It's San Anton's weekend!

The celebration starts in the Plaza Mayor with a bonfire on Friday evening. This is no ordinary bonfire - this is a massive affair with the trunks of olive trees throwing out immense heat which is just as well as the temperature has fallen dramatically.

Click any photo to see full size.

Pizzas, wine, fried pork bocadillos, chocolate and mandarins are served.

Half a pig is butchered, the cuts to be raffled. Years ago, the pig was also slaughtered as part of the event.


Saturday is the day for the remainder of the festivities with a mass in the Church in the morning and San Anton is paraded around the village followed by a local brass band and the congregation.


Two devils then go from house to house and collect a dish of food and drink.


Here they collecting a bread and butter pudding and a bottle of cava from us.


The food which has been donated is then auctioned to raise money for the ayuntamiento, (town hall)...

...and then eaten by the various peñas that evening.
¡Que aproveche!

Up the camino again!

It's that blue sky thing again...

...this time with the ermita...

...and the moon.

Finally, another sunset. Brilliant!

Amposta

Amposta is next to the River Ebro just before it flows towards the Mediterranean through it's delta.

To see any of the photographs full size, all you need to do is click on it with the left button of your mouse.

On the site of the castle, built by the Moors in the 10th century, is the Cultural Centre.



The suspension bridge, built in 1915, spans the river Ebro.

We went there to get our car serviced and had a great day out.

Los tres reyes magos.

It's the eve of "3 Kings" when the children receive their Christmas presents!


The kings, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar and their pages are transported on a superbly decorated trailer pulled by a tractor through the Plaza Mayor to the doors of the Church...

...where they pose for photographs before getting back onto the trailer...

...and everyone then follows them...

...in a torchlit procession to the hall by the bar...

...where they give out presents to the children from the stage.

After all that, it was back to our house for a meal with friends.

Thanks to Floyd for taking some of the photographs.

Rocks, forest and sky!

We are having a very mild winter this year, a few frosts so far but no snow.


The forecast for next week promises us maximum daytime temperatures in the middle teens.

To see the weather prediction for Torre del Compte click HERE.

I just love that blue sky!

A Boxing Day walk.

It was time to walk off some of those calories taken on board yesterday so we went down to the Via Verde, the old railway track which is now a walking / cycling route, and headed along the Val de Zafán to the old railway station, which is now a 4* hotel and back up the road to return to the village. A 1¾ hour brisk walk.


It was a glorious sunny day, very little wind and not a cloud in the sky - but quite cold.

Margaret felt in an artistic mood along the route.

Above is a view of the 275 metre long viaduct which carried the railway line, now the Via Verde, across the River Matarraña and on towards Alcañiz.

Hopefully, we used up a few of those extra calories.

Winter solstice sunset.

We missed the lunar eclipse as it was cloudy here, (maybe catch it next time it occurs on the winter solstice), and as it was cloudy, we also missed the sunrise this morning.

Click for big image.

The photo above is of the sunset less than an hour ago; still some cloud but with a bit of imagination you can make out where the sun is actually disappearing on the horizon. You can also see the silhouette of the ermita at La Fresneda to the far right of the skyline. Typically, the sky above us is clear!