Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain

Old fortress built by the French
Lighthouse Faro Castro-Urdiales on the North Breakwater. Active. Green flash every 3 seconds. Seven metres. Octagonal stone tower centered on a square 1-story stone equipment room. The lighthouse is unpainted. Located at the end of the main north breakwater of Castro-Urdiales. Accessible by walking the pier. Site open, tower closed.
Storm clouds gathering then disappeared and temp rose to almost 30C
A statue of tribute to the fisherwives of Castro - mending nets and waiting for their men to return.
Grotto

Lemon leaves

There were fishing boats gathering
In the Bay in front of the Tapas Bar, Castro
Near the lemon trees both beautiful and useful behind me
Further up the hills, farms and more lemon groves
A lemon seed was planted in my heart
Whilst I stood on two concrete slabs on the quayside
My hair dancing in the turquoise and ochre light
Lemon leaves at my feet
I wonder if there are scorpions and spiders hiding in the hills
A magical ghost town full of rocks
I will open a store and sell nothing for this is Cantabria
I will live in a trailer close to the hills
Filled with salvageable imaginable thing from the shores
Have a goat named Angel
And weave lemon leaves through my hair

Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain

The church of Santa María de la Asunción is in Gothic style. Built in the 13th century, it copied its plan from the original model of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
It is three storeys high and its flying buttresses and pinnacles make this Cantabrian church a building very close to classical French Gothic.

P & B cont....

Overlooking the Bay of Biscay driving from Castro to Bilbao
One huge factory near Castro
I am sleeping
I am upside down
More wake

P to B cont....

Wake of The Pride of Bilbao
I am asleep
Dolphin watch

Red Admiral in the middle of The Bay of Biscay
I am still trying to sleep

Portsmouth to Bilbao

I was asleep!
I am asleep
Red Admiral in the middle of the Bay of Biscay
Sunset on leaving Portsmouth Harbour
My cumfy mumfy bed

Sketches

Waiting to board the Pride of Bilbao at Portsmouth
Having a beer with John and Maggie at Portsmouth Harbour
On deck leaving Bilbao
Our cabin

Portsmouth to Bilbao

This was the most amazing trip. It was a mini-cruise from Portsmouth to Bilbao.
On board the Pride of Bilbao are a team of dolphin and whale experts who kept us informed of all the activity going on.
We left Portsmouth at around 8pm and were treated to a stunning sunset. The ship itself was comfortable with three restaurants, three bars, a Costa, a small shopping mall, a beauty salon, a cinema, a pool with jacuzzi and sauna, a number of decks, a quiet room with dimmed lighting for relaxation, a TV room, a casino.
They are also well equipped for people with a disability - a mini-bus to the ship, a lift onto the ship, spaces to park your wheelchair etc next to your cabin and easy access to most things.
The first evening we upgraded our cabin (I have taught Hubbie the art of getting free upgrades) and then we settled into our comfortable and large four berth cabin and then went for a meal.
I had a ginormous salad for £4 and hubbie had an omelette. We then wandered around the ship to orientate ourselves and at 10pm went to bed.
The following morning we had breakfast (we had taken our own food!) and then went on deck and spent the whole day in the sun.
At 4pm the marine experts announced dolphins and whales. I got to the lowest deck possible at the bow and could not believe the amount of dolphins that rode the bow for about half an hour.
I was just about to move away when I spotted a dark shadow about the size of a bungalow and I almost dropped my camera when a fin whale came to the surface. Then within an hour we saw a Minke, a Sperm whale and a beaked whale. Some were too far out to be photographed but the memory is burned into my brain.
I also spotted a Shearwater gull. The going was smooth with very little swell and the sun shone until 8pm. More tomorrow.
I forgot to add that the mini-cruise cost £36 return!

Butterfly

Just something for you to go aaah over. I don't think I've ever seen a good painting of a butterfly - they are too etheral to capture but this'll do.

Norfolk Broads

This is okay. I just don't like the light in the UK. Only a sketch though. Am getting my first supply of mounted canvasses (thank you car boot sales and e-bay and auction houses) they will be here when I arrive back from Spain (unfortnately I have to come back - one day I won't) and I have also been given a whole load of acrylics, brushes, oils and pastels.

Tragic news

We made a last minute plea this morning at 8.30 am to all the key players including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Immigration Minister Damian Green, Theresa May Home Secretary, but to no avail.
Sehar Shebaz was deported on a PIA flight at 5pm today. Friends from Glasgow took a bus down to say goodbye to her at the airport and to take her the few belongings that were left behind in her flat when she was detained by Brand Street Reporting Centre last week.
Dr Imtiaz Rasul and his family from Birmingham also went to say goodbye at the airport.

On behalf of Sehar, thank you for writing into support Sehar. In total 579 people wrote letters. Some of your letters were heart breaking, others gave us new leads to claim clemency for Sehar. Thanks especially to Jeremy Cram, the emergency solicitor who stepped into make representations on behalf of Sehar, Baroness Shirley Williams, Ann McKechin MP, Clare Sambrook, John O (Free Movement), the Unity Centre, Liza Schuster of City University, Carole Ewart, Positive Action in Housing, John Wilkes of the Scottish Refugee Council, Heather Jones who visited Sehar in Yarlswood, Dr Imtiaz Rasul, Tabitha of Humanity Trust and many many others.

This campaign was particularly vociferous because Sehar and her baby girl were incarcerated in Dungavel on the same day that the new coalition government told us that child detention would end - and end immediately in Scotland - whereupon Sehar was summarily removed from Scottish soil and driven down to Yarls Wood Detention Centre to be locked up there instead.
Sehar was so distressed to see the other families locked up in Yarlswood. In particular she mentioned an Iranian couple who have been detained eight months and the wife is due to give birth next month, having spent her entire pregnancy in detention and clearly not fit to travel on a plane so why detain her?
Sehar was instrumental in ensuring that the letter to Nick Clegg was seen by the outside world. She was then swiftly separated from the other families and prevented from communicating with anyone else. The new coalition government had a chance to redress the previous government's human rights abuses of asylum seekers - lets call it what it is after all.
They never took that chance.

We are now concerned about the remaining eleven Yarlswood families, four of whom are on hunger strike. We also remain concerned about exactly what the new government means when they say they will end child detention. Will families be able to claim asylum without fear of being separated and children being taken into care while parents are locked up?
After the latest debacle about ending child detention, we have to be cautious about exactly what the politicians mean when they come out and say these things. At present, it means Scottish asylum familiers being driven straightaway hundreds of muiles away form their communities and sources of support to the controversial Yarlswood facility which even the chief inspector of Prisons has branded as unsuitable for children
Let us not forget that UKBA themselves admitted that FAMILIES DO NOT ABSCOND.

In the spirit of the new government's commitment to end child detention, Positive Action in Housing is calling on the government to release with immediate effect all remaining Yarls Wood families back to their communities so that their children can return to a normal life and schools and so that the asylum claims of their parents can be properly investigated in a humane and civilised way - this is the least recompense we could give as a society for the inhumane way we have treated these families.

Thank you again for your support.

Gert

My very tanned brother-in-law (just returned from
two months in Thailand) with his grandchild.

Lazy Saturday afternoon

Desmond's cafe ... soon to be a painting
Grania and Roberta at Roberta's workshop (she is a milliner)
My new hat!
Grania's new fascinator

Gay Butterfly Pride

For my darling friend David RiP

My first (and last) attempt with water colors

I felt a bit constrained by water colours. Bits running where I didn't want them to and not running when I did.

Gourdes, France

Free-style (meaning no initial sketch). Pastels

Be wary

The last 'drawing' I sent of Margo and Ada was a 'fake' portrait. Do you see ads for 'I will make a portrait of your pet/loved one...send in a photo and £x'? There are some unscrupulous people out there sadly.
Your photo is scanned. It is then made to size. It is then grayscaled and printed on to art paper. Then the 'artist' covers the greyscaled copy with a layer of pastels or oil pastels using your colour photo as reference.
Then signs it, puts it in a relatively cheap frame (mounted), seals it, stamps it and then charges you £x.
This happened to a friend of mine who was so suspicious of how perfect the portraiture was, she dismantled the whole thing, scrapped off some paint and there was a grayscale print of her photo and she had paid close on £100. So buyer beware as they say.

For Margo

Ada

Teef

What a horrid three days teeth-wise. Monday 11.30pm - emergency dental treatment - my gums on my right upper were swollen and the pain unbelievable.
My lovely dentist drilled out three teeth, packed them with antibiotics and some other stuff to relieve the pressure.
Tuesday at 8am - back again to have the packing removed and some x-rays and more packing replaced. Today at 11am - packing removed, swelling down, two root canals and a filling - antibiotics and pain killers.
The best bit was meeting my adopted daughter Stacy in the car park who had just been to see Michel the dentist. She is preggers and doesn't want to know the sex of the baby which I think is very sensible.
I am very lucky to have the most wonderful dentist in Norfolk. He is kind, gentle, patient, calm and caring. Other added bonuses are he is South African, good looking and NHS. Even better is that his surgery is kitted out for his private patients with all the newest gizmos and he uses them on his NHS patients! Unfortunately he found something on my x-ray to do with my jaw so had to go to Cromer Hospital for some further investigation which was not very pleasant.
Will see if he will pose for photo next time. Have to go again next Friday - the following day we go to Bilbao - lovely five hour drive to Portsmouth, then 1.5 days on the ferry complete with cinema etc, then the Guggenheim, cafes and maybe some sunshine and then back on the ferry to Portsmouth.
All for £36 return each - it seems P&O are stopping this particular service this year - it will be a great thing to do because a friend went and she saw dolphins and whales!

The perfect guide to basket bliss

1. You find basket
2. You chuck everything out of it and look innocent
3. You look sweetly and cutely at the camera with tired eyes
4. You do an I'm so tired just one more paw to go pose
5. Basket bliss