Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins. If you fancy joining in, pop along to her blog to find out more.
This week began in a blaze of spring glory with blue skies and sunshine, we ended it though, with a rather damp and soggy weekend! Welcome to spring in Gibraltar…
First trip to the beach of 2016
After a glorious weekend with a dolphin boat trip, a trip up the Rock in the cable car and another visit to the beautiful Alameda Gardens, we made the most of the extra time off school afforded us by Commonwealth Day and an in-service day for teachers. We had our first trip to the beach this year, a picnic on a bench nearby, then football, basketball, and a feat of civil engineering in the sand. Apart from one other small group, we had the beach to ourselves. It was great, and a fantastic chance for the little postcards to get some fresh air! I do love the beach out of season. This photo shows Catalan Bay, our base for an afternoon and several hours squabble-free play time.
Cockerel on the loose 
Now to non Gibraltar residents to sight of a loose cockerel on a wander may not seem out of the ordinary. There aren’t many ‘farm’ animals on the Rock so this majestic bird took us quite by surprise on our walk through the Alameda Botanical Gardens this week! He was a very impressive looking chap, I only managed to grab this photo as he was disappearing off into the bushes.
Seagulls
There are so many seagulls knocking about in Gibraltar at the moment, I think it may be mating season. These little chaps may look delicate and light on their feet but when they land on our roof they sound like they’re wearing clogs and doing a spot of Morris dancing! They are so noisy, especially in the early hours of the morning.
Model Soldiers
We stumbled across a model soldier exhibition in the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery during a wander in town. I had no idea it was on, and it’s not necessarily something I’d actively seek out but the workmanship which had gone into putting on the various exhibits was very impressive.
Watercolour class
I’ve missed my watercolour lessons for the last couple of weeks and it was great to get back to it again. This week I spent my lesson doing a study of freesias, they were a beautiful colour and the scent was amazing!
Earth Hour 
We did our bit for the environment last night and celebrated Earth Hour with our lights off. Scrabble (not real Scrabble as you can see – Scrabble Twists & Turns) with 3 children in the dark/candlelight adds a new dimension to proceedings. Tiles were lost off the table and cheating went on undetected. Thank goodness it was just an hour!!
Palm Sunday 
As a child at Sunday School I remember the excitement of being given a palm cross on Palm Sunday. For us children, it meant that Easter was around the corner and it’s guarantee of a school holiday and a few chocolate eggs.
They had an air of exotic mystery about them though. Where did these palm crosses come from? The ones which arrived at our church were made by a charity in a third world country and always seemed so exotic to me growing up in the north of England. Here in Gibraltar, where palm trees are ten a penny, churches are actually decorated with real palm branches on Palm Sunday, I wonder what my 10 year old self would have made of that?
Whether or not you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a peaceful and happy time with your loved ones. Until next week, bye for now.
Gibraltar seems to look so picturesque whatever the weather. I thought you had scented paint until I realised you meant the vase of freesias that you were painting smelt good! Now that WOULD be good – can you imagine the fresh smell in Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’?
That sounds a great idea! The smell would transport you to wherever the artist wanted you to go!
Your painting is lovely. I am envious of your talents. Another lovely week and excellent photos. It’s hard making a seagull attractive but you pulled it off K xXx
Haha! That made me chuckle – making a seagull look attractive! Thank you, I’m pleased with my freesias 🙂 x
I was thinking the same thing about the seagulls. Haha! Some of them along the Jersey Shore are down right aggressive. I always loved the characters of gulls in the movie Finding Nemo. They fly around saying “Mine, mine, mine.”
They are great aren’t they? Finding Nemo’s a great film 🙂
Lovely week, I like the squabble free afternoon. I forget how few and far between they were!
Oh yes, they’re a rare occurrence round these parts! 😉
Your watercolor is just lovely! And the cockerel is quite the majestic bird, isn’t he. I’ve never seen that version of scrabble – is it as confusing as it looks? I remember the joys of a squabble afternoon, it can remain rare, even with grown siblings.
Thank you, I enjoyed painting it very much! It is a confusing version but it’s over in about half an hour with my age group of offspring, so that’s a blessing! We managed two games before it descended into chaos!!
I was kind of hoping the squabble free afternoons may increase in frequency as they grow older… Oh dear! 🙂
Ooops, so sorry if I’ve discouraged you. The squabbles will certainly decrease with time. I just spent three days with my grown daughters and there were a few “moments”. But it’s all good of course, they are really thick as thieves! (is that a good thing?) 🙂
Don’t worry, I’m not discouraged! I had been warned that the sibling relationships continue into adulthood, they just disagree over different things!! 😀
Stunning pictures as always. Love following your blog, it cheers me up 😄x
Aw thank you 🙂 you’ve made my day! X