The end of year BBQ

For this last year we have been attending the local Spanish language class twice a week for 1½ hours at the school in Valderrobres and Margaret has been attending the village women's group every Saturday afternoon for painting, embroidery and "restoration" so we decided to have a BBQ and combine the 2 groups as both activities have come to an end for this academic year. This meant that around 29 people were able to come this afternoon, each bringing a "dish" and enjoy the food and drink in our bodega.

Pre-BBQ drinks...

...and Miguel, Beatriz's husband, who is a baker and fireman, is in charge of the BBQ...

.
..everyone brings a dish and the savouries and salads are set out on the table...

...seconds of lamb chops for the "small" table...

Margaret with friends on the corner of the "big" table...

...young and old, (the bloke at the top left of the picture), are enjoying themselves...

...the "big" table is in full swing...

...Beatriz was our Spanish teacher this year...

...those on the "small" table look fairly happy too...

.

..he's still got that hat on...

...and here it is again...

...it's not quite Wimbledon!

With thanks to Floyd for the use of some of his photos.

The fiesta of San Juan, 23rd June 2007

A glorious day with the mid-day service at the ermita, paella with 2 dozen of our pena in our bodega in the afternoon, dancing to a very good musical duo on the street in front of our house in the evening then back to our bodega for "supper" with 2 dozen plus.

Everyone is just so organised at these events and when it comes to the preparation of the meal, everyone finds something to do.

While the paella was being made outside, all of the other parts of the meal were
being prepared in our downstairs kitchen.

Meanwhile, others got down to the serious work of just enjoying themselves...

... in whatever way they found best.

Eventually it was time to add the finishing touches to the paella...

...and then into our bodega with everyone around the large table to have a
really good time enjoying the food and the company.

After the meal, a quiet siesta outside...

Later that evening everyone from the village turned up to the dancing
on the camino outside our house.

Must find out what Pablo uses as a hair restorer...

Then after the dancing we must be hungry again because it's back to have supper...

...and Pedro performs his party trick!

Pedro told me that he can only do this trick because he has incredibly small genitals!
We certainly can't see any evidence to the contrary in this picture

Holiday on the Costa del Sol

With the dog and the 2 cats in their kennels / cattery the previous day, on Saturday 26th May we set off to Doña Lola, our time share at Calahonda on the Costa del Sol.

After having a great week we had decided to return home taking 2 nights staying at 2 Paradores we had not been to before.

The first was at Jaen and was at the Castillo de Santa Catalina.

One thing is certain with the Paradores and that is they are always going to be in a good spot!

With this one having been a castle, it was on top of a hill with wonderful views. The olive trees in Andalucia give an amazing pattern to the landscape.

The next day we stayed at the Paradore at Cuenca which had been a convent.

Just opposite the Paradore, across a footbridge which spanned a large ravine, were these townhouses.

This was the view just before we set off on the Monday morning.

The GPS took us on some back roads, or maybe these were the only roads around there!
Not far down the road from Cuenca we came across this rather picturesque lake.

The journey back was very interesting and provided the perfect end to a most enjoyable "holiday".

The village trip to Valencia

Saturday 5th May
About 30 people set off at 6.00 am from the crossroads in the village in a coach heading through Gandesa to Tortosa and onto the motorway arriving at Valencia around 10.45. On the way we stopped at a service station for a drink and to eat the bocadillos we had brought with us for our breakfast.
Valencia is a modern, spacious city with lots of trees in the streets as well as it's own park area but it has that modern day problem despite wide roads of having too much traffic.
The area we visited was composed of several futuristic buildings . In the photo above is the "Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía" to the left with "L'Hemisfèric" on the right, neither of which we visited - probably will next time!
We spent what was left of the morning going around the science museum, "Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe" which as you can see from the photo above is quite a large building. It has several floors and deals with the creation of the solar system and the evolution of the species but nothing on global warming or the consequences for the future.
We had lunch in the restaurant of "L'Oceanogràphic" and then spent the afternoon visiting the displays of fish and birds from all over the world.
The birds are housed in the large spherical cage which we went inside to see them at close quarters.
The marine life are in vast tanks underground and are viewed from various angles including a couple from a "glass" tunnel which passes through their tank - all good stuff!
There are at least 6 people missing from the group taken above but it was pretty difficult to get everyone together when they are exploring in small groups. It was a superb day out and we set off to return at 19.00 and got back to the village just before midnight so at almost 18 hours, it was also a very long day out!

Our new Solar Panel

At last it's there and today the sun is out so we are about to enjoy "free" hot water.

It has been raining here for the last five weeks with the exception of about 3 days when the weather was quite promising and spring/summer like. We seem to have experienced the monsoon season throughout April with some very heavy rain and several thunderstorms. (We haven't been able to do very much outside, that's why the place looks a bit disorganised at the moment.)

Yesterday evening on Spanish TV news they were showing torrential rain and hailstones in Valencia and guess where we are going tomorrow on the village trip - Valencia! More on that later...

We have also had 2 very large water barrels, 1500 litres each, connected to collect the rain water from the guttering we had fitted to the house. They have been full to overflowing since January.

The 2 containers are inside the "house" that Cyprian, our constructor, built for them. A pump pushes the water through the hose and so I am able to water the plants - not that they have needed much this last month.

With all of this water however, the almonds are swelling, the roadsides are very colourful with all of the wild flowers, including poppies, and the fields are lush - just like England at this time of the year after all of the April showers - only it has been drier and much warmer in England than here this year so far.

You can even see the flowers forming on the vine which because of the rain is looking very vigorous with it's fresh green leaves.

That's it for today so as they say in "Star Wars", "May the fourth be with you!"

Link to Floyd's blog.

See more events happening locally from Floyd over on
Torre-del-Compte.blogspot.com

Wild Boar stew

Monday 30th April
Today is a "bank holiday" or a fiesta day and so is tomorrow because it's the 1st of May. So why, I hear you ask, is Monday a holiday? Because it's a puente or "bridging day" so therefore everyone can have a long weekend. That is why we have so many more people in the village as they have come from Barcelona, Zaragoza and other places where they live and work to be here for the holiday weekend. Last Monday, the 23rd, was also a holiday - it was St George's day and he is the patron saint of Aragón as well as other regions of the world where he is not celebrated to the same extent.

Last year a hunting party from the village killed several wild boar or jabilí and many of the villagers, including us, went down to the bar/restaurant for a meal of boar and potato stew. A few weeks ago when the marcha was being planned Pablo bagged a boar so 13 of us had stew in Rosi and Pablo's garage. However, the stew is much better as it's Rosi's own recipe and contains potatoes, artichoke hearts, alcachofas, asparagus, espárrago, and peppers, pimientos. This is accompanied by bread, red and rosé wine, salads and followed by the local desserts, postres, of apple pie, almond pie and a type of swiss roll. At the end of the meal the receipts for the food, etc are added up and the bill comes to €3.50 per head - I remarked that eating with friends was cheaper than eating at home!