A beautiful beach at Armacao de Pera

Armacao de Pera 

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We've actually been camped up in two places this week: Camperstop Messines at Sao Bartolomeu de Messines and Armacao de Pera, but we're intending to return to Messines for eight nights over Christmas so I'll talk about Armacao de Pera today. It's a seaside town with a gorgeous long sandy beach and our campsite, Camping Canelas, is just a little inland. It's about a 2km walk or cycle along the Ecovia from the campsite to get to the edge of the white painted town with its smattering of cafes and restaurants. So far we've explored on foot in one direction and by bicycle in the other. Sitting with tea at a cafe while gazing out at a sea sunset is bliss!

Away from the town, there's a long wooden boardwalk above the dunes which we cycled this afternoon. It was tricky because, being a sunny Sunday, there were quite a few pedestrians and the boardwalk was only just wide enough for them and wobbly me. Sometimes I really do wish I'd learned to ride a bike as a child rather than having done so as an adult. Dave is a far more fearless cyclist than I am and I know my insistence on slowing right down for anything other than smooth tarmac road surfaces is annoying. He's very patient about it though!

In bookish news, I'm currently reading the new C H Clepitt novella, My Dream Woman. It's feisty diverse urban fantasy with fun characters that I'm enjoying spending time with. My review should appear before Christmas.

Giveaways closing soon
19th Dec: Unexpected America by Wanjiru Warama ebook
20th Dec: $50 Amazon gift card
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
I complete my 2018 Alphabet Soup Challenge!
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway #Linkup

Literary Flits
Song of Sacrifice by Janell Rhiannon + #Giveaway + Excerpt
Watching Aliens by Elancharan Gunasekaran review + #FreeBook
Rust Is A Form Of Fire by Joe Fiorito review
The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga review
Dickensen Academy by Christine Grabowski spotlight
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher audiobook review
Lindisfarne by Terry Tyler review

Airing Out
Campsite - Camperstop Messines - Algarve - Portugal

My Week in Review to the 19th August

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
The last couple of days I have been struggling to connect with The High Mountains Of Portugal by Yann Martel. I loved Life Of Pi so had high hopes for High Mountains. It might get better. I've been somewhat distracted since Thursday with New Happenings so my reading focus was pretty much non-existent!


And those New Happenings can be seen in that photo top right! Our new-to-us almost-vintage Hymer motorhome! Woo hoo!

It's shown pitched up at the lovely Ashe Farm Campsite where we stayed after picking it up on Thursday. We bought it from Somerset Motorhome Centre who kindly paid for a night's pitch fees so we could try it out while remaining close by the dealership - the campsite is just a few miles down the road. We thought this a great idea and did nearly need to ring up a couple of times with questions although we managed to figure out potential problems ourselves.

This motorhome is a mix of technology we're used to from caravanning and new ideas such as the onboard watertanks. It's nice to not be as overwhelmed as when we first set out with our caravan - all those years ago. And the motorhome being a German manufactured one means I will need to brush up my A level German pretty sharpish in order to make sense of the instructions. For example 'kreis' doesn't mean 'cross' as I had guessed. It means 'circle' as in electrical circuit. That's hopefully a word I won't forget in a hurry!

We did already discover a couple of things we were told on the handover aren't true - we don't need to whack the outside locker catches to make them close for example! Now we're eager to get on the road and away. Will someone Please buy our Torquay apartment?!

Giveaways closing soon:
22/08 INT: We Only Saw Happiness by Gregoire Delacourt PB book
25/08 INT: Boy On The Beach by R D Maddux books and Amazon gift cards


Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 12th August
Bookish Bingo - August 2018
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway and #FreeBook Linkup

The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh review + #Giveaway
The Love Fool by Lorenzo Petruzziello + #Giveaway
How To Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs review
The Gathering by Bernadette Giacomazzo + #Giveaway
A Blessing In Disguise by C H Clepitt audiobook review
The Path To Change by Pope Francis review
The Benevolent Dictator by Tom Trott + Guest Post


Around the blogosphere:
Chuckles discusses crime fiction likes and dislikes at Chuckles Book Cave
Avalinah's Books welcomes more new bloggers to the book blog community
The Butterfly Reader doesn't think that shooting fireworks from one's hands is a good magical power!

Have a great week :-)

My Week in Review to the 18th March

I am linking up again today with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I hope everybody celebrating St Patrick's Day had a great time yesterday and I'll type this post quietly for those of you still recovering!

Not only are we on a different campsite for this week's roundup post, but also in a completely different country! Nous sommes en France! This is the explanation for my social media absence this week - two days' driving and a New Home to get to grips with! I've got loads of lovely Comments to catch up on - thank you to everyone who popped over to my posts!

Detouring on our way south last October, we popped into Camping Le Moulin campsite, just on the outskirts of the Deux-Sevres town of Chef Boutonne, where there was 'un Mobil-Home' for sale. We nosed around for half an hour or so before driving on, then a couple of days later made the impulsive decision to buy. Of course we have been in Spain since then so didn't get to find out exactly what we had purchased until now! We arrived on Thursday afternoon with some trepidation, but fortunately are very happy with our continental abode! Hopefully it will live up to its name:

It's distinctly chilly here compared to Spain and has rained most days so far, but with bursts of glorious sunshine too so we've been able to start exploring locally. We have a gorgeous view along the Boutonne river from our sitting room which is just a few yards from its bank. The other bank leads into unkempt woodlands so we hope to spot interesting wildlife there in due course. So far we've seen a few fish in the river, a dark squirrel climbing a tree, blue tits, great tits, pigeons, and a resident (both male) pair of mallard ducks. Dave has heard a woodpecker too. I saw our first cowslip today which is something of a contrast to the blizzard photos sent to us via Facebook from Torquay this morning - whiteout there again!

We plan to stay here for a week or so now, sorting everything out and learning our way around town, before heading back to the UK at the end of March - blizzards permitting! We can then return to Chef Boutonne during the summer months to enjoy the tranquillity here and to use it as a base from which to explore further afield. It's all very exciting!


In the meantime, I am still doing well with both my March reading challenges, IndieAthon and Take Control of Your TBR Pile. You can see the books I've read for each by following those links.
I added a 1930s read to my current Decade Challenge - Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz - and J to my Alphabet Soup Challenge - Just Simple Little Cruelties by Osman Welela.
Non-book, I blogged this month's Top Ten Etsy Finds on Tuesday - they all feature March Hares - and started a new month's Giveaway Linkup on Thursday. Feel welcome to add your own Linkups alongside the giveaways that either I am hosting or that I have spotted elsewhere.

You'll need to be quick to take advantage of today's special offer: Whittard of Chelsea are offering a free St Patrick's Day tea blend with purchases over £25. The chocolatey tea features whiskey flavours which just sounds weird to me! Let me know if you've tried it? Available until midnight tonight (18th March) by using the checkout code SHAMROCK

And here's what you might have missed on my other blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

My Week in Review to the 11th February

A slightly belated Week in Review post because we spent a busy weekend in Valencia with Dave's daughters. We all had a great time, walking a ridiculously long way and eating delicious food, but I'll blog properly about the visit later this week. In the post I want to catch you up with our current campsite and its local area.

We are pitched up at Camping Valencia in El Saler which is a tiny seaside town just outside Valencia. It's in the Albufera national park so there is good beach and woodland walking straight from the campsite. There is also the number 25 bus route right outside that goes straight into Valencia and a nice cycle route to the city as well. On our first evening here, we wandered over a road bridge to gaze out across the rice fields - and I spotted the flamingo street art too.

Camping Valencia is €15 per night with our ACSI card. This price includes a reasonably large pitch with electricity. The shower room is actually heated which is particularly nice as the weather is much colder up here than it was at Isla Plana! It's quiet here because there aren't many touring pitches and the 'shanty town' of permanent pitches isn't occupied at all (I don't think) at this time of year.

In the opposite direction to Valencia is El Palmar, a town of canals and paella restaurants right in the heart of the Albufera. It is easily reached by car, bicycle or that same number 25 bus route and we spent a nice sunny afternoon walking out in a large circuit from El Palmar around wide expanses of paddy fields. There are dozens of outlets in El Palmar offering boat trips too, but our being there mid-week and off-season meant most looked closed so we decided to walk. We saw dozens of herons and a few cormorants, otherwise surprisingly little in the way of wildlife.

Here's what you might have missed on my other blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all my Current Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

Currently reading

Waiting for the Barbarians

by J.M. Coetzee

tagged: currently-reading, fiction-africa, and charity-shop-find

My Week in Review to 24th Dec 2017

We're on a beautiful campsite in Denia, Spain at the moment. It's called Camping Los Pinos. There are large pitches under loads or mature trees - pines obviously, as well as palm trees and (possibly) beech trees. A pair of red squirrels run around most days showing off how good they are at flinging themselves from branch to branch! We can see the sea from our pitch and walk along the promenade most days. The other campers are almost entirely non-Spanish which is a bit odd. We are a mix of mostly Brits, Dutch, Germans and French. The facilities are good and the staff friendly and, after 7 nights, the price has dropped to just €12.50 a night including electricity.

On the downside, our mobile wifi gadget doesn't work here - presumably because the Montgo mountain that towers over the campsite is blocking its signal - and the campsite wifi, while free, is pretty useless for most of the day. Consequently I've been concentrating on keeping Artisan Rainbow and Literary Flits going and rather neglecting posting over here. Oops! Fortunately we've not been doing much to tell you all about anyway!

We have been cycling and had a walk up over the hill towards Xabia. We reckon we could walk all the way there, have ourselves a lunch and walk back so we're looking forward to doing that between Christmas and New Year. In fact, having driven the winding road to Xabia on Wednesday, it might almost be quicker to walk! We camped in Xabia three winters ago so it was fun to walk around again and reminisce. The excellent Indian grocer is still in the Arenal part of town so we stocked up on spices. Then we walked to the beachfront and treated ourselves to coffee und kuchen at the Austrian Cafe. It was almost nothing like being back in Vienna but very good all the same!

Wednesday evening saw us eating out again - twice in one day and we were out after dark! The Indian Palace restaurant was almost deserted apart from us, but the food was absolutely delicious. If you're ever in Denia, I am happy to recommend it to you.

Merry Christmas!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

Currently reading

Waiting for the Barbarians

by J.M. Coetzee

tagged: currently-reading, fiction-africa, and charity-shop-find