It's Hallowe'en, (again!)

I'm sure there's nothing that says Hallowe'en parties must be on the 31st of October so we had one last Saturday at Rosi and Pablo's house. We were met at the door by this group of ghouls...

Click left on the picture to see it full size

...here's one of the extras from the Scream movies and friend...

...and a very pretty pumpkin modelled by an old crone...

...and finally, Count Drac himself - fangs for the memory!

Welcome to sunny, er, snowy Spain!

We have been having a mixture of weather for the last couple of weeks. It has been nice and fine and then we have had a couple of wet days. But now it has turned colder and although we haven't had snow or frost here yet, there was snow on the mountain range in the distance and it has turned very windy.

Peaceful it´s not...

It´s not a JCB, it´s a Fiat-Hitachi and here it is outside our front gate this morning breaking up the concrete between 2 lines which were cut last week.




The concrete outside of our house seemed harder than that further down the road and needed a lot of effort to get through.




After the digger had chopped the concrete it then went back down the road removing the broken concrete. More to come no doubt.

It´s really peaceful here...

We knew that work was due to start on the ermita and last Friday and Monday we had this little vehicle, a "bobcat", clearing the site at the front and back.


Also due to start was the replacement of the water pipe from the water tanks to go down the road and into the village so another digger started at this end today.


Meanwhile, a rather larger JCB is making it´s way up the road towards us and cutting the trench for the new pipe - it should be right outside our door tomorrow - can´t wait!



Meanwhile, it´s time for the farmers to collect their almonds in the fields. This video shows the easy way to do it. The attachment on the front of the tractor grips the tree then shakes it. Almond trees don´t need much shaking - the same method is used to collect the olives in December only olive trees need to be shaken vigorously, so everything around shakes.

The 7th plume...

The last pampas plume is out, and it´s pink! (It´s the one on the left.)

What´s his game?

On a trip down to Cambrils we came across these gentlemen playing a version of "petanque/skittles" in the park. The chap playing was throwing his clubs at his opponent´s clubs, the aim being to knock them over.

If you want to play "spot the skittle", just click on the picture to see it full size - it is there. Also, if you know the name of this game, then let me know.

Pampas plumes

The pampas grass we put in 2½ years ago has produced 6 plumes with a 7th on the way.

Click left on the image for a larger view

It looked so nice with the ermita behind, I had to take a photo of it. By the way, it´s not snow on the ground - as part of our work on the garden this summer we had all the earth covered in pebbles with porous membrane underneath to stop weeds growing through.

Around the trees is white and then the remainder of the garden is covered in rosa pebbles, pink, although they look "pinker" when they are wet. It seems to work though and means no more muddy paws for Hona.

Our leaky pump

Sunday 31st August. After the meal in the Plaza Mayor we could all see the very dark clouds over the mountains to the south and hear the rumbles of thunder, indeed in the evening, the lightning was quite spectacular, but it didn´t rain very much because we were just on the edge of the storm. Then, at around 2:00 am, Monday morning, there was an almighty flash and a crack of lightning followed instantaneously by a boom of thunder, no rain, just the 1 thunder bolt hit the village and then it moved on and we heard rumblings in the distance. The electricity tripped off and was easily reset but the telephone line was dead so Telefonica came out on Tuesday and fitted a new bit. Unfortunately, the modem had also blown so that was replaced on Thursday.

Another casualty of the lightning strike was the water pump which gave up working early on Monday morning. Our house is just a bit too high in relation to the village water tanks although we have a water supply to the ground floor so the pump is needed to provide water on the first and second floors. The plumber took it away to be repaired but when it had been repaired and was refitted on Thursday, it leaked so the plumber took it away again. The only problem then was that the shop in Alcañiz couldn´t repair it before closing for their fiesta which lasts all of next week. So the plumber brought the leaky pump back yesterday and fitted it up as shown in the photo below.


The pump is at the top left of the picture and the drip is being "funneled" by the yellow container and down the blue tube into the bucket on the ground. We just hope that this system will be satisfactory until Monday the 15th when the repair shop in Alcañiz opens after the fiesta. All part of life in Spain! It's great!!

Sunday 31st, the feast of San Ramón

This afternoon at 14:00 everyone is in the Plaza Mayor for the paella seen here whilst being made by the special cooks.


We all sit in our peña groups for the meal which lasts for the remainder of the afternoon...


...after which it´s home for a well deserved siesta and that´s the end of the fiesta for this year. We should be given a t-shirt which reads "I survived the Torre del Compte fiesta, 2008!"

Saturday 30th, San Ramón´s eve.

It´s time for another meal for the peña but this time it´s at our house and Margaret has made a giant lasagne. Before the meal, people from the group help prepare the salads and starters...


...and Floyd does a splendid job setting the table, so good in fact, that here´s a photo of it before the group got to it and made the usual mess.


At midnight, there was a group playing in the Plaza Mayor - the lead singer also played lead flute!


Just what you need to get rid of some of those calories!

The circus comes to town!

Thursday, 28th August - the Circo Badín is in town, not so much a circus but 2 young guys who are funny, one who is an acrobat and juggler, the other accompanies him on the keyboard.


Press play on the video to see what actually happened.

Click left on the picture to see it full size.

These guys were naturally funny and did some great improvisation aimed at the people in the audience as well as playing their own "instruments".

This was another of those events where you had to take your own chair if you wanted to sit down - the children of course, just sat on the ground.


Everyone seemed to recognise the tune, except us, and could sing along.

Margaret took these photos - can you spot me?

Even though it wasn´t windy, this is very difficult.

The entainment appealed to people of all ages.

An original way of playing the drums.

Audience participation with Duke.

A thoroughly entertaining experience!

It's fiesta time again!

Saturday, 9th August and we go down to the peña with 14 others to clear the weeds and generally make the place habitable in preparation for the fiesta activities which will take place there. Breakfast for everyone of sausage and fried eggs follows.

Saturday, 16th August and we go with 6 others from our peña into Alcañiz to buy food and drink for the festivities.

Monday, 18th August and we have the first meal, cooked by Rosi below, which is the traditional hearty dish of rice, potatoes, bits of bone with some meat on and of course caracoles. Because the summer weather has been so poor in the UK, snails are abundant and on a TV programme people were asking how to get rid of them. It's simple - eat them!

Click left on any photo for the full size view.

Tuesday, 19th August and it's the customary small bonfires to cook the sausages which are then eaten in chunks of bread. Everyone is there, young and old and some of the more organised elderly people have taken their tables and chairs and are making it a true picnic.


This year, there is a live band and they add to the carnival atmosphere.


They are wearing their orange polo shirts which just happen to be exactly the same colour as the t-shirt of our peña so we blend in with them.


Later in the proceedings, a couple of characters run around and chase the children.


By this time people are dancing to the music and having a great time. In the UK gangs of youngsters hide their identity by wearing hoodies - here, they have their name on the back of their peña t-shirt.


Wednesday, 20th August. It's that time of year when San Ramón gets carried around the village towards the end of the midday mass.





We follow virtually every street in the village, thank goodness it's small and then back to the church via the Plaza Mayor.


This year we have a proper group of singers in the church to lead the service and they finish off with a spot of dancing.


Once the service is over, those who dressed in traditional costume gather for a photo shoot.


As the young girls explained, the costumes look good but are more suited to the colder months.


Lola daringly shows her authentic hosiery.


In the evening, we had a display by a group of 10 dancers. Click the "play" button to see them in action.



The dancing took place on the school yard in front of the school building. The school no longer operates as a school as there are insufficient children in the village. You may have noticed in the videos the people going in and out of the doorway - they were preparing a chocolate drink with a toasted breadstick for everyone after the entertainment, at least 250 people.

That evening there was live music by a pop group in the Plaza Mayor from 21.00 - 23.00 and from 1.00 to the early hours. The entire population of the village is there, dancing. They might as well because the music is so loud they couldn't sleep through it!

During the break, Lola cooked pork escalopes in a delicious sauce, here assisted by Eva with Rosi in the background.

Friday, 22nd August. This evening the weather was against us and the pop music group booked to perform were unable to. At least people in the village would be able to choose at what time they went to bed. For part of the downpour it was as if the village was surrounded by thunderstorms with lightning going off in every direction. However, that did not dampen our spirits and prevent us enjoying another meal at the peña.


We all managed to get undercover while we ate apart from Pablo and Manolo who were sitting at the more exposed end of the table.

Sunday, 24th August. This morning we have been cleaning the peña and stacking all the sofas and chairs so they will be ready for next year. Next weekend, there is to be another peña meal on Saturday and then on Sunday, the official saints day for San Ramón, another mass in the church followed by a meal for the whole village in the Plaza Mayor...and then everyone goes back to their homes in the cities and the village returns to its normal tranquil state.

What's at the bottom of this garden?

Sunday, 10th August and we are invited to celebrate Floyd's birthday with Jordi and Emelia at Marc and Andrea's house which is down by the river and used to be the original olive mill.

Click on any picture to see it full size.

Over the years Marc and Andrea have done a lot of restoration on the mill but it is a huge project as can be seen from the photo above.

First we had Andrea's tapas on the terrace.

For the main course Margaret had taken a whole cooked salmon.

As the meal progressed and it drew darker, we realised we were not the only ones eating al fresco.


Yes, it's a civet and although we only saw one, there is likely to be a breeding pair. Not everyone has a pair of these at the bottom of their garden!

My 60th!

Saturday, 2nd August, (the day before my birthday), and 24 of us celebrated my 60th with a superb meal followed by some entertainment.

Floyd was the photographer for this occasion - click on the image for a larger view.

We had the fountain working which is on the new terraza where the swimming pool was, (more on this feature later when the jacuzzi is finally installed).

Our friends brought a dish of food, either starters, salad or postre and we provided the drinks and fish and meat.


Beatriz and Miguel also brought their 4 week old son, Martin.


After the meal, we had "entertainment" in the form of a rendition on the keyboard by myself...


...and another by Floyd. Enjoyable stuff!

Lunch with the campers!

This is the 3rd year we have been invited by Rosi and Pablo to join them and their friends for Sunday lunch down by the river where they are camping. Their friends, another 3 families, come from Rosi's village of Valdealgorfa which is 15 kms from here, and set up their tents in exactly the same place around about the same time each year for a long weekend. This has nothing to do with the "credit crunch", it's just the traditional summer holiday.

Click left on any photo to see it full size.

Send me your captions for the photo above! I shall publish them at a later date if they are any good.

The children had been playing in the river but returned in good time for lunch. This time it was a paella con pollo, cerdo y caracoles, (chicken, pork and snails.) All local produce, especially the snails which had been caught the previous day.


Margaret lent a hand preparing the cucumber while the snails simmered.


This was indeed "throw another prawn on the barbi" and they were absolutely delicious along with olives, crab and pickled onions on sticks and sepia, (cuttlefish), as appetisers. Sepia is a fantastic food - no gristle, no waste, easy to cook, it tastes great, especially with a garlic and olive oil dressing, and it just melts in your mouth. It's very low fat too, (apart from the dressing!)


Now that's what I call a paella. Note the cocktail stick for getting the snails out of their shells. Delicious!

The village trip to Expo

Saturday 12th July and a coach load of us from the village set off at 7:00 am and after a coffee stop arrived in Zaragoza at the Expo around 10:00 am. After passing through security our first visit was to the Torre del Agua, Tower of Water, which dominates the skyline.

Click left on any photo to see it full size.

As the theme for Expo is "water", not only is the building shaped like a drop of water, (on it's side), but it has a large "splash" sculpture in the middle of it as seen in the photo below. As if we didn't have enough walking to do in the course of the day, we walked to the top of the building and then down again, 22 floors, which involved walking around the perimeter for each floor.


To see the inside of the Torre del Agua, play the video.

We ate our sandwiches for lunch just outside the Palacio de Congreso, which was a very large administration building.


To see Margaret with Floyd and Jordi outside the Palacio de Congreso, press "play"

A parade, headed by a large wooden serpent with dancers on it's "back", stilt walkers, etc, went past a couple of times...



Another interesting building was El Faro, the lighthouse, although it didn't have a light on the top, just a revolving sail contraption.



Inside El Faro there were many water cans and entertainment.


The whole area had been created with the theme of water in mind and of course one of the favourite features were waterfalls which where just about everywhere you looked.



The area had also been designed to give plenty of shade as you were walking around and to keep it cool, mist was being sprayed into the air.



Around mid afternoon the sky began to look threatening and we were to be in for another demonstration involving water - a torrential downpour.




If you look hard enough, you can see the rain on the floor.

Despite all the water we didn't get too wet as we stood in queues waiting to get into the presentations and the exhibits of over 100 countries who had provided a display in their separate areas. We didn't get to see all of them! Notably the UK and USA were not represented.

Each country had it's own interpretation of the "water" theme. To see Japan's, we had to join a queue for an hour in order to join a second queue for about ¾ hour to see their cartoon presentation which was projected onto 3 walls and lasted for 15 minutes. The French pavilion had a much shorter queue and offered water tasting of their various bottled waters. Malta took this opportunity to advertise the island for tourists. Oman had built a model showing water treatment and desalination plants. South Africa showed a 7 minute movie telling us how to take care of water and not waste such a precious resource. Inside the Pakistan area they concentrated on selling products made in the country from carpets, hats, jewellery and carved furniture, they seemed to have missed the point about the water theme!

If you want to find out more about Expo in Zaragoza, then click left on the heading at the top of this entry that says "The village trip to Expo" and you will then be linked to the official website.

We all met back for the coach at 22:00 and got back to the village by midnight after a thoroughly interesting day out.