Traduce Aqui:

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Beef: It's What's for Dinner!

Several months ago a new butcher opened in town. Angelines went one day to check out the goods and discovered that this new guy sells beef steaks (if I were a good Barkley, I could tell just what kind...but, alas). Anyway, we've been meaning to buy a few steaks for some time now. My diet since moving to Spain has been sadly lacking in beef. Pork is the meat of choice in these parts.

Tuesday Angelines bought two big steaks and we invited our good friend Nuria over for a barbecue. Most importantly, it was wonderful to have company for dinner and we ate far too much and drank a little more than we should have, too. It was wonderful to just sit out in our patio enjoying the cool evening and good friends. But I must say too that I was very impressed with the steak. Sooooo tender! And those weren't just my excellent Q-ing skills. Angelines and Nuria, who decided they like they're meat more well-done, said the same. It was absolutely delicious.

Yes, the photo leaves something to be desired in terms of composition. I apologize. We sat down to eat and I dug right in and then as I was eating I realized that it was too good not to take a picture for my blog record... So there you have it: Spain's best beef, Viola's worst food photo yet!

Friends and Firewood

As you saw in my home improvement post, we've been busy ever since we got back here to La Roda. The work we were doing in the patio was put on hold when Miriam visited and this past weekend it was up to me to get things finished up... I couldn't have chosen a hotter weekend all summer, I don't believe! I never started before 6pm, and worked until dusk, but all the same sweat was pouring down my face, arms and legs by the time I was finished. It looked as though I'd showered or come back from a run! Still, there is something satisfying about sweating over this kind of project. When I did finally finish the wall it was Monday and the temperatures had gone down; I was disappointed to find that at 1pm when I finished I hadn't even broken a sweat!

The walls in the patio weren't the only project for this weekend. My brother-in-law, who has olive trees, saved the trimmings from the annual tree pruning for us. Although we offered to go to his cortijo ourselves to cut and haul the wood back to the house, he ended up doing it. So this weekend a cartload of perfectly cut firewood was delivered to the garage. After having cut it all and delivered it, I wasn't nearly bold enough to ask for help stacking...so I was on my own to transform the messy pile in the garage into nicely stacked firewood in the patio. Of course, I also had to do this before nightfall and before the following day so Angelines could put the car in the garage when she got home from work!

Splitting and stacking firewood was an annual chore living in Sierra Valley with a wood stove, though not one I particularly looked forward to. The splitting was always a chore, but I actually kind of liked working out the puzzle of just how to get it all neatly packed into our woodshed. All the same, I could never really grasp why my parents seemed to get such satisfaction from looking out the back windows at our shed-full of split fir and pine. Now I get it. After toiling away with my 1/2 cord (more or less) of cut olive branches I must say I feel quite pleased every time I walk out to the garage as I am reminded of the nice, warm fires we'll have this Christmas. :)

Although for the majority of this work I was alone, I did have some help. Our neighbor, Jesuli, had stopped by the bar to say hello to Angelines and she promptly sent him my way to help with chores (!). He offered to work on the wall while I stacked firewood. I was at one end of the patio and he at the other, but it is inevitably nicer to work when you know you're not alone.

...and when I finally finished it up, here you have it:


Really this looks like less wood than it is... It took me about three hours to stack it all.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Here he is:


Isn't he beautiful?

Friday, August 19, 2011

Happy Birthday, Rodgrigo!

This is a very quick post to welcome our new little cousin into the world. :) He was born today at 3:30 pm--we got a call mid-siesta to let us know that little seven-pound, Rodrigo had arrived at last and with a full head of hair. (Neither of us minded being woken up for that news!)

Rodrigo is Angelines's cousin's second child. They also have a little girl who is three (?). Angelines will be this baby's godmother. That is, of course, a huge honor. She isn't the godmother of any of her nieces or nephews so she was really happy when they asked her back in February. We've been even more excited about the pregnancy since. So soon there will be a Baptism to attend. :)

I'll post pictures as soon as we visit him.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Post its

When I was fifteen, I came home from my second trip to Germany to find my bedroom covered in post-it note love from my best friend, Miriam. Most of them were corny plays on words. On the ceiling where I'd spent hours creating the night sky with glow-in-the-dark stars, one read, "You're a stellar friend!" And stuck to my lamp was, "You light up my life." I remember smiling and feeling particularly loved as I took down the notes one by one. Weeks later, as I was grabbing a pair of underwear from my dresser drawer another post-it note was uncovered: "Bet you didn't think I'd be here!" That one I saved. :)

...

Miriam has just left me here in La Roda after a wonderful 9-day visit. A friendship like ours is one of many things that just doesn't seem to translate into Spanish. We haven't seen each other for a year and a half (the brief visit in France doesn't count), and there were too many things to catch up on. She's been virtually incommunicado for the past two years, holed up in Williamstown MA, at grad school so this was the first time in a long time that we've been able to BE together. Although we only left the house once the whole time she was here, I feel as though I've been on vacation--a vacation for my soul.

It is so refreshing to be in the presence of someone who knows me so well. Someone with whom I can begin telling a story (about anything) and who understands immediately all the nuance and complexity involved; who listens with unbiased ears and whose genuine interest incites good solid advice. Our conversations wove themselves flawlessly together, alternating back and forth, adding to one another's stories with our own experiences and opinions. Cathartic is the first word that comes to mind.

I came back from leaving her at the train station with tears in my eyes. It's hard to live so far from so many of the people I love and so many of the ones who love me--G-chat and Skype are poor seconds to face-to-face communication.

Angelines left for work, and I was alone in the house. Hoping to read myself to siesta (Miriam's visit and sleep turned out to be incompatible), I went upstairs and grabbed my book. Placed carefully behind my bookmark, I discovered a small pink post-it note written in Miriam's unmistakable, artistic hand: "Te quiero mucho!"

I've since found three others...and I have the feeling there will be more. It's good to feel loved.

-Thank you, Miriam. I love you, too.

Dori??

...This one's for Maggie. :)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

De obras

Now that we're home for good, A and I have finally begun one of many home-improvement projects. The covered area in the patio has very old walls. They're big, thick stone and mud walls that have about 4,000 layers of paint on them. With humidity from rain and just age in general, the paint has begun lifting and in several places the bare wall had been exposed. The real trouble with this, and why we decided to take care of this first is because the mud and stone wall just slowly starts eroding, filling everything with dust. We were having to sweep the patio daily and dust was filling the bathroom through the window that opens onto the patio, too. So Tuesday we started to scrape and pick away at the wall and yesterday we began covering the exposed parts with white mortar. We're not professional brick-layers, by any means, but the wall doesn't look bad and looks a whole lot better than it did!

Here are some pictures (before and after):



Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Home at last

July has been a whirlwind. First, of course, was the wedding and our trip to France. But in the last two weeks of the month we were also out of town. Remember last year that my mother-in-law rented a flat on the coast for the family? This year we did the same. So these past two weeks have been spent driving between Benajarafe (how's that for a tongue-twisting name!) and La Roda shuttling Angelines, in-laws and nephews back and forth... oh, and lying about on the beach, too. ;)

Last Wednesday the water was perfect--not a wave! The sea looked like a giant mirror in the twilight: silver, rather than blue. It was like being on the shore of a huge lake...or a giant bathtub. The water was warm and crystal clear. Angelines and I went for a run in the evening and when we got back to the flat we went down to the beach. The temptation was too much, so we kicked off our flip-flops and dove into the water in full running gear. :) Delicious!

The beach vacation and no internet access has been helpful for my summer book count. Those of you who have noticed the change on the side-bar under "currently reading" will see that I finished one book, read two others and started a fourth all on the sea-side. It's great to be reading things other than school work!

As always, it's fun to travel, but it's so wonderful to be at home again. The house is a bit more than a mess after being away practically an entire month, but even the cleaning is a joy when you've been away so long. :)