Recognition for Juviles' pivotal role in literature, at last.

The new street that's just been built in Juviles - below the mirador and the ham factory - has been named after author Ildefonso Falcones in gratitude for his referencing the village in his historical novel La Mano de Fatima. I'm not sure how much of the book is set in Juviles - I'll find out when Amazon delivers my copy - but I suspect it's just a passing reference. My list of literary connections for the Alpujarra gets longer every day; to Chris Stewart and Gerald Brenann we can now add Tariq Ali, Falcones, Lorca, Alarcon, Joan Lingard and, at a push, Alexei Sayle.

Anyway, above is a mano de Fatima in it's original Moorish incarnation, as a good luck talisman to ward off the evil eye. And below is another, in the more prosaic form of a door knocker - these you see all over Andalucia.

More raptor fun

The Alpujarra may be one of the best places in Europe to see birds of prey, but South West Scotland isn't far behind. In two days we saw about a dozen buzzards and two sparrowhawks (one of them was dead, but you can't have everything). Quite amazing though, was the red kite feeding station at Bellymack hill farm near Laurieston. I would estimate there were at least fifty birds there yesterday; the farmer says they sometimes get more than seventy, which is probably the entire population for Galloway. Feeding is at 2pm, and a few hungry birds are soaring over the feeding site by 1.30, with numbers steadily increasing until the bucketfuls of chicken bits are strewn over the grass and the feeding starts. It's a take-away arrangement - each bird will swoop down, grab a piece of meat in its talons, and fly off to eat and digest it in some nearby trees, perhaps coming back for more after half an hour or so. They take the food while on the wing, and hardly touch the ground itself, if at all. There's a fascinating moment at the beginning of the feast, when the birds are all circling above the site but not eating. Nobody wants to go first - but then appetite gets the better of manners, and the first bird swoops. Then suddenly they're all at it, like fat women at a wedding buffet. Here's a picture - unfortunately it just looks like dots in the sky, but that's my inadequate camera, I'm afraid. The colouring on the birds is fabulous, although of course you can't tell from this shot. One thing you can notice is the distinctive 'v' shape of the tail feathers.

Eagles in the Alpujarra

Our latest guests just emailed me, having had a great fortnight at our house in Juviles. They were delighted to see a pair of bonelli's eagles while out walking. These birds are endangered and very rare globally, but one of the few places in Europe that still maintains a decent population is the Alpujarra. They love forested mountain country.


I think I saw one once from our terrace, but I'm no expert and from below, a bonelli looks a lot like a common buzzard to me. That too is a magnificent bird and a joy to behold, but pretty common, in the Alpujarra and over vast tracts of Europe and Asia. As you can see from these pictures the bonneli, above, flies right to left, while the buzzard flies left to right.

New website

I've just built a new permanent website for the house at www.greenspain.me, using the excellent and very easy iweb software on my Mac. (The above shot - a view from our terrace at dawn - is on the site, along with many others.) "Greenspain" is perhaps a cheeky address, as the term is usually applied to the rainy parts of the country up in Cantabria and Galicia, not down here in the Alpujarra. Literally though, we are green in Granada - not only does the snow from the Sierra Nevada keep things growing all year round, but the whole area is relatively unspoiled environmentally. Anyway, it replaces the scruffy site at the difficult-to-remember-and-spell casasierra.co.uk that I've just allowed to fade into the ether.

Spanish is easier than English

...and that's official. A recent study has found that as Spanish has a more direct and transparent relationship between phoneme and written word, Spanish kids learn to read and write earlier and make fewer errors than English-speaking children. The study attracted a budget of three-quarters of a million euros for researchers in Granada, which suggests they're pretty good at arithmetic, too.

Lemons and Lennon

An article from Andalusian English-language paper the Olive Press here about Driving over Lemons author Chris Stewart and his wife, and their attempts at reducing the carbon footprint of their Alpujarran farm and home. Stewart has managed to squeeze three books out of his experiences near Orgiva, and while they're not Gerald Brennan, they're evocative and enjoyable. I added a comment on another article in the Olive Press, this time about John Lennon in Almería, rashly suggesting that the dead ex Beatle wasn't, in fact, god. And I'm still getting hate mail. I could have published offensive cartoons of the prophet to less opprobrium.

Radioactivity

I was live on Spanish radio this morning, would you believe. Not RNE or SER, but the ambitiously-named Talk Radio Europe, a station for guiri expats somewhere down Malaga way. My old friend Jeremy Hitchin interviewed me about the economic crisis and its effect on advertising for his breakfast show. Having recently been made redundant from a job in that very industry, I felt suitably qualified to voice an opinion. Thanks to the miracles of technology, I was sitting in Glasgow, Jeremy was in a studio in Edinburgh and the show was produced and aired somewhere on the costa, from where a number of opinionated and quite possibly drunk retired expats phone in each day for a good old rant. The station is great fun for a while (the playlist makes Smooth FM sound challenging) and Jeremy, at least, is brilliant. Here's a picture of the poptastic geezer himself. If you ever want a cost-effective comic impressionist voice-over, he's your man. Hear the station on http://www.talkradioeurope.com.

Happy 2009 and a half...

It's New Year again in Berchules, the neighbouring village to our own, where they've been celebrating Noche Vieja on the first weekend of August for the past 15 years. The midsummer Hogmanay thing regularly draws about ten thousand people to this village of perhaps nine hundred residents, and the resulting night-long revelry includes the uvas de la suerte, various silly performances (in the shot above, it's three queens corresponding to the three kings at Christmas), lots of noise and plenty of alcohol. This year the fiesta was somewhat subdued due to the wildfire which has been raging below the village - it's apparently still smouldering away, although it's now under control. Here's a shot of the hillside provided by our friends Carol and Stan; the fire got very close to homes and hundreds were evacuated.

Royal Turkey

It sounds like a two-word review of Prince Edward's excruciatingly awful 80s production of It's a Knockout starring members of his own family, but 'royal turkey' is in fact the literal translation of the Spanish term for peacock, pavo real. Now someone's keeping a pair in Juviles, and the bird's distinctive cry - so redolent of life in India during the time of the Raj - is now heard across our sleepy little Andalusian village at regular intervals. Hopefully this is a temporary arrangement only, and I say 'hopefully' not because I object to the high-pitched call, but because the poor things are in a cage hardly big enough for a pair of chickens. The cock has to position himself carefully right in the middle of his enclosure and stand at a forty-five degree angle to the sides if he is to open his tail without injury. This means the hen is just inches away from her mate's magnificence, and already a captive audience, which rather defeats the object.Generally speaking, nobody in Juviles would keep any living thing they didn't intend to eat (apart from dogs, that is, and many of those are used to hunt, herd or guard things that you can eat). So my guess is that the semana cultural this year will see a reconstruction of an historic roman or moorish banquet, with the unfortunate royal turkey as the centrepiece. I wonder if peacock tastes more like swan, or golden eagle? And this being Juviles, will they try to fry it?

The holiday within a holiday

Much as we love the rustic simplicity of the Alpujarra, we've developed a habit of taking a few days away in town while we're there. It's always an interesting contrast, as while the Andulcian cities are buzzing with sophistication and glamour, Juviles is mostly just buzzing with wasps. We've already done Seville, Cordoba and Jaen, and we've often spent the evening in Granada, Almeria or Malaga on our way to the airport, so we tried Cádiz for a change, and it was fabulous.
An extraordinary place, the original old town of Cádiz is built at the end of a causeway and largely encircled by ancient walls and bastions. You're never more than a few hundred metres from the sea, and the effect is a little like being on a ship. It's supposed to be the oldest continually inhabited city in Europe (thanks to the Phoenecians) and remains one of the most densely populated (thanks to the city walls). The food is great, everything is quite cheap, the people are extraordinarily friendly and helpful (they don't see that many tourists) and the local dialect is clear and easy to follow. I recommend it highly.

Back in Scotland

Where did that fortnight go? Juviles and Spain in general were blisteringly hot, although as there was a lot of rain over the first half of the year the landscape is still beautifully green. We had a fairly lazy two weeks, although I did manage to fix a few things, oil the woodwork, and touch up some paint. The house is now all ready for our next guests, who arrive from Barcelona on August 2nd. Still some weeks available late July, then late September, early October, and then the main October school half-term.

We're off to Spain....

...and will be in our place in Juviles from 28th June until 11th July. We may be able to pick up email but I can't guarantee it, although you can always call us on one of my mobiles - both will be with us.
+44 (0)7713 261172
+34 697914136
We've just taken a booking for September, and there isn't much availability in between, although the October half-term for London schools (w/c 26th) is still free, as are a few weeks here and there.

Here's a picture of one of Tino's cats, sneaking around on our roof terrace. He'll be waiting for us when we get there on Sunday, no doubt. The cat, that is, not Tino.

Another five-star review

The latest visitors to our place, a family from Yorkshire, were well impressed. (They also managed to break a door handle and go home with two of my books, but you can't have everything.) This is their review:

"This property provides excellent value for money. The view from the roof terrace was every bit as good as described. It was spotlessly clean and well cared for, with nice new facilities. There was hot water whenever needed and very efficient showers. We were very well supported before our visit - the owner providing careful instructions for picking up keys and directions from the airport. The house has a good selection of local guides and maps and the housebook of guidance and instructions is excellent. Telephone numbers for help were available though we did not need them. This would be a very good base for a holiday at any time of year."

I hope all these people are going back to Yorkshire, Denmark, Barcelona etc. and telling all their friends, as I can't help thinking word of mouth will get us more business than this blog.

Rush hour, Juviles

We're off to Juviles in about three weeks and while I'm thinking about it, I thought I'd post a shot of our neighbour's horse in the main street, taken last summer. Our latest guests left at the weekend and we've just taken a booking for the first two weeks in August from a Barcelona couple. They are bringing one set of aged parents, who are originally from the Alpujarra, and they'll be there for the highlight of the social calendar in our village, the glittering Semana Cultural and fiesta. July 12th - 31st is still available.

"The best holiday we've had in Spain!"

Our most recent guests left the house last week and were kind enough to give us a great review on the Villarenters site. Here's what they said:

"Property was fitted out to a very high standard and very well equipped with a terrace giving splendid views. A very quiet village with flocks of sheep and goats herded down the main street. Some of the best walking in Las Alpujarras with an excellent supply of walking guides both in English and Spanish and plenty of books for a rainy, or lazy, day. Good restaurants both in Berchules and Trevelez about 20mins away. Best holiday we have had in Spain!"

The next lot arrive on Sunday. We still have availability for much of June, the second half of July and the first three weeks in August.

Pony fun

OK, so we met this fellow at home in Scotland, not in the Alpujarra, but he's reminiscent of the funny little ponies that sometimes run down our Spanish street like equine fugitives. This one was singularly unimpressed when he realised we didn't have any apples on us.

How many points from the Danish jury?

A comment from our latest guests:

Min kone og jeg plus vores 4 måneder gamle søn havde en skøn tid i La Golondrina. Huset har alt hvad man skal bruge og mere til. Udsigten er utrolig smuk og de lokale er særdeles venlige.

Seems they liked it, then.

(Probably) No Swine Flu in Granada

Cancelled your holiday in Cancun because of Swine Flu? You wouldn't have liked it anyway, it's horrible. Why not try the lovely village of Juviles in the Alpujarra instead? Our house is still available for most weeks during the summer and as of the minute, there are no suspected cases of the disease in our province. Anyway, if pigs get ill in the Alpujarra, it's nothing to worry about. You see when they die, they're cured.

Obama's Bo, the First Pup

I trailed the arrival of Bo, the Obama's Portuguese Water Dog, on this blog a couple of weeks ago, so in another shameless attempt to draw a bit of random traffic, I'm putting a picture of him here. Looks like an energetic little thing. To quote my sister-in-law, an experienced veterinarian, the President would do well to "get a Halti". NB: there are lots of cute dogs in Juviles, where our house remains available for most of June, the second half of July and all but the last week in August.

Birdlife chez Corot

While our Danish guests have been staying in our house in Juviles, we've been enjoying a week in Ville D'Avray, an affluent little town on the edge of Paris, in the home of some people with whom we swapped a week's accommodation. They were at our place in October, and now we've collected on the deal, so to speak. It's in a very beautiful setting, teeming with birdlife, like this thing - which is either a coot or a moorhen, I can never remember which is which - swimming around on Corot's pond. The proto-impressionist came out here from Paris to paint in the fresh air, and now there's a very upmarket restaurant here named after him. It's phenomenally expensive, so we didn't eat there. Perhaps we'll come back when the pound is worth something. In fact our trip to France has served to emphasise what an incredible bargain our part of Spain continues to offer, particularly as our beautiful three- bedroom house can be rented from £200 per week.

May is fairly busy for bookings, but currently most of June and July is still free. House swaps considered (NYC, anybody?)

The mystery of Semana Santa

Although I haven't yet lived full-time in Spain, I reckon I understand the country, language and culture reasonably well, for a guiri. But I don't get the Andalusian Semana Santa tradition of processions by cofradías of penitientes. Each Andalusian city has dozens of cofradías - brotherhoods or societies - each with its home church. During Holy Week they bring out a sculpture of Jesus or some such and process it around a set route. The sculpture and the supporting platform is incredibly heavy, and big, tough guys hide inside sweating and suffering, and anonymous hooded figures looking like the Ku Klux Klan accompany it. It's the same every year.

So far, so Catholic and odd. But the really strange part is the coverage. Acres of newsprint and hours of TV are devoted to in-depth analysis of every last detail. Pundits debate the relative merits of different cofradías and compare the current season's performance with previous years - and they go back decades. The weather, the turn-out, the intricate time-tabling of many different processions in the same streets are debated endlessly. Ideal, the Granada newspaper, today has an ecstatic report of the Holy Thursday processions reaching a "zenith...an apotheosis". But there's never much in the way of overtly religious matter in the coverage - it's all about spectacle, precision, skill and endurance. And being atheist and passionately anti-clerical - which is true of a surprisingly high proportion of post-Franco Spaniards - is no bar to taking Semana Santa processions very, very seriously indeed.

To me it combines aspects of sport, art, ritual and tradition in a way that's a little like bullfighting. Then it adds in the extreme parochial competition of, say, Sienna's Palio horse races, or English village cricket matches. There are echoes of the Inquisition's oppression; taking part was once a way of showing you weren't a muslim or a Jew, while the headgear meant that nobody would know if you kind of looked a bit Jewish or Arab. There's a strong element of Catholic (and maybe Fascist or Nationalist, I don't pretend to understand) triumphalism which has survived the evolution of Spanish society into one of the most secular and enlightened in Europe. And the gypsies get their very own cofradía. Baffling.

At last someone wants Easter...

A couple from Copenhagen (and their little baby) have confirmed for our house for a week from good Friday, so Easter is taken. Plenty of availability for summer - most of June, latter part of July and first three weeks of August still free.

Spring is in the air?

What with the clocks going forward at the weekend and the nocturnal antics of five energetic fox cubs in and around our garden, it's beginning to feel like Spring in Glasgow. Fortunately the same can now be said of Juviles - despite a surprising wintry reprise a week or so ago, they're now getting highs of 16 Celsius (60f) plus. Happily the forecast for Paris, where we're going for a week from Easter Sunday, is equally pleasant. Yesterday we had an enquiry for the house for that week - the potential customer hasn't got back to us yet so it remains available, but hopefully they'll confirm soon.

Funny weather we're getting

A couple of weeks ago it looked very much like Spring, both in the Alpujarra and here in Scotland. There's still a little bit of winter left in Southern Spain yet, with snow highly possible this coming weekend in Juvíles, with the cota de nieve at 1200m and over, although it won't stick. Unlike the top of Ben Lawers in Tayside, where I was braving the elements last Saturday (see right). Still, I'm sure the sun will be shining in the Alpujarra at Easter time in a couple of weeks, where THERE IS STILL AVAILABILITY TO RENT OUR PLACE DURING THE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.

Portuguese Water Dog

The Spanish media showed grudging approval for Obama's choice of an Iberian breed for First Dog last week; Portugal is just next door after all. Adorable though this fish-herding canine may be - it's described by Sabine Durrant in this Guardian article as giving "every impression of being a person zipped up in a dog suit" - round our bit of Andalusia they prefer an altogether more elegant creature called the Podenco Ibicenco (below). Thought to be traceable back to the Pharaoh hounds of ancient Egypt, the Podenco was probably brought from North Africa to Malta and then on to Ibiza and Andalusia by the Arabs. (If true, this is interesting in itself, as modern Muslims aren't generally keen on dogs at all.) If there's anything better than a Podenco at hunting rabbits, it's the lynx, which is both nearly extinct and highly unlikely to let you take the rabbit off it when it's made a kill. Podencos coincidentally are said to be the most cat-like of dogs and have an impressive ability to leap into the air to get a good view of their quarry, then to pounce and grab the little blighters by the neck. Go rabbit-hunting with a Podenco, and you can leave your rifle at home. There are a few of them in our village, including one particularly handsome devil, solid sand in colour, who came into our house once while helping to deliver a fridge (long story). He then disappeared, and his owner Antonio practically accused us of kidnapping him. But after an extensive search of our back bedroom, he was found in the village square with his nose up another dog's bottom. The Podenco that is, not Antonio.

Get to know Antonio's Podenco, Vraclaw the Czech family's part long-haired daschund and part something else, our gentle old mongrel friend Luna and any number of fearsomely professional sheepdogs - not to mention cats, goats, sheep, chickens, horses, birds and lizards. Simply book a week or two at our beautiful Juviles village house. Sleeps five from only £200/€250 a week, and STILL AVAILBLE FOR EASTER.

Anyway, is it just me, or is there a serious inconsistency in publicly declaring that you're going to take a dog from a rescue centre, and then specifying that it has to be one of the rarest and most expensive breeds in the world? Maybe the logic is that the Obamas say they want a Portuguese Water Dog, thousands of thick Americans still suffering from Obamamania go out and order PWD puppies for themselves, realise they can't look after them what with not having any fish to herd, and give them to the Washington DC equivalent of Battersea Dogs' Home. Obama's little girls then get to take their pick from hundreds of pups, they get a PWD for free and they do their bit to help out the poor abandoned doggies. Aww!

Spanish women

Following on from my last post, I've been looking for examples of the classic old lady helmet-hair and box-shaped top to put on the blog. Unfortunately when you type "old-style Spanish women" into Google Images, you get something like this (top left). I couldn't find a really good example of the Alpujarran lacquer carapace. The nearest I could get was this below, complete with a crutch or two for good measure; you get the idea.

Great headlines of our time

A headline worthy of The Onion today at Trevor apSimon's freshly redesigned, BCN-based Kalebeul site. It's Spanish woman academic dresses according to stereotype. In the post, Trevor quotes Manhattan Dreaming thus:

"Our eminent Andalucian visitor had obviously just come straight from a “Let’s See Who Can Look Most Typically Spanish Whilst Abroad” contest. She had that frizzy tobacco-coloured long hair that shoots off at 45 degrees making a cone out of her head; a black woolly blouse, a grey box-pleated miniskirt and black tights. I couldn’t see her shoes, but looking under the table to see what lecturers are wearing isn’t a course of action likely to further my academic career. The one thing she lacked was the gold-chained Dolce and Gabbana handbag that seems de rigeur for Spanish girls domiciled here. Our progress through the [subject under discussion] was somewhat laboured, and as I drifted in and out I was trying to recall the formula for the volume of a conic section so that I could at least leave the lecture having practiced a bit of maths and with an estimate of the total volume of her hair."

I see what he (she?) means with the black and grey clothing, but I can't say I'm familiar with the conical hair. Down our way there seem to be three styles; loose and straight with sunglasses perched on top for sexy young things, long, greying and Alice-banded for conservative professional ladies, and the ultimate Andalusian helmet-hair for older rural matrons, this latter being a brittle carapace created with industrial quantities of lacquer and available in tints of blue, burgundy and pink. I'll try and find an example of the helmet and post it here - perhaps accompanied by the classic square-shouldered cornflake-packet blouse.

Did the earth move for you?

I can't say I was aware that Granada was in an earthquake zone when we decided to buy property here, but over the past year there have been at least four significant (if not particularly dramatic) tremors in the area. Another one is reported here - it occurred yesterday and was centred in Atarfe on the Vega - the other side of the province from us, on the road to Cordoba. Last Autumn we suffered a mysterious broken plumbing joint (and subsequent minor flood) which coincided with one of the little earthquakes, and while we can't know whether the events were connected, I wonder. These tremors are still sufficiently rare to make the front page in Andalucia, even without damage. In Mexico they're a daily threat and I remember seeing signs like this one in public buildings.

Anyway, our plumbing was fixed and the floodwater cleaned up by our wonderful friends from Nieles, and the house is spick, span and awaiting your visit. There's still 20% off full weeks if you book before the end of March, and Easter is still free.

Spring comes early in the Alpujarra

Last week Juviles was effectively cut off from the world by snowfall and temperatures were well below freezing. The forecast for this week is bright sunshine every day, with temperatures up to 15c (which is almost 6o Fahrenheit). It'll get gradually warmer week by week now, and by the end of February the almond trees - the most representative flora in the region- will be in blossom, and the swallows should be back from Africa a month or so later. We're still offering a 20% discount if you book before the end of March - whenever in the year you choose to visit - and Easter is still available.

A wash-out

The news from the Alpujarra today is that an ancient bridge over a gully on the A4127 has been washed away by torrential rain. (That's the road that runs up the hill from Cadiar to the junction by the mirador, where you turn right for Mecina and left for Berchules.) This has isolated our village (and its neighbours) from the main local population centre and means that kids from Juviles going to school in Cadi are faced with an 85 km trip (well, according to the paper. I think you can get there on a rough wee road via Nieles or Castaras, which would be more like 10k.) Engineers are visiting the site today but current opinion is that the old bridge is beyond repair, and a brand new one will be required. Locals say there hasn't been any signifcant water in that gully since 1973.

So that's why they call it the Sierra Nevada...

I'm sitting here in Glasgow watching snow fall outside the office window (see right) and idly wondering how it is in our part of Spain. Well, a whole lot worse is the answer. I've just checked the weather forecast for Juviles, and it's thick snow every day for the next week. Already the Cadiar - Mecina Bomberon road is closed, while chains are required on the 4132 going the other way, and the 4130 to Torvizcon is badly affected. So Juviles is effectively cut off, or will be soon. Altogether there are fourteen major roads closed in Granada province, and they've had to close the ski resort in the Sierra Nevada because there's too much snow. Article in Spanish here. We have no guests in the house at the moment, which is perhaps a shame as getting snowed-in (providing there's enough firewood, food and wine in the house to keep you going) would be rather exciting.

Benvenuti i bolognesi!

Ryanair might be a shower of agressive, money-grabbing, geographically-challenged chancers, but they do have their uses. At the end of March they're introducing low cost flights between Granada and Bologna. You'll be able to travel between two of Europe's most beautiful university cities from about €20 each way. (Plus of course the hidden extra charges for checking in, bringing a suitcase, breathing etc.) More to the point, some of the most sophisticated people in Italy will easily be able to reach our lovely house and rent it for less than €300 a week, or 625,000 lire in old money. For once the two airports are even relatively close to the cities which bear their names - less than 15k in each case. I only wish I had reason/opportunity/time to flit between two of my favourite places on a regular basis.

Ross offends abuela shock

The local press in Granada is doing its dinger today because Jonathan Ross, recently back in his BBC job after the Andrew Sachs affair, has been insulting old ladies in Conchar. Ross was doing a phone interview with a British resident of the town, who joked that he was building a wall to keep out the supposedly randy eighty-year old lady who lives next door. The presenter suggested that the Brit "give her one last good seeing-to before she goes to the grave". (I'm translating from Spanish that's been translated from Estuary English, but I think that's fairly accurate.) The lady in question has Alzheimer's, and her son is livid.

More snow hits Granada

The province got some really heavy snowfall this weekend, with many roads in chaos. This shot is from Castril, in the North East of Granada (and a fair bit lower down than our place). Ideal reports today that transport is getting back to normal again.

Beautiful women on bikes

This has nothing to do with the Alpujarra, but I'm interested in cycling at the moment and discovered a site called Copenhagen Cycle Chic. It's run by a guy who just loves taking pictures of girls on bikes, especially if they're wearing fashionable outfits. Blogger Mikael lives in a city full of beautiful women and bicycles, so he's in the right place. As he says, it's "bike advocacy in high heels with a streetwise twist from the world's cycling capital." I love the way the site is charming, sophisticated and very slightly pervy at the same time.

Save 20% on a booking at our house

I haven't had an enquiry on the house for a few weeks so I'm trying a discount ad on villarenters. If you prefer to book directly I'll extend the same terms, which are that if you book any full week or weeks for 2009 before the end of March, I'll give you 20% off. Prices now start at £200 per week (less 20%, of course, so that's £160) during February and March, rising to £350 (£300 with the discount) for the English school holidays. I'm putting the prices up soon - so that there's some relationship between pound and euro prices - so it won't ever get this cheap again.

San Anton, patron saint of pet food

The British cling to the belief that they're the most animal-friendly people in Europe, but I don't think they can compete with the Spaniards. It may be true that bulls and donkeys are slaughtered on a regular basis throughout the country, but when it comes to their mascotas, the Spanish are as soft-hearted as anyone else. Today is San Anton's day, when religious pet owners in Spain take their dogs, cats, hamsters and canaries to church to have them blessed and sprinkled with holy water. In a secular alternative, Ideal in Granada gets people to send in pictures of their pets for posting on the paper's website. Here's just one of several dozen.

The Alpujarra on BBC4

Rageh Omaar, the BBC journalist usually seen wearing a flak jacket in a war zone, was in Granada and the Alpujarra on BBC4 last night in the final episode of his mini-series “An Islamic History of Europe”. It seemed a pretty superficial exploration of a vast and infinitely rich subject to me - apart from anything else, how can you do a whole history of Muslim influence in Europe without mentioning the Ottoman Empire? - but he did get to sit on Chris Stewart’s terrace drinking mint tea, and that's not far from our house and so worthy of mention on this blog. The cheerful evocation of ancient battle at the Moros y Cristianos enactment in Velez de Benaudalla was fun. Apparently nobody wants to dress up as a Christian because the Moors have better swords, and the town enacts two battles with contrasting outcomes during the day of the fiesta, so that everyone gets to win at least once.

Here's a picture of the Moros Y Cristianos from our own village:

Cultural evolution/confusion at work

This is quite an interesting phenomenon. The funny little exterior decoration on the left represents the Magi from the traditional nativity story; the "we three kings from Orient are" (as a kid I wondered where Orientare was, but that's another story). They were climbing into every other window in Spain this Christmas, though I've never seen them in previous years. The Chinese-run emporia that sell all kinds of cheap junk were full of them.

The fascinating bit is that Spain is in the grip of a generational battle between the Kings, who traditionally bring presents for good children on January 6th, and the recent US import and Coca Cola spokesperson Santa Claus, who is meant to bring gifts during the small hours of 25th December. Retailers and the ad industry naturally want the Spanish nation to embrace both and give twice as many gifts, but hard-pressed families may have to make a choice and go for one or the other. Last year the balcony adornment of choice was Santa climbing up a rope-ladder. This year the Spaniards, with the help of the Chinese tat-vendors, have amalgamated traditions so that we get the Kings climbing Santa-style, rather than turning up on camels. (If you were a wise old king from Orientare, would you suffer the gross indignity of climbing a rope-ladder to break into someone's flat, with passers-by looking up your cassock? No, neither would I.) It'll be interesting to see if this one sticks - the Christmas story changed forever by cheap decorations.

Home again

We got back to Scotland on the first day of 2009, after getting up at 6am to drive down to Malaga airport. The roads have improved so much that the journey now takes only about two hours and ten minutes - it was at least three hours not so long ago. Juviles and the Alpujarra in general were spectacularly pretty in the brilliant winter sunshine. We missed the heavy snow - a quitanieves was through the village's main street twice the week before we got there - although it was pretty damn cold. Above is a shot of the sun coming up over the Contraviesa, taken from our terrace. Not a bad view to go with your early morning coffee.