Making Paper Snowflakes at BBC Radio Cumbria

Yesterday I was invited to go along to the studios at BBC Radio Cumbria and talk about "papercraft".

Now, as you may already know, papercraft is so not my thing, my mantra is "I don't do papercraft", so this was a little out of my comfort zone.

However..... I can make paper snowflakes, and they are papercraft, right?

So paper snowflakes it would be.

Armed with a large black mountboard from Hobbycraft....

........  and some gorgeous papers from a scrap pack that only costs TWO shiny pounds, also from Hobbycraft I got to work the evening before, preparing some snowflakes for display.

Folding and cutting, chopping and turning.... I am almost scared to admit that I was actually enjoying this.... (NO!, I don't DO papercraft)

The next day, with a few colourful paper snowflakes glued to the board I set off.  It was windy and I had to walk across this bridge......

With an A1 mountboard that was basically a sail, what a job it was to stay in one place, I must have looked a right character staggering about all over the place while the board made that 'wobble board' noise attracting even more attention.

But I got there. Blew my nose hard, for a have a nasty cold and I really didn't want to sneeze on live radio, and got to work being interviewed while chopping up bits of paper.

Kevin Fernihough, (aka Fern), made a practise snowflake and then a really pretty one out of gorgeous Indian paper (also available from HC but only in stores) which I stuck right in the middle of the display board.

If you want to listen to the interview, you can find it on the link below. There are three separate segments, the first one at around 50:00, then again at 01:12:00 and the final part at 01:25:00.  Please excuse my sniffles.

LISTEN HERE.

And if you want to make your own paper snowflake, you can find the video tutorial of me making one below, filmed by BBC Radio Cumbria.

Hope you have fun  :)

Day 4 - A boat trip to Silves, Portugal

Does anyone know how to spatchcock a Cockerel??  Why do they get up so early? Bloody cockerel.

Our last day and the weather was bright & sunny which called for breakfast on the balcony again. (Whilst listening to that bloody cockerel crowing)

Then it was time for a boat trip, down the river Arade, to the old town of Silves. 

It was a toss-up between this trip, a cave trip or a trip out to see to watch wild Dolphins. 

I so wanted to see the Dolphins, but last time I was out at sea was a good few years ago in Spain when we decided to take a catamaran trip to swim in the sea. Well, from the minute I got on the boat I was green, as was Shona, and we spent the whole trip laying down flat on the decking to try and keep our stomachs intact. After 5 hours of that we were back on dry land but we're still so ill we had to spend the rest of that day in bed, so I didn't hugely fancy risking that again.

But a boat trip close the the water, and on a none bouncy river, would be ok :)

We passed this cave where..... now hopefully I get this right and there wasn't too much lost in translation ...... ladies who lost their fishermen husbands at sea came to pray for protection and to ask for a new boyfriend ;)

You can see just inside there is a placque of some sort.

While on the boat we got a choice of Aqua (water), Orange Juice (fizzy orange pop) or wine (alcoholic home-brew). Of course I had wine, grimaced, drank it, got topped up ;). Cheers!

Then we left the main part of the river to pass a little island where  they used to collect taxes from the boats that passed.

It was a much smaller river with loads of wildlife. Basking turtles were fun to see, all lined up that the riverside, sun-bathing on the muddy banks.

And some stork nests. There were three babies in this nest, all squawking for their lunch.

After an hour and a half we arrived at Silves, a beautiful little place with with very little shade from the blazing midday sun.

We kept the boat and went off to explore for a couple of hours.

Quaint narrow little streets, that usually have touristy shops open, but Friday was a bank holiday (Labour Day) so most of them were shut unfortunately.  In fact, we only found one that was open.

But the restaurants were open and we found this one in the river front called Art'Aska - offering paella, pizzas and pastas.

And ice-tea cocktails (non-alcoholic!!). This one was Tropical Fruit cold tea. 

I had a veggie paella, with artichokes, cauliflower, broad beads, sugar snap peas & corn. Very delicious and I was so chuffed to see something decent for a vegetarian being offered.

Hubster had a pizza type thing which he got a cute little cutter with, but it was served on an iron plate that burnt his fingers when he tried to pick it up ;)

After lunch we (He) decided to walk back down river to try and get some better photographs of the Stork nest. The plan was to sit and wait for the parents to return but I was melting in the blazing heat so I sought out the only shelter I could find - a tiny triangle of shade in a nearby exercise park!!  Who wants to exercise in this climate?

Still, I sat on that bike and pedalled gently (as in not using much energy) until I got bored then went to join Hubster, in the sun, to take photos of the stork and her family.

Or it might have been Mr Stork of course, a magnificent creature none the less, and far enough away for me not to have to worry about feathers ;)

Then it was time to head back to Portimao. With more cheap wine. 

Each day we have been heading back to the apartment for a rest, but as it was gone 4pm already we decided to stay out and about, so headed back to the beach. 

The beach is quite low down from the main shop/restaurant strip, although there are a few restaurants right on the boardwalk. See the white steps at the foot of the cliff? Yep, those. Steep!

We stopped in one of the beach front cafés for a Sangria (water for him) and a final look out at sea, as this was our last day :(

Cheers Portugal, it's been a blast!

Hubster soon got bored of sitting about, so while I sat and enjoyed the view, he wandered off to take photographs through his marbles.  You can find out more about that on his Facebook Page - iMarbles

We couldn't decide what to have for our final dinner so we tossed a coin and ended up visiting an Indian restaurant, which was very nice, and very garlicky, just the thing for the plane ride home ;)

Not as many steps today as we spent 3 hours on a boat, drinking cheap wine out of plastic cups  (well, I did  ;)  )

Then we got an early night, for to be sure, that bloody cockerel would be waking us up nice and early in the morning.

And it did!

Still, I would rather listen to the cockerel crowing than rowdy drunk people, so I will forgive it  :)

And that is my holiday to Portugal over, I enjoyed it lots and I hope you have enjoyed the little travelogue you have been subjected to.   Ain't you glad I didn't go for a fortnight?   ;)

Day 3 - Round & About in Portimao, Portugal.

Thursday in Portugal and the day began with breakfast on our balcony after being woken up by that bloody cockerel.  

We picked up this bag of mini toasts from our trip to the Mercardo (supermarket) on Tuesday.

So cute! 

Spread with cream cheese or jam, they were very moreish.

I found this cheese spread which was really too delicious. I've not seen this in my local supermarket, which is a pity.  Creme de Camembert

Then it was time for a wander down to the habourside. No sand this time, just seagulls, boats & boat-tour sellers.

...and fish restaurants, all boasting their fish of the day, and their speciality - Sardines, of course.

But being a Veggie means a fish restaurant is not ideal for me, so we wandered into the main centre of Portimao to find somewhere else.

We settled on a little café called Riviera, which offered really well priced snacks.

You could even have a Cornish Pasty!!!

We had Toasties instead :). On home-made thick bread which was delicious. 

Washed down with Sangria. Well it would have been rude not too, don't you think?

I love the tiny little cobbles that make up every pavement in Portimao. I can't help wondering if they'd be quite dangerous when wet though as they are so shiny due to wear. If you slip your shoes off they feel so smooth and marble like, I could walk around barefoot on those all day.

After lunch we decided to find the Aqua shopping centre - no idea why either of us would do this as neither of us really like shopping.   The heat on the walk down to the shopping centre was blisteringly hot, we were walking along a main road, with no trees or buildings, therefore no shade.  I was just about to embark on a full scale tantrum when the shopping centre came into view.

So, we found it, wandered around, bought some bits for my Granddaughter in Primark (yes, really).  We don't have a Primark near us at home, so there is my excuse  ;)  Then we couldn't really be bothered to look in anymore shops, as I said, shopping is not my thing.  But, the shopping centre was lovely and cool with air-conditioning.

But I did find a shop selling Nominations Charms, so decided to buy one to remind me of this holiday. Would you believe that the first one we saw was a Cockerel!! Well, I just had to, didn't I? ;) just to remind me of that bloody cockerel that keeps waking us up!

At this point we are starting to flag, so it was time to return to our apartment for a shower & rest (and maybe a bit of crochet) before setting off to find somewhere for dinner.

We decided on Italian, and consulted our friend, Trip Advisor, who suggested this place...La Gioconda.

A popular little place, hidden behind another restaurant on the main Praia de Rocha strip.

Breadsticks on the table, then cheese spread and olives were brought - I had previously read that even though bits are brought to your table to nibble on, they are not free, so wasn't surprised to see them on the bill.  But those little cheese pots (aka Dairylea) were 2.50e!!  Seriously!

I had a pasta dish, beautifully presented but only luke warm, in fact nearer to being cold.  Having not eaten pasta in Portugal I didn't want to show myself up by sending it back to have it heated up and them thinking I was weird for wanting hot pasta.  So I ate it.  It was delicious, but would have been even more delicious hot.  And just look at how cute that tomato is.

Hubster had pizza, which was hot  :)   But he had already spotted a Crepe on the dessert menu.  He does love a good crepe  ;)

And it was enormous!   Glad we decided to share it.  Although even half each was way too much.  The crepe was as expensive as the main courses too.  I had a nice half bottle of Portugese wine to wash it all down.   It's really cool that they do half bottles in most (if not all) of the restaurants in the area we were in.  Just the perfect size for one person.

So, like yesterday, we earned our food, hitting over 10 miles.  

I'm gonna need a holiday to recover from this holiday!