Anyway...

As I was saying..Smart phones have a lot to answer for!

For example, I was leaving work the other evening and as I walked down to my car, I had the most sensational view of the castle, here in Alcala la Real. And so I took out my phone and took a photo of it. And it was up on Facebook before I got home. Pretty impressive, really.

(Here it is, if you missed it on Facebook!) Isn't that inky sky just glorious?

And having almost a week's holiday in the UK with my sister and my parents was made to feel less of a distance from my own family when my daughter sent me this (completely unrecognisable) photo of herself, out on Halloween.

I guess it must be her,,, there aren't too many Romys around.






It was also good to be able to ask her which jumper she liked best by sending her an immediate Whatsapp message to avoid making a dreadful fashion mistake...


This one...

or this one...

(She answered but I bought both anyway and she was happy.)

I had a lovely time in the UK but before I get on to that, which I probably will, let me just share a little lesser known corner of Spain that Mateo and I discovered recently.

Ruy had an Archery competition near La Carolina, which is about an hour and a half's drive north of here, heading to the mountains that delineate the beginning or the end of Andalucia (depending on which way you're travelling.) These mountains, or rather one of the main passes that takes you through the Sierra Morena, is called Despeñaperros - translated quite literally as 'dogs tumble or fall from a high cliff' or (as I rather cynically think as it's not a reflexive verb, ie. the dogs don't do it to themselves)... 'dogs are tumbled or made to fall'. It is a spectacular place with national park status, incredible flora and fauna and an impressive number of soaring vultures usually on display. We almost always stop there on our journeys to the north of Spain. But is it awful of me to think that a place with a this great gorge and such a name might well have earned that name at some point in the past?  Was it not the place people threw away their dogs? I wish them all well, the dogs,whenever we go and we never, ever let ours out at this point unless he's safely on a lead!

Anyway...(I had a feeling this would be a rambly one right from the start!)..after a very early start, Ruy, Mateo and I had a lovely drive up to La Carolina in my smart and sassy little new car. Having reached the town without incident, we then had a rather traumatic 3kms to the archery site where I was convinced I had scraped something vital off the bottom of the car as we navigated, at a snail's pace, the rough and potholed track to the hosting finca. I was almost in tears but we did manage to keep going and nothing seemed to be leaking out or falling off, so after seeing the archers off on their first round, Mateo and I headed off for our own little adventure deep in the mountains of the Sierra Morena.

It took us an hour or so to go the next 30kms - which is slow going, believe me - but we firstly turned off the motorway at Despeñaperros and turned right, instead of the usual left, heading for the strangely named village of Aldeaquemada - Burnt Village. It was 'only' 23 kms....of hairpin bends going up, up, up and ever upwards. Obviously, we eventually started the same process only this time going down. Before we left, I had seen that there were some waterfalls near the village that were supposedly worth a turn of the head and I thought Mateo would like to visit them with me - and I was suitably impressed that he agreed, even though it meant getting out of bed before midday on a Sunday...7 hours before midday. He did say, 'where are you taking me?' at one point but I had lost the plot myself and was just wildly changing gear between 1st and 2nd and hoping that we would arrive somewhere...anywhere..soon! Which of course, we eventually did...Aldeaquemada. It didn't look burnt but heaven knows how the population survived there. I half suspected that there was a backway from another town that probably only took 8 minutes and where you would be able to find shops and bars and possibly even a petrol station....However, it's not. I took the following from its website (translated with the help of Google as I couldn't really believe what I was reading!) and it doesn't do much to encourage a visit..

• Its climate is humid, prone to inertia, quartan fever, dropsy and soreness of the ribs. The prevailing winds are from the west and north and the population has 60 houses of common construction, 6 short streets leading to a square; a granary, a church, a cemetery, served by a priest; a primary school, equipped by parents of students, and an insignificant amount of 'their own; (Google couldn't help me with this but it made me shudder a little); a town hall, a jail, a butchers, an abattoir and an inn at the entrance of the village, built by the government. 
• There are 357 inhabitants... which by my reckoning means almost 6 people per house! 

Anyway, after our first wrong turn as we entered the village, we saw the lot and before we were spotted by any locals and encouraged to stay and experience any dropsy and quantan fever-filled hospitality, we sped off down an unmade track, grinding my poor new car's bottom along as we went, towards my intended destination.

The waterfalls of Cimbarra. 

We had mentally prepared ourselves for slight disappointment as we were coming to the end of a long, very hot and very dry summer. We knew that cascades of water were not just unlikely but out of the question. But we were blown away by the place, even without a dribble.

It was silent. It was vast. It was just mindblowingly beautiful. I posted these on Facebook, but I share them again here on the basis that you just can't get too much of a good thing!

Look at the amazing rock formations in the distance!

And close up!

We couldn't be sure but it looked as though at one time, there had been some sort of mill here. 

Which would explain the millstones...but we were miles from anywhere....most strange.

Fascinating rock strata

And then, the pool of unfathomable depth where, in spring, the waterfall splashes down.

You can see where the water will travel and that we very nearly had a trickle as it had rained earlier in the week.

There is a little water in those top hollows...

A zoom in to the cave behind where the water falls

 And a clip that I filmed as we first arrived and enjoyed the silence and the landscape.

Anyway...we eventually tore ourselves away, hairpinned our way back to civilisation for a leisurely sandwich and coffee - not in Aldeaquemada, I hasten to add - before heading back in good time to wait for Ruy. As always, I hoped he might beat his rival, national champion, Alberto just this once...but as we arrived, I got a phone call from Ruy asking me to come and get him as soon as possible as he'd sliced his finger open with a broken arrow and couldn't continue. So I did...but I didn't drive the last 300m in my poor battered old car. This was on the basis that if I needed to get him to hospital, then I needed the car in one piece. As it happened, the wound was clean, if deep, and not bleeding too much and we decided that a mad dash to A&E wasn't necessary. And it's now healed completely.

And whilst I was in the UK, as well as new pens for tanglin, I picked up a most horrendous cold which only really emerged when I got home. I ended up in bed the last three days and even now, the desk is littered with snotty tissues. Aren't colds just the pits!

When my sister picked me up from the airport, she whisked me immediately off to see a chiropractor that she has started to visit. He specialises in neurology and brain function and has done amazing things to help my sister's foot problems. I don't have time here to explain it all but I am going to do a post on my experience with Anthony soon. I need to keep practising my exercises first though. It's all very unusual!

Just before we went in to see Anthony, my sister warned me that my dad had had a very nasty fit two days earlier and she had thought he wouldn't survive. But he has and I found him remarkably well under the circumstances. I am not entirely sure he is ever absolutely sure that it's me that's visiting. I arrived about 10 minutes before my mum's friend usually comes to play dominoes and he assumed I was her. The idea of dominoes was obviously rather more exciting than my presence because he sounded a bit disappointed....but unfortunately, that is how his life is now. My mother is quite incredible and manages as much as she can with sometimes wicked good humour and acceptance as long as my dad is also good humoured and easy-going. But when he occasionally has bouts of anger or depression, I know she finds it all very difficult. Not being nearer, it is too simple for me to forget how complex it is for my sister....

Anyway, whilst I was in the UK, I met up with Janice! Yes, she was in the UK at the same time - which is very nearly a first for about four years when I saw her in Huddersfield after her treatment and we had a really special hug that I will never forget. We met for lunch in a cool new dining place in Knutsford, where we indulged in sausage and mash but never took a single photo. Not of ourselves, each other, the place, our food...not on our erratic drive back to my sister's, not when we were there, not in the rain or the sun...Janice! We didn't take a photo!! But it was so good to have a few hours to chat and enjoy your company. And you were, as always, looking super chic! I did love that jacket!

I went out again that evening and ate really well in a very lovely pub in the unlikely-named village of Grappenhall. I say unlikely-named but I have checked it out and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is also the birthplace of Tim Curry and is where pianist Stephen Hough grew up.  The carving in the church there is said to be the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat... all of which is slightly more interesting than Aldeaquemada had to say for itself. (I still don't know why it's called that either!)

Anyway, I have rabbited on far too long and far too much and avoided doing any housework this morning. I will be out teaching all afternoon and need to go and prepare for this. I will leave you with the threat that there may be more to follow. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed just blathering on! I never even mentioned the Anderton Boat Lift, musical fireworks, Scrabble, Chester, sculpture, what got packed and what was left behind ...plus what was taken away, vis....there's lots more!

(Proofreading....sorry, no time!)

Axxx

Friendly links

I am quite sure that almost anyone who reads my blog also reads Janice's...but just in case, I'm using this post to share a link to her blog. It documents what we were doing together (yey!0 at the end of last week. (Having a lovely time...of course!)

Shortly, I will be able to extract photos from my camera again and share an great adventure with Ruy and Romy plus there will be a post dedicated to this week, when we have my mum staying with us.

Please enjoy a few (more) photos of my beautiful adopted hometown, seen through the eyes of my friends, Janice and Mark and with the words of Janice and myself.

Visiting Annie part 1: Pasea, descubre y cuentalo.

The sudden onset of Autumn

We've spent the first summer here in our new house and although we knew we were enjoying it at the time, this morning, we realised again just how lovely it was to have a garden with a little pool and a nice cool house to escape the fierce Andalucian sun. Today, for the third day in a row, we have woken up to fog and low clouds creeping over the surrounding hilltops and in addition to the general dampness this creates, this morning we have had quite a heavy rainfall. The children have gone off to school in sensible footwear and raincoats - though Mateo chose to take an umbrella rather than a coat. I suspect we might not see that one again unless it's still raining at 3pm...it's hereditary, I always leave umbrellas around.

I don't mind too much - as Janice said before she arrived, she wasn't coming for the weather, she was coming to see me. However, my mum arrives tomorrow evening and I really want it to be pleasant weather for her. I know it's been a lovely summer in England this year and that she too is coming to see me and the children first and foremost, but really - she should be able to expect a little (heart) warming sunshine too. Last night, we lit our wood-burning stove, we'd been so damp and chilly all day. (Later on, we wished we hadn't as it did get a tad too hot!)

I am so hoping that these clouds will drop what they have to and then move on. I am so looking forward to Mum's visit - her second this year - and this time, as I'm not teaching in the afternoons, we will have the opportunity to perhaps visit Cordoba or one or two other lovely places a little further afield. That is, if I can prise her out of the garden!

And as the weather has turned chilly, my thoughts are turning to chocolate. I don't mind the cooler weather and shorter days at all really - it is 'making' time! I have an order currently making its way back from the UK. There are a couple of people around here who make their living by tripping backwards and forwards to the UK taking and collecting things for people, so as it works out cheaper and easier than any other option, I shall have all my usual stock here within the week! 

It really doesn't seem a moment since we were fending off the strong Andalucian sunshine and taking full advantage of the splash pool and enjoying long, long days....and I was eagerly counting the weeks, then the days until Janice arrived. And whoosh!! All good fun whilst it lasted but suddenly, she's been and gone. Gosh, is all I can say!! Thank goodness for blogging as it will be such fun to piece it all together again and see it from the outside too - making something tangible from our shared memories of the few days we had together. I am looking forward to that.

And now, I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening and hoping time doesn't rush by quite so quickly, though she's staying a bit longer that Janice and Mark did. Plus, I have a little surprise for her at the end of her time here - but hush, don't say a word just yet!

What's the weather like in your neck of the woods. Are you all mellow fruitfulness, or just damp and chilly - or are you gearing up to summer and sunshine?

(Fingers crossed my camera will be fixed very soon! Can't bear not being able to share photos!)

Have a misty old olive tree taken from Wikipedia for now...getting ready for harvest by the looks of it.

Sunday...

This morning we awoke to creeping fog. A fog that was rolling over the tops of the mountains and towards us. No sunshine for Janice and Mark's last view of beautiful Andalucia was what I thought as I peered out of the window. We had spent much of the previous day together and spent a little planning how to publish a set of shared posts about our get-together. You will have to wait a little while until Janice gets home before we can make a start on those. As my camera isn't working properly at the moment, I have no sneaky pictures to share before she gets home - we will have to wait!

And I am only going to blog here that I've just had a phone call from her to say that they've reached their overnight stop-off point on their journey home and have enjoyed a beach walk in beautiful sunshine in a place our family once holiday'd and liked, Alcossebre. This is great news because here at home, it's miserable and damp to such an extent that FR lit the stove for us! I think that tomorrow, they are planning on visiting another of my favourite spots, just over the French border, the very pretty town of Collioure. It will be more than thirty years since I was there but friends of mine who have visited since assure me it's still very lovely there. It should round off their holiday beautifully.

I shall leave you with a photo of Collioure and those of you who know Janice can imagine her sitting and having her lunch here tomorrow - and join me in raising a glass to her very good health.

Picture courtesy of 'The Guardian'

(And I know I keep adding Mark in brackets but he too has been great company and I've really enjoyed getting to know him better!!)

Stop press...

Just to say that this afternoon, a tired but cheerful Janice (and Mark) arrived safely in Alcala la Real. They were waiting for me by the fountain as FR brought me into town to meet them.

We've had a lovely few hours together back at Sam and Dave's lovely B&B, watching the sun set behind La Mota - there'll be quite a number of photos of this as it's an amazing sight - even for a hardened veteran like me - as first-timers it's quite easy to be blown away completely.

We're meeting up again tomorrow and will be planning a joint blogging strategy...but wanted to capture my enormous pleasure at having Janice (and Mark - sorry Mark!) here with me. I can hardly believe it!!

There will be more!