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.
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.
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