Mainly making.

This is a post about excesses....

If I'm not doing something a little on the creative side, I get itchy fingers.
I've had very itchy fingers recently.

So Romy and I set to - making cards. I'm not exactly sure why. The Spanish don't send cards except on very rare occasions. Nor do they give bunches of flowers to say thank you, or cheer up, or well done. They do appreciate it when I do it but so far, we haven't changed the habits of a lifetime.
There will be some craft fairs coming up as we move towards the cooler weather and maybe there will be some interest if we try and sell them there. Cards and chocolates...it's a nice combination. Otherwise, we may have an excess of cards on our hands. Especially as I've ordered a whole load of card-making goodies from the internet that haven't yet arrived...

Mine

Romy´s

Here are some of our attempts...I tell you which are mine and which are those of my 9 year old daughter because you'd struggle to guess! She is fantastic!

Romy's

This one is mine

And this is a joint effort 

One of mine

And one of Romy's

And another of mine.

This is mine - an attempt to include chocolate! I might work on this idea....

And this is today's effort on my part, which includes the map that Mateo drew. I rather like this one...

Today's efforts at making included all the family - Ruy was particularly pleased with his burger arrangement. And recently, he has been taking his Scotch Pancake making to excess too! We've had them for about 6 days in a row....

(I have no idea why there is a paintbrush on the table...)

And we have a GLUT of cherry tomatoes so this morning, I spent a good hour cutting them in half before setting three trays out to dry in the sun. I sprinkled one lot with herbs and chilli flakes as well as salt and I've already bottled those in olive oil to eat in their nearly dried state. They are absolutely delish!!

This tray and another will go out again tomorrow for another drying session. I want some that are totally dry that I can keep in a container and pop into soups and sauces. The rest will be to add to salad dishes or to eat as a little tapa with some bread and olives. Yummmmmmmm.

FR has been doing wonders with the piles of vegetables that our neighbours have been foisting generously passing on to us. We have had gallons of gazpacho; we've eaten swiss chard (or acelgas as they are called here) fried, boiled, steamed and sauted - in tortillas, with potatoes or on their own. We have eaten lots of pisto and/or ratatouille with the abundance of courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines and onions we've received - adding our very own peppers from the garden.

Yes, we've been busy.

And now I am off to make some fig and orange jam with a huge tray of green figs that was given to me this morning!

Has the summer given you an excess of anything good?