tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105236405024165362023-11-16T05:34:12.862-08:00Sun and SewingVivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-62577605887351993722013-02-05T08:15:00.000-08:002013-02-05T08:15:09.649-08:00Enjoying the winter sun<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today the sun was shining and I had a lovely walk along the seafront, this always makes me so grateful for what I have. The sun shining on my face and the sound of the sea as I walk along. This is a photo of the bay just at the end of my road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This weekend we will be celebrating Carnival before the beginning of Lent. This is very popular here, the children enjoy dressing up and there are many parades with decorated floats. These are some photos from last year. </span></div>
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Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-63167019408045929712013-01-26T06:46:00.001-08:002013-01-26T06:46:40.027-08:00A trip to Gozo<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although it is winter here we do have some very nice days, as we did on Wednesday and so we decided to have a trip to Gozo. We are very lucky to have a second propery in Gozo which we bought about 10 years ago before deciding to leave the UK completely. This propery has been our holiday home and it still is. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Gozo is much quieter than Malta and is a good place to go and relax especially in the heat of summer. To get to Gozo we have a 40 minutes drive to the north of the island and then a 20 minute ferry ride.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the Gozo ferry arriving in the harbour of Mgar on Gozo.</span></div>
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Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-89289190559163039252013-01-22T04:55:00.001-08:002013-01-22T04:55:31.474-08:00Malta<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Firstly, thank you to all who have visited my blog in the last few days. Several said they would like to know more about Malta so I though I would post some facts and history and then some aspects of life in Malta, which I hope you will find interesting. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.malta-map.com/maltese_islands/europe/666463/europe_malta_map_location.gif" imageanchor="1"><img alt="malta map, click on map of malta located in the middle of mediterranean for Malta Map" border="0" height="217" src="http://www.malta-map.com/maltese_islands/europe/666463/europe_malta_map_location.gif" usemap="#FPMap1" width="299" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you can see Malta is a tiny island in the Meditteranean Sea approx 50 miles south of Sicily and 207 miles north of Libya. It is infact a small archipelago with Malta, Gozo and Comino being the three largest islands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Malta is approx 122square miles which makes it one of the world's smallest countries, however it is one of the most densely populated countries having a population of over 350,000.</span><br />
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Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-4039071074016704902013-01-19T08:53:00.000-08:002013-01-19T08:53:07.535-08:00Baking 2<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is my photo</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I made four but we ate one while it was still warm with homemade soup - it was delicious.</span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-12176406948299438612013-01-19T08:21:00.000-08:002013-01-19T08:21:54.256-08:00Baking <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A cold morning so we decided to stay home. I wanted to try some of the bread recipes from my Paul Hutchinson baking book so I chose to make Ciabatta as it is one of my favourite breads. I made it on my mixer as he said it would be set and messy and boy he wasn't joking. When it came to turning it out and shaping it to put in the oven it was a wet, sticky elastic mess. However I was very pleased with the results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took a photo but can't get it from my iPad to here- see how useless I am. Anyway I will keep trying. </span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-33391662281715877632013-01-19T04:44:00.001-08:002013-01-19T04:44:33.200-08:00Blog Event<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh dear! I have probably missed this event when I was so full of good intentions. I was out yesterday morning and when I sat down yesterday afternoon to write my post we had a power cut - this is not unusual here in Malta. The afternoon passed my by, I did manage to read by sitting close to the window. When the electricity came back on I had dinner to prepare and the the evening passed me by I woke up this morning and remembered I had forgot to post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Anyway if anyone comes along to read my blog you will see I am not a great blogger but this was meant to kick start me into action. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I used to have a very busy life in the UK but now it is much quieter in Malta, because my husband is also retired we do lots of things together but I do find he stops me from becoming too involved in my hobbies. Just as I am about to get out my sewing or knitting he always seems to say "Let's .......... and I miss out again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well if anyone reads this perhaps it will inspire me to do more. </span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-44324330884604284412013-01-17T07:24:00.001-08:002013-01-17T07:24:49.381-08:00Sewing<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I really must get down to some sewing. I have projects I want to work on but I seem to always have other things to do!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Maybe tomorrow!!</span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-46692519351000671932013-01-17T07:20:00.001-08:002013-01-17T07:20:42.062-08:00Changing weather<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today started as a beautiful day as most days do here on ' the rock in the Med ' and so we decided to go out in the car for a change - as we usually </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">walk. We headed off and finished up in Mosta. Having parked our car in a back street parking not being easy we set off to find the hub of activity, as in all the towns and vilages here we headed for the church. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We walked down the main street looking at the shops and then returned to the square by the church The sun was still shining so we sat at a street cafe to have a coffee. Just as we finished we noticed a very large black cloud looming in the distance so we thought we had better head on back to the car. As we were walking the rain started and the sky became very black. We were just in the street where our car was parked when down came the most enormous hail stones,we ran to the car but the hail stones hitting us were like shards of glass and they really hurt. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The weather here is amazing!</span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-23190426664023946652013-01-17T07:20:00.000-08:002013-01-17T07:20:02.550-08:00Old Books<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have just spent a fascinating morning visiting the National Library in Valletta. They have an enormous collection of books dating back to the beginnig of the reign of the Knights in Malta includding books the Knights brought from Rhodes. We saw some manuscripts which were 900 years old.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We visited the Restoration Room and saw how they repaired old books - a job I am sure they will never complete, so time consuming and expensive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We were not allowed to take photos inside so nothing to show you of my visit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-7014005421488368272013-01-15T06:38:00.000-08:002013-01-15T06:38:03.668-08:00Back to try again<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My venture into blog land didn't last very long but now I have returned and I am going to try again!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Life in Malta has been busy the last twelve months with quite a few changes but now things are settling down and hopefuly I will have some time to write.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I came across this on another blog I read and I thought I would give it a go and see what happens. I have signed up so hopefully when it starts I will have some readers of my blog. The project is being run by Vikki at 2 Bags Full so visit here blog to read more about it.</span><br />
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Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-75678575793244479532011-09-29T13:22:00.000-07:002011-09-29T13:22:06.819-07:00Missing ThunderstormsWe were forcast 3 days of thunderstorms but apart from a shower at midnight last night no storms. It has been a litle cloudy and cooler but nothing more. Today sun was shining and it was hot again.<br />
All the blocks are now finished and I have planned and photographed the layout but only the first two sewn together. It may be a few weeks before I get round to doing much more.<br />
I have been busy cooking today as we have the family coming round tomorrow evening to see our new apartment.<br />
We leave for the UK next Wednesday and off on our cruise on Friday so I need to prepare clothes and pack!!!<br />
We will not return until Nov 5th so things will be quiet for a few weeksVivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-30495850616724225102011-09-20T13:32:00.000-07:002011-09-20T13:32:38.929-07:00Change in the WeatherToday was much cooler and the wind brought with it some rain!!, but only for a short while this morning. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be out in rain after three dry months. I am sure the sun will be back tomorrow.<br />
I have managed to do a little sewing, blocks are all pieced and I am just preparing the last ones for quilting. I really dont know how some of you manage to do so much sewing,especially as many of you have a family and a job. I dont know where my time goes!!<br />
I have decided on my border and I have been working out the extra fabric I will need to buy when I go to the UK next month. I have yet to find any good shops in Malta so I will have to rely on trips abroad and the internet.<br />
Well back to the machine!Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510523640502416536.post-66727982463086563652011-09-17T14:07:00.000-07:002011-09-17T14:07:30.398-07:00My First Blog!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This is my very first blog and I cant imagine I am going to write anything that anyone will want to read. I started quilting four years ago when I took an early retirement but everytime I get involved wih a project something seems to happen and it never gets finished, so I have several unfinished projcts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">We made the decision to move to Malta on New Years Eve and here we are. Life has been very busy and I have had little time for sewing, not least because it has been so hot, but hopefully things will now settle down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I am trying to finish my very first project which was a log cabin sampler quilt. I have had to make more blocks because we now have a bigger bed, but I am on the lastso I will be putting it together soon. I am now thinking about what border I will make. </span>Vivienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06051536966906916783noreply@blogger.com0