Friday 26 November 2010

Sausages!!!

The weather has been fine and warm in this part of Spain. Yesterday was a national holiday - a fiesta day, and many people in the Barranco had family visiting, to help them with the seasonal work of preparing for winter.

The hum of chain saws cutting logs for the fire echoes around the valley. 
Juana- Marie has prepared her small fields with small earth walls to receive irrigation in the spring and then spread hay over them to protect seedlings and keep the soil warm. 

It is also the time of the olive harvest. This year has given a very good crop - unlike the almonds and apricots - and everyone is helping to pick them. Excited family groups on trailers pulled by tractors, head down to the olive groves. Nets are spread on the ground around the trees, and then the branches are knocked with sticks to dislodge the fruit. This will be taken to the local mill and pressed for its oil. 

Once the harvest is done, Andre takes the opportunity to cut leafy branches and carry them home piled high on the roof of his old red Renault 4, to feed to his goats.

At the lower fuenta  (spring) I saw Isobel and some of the other local women, working at something in a variety of plastic bowls. They had cut oranges and lemons, and they had packets of salt and buckets of water and were busily rinsing with plenty of water changes, that were sometimes aimed at 'Blanca', Katalina's dog who was also very interested in proceedings! The something turned out to be intestine of pig, and the oranges and salt were good cleaning agents, so that they could be filled to make chorizo sausages. The 'annual' pig raised on the little farm, had just been killed, and nothing would be wasted. Jamons, morcilla (black pudding), and sausages - to last throughout the year.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

It's an ill wind....

One of the things I do here in Spain, to help make ends meet, and also to put some structure into my life ( I can't spend my whole time cleaning the pool!) is to run a market stall 2 or 3 days a week, so long as it's not raining (as if) or not too windy!

One of my fellow stall holders, is my mate Pape Sec. He's from Senegal, and he sells handbags mainly.

Pape 

Members of the Jehovah Witness Church have been coming to the market lately.

Now Pape, like most Senegalese is a Muslim - but he is also a very friendly individual - and so he has spent a lot of time chatting with the 'missionaries' - especially as the female 'missionaries' like to look at his handbags - and he is not averse to a free book with pictures - even if it is a new testament gospel in French!

Also at the market, are many Moroccan stall holders. My immediate neighbour is Moustaffa who sells women's clothes in his large, metal framed and canvass covered stall.

Last week, Moustaffa  became a little upset about Pape's  feigned interest in the Jehovah Witnesses!

He berated Pape -- What would your family think??!! What would your Mother say??!! Think of your father!!!!

Pape, with a gleam in his eye replied - tomorrow - no market for me - I'm going to Church - and then I'm going to drink beer!!!!

Moustaffa - " you can't do that"......!!!!!

and then, all of a sudden, a tremendous wind came from nowhere - as it does sometimes in Spain - and concentrated all it's force on Moustaffa's stall. We all lent a hand and prevented the stall from blowing down - though it soon became very clear that it was only Moustaffa's stall affected.

'No habla malo de Christianity' - laughed Pape. 'No habla malo' Manana voy a beber cerveca!!
(Don't speak bad of Christianity                        Tomorrow I'm going to drink beer)

Thursday 18 November 2010

Here we go

I'm not sure why I have started this blog.


I thought It may be a way of telling people a little about the way of life in this quiet backwater of Real Spain.


Our house is at the head of a valley in a small mountain range - the Sierra de  Estancias - where Almeria Province, Granada and Murcia meet. I say small, in that compared to some mountain ranges, they do not extend for too many kilometers, 30 perhaps; but in terms of height, surpass just about any mountains to be found in the UK. Indeed, our casa is about 910metres above sea level, the height of the summit of Snowdon. .... and if the Estancias are not a remarkable Sierra, the Sierras de Filabres, the Marias and even just about the snow topped Sierra Nevada are are always in view. Failing that - the vista to impress, is the sun glinting off the Mediterranean, 30 kilometres away at Garrucha.


...... And in our small sleepy hamlet of Barranco de Quiles, not very much appears to happen. The most significant thing most days is Andre's twice daily walk with his goats, that announce their departure with the tinkling of bells and the excited barking of the goat dogs, especially the young one, that according to Andre is a "poco loco"!


Barranco de Quiles


But even so, small things do happen in a daily and seasonal rhythm, and every day is an adventure, with new things to be learned. So I suppose this blog is partly about the quiet life of gentle folk, going about their lives as generations have done before them, and also about how about how, new settlers such as myself become part of this way of life.