Living up to their names...

Despite my garden looking like a bombsite - now and for the foreseeable future - the roses are blooming and it's wonderful to have little touches of colour around.

Casa Rosales.

The pink ones outside the computer room window.
The Clematis and Rosemary also rather abundant this year - ie. unkempt!

One of the red ones - camera colours might be playing up a tad!

I did prune this one quite harshly but it's gone crazy!

This one came from Sam when she left - the colours are so pretty,

This is the yellow, sweet-smelling bush that is in the middle of the garden.
The lovely colour doesn't show well here, so I took a close up....

Yellow from a distance and when fully open, but tinged pink as they are in bud and opening.

Not out yet, but dozens of buds on this white bush.

And this one I bought for 6 euros in a little pot last year...it has really flourished and flowered almost through to December.

FR decided - on a whim - to change the intended location of the swimming pool. We had a couple of tense days when he ignored my pleas to rethink or at least concentrate on finishing one job before starting the next. I lost the battle. Which is quite a surprise to me. I don't usually. But I lost this one.
I think in his panic to push home his plan, he allowed Juan the Digger to dig too deep a hole and leave it not wide enough....

I am not best pleased with things as they stand. FR has a lot of work to do before I am
convinced his action has been right....

It was our village fiesta this weekend and I am at least relieved to have heard FR speaking to Juan, asking him to return and adjust the dimensions. Talk about digging your own....

Photos of the fiesta to follow. Needless to say, a good time was had by all and the food was excellent this year.

Making and Doing

On the whole, we're a family that likes to make things, to do things and whilst we've spent a fairly dormant winter, when the sun comes out, it seems to stir all our creative juices and activity begins.

FR has arranged to have some frames made to provide shade both for the car and for the front of the house. This has resulted in us meeting Juan, who has a piece of land in Villalobos and does all types of metal work if he's asked nicely.  He's incredibly knowledgeable about plants and nature and told us off for having too much water in one of our pot plants...then told us exactly where we had to plant it. He showed us his barn or 'nave' across the valley and then let us into the secret of what he keeps there.....snails! Snails for eating, that he feeds a purely organic and natural diet, including peppermint, thyme, asparagus and other goodly sounding fodder. I don't like eating snails particularly but these sound like the Rolls Royce version and for a millisecond, I found my mouth was watering as he described their juicy succulence. I'll let you know if I succumb...

There has also been the marking of the ground in front of the house - strange lines have been carved out whilst Ruy, Romy and I were out with Pippin the other day. These are lines where a digger will come and trash the front of the house, digging down a good foot or so to allow us to have a proper door-sized opening into our house. At the moment, the door opens and you have to go down two steps to reach the kitchen floor level - anyone tall has to duck to get in and it's something that's annoyed FR since we moved in. So the outside of the house has to come down to reduce the difference between inside and out. It's not going to be an easy job and we're levelling the significant slope and putting down a decent patio at the same time. Could be a dusty summer!!


On Thursday, two of my English students came over. Rocio and Lucia are sisters and I have been teaching them English since last summer, when we had a great time learning nursery rhymes, playing with plastic food, reading books and generally enjoying ourselves.


We discovered a shared love of drawing and making crafty things - their mother is incredibly talented at making jewellery, sewing, knitting and crochet and the girls are equally gifted. I now focus their English class through something creative - we've made cards, painted masks, made Treasure Maps and all sorts of other things.







This week, as Thursday was Labour Day and a holiday, they came to me so we could paint and make as much mess as we wanted and to save me carting all my paint, ink, stamps and stencils to their house.

We've started Art Journals and Romy usually joins us as she's at the same school and they all get on well together. It was a lovely, happy and creative afternoon -  all in English too, even the trampolining!











It pleased me greatly that they spent time with me, painting and then after a spot of trampolining, they went up to Romy's bedroom and began drawing more things...












Yesterday, I bought myself a little wooden box in town and spent another very happy afternoon tangling it to keep my Zentangle pens in and I'm very pleased with the result!

Front and top

One side

And the other side

I did the back too, but perhaps you don't need to see all of it to get the picture!

Mateo got a guitar for Christmas and although progress is slow, I love listening to him practising and exploration of different chords. He has a good ear and makes some really nice sounds, although it's hard to convince him of that - I think he thought he'd find it easier than he does. It's a beautiful guitar and really does make a good sound - hopefully, he'll continue to practice and reach a stage where he can enjoy his own strumming.

Not to be outdone on the art stakes, Ruy produced a little work of art of his own - this is so typical of Ruy's sparse and precise style, I couldn't resist sharing it.

Love him!!

What inspires you to get out and make or do?

A year on...

Just over a year ago, we'd just started negotiations to buy the house we're now living in. I had it in my mind that it was at the end of February that we'd seen the house, but it was at the beginning. As I was driving home from a class the other day, there was just a fuzz of pink showing on the almond trees that line parts of the road and the sky was blue and bright. Spring was just returning after a cold and damp winter.  A year on and time for a little reflection methinks...

Escher

The house had been on the market since we first arrived in Alcala - but at a price that excluded us looking - but I had liked the look of it from the start. Indeed, I had driven out to Villalobos three times during our first two years in rented accommodation.  Each time, I'd get about half way and decide - no, it was just too far out - only on the last time did I find the house itself. I guess knew deep down that we'd always end up living here.

Now, the journey is a well-known route of twists and turns, occasionally made stressful by a large car coming towards you - most people drive as though there is no one else on the road, but thus far, we've avoided contact; it's a route that Mateo has walked several times just because he felt like it; it's the route the little local bus follows like clockwork twice a day, taking the children and other village folk to and from town and the schools - often a full and jolly load.

We planted a few trees last year and recently, FR has planted another dozen trees in the garden and on the land - including cherry, almond, fig and walnut. They're all young trees so it's going to be a while before they start to be productive, but it's so lovely to think they're in and growing and putting forth buds and blossom.

We've had some ups and downs in the past year but our house has done a sterling job in keeping us cool in the summer months and warm and dry in the winter ones. Until we can sort out the outside and the entrance to the house, we will have to accept that dust, dirt and mud will enter every time we do. I have become accustomed to sweeping the kitchen floor and seeing half of it wander off again - ants and little beetles are in all the gaps in the tiles and no matter what I do, I can't keep them out. A key reason why I won't be making chocolates to sell any more - certainly not this year - not while Pippin is a puppy and running me ragged either!

We'll have to take small steps in improving the outbuildings as our budget is small and precious but FR has already dug foundations for a new summer kitchen/store room which he plans to start when the weather improves. We discovered that the roof on the outbuildings contains asbestos and so will have to be professionally removed - an expensive job - but one that will have to be done. I rather fancy having a Zentangle Barn. Maybe not this.....

Our darling Darwin is buried at the top of the land on the corner and I certainly have a little chat with him now and then. There's another smaller set of stones, which is the last of the hamsters...we found her in her food bowl, sunflower seed still between her teeth and we hope she died happy...
But Pippin is making himself an integral  family member and whilst trying to train him not to chew anything and everything in sight, it was absolutely the right thing and the right time to have found him. 

I've settled into a routine of teaching young children in their own homes - mainly siblings - and love reading, singing and playing with them. We make our own versions of 'Snakes and Ladders', draw pictures to go with Nursery Rhymes, make up wild and wonderful new animals or play counting games. I often find that the time flies by. There may be a big change afoot though - more of which later. Can't say anything just yet....

Our neighbours have not been as bad as we were led to believe but they are not good. It's a shame but they are a problem family and on more than one occasion, we have been caught up a little in their problems. Sometimes the problems are not so little...However, it does amuse me that they call FR 'el inglés' - the Englishman!!

We know many of our village neighbours and I can chat away with them about this and that. One thing they always tell me is how polite my children are - yeah! The Spanish don't say please and thank you as a matter of course. They're not rude but it's not their custom to require the expressions that I take for granted and which were instilled in me from childhood. Whenever I meet the parents of  my children's friends, they are always super-impressed by these little courtesies that spill from my children unbidden. We might not always mean them or even think about them but I have come to value a 'thank you' when I get one. And I have on occasions found myself thinking that the whole of Spain needs some training in customer service...but then the general public are so incredibly kind, friendly, generous and willing to help ..I do wonder why they can sometimes turn so rude when they are behind a desk or in a shop...strange.

I chose the two images by Escher because I love his work. It's not Zentangle but it reminds me a little of the complexities that it's possible to achieve in this new art form that I have discovered this year. I am totally hooked and there's nothing I like better than sitting down on my sofa and drawing - maybe watching an episode of 'Judge John Deed', or with a favourite film, like 'A Room with a View' or 'The Princess Bride' or just sitting at the dining table on my own, filling page after page with tangles. I love that my workshops have found several converts - some of whom are so good and talented that it makes my jaw drop when I see what they have done - and we meet every two weeks. It's probably the fastest two and a half hours in the week! Such wonderful concentration and focus. Yes, this is the year I discovered Zentangle, and I won't ever forget it!
On my tangle blog, you can see a recent tangle I did of the outline of La Mota. I think I shall do several more - it's such an iconic image and the tangles are perfect for it. And here are some spirals.

These are my general and unspecific thoughts after a year in our home. I love to go out in the garden, despite there being still so much to do there. I love the sun tracking from one end of the house to the other during the day. I love going out at night and looking up to a sky so full of stars it seems like a painting. I love the birdsong in the morning. I love walking around the countryside and breathing in the different scents along the way. There's not much I don't like....and that's not a bad reflection, is it?

Why do you love YOUR house - new or old?

Annieversaries...

March is the month of many of my own 'annieversaries' ...these are personal and important dates for me. And the pun is too good to resist!

At the beginning of the month, I realised I was coming up to the first of my 'Annieversaries' - my Wednesday morning Spanish Conversation class. I hold this with a group of English people who are keen to improve their Spanish, but who simply couldn't cope with the grammar-driven method often used by Spaniards to teach their language. Many had tried lots of different classes and given up - only to give another one a go a few months later and give up again. Most have some basic level of Spanish and many have a very wide vocabulary but lack confidence in putting it all together.
In my class - which is confessedly NOT a teaching class - I aim to help people with specific conversation requirements...things they can use with neighbours, at the market, in the bar, at a restaurant - and they have the chance to practice without embarrassment. It's not a large group - probably seven or so at the most and although I have had some 'drop-outs' for various reasons, including financial, health and returning to the UK, I am delighted to say that many of my class have stuck with me for quite some time - and Tony has missed only ONE class in all the three years we've been meeting!! Time to celebrate, I felt. So last Wednesday morning, I took in some splendid little cakes and biscuits and some fresh orange juice and bottle of Cava...and we celebrated in style (well, in plastic cups, but hey, it was lovely!)

I do hope we can continue this class - where our conversation wanders from the roots of English, to places to visit, to how to say 'I'm dying to go the loo', to condolences and good wishes - for another three years!
Thank you all for making Wednesday mornings such a pleasure and for remember at least some of the new words and phrases I try to teach you! You know who you are!!


Another little 'Annieversary' was actually an FR and Annie anniversary. On the 10 March - also the day of a good friend's birthday, which could be part of the reason why I remember it so well - we met! It was at a band reheasal in Bradford. FR had recently moved to Leeds and was studying at the Leeds College of Music. He met a flute player there who brought him along to the reheasal. I remember it as though it were yesterday. He was sitting in a big overcoat, looking half-frozen and studying his music, counting to himself (in English, I noted) even though he was clearly NOT English. I thought he was Italian. And I couldn't keep my eyes off him...though, unfortunately for me, he was directly in front of a trombone player, who thought I was looking at him and who was returning my 'interest' - that took a little sorting out later!

At the break in the rehearsal, I went to speak to the interesting-looking stranger - and I wasn't the only one! I was really surprised to discover he was Spanish as I didn't think the Spanish travelled much to the north of England...and they don't usually. I remembered that I had done a Spanish 'O' level whilst in the Sixth Form but sadly, could only remember two words, neither which were great conversation starters. (One was mantequilla, which is butter and the other was zapatos, which means shoes...) However, FR was keen to speak English and at the end of the rehearsal, a friend and I 'kidnapped' him and took him back to my flat where we spent an hilarious evening listening to FR's stories and thoughts in his enthusiastic and ambitious but still flawed English! I particularly remember him graphically describing how Beethoven's 9th Symphony made him think of Beethoven riding on a chariot pulled by six black whores....It was a powerful image and as I asked him why black whores, I realised he actually meant 'horsES'. Plurals can be tricky!

17 days later, he moved into my flat and we have been together now for 18 years. Feels like longer sometimes, but when I think of that very first day, I always laugh!


And as we move into the middle of March, one year ago, we got the keys to Casa Rosales! It wasn't officially ours and we didn't move in until the end of March but it was this time a year ago, that FR and I came over with our car loaded up with pictures, a bookcase and a sofa and began to establish ourselves here in our home. I love Annieversaries when they're so full of joy and happiness.

The only cloud on the horizon - the only Annieversary that I won't really celebrate this month -  is that it marks the return of our lovely friends, the Greers, to the UK - to David's native Scotland. We saw the New Year in with them, they helped us move here, they are there when we've needed them and I shall miss them dreadfully. Work here is sporadic and unreliable and when you still have mortgages to pay, it can make every day more difficult than it should be. Despite giving it their very, very best shot - and Sam has certainly done that - they are leaving Alcala la Real and their beautiful home here (with the best view in town) to take up 'proper' jobs again. I can't begin to imagine quite how much I shall miss them and Sam in particular. To find a really good friend is always special but to find one in one's chosen spot is really good fortune...I wish them all the luck in the world - we all do.

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Pippin has spent a month with us and is now about 11 weeks old - during which time he has doubled in size and weight....

Pippin little...

Pippin after two weeks...

Pippin this morning...

We're able to take him out on walks now as he's had all his injections. This morning was glorious and I took the camera with me to capture the beginnings of Spring in Villalobos.

And I discovered that Pippin would like to go swimming...he was straight in the stream! He's proving a very headstrong pup and is taking up a lot of my energy and time! He is wonderful at 'Sit' - but pretty rubbish at everything else, preferring to run away than to come here; to force his way back inside when I say 'out'; and to chew every plant pot and plant he can find when he IS outside and to bite all the children's feet and trousers and anything else that he can get his teeth into....I'm working on him. This time next year - when it's Annieversary time again - he'll be a credit to me. (Oh, I DO hope so!)

Any special events for you this month?

Summer shades...

An amazing flower on a plant bought for me by some friends. I thought it had finished flowering but a whole host of new buds have formed. 

Super spicy sun-dried tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil. Ate some this lunchtime with chickpeas and peppers...delicious!

New card toppers 

With cute ladybirds...

Green peppers in our garden

No partridge but we have a pear tree - hope it tastes as good as it looks.

What? Where has the blue sky gone? We had almost forgotten what clouds look like.
Casting a little shade of its own this morning was the weather in Andalucia.

Good job we've captured the shades of summer - golden, orange and red.

And as I snapped my way around the garden and the kitchen, who was by my side all the time?
He takes it all in, you know. 

Fiesta time in Villalobos

The hamlet of Villalobos

Last weekend was fiesta time in our little village. For several weeks beforehand, evidence of preparation for the big event was seen, as a dedicated little group of women went around weeding the verges, painting walls and fountains with clean white paint - and choosing the occasional rock at the side of the road to be daubed too. Antonio and his son, David, called round for our financial contribution (25 euros) and left us a programme of events for the fiesta - which included a procession, sandwiches and a dance on the Saturday and a communal lunch, games and more dancing on the Sunday. Sounded like fun.

The village hall/church was the scene of much activity as the patio in front was swept and a large marquee erected and then as last week came, a great number of chairs and tables were brought in and arranged. Our little village was expecting a lot of people it would seem.

Interestingly, since we've lived here, I've been told by almost half of Alcala that they were born, if not all of them in our house, then in the house next door or round the corner in Villalobos! Or their mother or father or cousin was. A huge number of people claiming to be from our tiny hamlet - which is the smallest of the ten or so hamlets of Alcala - and many of them intending to come to the festivities.

So the big day arrived and my mum was as excited to witness it as we were.

Procession heading out of the church

This is the second half of the procession - one half has already passed. The band came in from Mures, a neighbouring village - Villalobos not quite big enough to muster a band itself, though perhaps we should think of starting one....

Stunning backdrop to one of the statues

David, in the centre, and his family were tireless in their organisation of and involvement in the festivities

The man in the centre in the brown suit is the chef of the excellent meal we ate on Sunday

Though not a great lover of the procession tradition, I think this is a really lovely image

The procession reached the top of the village, where our letterboxes and the rubbish bins are kept, then turned around and marched back again.

Once the statues were safely back inside the church at around 6.30, we all gathered outside and the drinking and munching began. We were treated to an endless supply of sandwiches, crisps and lovely cakes, to say nothing of any type of drink. At first, we stood a little on the outskirts of what was going on as families and friends met to greet each other but soon, we were dragged in and introduced to lots and lots of people and made to feel extremely welcome. I had had little conversations with several people since we'd first arrived but somehow failed to recognise them out of their straw hats or pinnies or not surrounded by a flock of sheep or goats, now that they were all dressed up! And now there are people that I won't recognise out of their finery!

That evening, we stayed and danced and chatted until past midnight before we felt we'd had enough. I woke at around 6.30am and could still hear the distant sounds of music. It was 8am before the party ended!

Just a few hours later, at 10am, FR went down to help prepare for the communal meal. When he hadn't come back two hours later, I suspected he might be having rather a fun time! He just about managed to ride Mateo's bike back for around 12.30, full of wine and stories and still laughing at the comical antics of our fellow villagers! One hundred and fifty kilos of pork had been delivered for the meal - that is rather a lot of meat no matter how many folk you expect to attend and I'd been told that often, around 300 turn up. Do the maths...

We were going to eat a dish called 'Secretaria' which is specific to Alcala la Real. The local story is that in the 1920s a group of friends, spending the weekend in the country, discovered that they had forgotten a crucial ingredient for their intended Sunday lunch - the rice. One of the ladies, the secretary of the council - a sensible woman after my own heart - decided not to worry about such details and so made the dish without the rice and everyone enjoyed it so much, they named it 'Secretaria' and local people have been eating it ever since. The recipe can be found here, though despite what it says here, I have never had it made with chicken - it is always made with pork here. (Everything is!) And obviously, a lot was being made today....

This was taken after we'd already eaten - Antonio was sous-chef. I never asked what happened to the leftovers but I should have done - it would have been worth having a bowl or two in the freezer....

Sitting in anticipation before the food starts arriving.

Plenty of water, beer, crisps, olives and nuts make their way onto the table...

No Mum, no cheese!

The noise we made was quite deafening - and there were nowhere near 300 people here

Aw....

Did we photograph the food? No. Did we capture the lovely, orderly way in which is made its way onto the table? No. And it did. In other village fiestas, I have known people give up and go home rather than queue in searing heat for a dish of paella. I'm proud to say, Villalobos folk queued in the most efficient and effective manner I have ever seen and we were in and out with our plates full, a napkin and bread roll tucked under our arms in no time! It was absolutely delicious!

And then we had crème caramel for dessert...in a pot from the local supermarket - dressed up with a can of squirty cream. No one said the chef did puddings, so this was, in effect, a bonus, remember!

And then the fun and games started just an hour or so later. Firstly, around 10 would-be knights on motorbikes raced up and down the village road, reaching up to collect ribbons from a string hung across between the electricity towers. It was noisy. It went on quite a long time. The only female in the group won it - our neighbour - she of the chainsaw and rather scary disposition. Not surprising really, except she is the thinnest creature I have ever seen in my life and I can only assume that the days when she has smiled at me and been pleasant were the days I was actually seeing her twin sister - there were two of them. One cheerful. One not! Both incredibly thin. Explains a lot.

Sack racing down a road...I wasn't sure this was a very good idea.

Especially when some of the men tried to join in - but no harm done and Ruy came 3rd, Romy 5th.

But the men couldn't resist...

And they were not quite as careful as the kids...

Next up - thwacking pots with a stick! 

Antonio helping a little girl collect her winnings...such a sweet man.

That's my girl!

And that's my boy...he smashed it too!

And then, we waited for the band to arrive from Almeria - a prize-winning group that we'd heard a lot about. And we waited. And waited. By 10pm - four hours late - it was clear the band wasn't coming so someone dashed into Alcala and fetched Isidro and his organ who played on well into the small hours, occasionally shouting - 'Is it too loud? I'm half-deaf so tell me if it's too loud'. No one did and he did a great job and made everyone laugh and dance until they'd had as much fun as they could.

I have to say that Antonio, son David and their tiny little wife and mother, whose name I missed but whom I will call Dolly for a number of reasons, not least her blonde hairstyle, worked tirelessly throughout the whole weekend - they had organised the fiesta and they did a wonderful job.

I wonder if next year they might let me help? That could be fun.....