Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Yes, the song sung by Nat King Cole that I remember so vividly from my childhood. His voice, so easy, so hypnotic and smooth was one that my father, in particular, loved to listen to. My dad was not musical but I have two clear memories that relate him to the music he obviously loved and that we often heard at home when I was young - up to me being about 8, after which the fish and chip shop they bought and worked in wore my parents out to a frazzle and left them little time for listening.

The first of these memories is the singing of Nat King Cole. We had only a couple of his records but they were played a lot and I knew them all. At the time, I wasn't a fan of any of them, apart from the title of this post - which I thought was great fun and I loved those three rhyming words - lazy, hazy and crazy. The second memory is his love of Mario Lanza and his permanent regret that he missed going to a concert by him as he had an ear infection. I've done a bit of research and I think this must have been the concert in Sheffield in 1957. It would have been amazing and most memorable, I am sure. However, I never really grew very attached to this voice, although his power is undeniable.

Nat King Cole, however, has, in the intervening years, become utterly irresistible for me and I love just about everything he sings.

All this is totally irrelevant preamble - because this is my blog - to sharing a few photos and thoughts from our home and lives during these incredibly hot weeks we've been having. I know it hasn't been the same everywhere - some of you have been feeling damp or chilly at times - but it's been so very hot here for so long that I cannot remember what it's like to get up and not see bright blue sky and know that the temperature is going to be well into the 30s.

So - what do we do all day? Well, I have had a couple of weeks where I've been up early and off to work before the sun really starts to hit. It's been fantastic to arrive home and have a dip in the pool - even the little plastic one that we are still using. But the afternoons are when we have to have all the windows closed to keep the sun out, stay as cool as possible indoors and basically wait until around 7 or 8pm before we can start to do anything useful.... Afternoons here in Andalucia are for eating a very late lunch, watching silly films, having a siesta and probably doing some drawing.

Here are some of my Mandala/Zendalas - apologies if you've already seen these posted on Facebook but on here for posterity, or as long as there's a web and because I scanned some of them so the colours are truer to real life. A mandala is a circular drawing, often done in sand or rice, the process of creating it is partly spiritual and partly meditative. A Zendala is a combination of the circular format and the use of specific Zentangle patterns. I am absolutely hooked on creating these at the moment and can confirm that they really do focus the mind and help relaxation and concentration.

I had to laugh recently as I have another blog, Annie's Tangles, where I usually post all my drawings, Zentangles and challenge entries. I had a comment left on one of my posts from a blogging friend from this blog, who'd popped over for a look. I laughed because she said she thought I was speaking a strange language and was there a glossary? And looking at my other blog from a non-tangling point of view, I absolutely understand how she might have wondered what on earth we were all on about! Annie, for your information, it definitely takes a while to get to know all the right words, descriptions and technical terms...but hope you liked what you saw!

This was the first one I did and it took me ages because my usual pens didn't like drawing on top of the acrylic paint. I also wasn't sure what to do about the bit of canvas that the zendala didn't 'fit' - it being round and the canvas being rectangle. I decided to leave it as it was.

Then I found a canvas that I'd had for a while that was square. It is actually quite white in real life but as the canvas is 50 by 50cms it was too big to go in the scanner, so this is a photograph, done without any real photographic help - ie. taken on my phone in the kitchen! I also tried using a permanent marker, rather than my special Zentangle pens, plus white and gold gel pens . It is very finely detailed and quite pretty, I think.

Then I went and bought a couple of smaller canvases - 20 by 20cms - and prepainted them and I got on quite a roll....

I ran it through a Photo Editing programme to put the frame round it - but the scanner reproduced the colours really well - this is pretty much how it looks. What has impressed me is that I started with just three concentric circles in yellow, green and blue. The patterning makes it look more complicated than it really is. 

In this one, I painted and blended related colours - yellow/orange, yellow/green, green/blue, blue/red and red/orange on the canvas to begin with. Then I added a Zentangle 'frame' which you can see around the edge before doing a Zendala starting from the middle and moving outwards. 

And then, utterly inspired by colour, I decided to add some to a tangle I did quite a while ago, just for practice. Here it is in a photo edited frame. I have decided to go and get them framed in town and then I shall put them somewhere in my bedroom and enjoy looking at them.

OK - enough about drawing, painting and Zentangle....or is it????

There are three of mine just about visible in the sea...

Last week, we went to the beach for the day - all together - and decided to go left at the coast, rather than the usual right. We ended up in a lovely place called Calahonda - or rather a little area just before Calahonda called, very appropriately, La Perla de Andalucia - where the beach was clean and long and quiet and the sea was divine.

We wanted a pebbly beach as we had a plan....and the pebbles were spectacular - smooth, round, lots of white ones, lots of sparkly ones. Perfect pebbles.


I had a couple of pens with me, of course, and so now, someone sometime will probably find a smooth, round Zentangled pebble!

During the course of the day, we gathered three big bags of pebbles to put in the garden. However, when we got home and unloaded them, we only filled a quarter of the space - so we have to go back at least another three times!

And after a day on the beach, what did our children do when they got home? Went in the pool! I swear they'll grow fins and flippers before long.....

And our garden? We're definitely learning to live with the ugly floor. We have to, so we are doing. I bought some little mosaic solar lights and love them so much that each evening, at about 9.45, I go outside to count them all as they light up.

A close up of the colours and patterns - bought from Amazon, of course - and Amazon UK at that. How can it be that they are cheaper and the postage is less from there than buying them from Amazon Spain?? And not a bit less but a lot less!

I have them lined up along the terrace and also all around the curved part opposite and they do look lovely, although difficult to photograph with my phone. I may try and get some better shots with my proper camera - if I can remember how to use that... I'm very out of practice.

A few people around, 
but a quiet Paseo de los Alamos.

Did I say 'lazy'? Well, a bit of that, but quite a lot of 'crazy' too. We've had visits and sleepovers and Etnosur in the past couple of weeks. Etnosur, a big music festival held every year in Alcala la Real, seemed more subdued this year. Many local residents leave the town during this weekend but many others have opened their doors in the morning to find someone asleep  or cooking their breakfast on the doorstep...and perhaps have got a bit fed up of finding evidence of a lack of toilet facilities outside the houses. For the first time this year, a lot of wire fencing went up to protect park areas and streets from the visitors who come in camper vans or on the bus and doss down anywhere. They have been directed to designated parts of the town instead - but on the morning and evening when I went into town, the places that are usually packed with people, were very empty.

The shops and stalls around the edge of the park were also fewer than usual and without much custom.

The fountain is always a fun place to go
 and these are not locals, but there aren't many there.

The music was apparently quite good. Mateo went on Saturday night and was out all night. He said there was a real mixture of styles, including rock and African and he enjoyed it. However, we got there at about 2am, with Romy, Ruy, Jasmine and Isabel and there was some really awful music that we didn't like at all. This year, as usual, on the Friday night, we'd heard the distant sound of music in Villalobos. But the organisers had changed to position of the stage to face away from the town, instead of towards it and I was amazed as we walked down from the Paseo de los Alamos, at the top end of town, to the stage area as we simply couldn't hear anything at all! It must be such a relief for the local residents - it's one thing to have a free concert in town, but to not get away from it is quite stressful. I couldn't believe the difference it made. Wonder why it has taken 18 years for someone to think of this solution?

And so the summer continues and the 'hazy' comes from the rolling of one day into the next and then one week into the next. The children have already had one month of holiday - another six weeks to go. There are plans, not quite in place but in mind, to send the children up to their grandparents in Valladolid at the beginning of August, but first, there's the Medieval Festival at La Mota, here in Alcala this weekend and this year, our neighbour, Sergio, has succeeded in convincing the local council that an Archery competition is just what is needed to add authenticity to the event. So he and Ruy will be donning their costumes and taking on all comers...although actually, I have no idea what is planned. Maybe it will be a proper competition and maybe it will be the chance for visitors to fire a few arrows themselves. I will report back! Should be fun either way. Do come along if you're in the area, won't you? There is always some good fun activities for the children - last year organised by a friend of ours - and the food is excellent. And there could hardly be a better setting than the wonderful fortress castle in our historic town.  If you go in costume, it's free entry too!

A photo taken from a previous event that I found on the internet.

So - lazy, hazy or crazy - we definitely feel like it's summer at the moment.
What's the weather like where you are?

Medieval Market

(Before anything...I have always used 'Mediaeval' as the spelling but I checked and double-checked and it would seem that the current preferred spelling is 'Medieval' even in the UK so I'm going with that.)

On Sunday afternoon, Ruy, Romy and I went with our neighbour, Sergio, to the neighbouring town of Priego de Cordoba.
It's a lovely town about the same size as Alcala la Real but with a different and rather more prosperous feel to it and once you get into the town, its much flatter!

It has lots of narrow streets that in May are awash with colour from the potted plants that are typical of the provincial capital - Cordoba.



However, it was already coming to the end of June when we went and the flowers had passed their most abundant. And we hadn't come to see the flowers anyway.

We came to the Medieval Market that was being held in front of the old castle and for a another more specific reason...I'll get to it in a mo but first a bit of background!

I remember when we lived in Huddersfield checking out local Archery clubs as I felt sure it was something my children would enjoy doing - and we were surrounded by lots and lots of clubs, all within 5 to 10 miles of us and all offering classes for young beginners. We never actually got round to joining any of them as it happens but obviously, the idea stuck with me and when I discovered the opportunity for them to have a go at archery here in Spain, I signed them up at once. I wrote about the day here. All three of them enjoyed the session but Ruy had either outstanding good luck or was something of a budding archer. Indeed, he got a bow for his birthday last year and has been practicing (on and off) ever since. Finding a club has been more difficult though!

The nearest is in Priego - about half an hour away - but the club only meets informally and sporadically - usually, a text message is sent out as the weekend approaches to say if there's a meeting. I spoke to the president of the club and he said he'd let me know but I've only had one message and it was on a weekend when we couldn't go. And there's no teaching per se.

However, how incredibly lucky are we that our wonderful neighbour, Sergio - who turns up and helps whenever we might need him, who is a fount of knowledge and wisdom about what's going on, when and where, who offers advice on dogs, cherries, cars - is also a passionate (and, more importantly, a non-hunting) expert in archery!!

He knows all the archers who ran the session that my children went to last year and has taken Ruy under his wing. He was going to the Medieval Market in Priego as part of the archery club and was dressed as a monk (I resisted the temptation to call him Friar Tuck....but it was difficult!) and as Ruy just happened to have a very convenient 'Knight' costume, which he donned without hesitation - we were whisked off for a bit of 'authentic' target practice in the grounds of the castle. Sergio had made all his own arrows from wood, finished with feathers, including an amazing one that whistled as it went - to frighten the enemy, apparently.

Deserted streets....where was everyone?

Doesn't Sergio make a great monk...? 

The Archers were all at the old castle - in costume and with some great Mediaeval props.

There was music...

...and madness

A Medieval shopping mall...

And quite a bit of nifty bow work....well done Ruy!

And of course, Romy had a go too.

And there were demonstrations of excellence all evening from various experts - including Sergio, of course.

 Choose your target, Ruy.

Not bad...though he went on later to hit the centre spot.

Entertainment - albeit of a rather gruesome sort...this creature was quite grotesque!

Romy in middle, keeping only a fairly save distance!

Monk with camera....

He moved very quickly.....

 

But was happy to pose for photos after the show...Romy snook on the end for a picture

 We had a great evening and Ruy proved that it wasn't just luck that afternoon. He has a natural ability and will be going regularly to the meetings  - apparently they use a mobile app to keep each other informed and I don't have it - hence the lack of information. But now, Sergio will keep us informed. He likes to do that.

Alcalá la Real - where we are headed

 

Promotional video courtesy of YouTube

A very medieval town, dominated by the Moorish castle, called La Mota, Alcala la Real is in the south of the province of Jaen. It's close to the border with the provinces of both Granada and Cordoba and is just over one and a half hour's drive north of Malaga, the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean coastline.

I'm telling you this so you can start planning your visit - if a visit is what you would like. We intend to find a house big enough to take visitors. I'd prefer to have visitors I know or at least who sort of know me - which is nearly all of you. You will be welcome!

All around Alcala la Real is land on which olives are grown - and olive trees on the hillsides look absolutely spectacular. Since we lived in Andalucia - more the 14 years ago now - more and more olive groves have been planted and I was a little disappointed to see the real 'patchwork' effect had turned from a mixture of olives, native trees and empty, fallow land to olives as far as the eye could see. Raquel informed us that farmers had abused the grants available for planting olives up to a few years ago - they had been paid by the number of trees they planted and had been cutting down indigenous oaks in order to squeeze a few more olives in. Now, they are being more closely regulated and will be fined if they so much as lean on an oak - even if it's just to mop their brows. Hopefully, the landscape will adapt itself again before too long - some of the olives are planted in places where they can't possibly be harvested or tended to ... on steep cliffs tops and tiny patches of isolated land. Silly farmers.

Being proud of their medieval background and having a lovely castle to 'play' with - the authorities in the town organise a medieval fair every year and I found this spectacular photo on the 'Blog de Alcala'. (Apologies that I'm not putting the accent on the final 'a' every time - it should have one and I am mentally pronouncing the name with the accent on the last 'a' when I write it, so you must say it 'Alca Laah de Real'. Thank you.)

I hope I am whetting your appetite a little. Part of this attempt to sell Alcala la Real is to convince myself that it's a 'good' place to go to. It is a little scary; it's not as if we have done a lot of research other than reading things on the internet and driving through the place ..once. However, I think it looks very nice and I have always been on the medieval side of things - I like Chaucer and illustrated manuscripts and shawms and sackbutts. I am sure I am going to like Alcalá la Real too.