Along the coast

 The shoreline in Southsea, Portsmouth

 is being rebuilt, the long section from Clarence pier has been done, it looks fantastic, here looking back towards the pier. They reused the historic shelters mixed with loads of modern seating areas.

We saw a Navy ship (I'm female so I don't know what type), the Isle of Wright ferry and a private 'boat' (ditto), the hovercraft also passes through here as well.

The wide walkways and all the huge rocks are much nicer.

One of the three towers in the Solent, built to protect Portsmouth harbour.

From the main pier, 

Our lunchtime view.

We sat by the shore to eat, fish and chips, 

perfect location on a bright warm day.

The section of beach by the main pier is closed off, they are very close to finishing the huge upgrade, it is a walk we have done often, so we can't wait until it's open. Having a sunny day will always help, there were many people walking but it did not feel busy, we enjoyed watching young children on scooters and bikes all playing safely. 

Our visitor is in London for a short visit, and then back home to Spain, we are home alone until next month, when hubby's sister and husband come to stay. Having dry weather helped so much, we were able to pop out and visit places, we have many tourist spots, we try and avoid the busy places. 

Locally

We popped on the hill above Portsmouth just on the edge of our village, on Thursday, lovely views over the city and coast with an interesting cloudy sky.

Zooming in towards Portchester castle and the Spinnaker Tower. 

Down by the shore, now part of King Charles 111 coastal path.

I adore Portchester castle. 

Outside.

Inside.

St Mary's church. 

It's only when we see our local views through the eyes of a visitor, in this case from Spain, do you realise the beauty of where we live.

Thursday we stayed local, it helps it was a dry sunny day. Portchester castle is always a great spot to visit, beside the waters edge, across from Portsmouth docks. We stopped in our local pub, we don't go there often enough. Today we are going to the historic part of Portsmouth. 

Cool stitching

 Long term readers will know my favourite craft has always been cross stitch, I rarely purchase kits, preferring to find designs to use with my extensive collection of silks (floss). I love to stitch collections of smaller designs to look like patchwork, often making huge pieces. 

This is my latest project, I have not done much in the recent heatwave, it's another mix-up of designs, so I do need to concentrate, it can grow quickly, I do work on each band individually, which keeps it simpler.

Having finished the top outer border, I have moved my work and wrapped some around the top bar. I am working on the outer lines, towards the placement of the middle stars, once I have the length with lots of counting and checking, I can do the next bigger design row.

This is a long term project, this outer border is the most boring bit, once its done I can have fun in the centre, at this time I have not considered how to fill the space, here is just under half the size of the project. This is my biggest project to date, I'm using 32 cwt linen, it's the last big piece with smaller holes, in my stash I have plenty of aider with bigger holes.

I have picked up my knitted blanket again, I am going to make it bigger and hope to use it on my chair in the sunroom, the two little ones always sit on my chair, they can be messy, so the blanket will help keep the cream fabric clean. I have also pulled out more yarn to knit socks, which I don't really need, I do love knitting them, they are simple and lightweight, I have memorised the pattern after making so many. I have also been looking at my stash of cotton fat quarters (fabric squares), I fancy doing some patchwork, not hexagons, I still have some left from my sewing machine cover. I am also thinking of making some needle felting Christmas ornaments, I have everything I need.

The past few days have been sorting inside, I have done some work in the garden, we are ready for our visitor, we are not making plans we can decide where to go once Paula has inputted what she wishes to do. I have previously visited family and spent days doing things I did not want, so we will wait and plan together. 

This warm sunny weather is very welcome, we have our morning coffee in our sunroom, we face the sun keeping us warm, we are protected from any breeze, it's a perfect spot, which we love.

Reading

I had a small harvest today, the potatoes,  carrots and runner beans we had for lunch, the raspberries we ate with ice cream. Tomatoes were chopped and frozen. My cut flowers bags suffered in the hot summer, I'm surprised to have any to cut.

Another book in the DCI Pat Lennon team, a young teenager is murdered, then a second girl is found, they are linked but how? A clever plot into a world the police and myself did not know, no super heroic stuff, just peeling away layers, I do enjoy these characters created in these books. Book 71 read this year. 

Two timelines, one where she is recovering from a head wound after a suspected burglary, she is in a rehab centre, trying to peirce things together, and her story up to the shooting, I always love this author. Book 72 read this year.

This story is happening around the village of cheddar, including the world famous gorge, sheep are slaughtered, a man attacked and a girl abducted, are they linked and how, a realistic plot of police work, how things can be missed, how breaks happen with the smallest of information. Book 73 read this year.

Another new author for me, set in Stoke on Trent, not a place I have visited, a clever plot along side her own story, I guessed just before half way one one the twist, and later the murderer, neither spoilt the plot, the ending is open, there are other books in this series.  Book 74 read this year.

Second book in the series, whilst investigating a double murder, Kate is also hunting dirty police, officers with higher rank than her, again I guessed the first twist, it did not spoil the plot. Book 75 read this year. 

Saturday was another grey day, we had rain again overnight, I popped to sit with Will and George whilst Molly went to a birthday party, Will told me about his recent school trip, a couple of days away, he missed home at bedtime but enjoyed the rest. Daughter has had more alarms added to her house, alerts on the front door and Georges bedroom window, George is very quick to escape if he can, he can now already master the dead lock previously fitted to her door. There are flood alerts under the sinks in each of the bathrooms, he has a fascination with water and has flooded the family bathroom a few times.

Later we went out for a meal with daughter to celebrate our 40 year anniversary and her recent birthday, we ate at a local Thai restaurant, it was our first time, daughter had been before, we caught the bus in and taxi home, we were back just before 10pm.

We needed to tidy our spare room, and empty the wardrobe space, we have a visitor later this week, it is good to sort inside the wardrobe as it had become a dumping ground for bits, they have now found homes or will be sent to charity shop. I did put the new Christmas tree together to ensure it was all OK, it's now packed into the attic.

It's really good to see everyone's post on my feed again, the side bar on my blog is not updating, I can live with that, plenty of catching up to do.