Granada on-line

This is rather cool. Granada's new website allows citizens to register, apply, pay, complain, query and otherwise generally mither the life out of the town hall at the click of a mouse. If you've ever attempted to set up a direct debit to pay your water and refuse-disposal charges in Spain, only to be sent to several provincial government offices and two banks, you'll know what a step forward this is. The site is largely geared for residents but the "turismo" tab may be interesting to visitors. There are links for Alhambra tickets, the city orchestra, temporary exhibitions etc. Unfortunately the function for searching for tapas bars by area doesn't work very well. Maybe I should post a list of some good bars here sometime... http://www.granada.org/.

You say 'patatas', I say 'papas'

If you think the Irish take their spuds seriously, you should see what a fuss they make of them in the Alpujarra. The United Nations' decision to make 2008 the International Year of the Potato has gone down well in Granada (every year being Year of the Potato round here), and they're supporting the global initiative with a local competition. I love the precision in this article - if you don't read Spanish you can take my word for it.

Las bases del concurso: Pondrán participar todas las personas nacidas o residentes en Granada. Se admitirán una sola receta por participante. Los textos podrán entregarse en la Biblioteca Pública del Salón, o enviar al mail:. eplanells@granada.org, con fecha límite del 18 de abril 2008. Las recetas tiene que enviarse con letra legible u ordenador, con el nombre de la misma, ingredientes y cantidades y elaboración. Con su costo y foto del plato, si lo desea. Entre las recetas seleccionadas por un jurado, valorando 1º Bajo costo económico, 2º Utilización de materias primas del país de origen participante y 3º Originalidad. Para la concesión de los premios se establecerá tres categorías: Infantil: hasta 14 años. Juvenil, desde los 14 a 20 años y adultos, a partir de 20 años. La entrega de los premios se celebrará el día 23 de abril de 2008 alas 11 de la mañana, en la biblioteca municipal del Salón.

Anyway, the gentleman I'm quoting here is the estimable Pablo Amante (below), who writes a food blog in Ideal, the local paper for Granada. Now doesn't he look like a chap who enjoys his potatoes? Excellent recipes, wine articles and bits and pieces about Andalucian and other Spanish food at http://blogs.ideal.es/cocina/posts

This is where the money goes....

There's usually somebody collecting money in Juviles, and it's usually "pa' la igle'ia"; or more precisely the cleaning, restoration, roof or bell for said church. And a sweet wee 16th century building it is too, although there isn't much inside except for old San Sebastian (who's getting his annual stroll around the village in the videos in my last post).

Last summer the clock was finally reinstated, so I think the restoration is more or less complete. The bell rings on the quarter hour and you can hear it throughout the village. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it, although it can't be much fun for the bats roosting in the belfry. Above is a shot of the church taken from the town hall square, while below there's a longer shot from the other side, looking over the village from the mirador by the swimming pool. Our house is visible in this shot - it's the highest building on the right-had side, with three chimneys.

Thrilling video action from Juviles

Here, courtesy of the town hall's website, is some video footage of the San Sebastian procession in Juviles from late January. They take the statue of said Saint out of the church, walk it around the village a bit, and then put it back in the church again. Anyway, if you watch it, notice how nice the weather looks. Most folk are in shirt-sleeves and it's January.
Part one will have you on the edge of your seat:
http://www.juviles.net/Videos/2008/Procesion%201/index.php
And here's the nail-biting sequal:
http://www.juviles.net/Videos/2008/Procesion%202/index.php

Availability update as of 11th April

The house is now booked for the first week in July, the first week in August and the 11th-18th October. Everything else, i.e. including most of the school summer holidays, is currently free. Contact me soon if you'd like to reserve the house for a popular time.

Otro blog precioso...

There's a nice blog (by Abraham Moreno) about Cazorla, the village and national park in our neighbouring Province of Jaen, here:
http://panoramicacazorlense.blogspot.com/ It's in Spanish, but if you can't read the language, you can still enjoy photographs like this.

Cazorla, by the way, is a feasible day trip from our place, or could be combined into an overnight tour of the beautiful Renaissance towns of Ubeda and Baeza nearby. Jaen city is nice too - it doesn't have a huge number of sights, but there are virtually no tourists and the bars are great. Parking is atrocious, though, like most Spanish cities.

Polyglot eccentric in Barcelona

If you're interested in an erudite take on life in Spain, or more specifically Barcelona, have a look at Dutch Welshman Trevor apSimon's blog at: http://oreneta.com/kalebeul/ He wails on about Catalan nationalists and language fascists (Cataloonies, as he calls them) a bit, but he's hilarious with it. And he's got links to loads of interesting stuff.

La Golondrina

We occasionally refer to our house as La Golondrina - 'The Swallow' in English. I'm not fond of house names, but the villarenters site requires you to call your house something, and La Golondrina is more evocative than Calle Altillo 26.

Anyway, this is the lady responsible for the choice of name. She nested in our despensa (the larder, I suppose you'd call it, at the back of the kitchen) while the house was being built and before the windows went in. More precisely, she nested in a small cardboard box that had previously contained some electrical fittings. She raised four or five chicks then, and last Spring they all came back from Africa and sat on the telephone wire outside our bedroom window, looking resentful as hell that we wouldn't let them in. Given a chance and an open window she will indeed come in and fly around a bit; she once did so when I was having an argument with Jesus our builder, and she managed to magically diffuse the ugly atmosphere for a few seconds. Of course, once she'd gone he and I were back to threatening each other with legal action over some door handles or something, but she'd done her bit for peace.

Anyway, I was just thinking she's probably been in Juviles for a week or so now. I believe the first swallows are in the South of England already, so they'll have been in Andalucia for a good while. With a bit of luck she'll build a nest in the ruined stables above our house rather than inside our property, this time. Unless our guests let her in at Easter time......

Migas de pan

I cooked one of Spain's most emblematic dishes last night - migas de pan, or breadcrumbs. There are loads of different versions, but the one I do is something I saw on a cooking programme on Spanish telly. To make it, take stale white bread without the crusts, cut it into very small cubes, put the cubes in a bowl and sprinkle on a little water and plenty of pimenton (dulce or picante, depending on your preference). Leave them to rest for half an hour, then fry a handful of garlic cloves and a finely chopped chorizo in plenty of olive oil. When the garlic starts to brown, throw in the bread. Stir constantly until the crumbs are hot and crisp here and there; you're aiming for a consistency which is half way between cous-cous and croutons. Serve with anything you fancy; last night I did grilled aubergine, peppers and courgette, black pudding and fried eggs. You're supposed to serve some fruit with it, but I forgot. This is one of those peasant dishes that doesn't really sound that enticing until you eat it, and then you just want to eat it again. You do get it in the Alpujarra, but it's not special to the area - for that you have to go for spuds and do papas a lo pobre. I'll post a recipe for that one soon.

British Summer Time

It's April in Glasgow, BST started last weekend, and it's snowing. This is a shot, taken from the study window, of Annie's car slowly disappearing beneath a blanket of the white stuff. Exactly forty years ago the same thing happened, according to BBC radio. A brief mild spell at the end of March was followed by snow storms on April 6th.

In Juviles today it's 21 degrees Celsius, or about 70 Fahrenheit, which would be perfect, really. Had I won the lottery last night, I'd be making plans to move there for good. As it is, I have to wait until the end of June for a measly 7 days.

House still available for Scottish "Easter"

The Western Church's Easter and "Spring Break" in Glasgow and the surrounding area are no longer inextricably linked, so families with children around our way are preparing for a fortnight's damage limitation starting this Friday, April 4th. We were booked during what everyone else refers to as the Easter Holidays (or Semana Santa), but the house is free for the coming fortnight. So if you're from the West of Scotland and you fancy a break in a lovely house in a pretty village amongst breathtaking scenery, an hour and 15 minutes away from Granada (and just over an hour from Glasgow's overseas colony of Nerja) during the used-to-be-Easter-but-now-we-don't-know-what-to-call-them holidays, contact me immediately and I'll give you a very good rate. Or, if you really want to emulate Spring Break traditions, go to Cancun, get drunk and dance in a bikini.
Spring Break, not in Juviles.

There's no excuse for this, I know....

...but I couldn't resist. We don't have any wild lynx in the Alpujarra, there are no plans to reintroduce them here, and when the captive-bred cats from Jerez zoo are released in 2010, the nearest will be in Jaen. But I found this shot of one of this year's cubs on-line and, well, just look at him. If you had a lynx factory and a shop, you would be very rich indeed.

Urbanizacion for storks

Storks – cigüeñas in Spanish – are a common sight in Andalucia, and indeed over in Morocco. Ecija, a town in Seville province, usually has a nest on the steeple of each of its many churches, and the chimneys of many ordinary houses have one too. Storks don’t seem to like the Alpujarra, though – you always see them on the plains so I guess they don't like mountains, and we don’t get them up in Juviles, unfortunately. This shot, of a stork housing complex somewhere in Extremadura, was on the excellent http://www.iberianature.com/, but as they themselves nicked it from El País, I'm sure they won't mind my borrowing it.