I am posting this early as I will be away in a few days so Jake has strict instructions to upload this post to the link on Kathy’s blog so you can all see it. Most of these pics were taken in Spain again. This completes a year of taking pics for the Scavenger Hunt and I am still really enjoying it, I love taking pics and get very excited when I get something good for one of the words!

5

Lots of the Spanish houses have beautiful ceramic house number tiles so here is a number 5 from my street.

Music

This is on one of the roads I cycle along in Spain, the local council have recently fenced the road and painted the fence in multicoloured blocks with lots of musical notes along it, no-one seems to know why this feature has been chosen but it looks very pretty.

Train

Not strictly a train but a train track and station. I took a couple of quite boring train pics which I was planning to use then came across this model railway on one of my cycle trips in Spain which was in someone’s front garden! It was a large layout about 10 feet in total with a little model village as well as this train station. I can only imagine the owner has a very understanding wife!

Love

This was really hard as there are so many things that I love, my kids, my family, Spain, camping, travel, embroidery but I decided that I would post about something I have not posted before. The first thing I fell in love with would have to be reading and I still think books are the most marvellous thing. One of the great things about being on holiday is the amount of reading I do and this was the pile of literary love that I treated myself to at the airport – they were wonderful and I read the whole pile in 3 days!

Cupid

This was the only Cupid I saw in the whole month, not a very good pic but from a local shop window.

Food

Sandwiches Spanish style – the lunch that Mum and I shared on our trip to Elche.

Empty

The road down to the beach on one of my cycle rides.

In the sky

Nothing but blue! Taken from my terrace on Feb 13th.

Crowded

A picture of a crowded lemon tree taken on one of my bike rides.

Heritage

How spectacular is this – the front door of the cathedral in Elche.

Black and White

The Spanish love ironwork on gates and balconies and this is from one of the neighbouring houses.

Leap Year

This is quite a boring pic but a very exciting event – on the 29th Feb Leap Year Day I will be flying to China for nearly 3 weeks with work. I am very, very excited as you can imagine and will of course take lots and lots of more exciting pics than this one!

Well here we are again. Kathy has very kindly kept going with the Scavenger Hunt , click on the pic above to go to her blog and see everyone’s pics. I joined last March so this will be nearly a year of taking pics.

Some of these are from my last visit to Spain at New Year topped up with a few extras that I have quickly done today. Lots of scope this month for interpretation so it will be really interesting to see what other people have done.

2

A pair of beautiful doors in Cartegena.

Blur

It was good to have this as a category this month as most of my New Year’s Eve firework pics came out as a blur and here is one of them.

Company

One day I hope to be able to turn my hobby into a business, got the business cards and the company name, just need more time!

Entrance

Now this could be interpreted differently depending on how you say it – I have chosen it as the opposite of exit so here is the entrance to my house.

In my bathroom

Strictly speaking this is the downstairs cloakroom but here is my collection of postcards from some of the lovely places I have been lucky enough to visit.

In season

No I haven’t gone mad, in Spain ice-cream is always in season, this is the selection Mum and I had on Jan 5th – coconut and mango yum, yum!

In the distance

It has to be my favourite subject of mountains, taken on one of my bike rides in Spain.

Information

Part of the map of Cartagena – you have to love a place with roads called Paseo de las Delicias and Santa Florentina!

Mess

Sadly there are lots of old abandoned farms and smallholdings in this area of Spain and this is one that I passed on one of my bike rides.

Odd

These are sort of like Horse Chestnuts but with a suntan! From one of the verdes in Spain.

Soft

My Mum voluteers at a local dog shelter and takes the dogs walking one afternoon a week so I went with her in Jan. This is little Martha who had such soft ears and such a cute face it was hard not to take her home!

Warning

On the back of the antibiotics for my ear infection.

I have managed to work out how every else links straight to the blog with all the rest of the pics on by ‘borrowing’ this pic above from Kathy’s blog and putting a link on it so here we go with my pics for August – click the above logo for everyone else’s.

Most of these pics were taken in one week in Spain and luckily there were some very easy words this month for me to be able to get – hope that you like them all!

A boat

Obviously there are loads of boats in Spain in all the marinas but this poor old thing has been stuck on a plot by the local supermarket for years – I bet it dreams of better days sailing away!

A festival or funfair

This was a very easy one to do in Spain as the local La Marina fiesta was on so here you have a pic of the fireworks at the end of the night.

However we had a very festive month so here is a pic from the Tribute Band Music Festival we went to this month as well! We also visited the International Festival of Quilts which I have already posted about.

A fountain

The Spanish love public fountains so I was spoilt for choice for this one – however my aunt is a bit of a fan as well and I knew she had a couple in her garden so went to take some pics – turns out she now has 7!  This is a Moorish style one in a corner of her back terrace.

A picnic

On the lovely sunny La Marina beach – a very Spanish picnic lunch of tuna empanada, chicken pinchos, olives and tortilla.

A sport

One of my favourites – not that this is at all competitive! If it is too hot for mountain biking then we swim in the local pool.

Bread

Served with allioli – garlic mayonnaise – this is one of the best things about Spain, I could live on this! Oh and red wine!

Fabric

The Spanish have the most beautiful textiles, especially table linen – I have bought quite a few table cloths and runners and here are some more gorgeous ones at the local market.

Market

At the same market you can get your flamenco dresses (children’s size only unfortunately) with matching shoes.

Mountains

We had really clear skies all the way back so I was able to get some fab shots of mountains – this is the Pyrenees with added snow!

Something ancient

This could easily have been used for the next category of something bizarre as well – not original but a copy of ancient Roman architecture.

The bizarre bit is in the fact that people here re-model their houses in all sorts of styles, this is the next door neighbour showing what the house would have originally looked like when it was built.

And here is a close up of the lovely gates and portico.

 Something bizarre

I always thought these little postcards were a bit bizarre when my grandparents used to bring them back from Spain in the 70s – I was surprised to see them still around. The skirt of the dancer is fabric sewn on to the card and her bodice is also hand stitched.

Street food

Churros from the market – a long sugary donut that the Spanish also like to dunk in thick melted chocolate!

I hope you have enjoyed these pics – I can’t wait to see all the other contributions for this month.

Thanks for visiting.