.  Lisa has appeared before in my blog pages.  She can sew anything, basques and Victorian costumes included, and I can’t wait to see the creation she comes up with for her wedding gown.  James doesn’t sew, but he’s a mean guitarist!

This goes back such a long way- I don’t have many of the two of them together

Talking about gifted and talented people, I’m now going to turn my attention to a tag that was passed to me by Vicky…the Northern Chicky.  The pretty red tag above is her design, and if you follow the link you will see that she has presented me with some quite difficult questions.  I have to choose one to answer from eleven options, and then pose eleven new questions to my unsuspecting candidates.

Like myself, Vicky has Polish ancestry, but there the similarities end.  She lives in the USA with 5 children, and is contemplating a life changing move- compulsive reading!

Vicky’s questions were:

  • What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
  • What is the most defining moment of your life thus far?
  • Is it more important to love or be loved?
  • What’s the one thing you’d like others to remember about you at the end of your life?
  • What small act of kindness were you once shown that you will never forget?
  • Are you happy with yourself?
  • What is your most prized possession?
  • In your lifetime, what have you done that hurt someone else?
  • Right now, at this moment, what do you want most?
  • What’s something most people don’t know about you?
  • Who would you like to forgive?

Some big issues, huh?  But I’ve done enough soul searching in this post already (and probably bored you witless) so I’m going to make a flippant choice.

What’s something you know you do differently than most people?

My answer is going to be “Six word Saturday”!  My six words are almost always illustrated by a gallery of photographs.  It has been pointed out to me that I should rename my posts “Six photo Saturday”, but Cate of Show my Face gave us carte blanche to adapt our own style.  Travel is my passion and I can loose myself for hours in photos of our amazingly beautiful world.  You know what this is leading up to, don’t you?  I can never resist a few more photos of Portugal.

Casa de Alte

Water feature powered by the Fonte- the young uns love it!

Can anyone identify, please?

“Scarecrow” image, traditional on May Day

Church roof in Alte

Castro Marim

Are you still with me?  Here are my nominees for the Kreativ Blogger award.

http://travelpenandpalate.com/

http://lizzierosejewellery.wordpress.com/

http://catbirdinoman.wordpress.com/

http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/

http://stephaniecalvet.wordpress.com/

http://retireediary.wordpress.com/

http://hobbyfabulous.wordpress.com/

Wonderful photography, interesting ideas, talented people- that’s what you’ll find.

Now for my 11 questions :

1.  Which place would you most like to visit, and why?

2.  In my next incarnation, I would like to be…?

3.  Which person from history would you most like to meet and why?

4.  What has been the most exciting experience you have ever had?

5.  Have you a life lesson that you would like to share?

6.  The best meal I ever had was…?

7.  What changes would you most want to implement if you were a leading politician?

8.  The best holiday I ever had was…?

9.  The quality I most admire in a friend is…?

10.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

11.  Do you have a favourite walk, and if so where?

I’m taking a leaf out of Vicky’s book and tagging the people who comment most regularly on my blog.  If you happen to be reading this and fancy making a post out of any of these questions, you’re very welcome to join in.  Consider yourself “tagged” if you’re on this list.

http://theurgetowander.com/

http://francineinretirement.wordpress.com/

http://justasmidgen.com/

http://algarveblog.net/

http://apetcher.wordpress.com/

http://titabuds.com/

http://thismansjourney.net/

http://hferrati.wordpress.com/

http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com/

http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com/

http://rlavalette.wordpress.com/

Hasn’t this been a marathon?  I daren’t even think about Francine’s “Sisterhood Award”.  I’m off now to notify everybody.  Cheery-bye!

Six word Saturday

“A Day” project- did you participate?

I’m not sure where I first saw details of the A day project but it seemed like a fun idea- people from all over the world recording their day for posterity, on May 15th.  The day dawned cold and wet, but undeterred off I went with my camera.  Take lots of photos, it said on the website www.aday.org. So I did, but then discovered that I was only allowed to upload 10!  You just know I’m going to share a few more, don’t you?

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Did anyone else submit photos?  I’d love to see the results.

Can I also use this space to say how very much I am going to miss the support and participation in the blogging world of my dear friend Sonel of Sonel’s Corner.  She has decided to take a break from blogging but I very much hope that she will be back soon.  Her blog was a real source of inspiration for me.

Thanks are due as usual to Cate of Show My Face for encouraging us to share our week in Six word Saturday.  There’s always room for new members, so why not join in?  Just click on the link or the banner above for more details.  You can read my previous posts on my Six word Saturday page.  See you next week.

 

Six word Saturday

Random moments from an Algarve week

Fonte Pequena (little fountain) at Alte

It had just bounced with rain and the bottle brush plant was sodden.

The Folklore Festival and Wedding Ceremony at Alte

 Then there’s one that would fit well in my recent post on “fontes”.

The fountain in Praca da Republica, Tavira

And an item that I was much taken with.  More to come in a future post.

The Tavira vase, on display in the new Islamic Museum

Then my little side trip with Flat Ruthie.

The village of Sanlucar de Guadiana, on the Spanish side of the Spain/Portugal border

A handsome caballero

Keeping watch over the Guadiana

Tangled in the orange blossom in Castro Marim

So now you know how I spent my week.  It was wonderful looking back and now it’s your turn.  To play Six word Saturday you need to visit Cate’s Show My Face so click on the link or the banner at the top of this page, and get started.  My Six word Saturday page will show you what I’ve been up to in the past.  Feel free to browse.  See you next week.