La Mota - the beautiful!

The longer we live here in Alcalá la Real, the more I grow to love the views of the fortress on the hill known as 'La Mota'. More or less from every place in the town, if you look up or along, you will see it.

It's a stunning sight from any angle but glimpsed from various points of the town, it becomes a most comforting thing to look at. This is the view just leaving our apartment:

(This is just another view of our fifth floor apartment - all the balconies you can see on the top level are ours - where I precariously peep over to look for Mateo coming home from school or to hang out the washing - I haven't sussed out the complicated lines that go across the inner courtyard area... must try that soon!)
















Back to La Mota and another view from the little plaza behind the apartment, taken as I was walking to the supermarket:

And looking 'up' from the supermarket itself, which is on the 'bottom' road to the south of the town.















It's everywhere you look - see how it is from Ruy and Romy's school - how wonderful to see that as you arrive and leave each day!









And turning around is the view of the school. On certain days, year 6 are out and driving around in go-karts on a track that runs in front of the school - learning traffic sense and road skills. (I suspect this might be a relatively recent addition to the curriculum judging from the state of the cars and the amount of 'parking by ear' by the bigger ex-alumnos!) Still, both Ruy and Romy are very keen for their turn at go-karting in school time! And on Tuesdays, this space is where the weekly market is held where there is some wonderful stuff to be found - my favourite stall is the herbal tea man - if only I could blog the amazing scents that come from his stall!


That blue sky is today - it's a very beautiful day, still with a nip in the air, but a sense of what heat there is to come. When the awful bug that has got most of our family gripped at the moment has gone, I am going to venture up to La Mota again (walking this time) to have a closer look and see what Alcala la Real looks like from up there.

Flu, flu, not quite flown

Romy is poorly with the 'flu. She wasn't right when we went to Almeria on Saturday and I have a photo of her lying on the beach, covered up with everyone's jumpers and towels as she could not get warm. It was 23º C, which is a wonderful temperature (especially for an early February day.) But the sun didn't get through to her at all. She was brave but just wanted to go home. She won't let me put the photo here - didn't want me to take it in the first place - so I won't.

Since then, her temperature has flared violently and often - leaving her shaking and terrified, begging me to go away from her because I'm 'going too fast'. It's been dreadful not knowing how best to console her. It's happened so often that at least now, she knows when it's starting again and that it will pass quicker if she lets me put a cool flannel on her brow and stroke her with my (usually) chilly hands. And we're sneaking antibiotics into her juice, which also makes me feel bad but there was no other way to get her to take them. A usually obliging and sensible girl, this flu has made her resistant to pleas to her better nature.

But it is passing and she's getting better every hour, spurred on by the knowledge that next Friday is her big school trip to Granada, where the children will go to a concert and to the Science Technology Park. It's a very exciting thing to look forward to and I do hope she'll be fine again by then.

I thank goodness yet again that my children are usually strong, healthy and well and hope that continues for the rest of their lives.

And how lovely, she's just come in to ask me if I've nearly finished - because she wants me to play with her! Hurray!!

Town, Village and Country Houses

I wouldn't want anyone to think we were just sitting around down here, soaking up the Andalucian sun, tapas and atmosphere. Oh no, we have been very busy looking at houses.

We've looked at town houses:

with impressive views

and impossibly steep access

Lovely tiles and features

Quirky kitchens

Bedroom

after bedroom

and wonderful staircases

right in the centre of town.

 And we've fallen in love with the look of country houses...

til we find they are actually right on the main road...

 And with village houses done up to perfection

with gorgeous features

wonderful views

and lovely houses that were just too small inside

or had too little outside space

 

despite having interiors to dream in

or for...

Or wonderful, peaceful views

cosy lounges with woodburning stoves

and kitchens where the food just had to taste good

..oh, and how well would we sleep here!

There are some beautiful ones out there - and I wish their owners all the very best of luck. Thus far, though, however gorgeous some of the houses have been, we have yet to find just what we are looking for. We are reassured by what we've seen that the right one is out there somewhere, waiting for us to find it.

Doorway

I was looking through some of the pictures stored on the computer the other day. I couldn't think where this had come from but found it rather fascinating..it had the title 'Doorway'.

I was struck by its simplicity. It's one of Mateo's. I like it.

Pisto!

No.. nothing rude here.

Pisto Manchego is a Spanish recipe and we ate it today because it's one of my favourites. I don't want to cause arguments between neighbouring countries - I don't know which came first - the Spanish Pisto or the French Ratatouille. They are very similar and probably evolved at roughly the same time.

Before I met FR, I was a total Francophile - I loved the country, I loved the language, I loved the food - heavens, I even loved the people. (When we met, I knew just two words in Spanish, left over from a year's study in the sixth form where Caroline and I were Mr. Twistleton's only pupils but I drove him mad as I couldn't learn vocabulary - I could remember the first letter of a word I was supposed to have learned but not the rest - Caroline usually finished it off for me. But for some reason, I have always remembered 'mantequilla' and 'zapato'* - but never managed to get them both into one sentence... ooh, apart from just now - does that count?

Major digression - where was I? Ah yes, in France. So for me, ratatouille came first. I make a good one and I remember making one for FR once, early on in our relationship and being  furious totally appalled a bit put out that he offered to 'improve' it (so that he could eat it!) He cut potatoes into little chunks, fried them, added them to my ratatouille then broke an egg into it and stirred it round til it cooked into curdled little strands. I wasn't impressed - especially as he then proceeded to instruct me as to how small to cut up the courgette and pepper and to leave out the aubergine next time. (As I write and the memory comes flooding back, I am wondering on exactly what basis our relationship continued after this....)
He's just looked over my shoulder to see why I am laughing and now we're both laughing, so perhaps that's why.

It's one of those posts...sorry! It's been one of those days! But more of that another time... back to the pisto/ratatouille - pistotouille? rasto? Well, anyway, last August, Amelia brought heaps of tomatoes and peppers and courgettes back from Leon one weekend and said I must make pisto. I remember having a lovely morning de-skinning the tomatoes and making a wonderful base for the pisto, then chopping the rest of the vegetables - the onions, the courgettes, the red and green peppers (no aubergine) into the right size - then cooking the whole lot much longer than I should would  have done for a ratatouille - more of a sauce, shall we say - before adding some fried potatoes. Just before serving, taking it off the heat and taking care to keep stirring, I added an egg which didn't clump but thickened the sauce beautifully. And discovered that over time I have come to prefer pisto to ratatouille.

I haven't photographed the one I made today - I didn't think about it - but I found this post on a now forgotten blog which says all there is to say about the two dishes and says it very eloquently - just in case you wanted to know. And there was also this picture which shows the difference between the two to perfection.

I think you can see which is which, though I think the pisto would look better in the terracotta dish.
   


*(Butter and shoe for non-Spanish speakers.)

Dia de la Candelaria

I set out this morning to buy potatoes and onions but as I was walking towards the supermarket, I saw a suspiciously high number of people walking towards me carrying sprigs of rosemary. As none of them were gypsies and none tried to foist a sprig onto me I wondered what was happening somewhere in the town and decided to investigate.
I walked towards the historic centre of Alcala la Real and saw more and more sprigs of rosemary - I was going in the right direction and with my amazing powers of deduction, headed for the church. Crowds of people were queuing up outside the church apparently to get slices of cake - it became more and more intriguing! I looked around for signs of a funeral or a wedding but there were none, so I went inside the church.

There were a few folks towards the front and feeling brave I tiptoed up to see what was going on.
I was most surprised to see what seemed like two trays, on each of which were two small figures with capes on - and as I looked a little closer, I saw the figures blink and people were stroking them - they were pigeons! Obviously held in place somewhere under their clothing, with just their heads showing - they looked most unusual! I didn't have my camera but have dug around and found this image on some publicity information on an Andalusian website - I think you can just about make out the heads of the pigeons.





I asked someone what was going on and was told that 2 February is 'La Dia de la Candelaria' and that every year, a statue of the Virgin Mary is paraded around the streets in the morning and in the evening there are bonfires lit around the town. Actually, we saw a bonfire last night from our terrace and wondered what was going on  but it was a bit late to go out to investigate.
The day celebrates the purification of the Virgin Mary after the birth of Christ (bit like the 6 week check up!) - according to Jewish tradition, 40 days after giving birth, a women was considered 'unclean' - hence the rosemary which has cleansing properties.

I've come home and investigated a little more and the celebration ties in the Candlemas in the UK religious calendar and it's the day when candles in the churches are blessed. It's also connected via pagan roots to predicting the weather - if it's a nice day on Candlemas then watch out, winter hasn't finished yet. Interestingly, it also ties in with Groundhog day in the States, which again is about weather prediction - if a ground hog pops out of his hole on 2nd February and sees his shadow, he pops back again for another 6 weeks but if it's cloudy - he'll stay out! And people celebrate this period in many different ways - family ways (in my favourite 'Chickenblog'); and in Marsden, near Huddersfield, the period halfway between the winter solstice and the summer equinox and known as Imbolc, is celebrated with an annual Fire Festival.  Interesting eh?

Well, I thought so! And in the end, I didn't have time to buy the potatoes and onions but had to go running to meet Romy and Ruy from school but I have learned something new today! And tonight, we'll go and see the bonfire - and I'll take my camera with me!!

Our house, in the middle of our street

Madness! The song 'Our house' is one that we have sung a lot recently as we've driven around looking at properties in Spain.

Although we've still to find 'it', I thought I'd show you where we are at the moment. It's definitely in the middle of a street!
This is the view out of the lounge terrace. Not much to see apart from the rather elegant set of apartments across the road. Nice blue sky today!

As I was looking the other way, I noticed a man cleaning his roof - rather a dangerous place, I thought! I have checked, he's now inside and safe.

This is looking up the main street towards the park and main plaza which is a lovely space with places for the children to play and also there are installations especially for the older people to keep fit. Which is a nice idea and I have tried a few though I suspect I am a bit too young for them just yet...

And this is a picture of some plasticine fruit and veg that Romy made - just noticed them on my camera. Sweet - specially the orange and the mushroom.
(the others are a tomato, a sprout and and, obviously, a banana.)

And although these photos are rather poorly lit (these modern cameras!) I love the concentration on the faces of Ruy and Romy as they hold Snuffkin (or Elmer or Bingbang.. still not quite decided) - who is absolutely gorgeous and who has made himself very much at home with us already.

If anyone wondered what had happened to Nemo, the little dog of los abuelos, who was going to come south with us - well, he's still fine and he will still come to us when we have a more dog-friendly home for him to live in. I don't think he would like this fifth floor piso where he couldn't even go out on the terrace because the gap under the railings is big enough for him to fall through. His time will come!