Day 31 Wheels

My wheels; 1991 Opel Corsa Swing, known as The Chevy, given to me about 5 year ago for the cost of transferring the ownership by the son of a Belgian neighbour who had died.

Day 30 - Collection

I suppose the biggest collection I have is of books...there are books in the porch on there way out to a new home, a stack of books on the coffee table in the living room waiting to be read, another pile by the side of my bed, each lavatory cistern has its pile, there are cookery books in the kitchen, craft books in the sewing room, wall to wall and floor to ceiling bookshelves crammed with fiction in the office, a wall full of auto-biographies, biographies and assorted non-fiction in the snug, plus another bookcase full of childrens' fiction.  My photo is of the top shelf stacked with old Puffins, many of them mine from new and all read and re-read. I still have the first two Puffins I ever owned; a very tattered and foxed 1952 edition of Alice in Wonderland, and the 1957 edition of Redcap Runs Away, both bought by my mother to keep my mind off the itch of chickenpox, but the start of a lifelong obsession with the printed word that is only now fading slightly with the advent of digital books. I no longer feel the need to possess craft books as so much  inspiration is available on line, but for sheer pleasure you can't beat a paper book. I am reading the Fire and Ice series at the moment, (Game of Thrones on TV), and while waiting for L3m0n to bring the real thing out with her, I had listened to some of the books on audible, and had read one on Kindle for PC...they were fine as stop-gaps, but I can't help myself...I have to read them again from paper and print to get the full pleasure!

Day 29 Kitchen Utensil

This must be one of the most underused utensils in my kitchen. It is supposed to be used for fishing and squeezing out a teabag from a mug. I never make tea in a mug; in my little world it isn't tea unless it is made in a teapot!  Having said that, I will happily make camomile or mint tea in a mug, but I use my spoon to fish out the bag, and then wind the label string around spoon and bag to squeeze it out.

Day 28 Fluffy

Fluffy fleecy cover on my baby hot water bottle; it is getting slightly pilled now, but what can you expect for €2...and that included the bottle! It is just the right size to fit in the kangaroo pocket of my house fleece.

Day 27 Amazing

This is part of the amazing fish counter in my local Mercadona supermarket; the non-fish end. Mussels, cockles, clams, razor shells, winkles, whelks, barnacles, squid, cuttlefish, poto, crabs, lobsters, crayfish, boiled octopus and three different varieties of prawn/langoustine and you are only halfway down....after a further pile of bags of mussels the fishy-fish section begins!

Day 26 Breakfast

Torrijas...

the first little pleasure of the day...

Day 25 Motionless

Day 24 Motion

The word prompt today is of course open to interpretation, but not being one for euphemisms, and to spare the blushes of the faint-hearted, I went with the obvious and photographed something in motion, in this case, water coming to a rolling boil after I added the pasta...

Day 23 Hot

Hot chocolate, or to be more precise; hot Lamumba, that is, if adding a scant teaspoonful of brandy is enough to make the conversion!

Day 22 Glow

I had the glowing fire yesterday, so I couldn't really use that again; the only other thing I have seen glowing today, apart from the sun, was the mouse on the old computer that I had booted up to look for a particular image file.

Day 21 Fire

It just so happens that it is cold enough at the moment to warrant a proper fire burning all day. The cast iron burner was bought second hand about 20 years ago. It is not perfect by any means; one door was slightly warped in the casting so it doesn't fit tightly even with a double layer of glass fibre rope, the doors are so wide and high that when you open one to add wood the smoke and ash escapes into the room rather than going up the chimney (mainly because the throat plate comes so far forward, but it doesn't help that there is a bend in the flue and it doesn't draw very well) and it doesn't have glass in the doors so it is part guesswork part intuition knowing when it might need more wood....having said that, open both doors and you can lob in enormous logs up to a foot in diameter, and, it stays in all night if you shut both air vents and the flue baffle despite the gap between the doors. It throws out large amounts of heat that spreads out into the brick fireplace and from there to the terrazzo floor and it is like one enormous storage heater, just what is needed in a cold Spanish house.

Day 20 Sign

I was late with yesterdays prompt, mainly because I didn't have or do anything bad (polishes halo furiously). It was likely to be the same today, but while I was doing the shopping I saw the salt, the sugar and the biscuits, so whipped the camera out and took a couple of hasty shots for yesterday's prompt. Luckily there were few people around so I didn't get many strange looks while I was taking a photo of this very dull sign. I know it isn't very imaginative, but I have already posted my first sign of Spring when I added the violet to the pleasurable logs post!

Day 19 Bad for you....

...or so they say, but they also say we can't live without it!

Day 18 Pleasurable

I'm not sure which is more pleasurable, the sight of my log shed full of freshly chopped logs, or the first violet of the year promising that I won't need them for much longer.

Day 17 Naughty

This is Charlie Badmash; I called him Charlie, my neighbour added the Badmash after a character in a book we were reading at the time. Don't ask me what the book was, it was nearly 11 years ago, but I do remember he was an evil character! CB brooks no interference with his dignity unless you are his Mum; ignore an infinitesimal warning twitch of his tail when you are honoured with his company and you are likely to find teeth and claws embedded in some part of your anatomy unless you immediately stop whatever you are doing.  This photo was taken of him being naughty rather than evil...sitting on the table looking out of the window at the rain. What's so naughty about that? Well I was trying to read the paper and he had decided that he needed to sit on it in order to get exactly the right view...

Day 16 Snack

I spent the morning in the dentist's waiting room, keeping my OH company while he waited to be slotted in for an emergency appointment; no coffee, no snack, and anyway at that point I hadn't looked at the daily prompt. When I did finally get round to looking, I was just pushing the last date from the box into my mouth...not to worry I thought, it's Veronica's birthday and tradition has it that the Craft Club ladies bring treats on these occasions, so I'll take my camera with me. Another wash-out! Veronica had sent a message that she had a bad throat and would bring her cake next week. A large glass of Manzanilla hardly counts as a snack, so you have to make do with the above...I caught a glimpse of the word 'snack' as I was pushing the empty bag into the bin...I can't show you the contents as I have just eaten them!

Day 15 Generous

We met some friends this morning, down at a coffee bar overlooking the beach. Most of you have probably heard of the Spanish tradition of bars offering you a tapa with your beer or wine; this one brings you one with your coffee as well! Small wrapped Dutch Spice biscuits come as standard on your saucer, along with a packet of sugar. This is followed at a decent interval by whatever the kitchen decides to send out. This week it is small thin circles of what appears to be left over pastry, lightly baked, then completely covered in icing sugar...times are hard! More generous though, was the saucer full of peanuts that appeared later when I requested a bottle of water; this qualifies as a drink and justifies the production of something savoury!

Day 14 Guilty Pleasure

 I will admit to being a hoarder, a haunter of charity shops and an inveterate skipweasel. I'm not at the stage (yet) where I might become a candidate for a television programme, as my teetering piles of boxes and bags are confined to two rooms, but I am amongst the top rank when it comes to salvaging anything that might be useful in my craft room(s). We only have two local charity shops, but I am well known in both of them. In the "Dog Shop" they are used to me sitting quietly in a corner sorting through their button boxes, they put things on one side that they think I might like, and when I go looking for cloth, be it cotton for patchwork, wool for rag rugs or silk for embroidery, they let me sort through their reject bags. I have curbed my passion for odd balls of knitting yarn, unless it happens to be wool and in a sufficient quantity to actually make something, but when it comes to Tapestry wool, I can't resist! Half finished canvases with leftover hanks and bags of oddments often turn up. I have three bags waiting to be sorted at the moment! The big boot box above holds Anchor wool, I have another holding DMC Colbert and a small one with crewel. One of these days I will produce one of those fantastic granny square blankets that I keep pinning on my Pinterest board!

 The third photo shows one of the few things I buy from a "proper shop" when I don't really need to but just in case...pads of lovely strong card in a wide range of colours from Lidl!

Day 13 Inside my fridge

I decided, before opening the fridge door this morning, to show it warts 'n all, and was quite relieved that there isn't anything too obviously mouldy on view....if you don't count the Gorgonzola...lots of left-overs to eat though!
I had to make a few adjustments to the photo as the fridge light is broken.

Day 12 Transluscent

The liquid soap container on my kitchen window ledge. When the sun hits it condensation builds up inside.

Day 11 Clothing

My job for today; replacing the broken zip in a fleece jacket.

Day 10 Metallic

Day 9 Water

There are never enough hours in my Mondays...so I have cheated and posted an image from a couple of days ago.

Day 8 Cosy

A couple of cosy scarves, knitted whilst listening to audio books. I can read for hours in complete relaxation, but when listening, my hands itch for something to do. The top one I made with a couple of balls of yarn I bought originally to make socks, the lower one is made from recycled mohair, frogged (with great patience and a lot of under the breath cursing) from a half finished sweater donated by a friend who grew tired of the intricacies of entrelac. If not claimed by passing friends or family, these scarves end up, depending on their size and suitability, either at the local Emaus childrens' homes, the Emaus womens' refuge or the shelter for homeless men run by a small group of nuns in Gandia. The last is supported by our local church...not that I am a church goer, but a few of my craft club ladies are, and they make up goodie bags containing toiletries, clean underwear and small comforts. The Emaus homes are almost entirely funded by donations. The Spanish Social Services are quick to remove children from situations they consider dangerous, but don't seem to have anywhere to place them. They are handed over to various charitable societies. Emaus rents apartments and houses and the children are placed there in family sized groups with house parents. The Government pays a very small amount towards their keep, but Emaus must provide clothing, toys and even buy their schoolbooks. The children range in age from babies to teenagers. Here in Calpe most of the English and German speaking clubs raise money all the year round to fund the local homes, providing not only clothing and books, but also Christmas presents and Summer camps for the older children. One local Association, Women in Business, devotes its fundraising, in particular, to the Emaus womens' refuge, whose residents often arrive with only the clothes they escaped in.

Day 7 Drink

The Gin O'clock girls provide more inspiration; the Larios gin bottle...and it still has some gin left in it!

Day 6 Frost

Frost here is uncommon, although last year I did lose all my water hyacinth when the pond froze one cold night. My gin o'clock girls are visiting at the moment and so ice trays are in constant rotation. I took this tray out and took a quick snap while making room for the refilled ones.

Day 5 Excitement

What's exciting about an external hard drive you might wonder...well when a DD comes visiting from the UK, she comes bearing gifts; digital gifts such as season 2 of Downton, a couple of dozen audio books and assorted TV programmes and films for me to watch when the other half is hogging the zapper and watching sport...

Day 4 Pretty

My birthday orchid.

Day 3 Ugly

Why do I always wait until the pedal bin lid won't close before I bother to empty it?

Day 2 New

It's a new day...

Day 1 Celebrate

I don't know how long I shall last, but I like the idea of a prompt word to take a photograph for each day of the year...note that I say for each day, and not on each day...the word will be provided by Suzie, available on Twitter, FB or her blog. The first word is Celebrate, and I have just had a birthday. The additional 'Get Well Soon' card seems to have become a bit of a tradition...