I LOVE JIGSAWS

I saw a jigsaw of the city of Barcelona when we were there recently. It had layers of maps and models of buildings and was really attractive.
I love jigsaws so when we got back I "googled" one of London. Amazon obliged.

The joiner was working on the upstairs cloakroom and so I got him to cut me a piece of ply to fit the jigsaw which was an unusual shape and would need to be carted around during its assembly.

The first layer was a map and story of London in 1666, the year of The Great Fire.

The second layer was much more complicated and was made of foam rubber covered with a paper picture layer of the streets in the present day. Some pieces were shaped to fit corners and bridges and buildings.

The models of the buildings were to fit into the spaces in the foam! Like this section of Canary Wharf.

And the last part was very satisfying. Positioning the the buildings to show the skyline.

The completed jigsaw sits well on the board and has pride of lace on the sideboard for a while. It will get dismantled and passed round the family next.

The board was an off-cut from the floor of the new cloakroom on the top floor which is all finished now and waiting for some carpet on Tuesday.

 I came home from Art Class with a picture of York...or mostly York and some invented bits.

It looks quite good in the new cloakroom!

All this is just in time for Summer guests, the first of whom arrive within the week.
Cheers Gillian

WALES IN A WEEK

I have been to Wales on three brief occasions. Long ago I went to St Davids with a geology field trip from university. Many years later I went to Aberaeron with the family on a trip back from Oz, and then a few years ago, I went to Bodelwyddan, in north Wales with DJ for a "short break".
This time I saw all three in a week. Not only was I surprised and thrilled by all the lovely scenery and pretty places we went through but shocked to realise how big Wales really is when you are driving round it in a motorhome at a fairly leisurely pace.

We started in St Davids, camping at Caerfai Bay. Mick and Diz had joined us and it was a very splendid view from the top of the cliff. It was also a bit windy.

It got windier. And then a lot windier still...terribly windy and raining...and then raining sideways and whipping up a storm. It did that for 24 hours non stop. Many tents got destroyed including Mick and Diz's lovely campervan tent on the right. It was a tragic way to start a holiday.

The next morning with the wind still blowing strong gusts, we walked the cliff path to the city, passing the old ruins of St Non's chapel as well as the new Retreat.

The Cathedral is at the bottom of a valley and hard to find without signposts. It does not stand high and beckoning from the top of a hill but still has been found by many pilgrims over the centuries. A funeral was taking place the day we were there and we viewed from a distance.
The place (seems strange to call it a city when it is so small!) is very pretty and we returned along the cliff path the next day in slightly better weather. Gusty breezes rather than winds...

A brave artist painting "en plein air". Such different conditions from those experienced by Helen and her fellow artists in Florida.

He has to have his easel secured by ropes and how he manages to cart all his gear across the cliff tops to get to this wonderful view is amazing. He was cheerful and busy so we reluctantly left him to it.
In town there was a studio belonging to an artist called Tony Kitchell who used a similar palette and technique so it may have been him. There was a sign on the door saying "back in two minutes" !!!

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path takes you along some magnificent cliffs and the geological processes have left amazing features. The cliffs are often baked, metamorphic slates and have been twisted and folded into remarkable shapes...

...And colours.

We moved north along the coast.

And into the hillier north to stay at Betws y Coed and from there visited  Mount Snowdon...

...up and into the clouds we went on the little train. BUT we will have to go back if we want a view from the top.

We passed the slate mines at Llanberis...

And watched the water at the Swallow Falls...

Smiled at the smallest house in Wales...

And admired the castle at Conwy.
We are home now. The washing has been done, the campervan cleaned , the kitchen painted and the art room tidied up. Tomorrow is a visit to the dentist!
and another blanket is on the knitting needles.
Billy is glad to be home. I miss him when we are away but he has a great cattery to go to and is safe and well looked after.
I hope real summer comes soon.
Cheers for now
Gillian

Wheelie Bin Tidy Up

We have two large wheelie bins and a small courtyard to put them in and the yard also performs as a garden, car-park and cat refuge.

The first attempt to enhance the bins was a stick-on strip of camouflage. You can, of course, ignore camouflage and make them stand out with stick on sheets out of this world like  cottage gardens .
Some people stick their numbers on them but no-one around here seems to be interested in bin-theft and we can rely on our bin being back there after the bin-men have been.
Eventually these green (not "green") stickers go blue and anyway we have just spent a jolly hour or so ripping out the ivy that is invading the decades old, privet hedge. Having it as a camouflage on the bin seems inappropriate to say the least.

The next attempt at enhancement involved the willow screen. So natural looking! So easily it disintegrates! True, that it took a couple of years to disintegrate but the gradual decomposition, starting at the base (it's upside down in the pic)  and fragmentation meant that repairs and sweep-ups were continuous.

So this is the present solution. Note that I speak with little future conviction. Here's why.

It arrives like this. The instructions are wordless. There is an inconsistency in the number of screws reported to be needed and those provided. It wavers in the wind and there are two bits of everything because we have ordered the DOUBLE, to fit two bins. Is there a left and right?

It's a two person job. One has to hold it and the other has to wield the electric screw driver. Someone has to have read and absorbed the diagrams. Someone has to know where to put the 39 screws used so far. It's a good idea if your brick paving is fairly level...

It's really great when you find that the bin fits even if you have it the wrong way round.

Then you join it to the other side so that the recycling bin can go in there too. it is really great to have a screw driver gun. They put screws in, in a jiffy and take them out pretty quickly if they have put in the wrong screw or put the right screw in the wrong place.

Eventually it all looks like this and the other stuff is off to the skips.

Because the old stuff did fit in the Meriva to go to the skips I won £5!
The new wheelie bin screen has already been rained on and has coped well.
Cheers for now,
Gillian

FLYING TO LONDON TO SEE THE QUEEN! IN A DRAGON RAPIDE

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford has a marvellous collection of old battle planes from the earliest days. DJ is admiring one of the last flying B-17s but sadly it is only used for display flights.

We were due to fly in this...A De Havillande Dragon Rapide on a sight-seeing tour over London. The plane seats eight. Plenty of room for us all!!! No moving about, Please! No air-conditioning, no flight attendant, no toilet and the lucky woman in the front seat got to shout any messages to or from the pilot. Only an hour there and back so off we go.

We climbed quickly over the fields and headed south. The plane is so small that we all got a window seat and could keep an eye on the altitude, the passing scenery and the engines.

We came in over the Thames downstream and flew over the Olympic venues...

The Millenium Dome, the Isle of Dogs and The Thames Barrier.

Then, moving upstream towards the centre of town we hovered over Buckingham Palace (right in the middle of the pic), Green Park and St James Park and then turned to view all the amazing new structures that have appeared on the scene recently. The Queen may have been at home but if so she was busy and didn't come out to wave. We all spent a lot of time looking down and pointing. It's possible others on the ground may well have been looking up and pointing too.

This is the Shard across the river from the Walkie Talkie and others. I have a link here if you want to check your knowledge of the skyscrapers.

We swung back and forward over the river...So much to see. Pretty difficult to talk because of the noise level so there was a bit of nudging and pointing all the time.

We went out of London westwards towards Heathrow airspace and then swung north.

And then eventually headed home over the M25

Because there was to be a big Air Show this weekend, lots of pilots were out practising their routines and stunts. We shared a lunch table with the pilot of this Curtiss Hawk. He finished his gammon steak in yorkshire pudding and then took off to do some incredible stunts, low flying and rolls.

Another pilot was learning how to fly a Spitfire. I gathered he was a trained stunt instructor but had not flown a Spitfire before.

And I'm pretty sure this is the last flying Bristol Blenheim rehearsing its flight.

A great day out! The weather held, the flight was superb and the show was great.
Cheers Gillian

BARCELONA BONANZA

After a lovely stay in Tossa we caught the bus to Barcelona for a few days of sight seeing and urban culture. I find Barcelona to be an incredibly noisy and busy city and this impression was enhanced by the location of our hotel on the Gran Via.
But this makes it super easy to get around. Some small change, a ten-trip metro ticket and a good map held the right way up are all you need. No! not quite true...comfy shoes, a walking tour marked out, a secure bag and a sense of direction are all very helpful.

The Palace of Music of Catalonia is one of the most highly decorated Art Nouveau style buildings...

...with exquisite decorations and ornaments. All signs and notices are written firstly in Catalan, followed by Spanish and then any other. I find the Catalan written form to show a strong relationship with French and DJ says that its spoken pattern is quite Spanish but the words aren't quite as his ear expects.

Bullfighting is now banned in Catalonia but continues in the rest of Spain. The Arenas has been transformed into an amazing shopping centre but...

La Monumental still stands as a museum of bullfighting and is mostly unspoiled and splendid artifacts are simply displayed.

So much more expensive to sit in the shade!

The last time the bulls would be in the shade!

We ate Spanish, Italian and Chinese food while we were there and forsook the expensive hotel breakfast for the fresh juice and stuffed croissants of the cafe on the corner. They also welcomed us back to watch the second half of the football (Barcelona v Juventus) with coffee and brandy for less than 5euros.

We found the Santa Caterina Market and bought tomatoes and grapes for far more than 5euros !

And we left the hams in the shop.

Last but not least we went on a tour of the Sagrada Familia. We had a wonderful guide and were shown around the best bits. Unfortunately the lifts were not operating that afternoon and nor was my camera. A particular shame because the sensibly pragmatic Spanish allow all people to take photos of everything and use flash whenever necessary. In many ways it was better because I was able to listen and look and so learned much more.

The weather was great for ambling around town and mild enough to eat out on the pavement in the evening.

But there is so much more to see and the cable cars to ride and the musical fountains to enjoy so we shall return. The fountains played to pop music and were not as majestic as they had been before.

Plenty more to see and do and interiors of buildings and galleries to experience.

Cheers for now
Gillian