On being inspired

In recent weeks, Romy and I have been enjoying a little post-prandial crafting at our big glass table in the kitchen - and I've shared some of our attempts at making in earlier posts.

We've been going at Romy's pace and she's really enjoyed the process. We keep buying a few more 'bits' when we pop into town. And today we went shopping again and this time, called in to 'A LITTLE bit of BRITAIN' - a shop in Alcala la Real that started off, as its name suggests, as a place where the expats in the area could buy their Tetley teabags, Bird's Custard Powder and various other necessities that some folk just can't live without. It's owned and run by the wonderful Alan - invariably friendly, helpful and good-natured - and he had the great idea of opening up some additional space for people to put their second-hand goods for sale. The Spanish haven't ever really grasped the idea of 'second-hand' and on their version of ebay, the prices people want are ridiculous and unrealistic. A lot of expats move out here and find they have all the 'wrong' stuff for their new homes. A lot of expats move back to the UK and decide not to take all their stuff back with them. Alan's shop works a treat and now, the local Spanish folk are recognising what a brilliant idea it is!

I digress, I believe. Ah no, I know why it was important to mention Alan's shop. It's because once a month, he moves all the secondhand furniture to the farther reaches and holds a Saturday market - renting out a 'stall' to anyone who has anything to sell. Some months, it's really good, with clothes, plants, food, (occasionally a chocolate stall!) and jewellery, as well as bric-a-brac and other second-hand items. I usually try and get there on a craft market day. There are sometimes people there who sell cards too. And in the shop, Alan always has a wide selection though some of them are not very inspiring and I asked if he'd be willing to sell some of ours in his shop - and, being Alan, he said yes! And now I get back to my thread...today we took our wares in to the shop. I asked what sort of cards were most in demand and unfortunately, he said it was 'Sympathy' cards...

So, when we came home, Romy agreed that I should make some sympathy cards - the idea didn't really inspire her. The night before, I had been looking at some new ideas on the internet and spent 17 minutes of my life watching a video on Youtube. It's not possible for me to embed the video for you to have a look, but here is the link. I was so inspired by this piece that this afternoon, I sat down and made a 'With Sympathy' card that I'm rather pleased with.

The card was a nice cream colour, on which I painted a watercolour background in teal and pale yellow. Then I made a flower stamp out of foam, and, using a pencil, made some imprint 'dot's. We had some teal ink by pure chance so I stamped the flowers randomly and lightly onto the background.

Then I ran a fine strip of ribbon down one side - which, with retrospect, I shouldn't have done...

The heart was cut from a loose page out of my Oxford Dictionary of English in Current Usage and I put it on a piece of foam before sticking it on to make it stand out a little. Then I pencilled around the edged and then blurred them a little.

I had bought the leaf skeletons from the UK and put one onto the other corner to provide a little balance.
Then with a silver pen, I added some squares - though these don't show up too well on the photo.

I wrote 'with sympathy' across both sides of the card, which has a centre opening.

It was a deeply satisfying card to make and the photo doesn't really do it justice. I feel as though I have really learned something...






My second attempt was slightly different and I didn't do a watercolour background, but made another foam stamp - this time using a heart shape.


Using the teal ink, I covered the whole of the card but made the shading random.

I added a few of the flower stamps using the only other coloured ink I have - which is red. I wasn't sure how this would look but decided to use a pinky-red piece of embossed paper on top. This I cut out with some scissors Romy and I bought today in town - cost all of 64c! Again, using a pencil, I went round the edges and smudged the colour to darken the frame of the centre card.

Another leaf skeleton and a strip of cream card to write 'so sorry' on.








I do hope these cards don't fly off Alan's shelves soon but I also hope that they perhaps convey a little more personal touch than some of the cards that are available at the moment.

And I couldn't stop there. So I made one more card this afternoon. It's an 'I Love You' card and says

You are ....   always on my mind and in my heart. 

Again, the inspiration is from the beautiful Art Journal that Rach0113 created and shared. Thank you Rach0113! You are amazing!!

I can't tell you the pleasure I have had in making these three cards today. I'm alight with ideas and plans for more and more cards...

How I wish the good folk of Alcala were full of a burning desire to send cards to each other. I must start making some in Spanish too...Maybe it'll catch on one day - they do seem to be getting the hang of second hand goods!

(Forgive my indulgence. You don't need to comment on this post - but I really needed to write it!!)

Heart and Soul walking

I do walk Darwin most days, twice a day, and over the summer months, not always with a good grace; not always as far or as long as Darwin would have liked. It has been very, very hot and I am a born and bred Northern England lass.

Heart, soul and the one swollen foot!

I read Natalie's post on Chickenblog about making those steps count, walking with eyes, ears and heart open to what's around, making it fun. And cos I love Natalie and I love her blog, I'm walking with heart and soul this week and for weeks to come, I hope. Thanks Natalie.





(I have one swollen foot and one perfectly normal foot - why should that be? It has seriously hampered my shoe purchasing fetish as I can't get both feet into the shoes I like...and curiously, it's not as bad here in the heat of Spain as it was in Huddersfield.) But I digress.

Whilst we have stuck to the known pathway as usual this week, we've walked with more focus and I've thought more and I feel more positive because of it. I wanted to see my footprints in the sandy pathways and although I rarely see anyone on my walks, I was surprised to see so many marks of feet that also 'this way trod'.



(You'll have to trust me that that what I am pointing out really is one of my footprints from a previous day/walk!)

The walk up to the pine trees just round the corner from our house

COME ON, SLOWCOACH!

So far, it's all uphill - really good for the heart.

Look up, look up - blue skies, a variety of trees!

Look down - how far we have climbed!

Look up, look up- these are big, beautiful trees

What Darwin uses for a ball - a tree full of balls!

Top of the hill - behind this wall is La Mota - love the railings.

What a beauty - must show this to Darwin

Hey Darwin! Look, no, look...

He's got it! Clever boy.

The view across Alcala la Real from the top of the hill - right in the middle is my friend's house.
I wave.

It's the one right in the middle with three small windows and a wide window on the top floor.
They can't see me but I always wave.
They have the best views of all from here.

And at this point, at the top of the hill but not entering the castle walls, I turn around and go back, breathing in the scents of pine forest, rosemary and dust. The noise of this noisy town is only just audible and I've done this walk eight times this week - four times on my own, three times with Mateo and once with Romy and Ruy. Mateo took Darwin on my teaching day and one day I went to the olive groves instead. I see few people on this walk, though this week, on one occasion, I met one of my students; on another, I saw a man on a beautiful horse and on a third, I met another man calling his dog. He was calling 'Mozart, Mozart'. So I called 'Darwin, Darwin' and as we passed, we smiled a cultured, rather smug smile at each other. He wasn't Spanish.

Hard to ignore the beauty around me in any case, doing it with heart and soul has deepened the whole experience and I have had a very reflective week, felt much more centred and have found new energy.

Walk, live, breathe; walk, live, breathe. Today, as a special treat, Ruy, Romy and I (and Darwin) did our walk, live, breathe via the Paseo de los Alamos - the park the centre of town - and then, when we'd walked, lived and breathed a bit, we had an ice-cream each.

Ice-cream is sometimes heart and soul food, don't you think?

Fruits of my labour

Been busy, busy, busy these past few days. We'd already stopped on our way back from a lovely day out in Valdepenas de Jaen and picked several bags of green figs, which I turned into our favourite fig and orange jam with walnuts. And there's only one jar of that left...it is so delicious.


And on a walk in the countryside, we found a tree of plums - (a plum tree) - which were too sour to eat so I made a sweet and sour sauce to eat with pork. That's sitting for a month to develop its flavour.

Then we had the rain of tomatoes and pepinos (cucumber) from all sides - our landlord, our next door neighbour and our ex-next-piso neighbour all showering their fruits upon us. So we salsa'd and passata'd and tzatziki'd and gazpacho'd and chopped and ate and froze our welcome and unexpected bounty.


 
Then two weeks ago, Greet, a Dutch lady who has joined my Spanish conversation class, brought me a big bag of gorgeous purple figs - glut from her many trees. We ate a lot of them almost straight from the bag- then we ate some more with honey or mixed with greek yogurt and when we'd had our fill, I froze several handy bags and with the rest I made a spicy fig jam.

And we're already part way down that jar.









And last week, Carol, also a conversation class member, brought me bags of pears - so many that she actually apologised. I shared them with several other people who fancied a couple of kilos but still had to make two trips to get them all home.

This week I have been mostly peeling pears.

And I found this wonderful recipe for Belgian Pears which is basically sugar, white wine vinegar and pears but the chemical mix and the combination of the ingredients is pure magic! They are out-of-this-world delicious and I know they are not going to last long...


Our new shelves are now bearing the weight of all this wonderful - almost free - food. It is almost (but not quite) as good as making chocolates.....

I am so very grateful for all generosity of everyone around here. I shall be handing out a few of these jars as tangible thanks and that feels good!