Where to Begin!

The real trouble with not being consistant with blogging is that you get behind... and then it's just so difficult to know where to start.

(It is the last day of May and after a beautiful, sunny, warm day, the skies have opened up and let loose.  It is hailing at the moment!  Thunder just roared overhead and I'm glad that I decided to walk Bela early today!  Tomorrow we're supposed to have a BBQ with the family...I hope the weather clears up by then.)

I've been absent from my blog for such a long time that many of you have probably stopped checking in!  Sorry about that.  This week marks then end of most of my private classes so that means more free time and in therefore more time to share news with you.  So don't despair!

In the past few weeks, we've been doing a number of home-improvement tasks.  Thankfully, this house doesn't need a lot of improvement, but there are always little things to be done.  One of the exterior walls of the house had been left in bare brick after construction, which in itself isn't a problem except that the construction bricks used here have hollow spaces in them in order to easily run electric wires etc.  Those spaces, if they're left out in the open are a haven for wasp nests we discovered last summer.  The entire wall was filled with wasps that would of course fly over the wall into the patio for water and shade.  The simplest way to fix the problem was of course cementing over the wall.  So that was the first order of business once the weather was warm enough.

While the brick layers were here working on the wall, we wrangled them into fixing the floor tiles in our garage as well.  There were a number of loose tiles in the garage that Angelines and I had tried to fix ourselves, pulling up the tiles and sticking them back down with a really strong silicone glue.  But all our hard work resulted in many broken tiles and very few that actually held.  We have been living with shattered floor tiles in the garage for a good eight months, but that, too, has finally been fixed.  The garage looks new! :)

Our other major project on the to-do list was getting our old air conditioner installed.  If you remember we bought an AC way back when we lived in the piso and only a year after buying it we moved.  We never put it in at the house we moved to, because it wasn't really necessary.  The thick, 100-year-old walls did a pretty good job of maintaining the inside temperature.  So for three and a half years our AC sat in the garage collecting dust and our move to this house didn't change that.

Although downstairs is fairly cool in summer and the fireplace keeps us toasty all winter, the upstairs of the house tends to be hot in summer and cooler in winter.  We discovered last year when my parents were visiting and my handy-man dad was fixing things left and right, that in fact the rooms upstairs were all "wired" so to speak for air conditioning.  So installing our AC would be simple.  It has just been one of those things we haven't really gotten around to until recently though.  Sure enough, when the electrician came to put it all in, he was done in one morning and there was no extra drilling needed--painless.  This summer, I might end up moving upstairs during the hotter months. ;)

And finally, in that same upstairs bedroom, the guest room, we are getting around to painting the walls.  Some of you will remember from my house tour video that there were some pretty outrageous colors upstairs?  This room was fucsia pink...not at all relaxing.  I appologise to all our guests so far who have had to try and relax with such "noisy" walls.  We're currently just trying to cover the pink which means at least three coats of white paint.  In the end I think we'll go for some shade of green, blue-gray or perhaps earth-tone.  It will be much more subdued, that's for sure.

That's it for house projects at the moment, though there are more on the horizon.  Ahhh the joys of home-ownership. ;)

More soon (I promise)

Un año más...

Those of you who know me and know anything about La Roda and her festivals know that the romería for San Pancracio (Saint Pancras...not Pancreas!) is the highlight of the year for me.  This year was especially fun because we had a visit from our good friend Adam and his partner María.  They came down from Madrid for the weekend.  It's always fun to have visitors for these kinds of celebrations because it's like seeing and doing it all anew.

Unfortunately, I caught some kind of 24-hour stomach flu Thursday night and was in bed all day Friday.  Aside from being a completely useless hostess when my guests arrived,  I obviously wasn't feeling well enough to accompany the Saint on his way down from the hermitage this year either.  It's the first time in seven years that I haven't done the Friday night walk.  

Saturday I was feeling better and so María and I dressed up in flamenco garb (I loaned her a dress of mine) and went to the evening mass and procession around town afterwards.  This year is bittersweet because many of the parts of the romería that have been traditions in the past will be changing next year.  The Saint is finally being recognized by the local church which means that he will stay in the church year round instead of in his hermitage.  The Friday night walk to town, for example, will never happen again... so I was especially sad about my untimely illness.  

The procession around town and the street celebration will also change.  There will still be some of that, but the Saint himself won't be present at the party (matters of respect).  Because in the past the Saint wasn't allowed in the church, the hosting street would make up an alter for him in one of the neighbor's garages.  They are always beautifully decorated, and I think quite fit for a Saint, but...  what do I know.  

Anyway, this year procession was a bit more subdued than other years mostly because some of the key people who usually accompany me and a group of kids in singing sevillanas were out of town.  I couldn't help being a little disappointed that this "last year" felt somehow less celebrated.

Sunday dawned cloudless and hot.  Two years ago when my sister was here for the romería it was over 100F on our 8k walk up to the hermitage.  This year wasn't that extreme, but it was 96F and above from about 10am onward.  It was indeed a scorcher!  This year, I did not do the entire camino.  Part of it was the heat.  I walked with the crowds to the edge of town and then María and I (she was suffering a major allergic reaction to the olive pollen) turned around and headed home to cool off a bit before meeting up with the group just before the hermitage.  Once again, I'm sorry that I didn't do the walk, another first for me, but it was really very hot and in the end I think it was a smart decision.

When all was finished--the Saint placed back in his hermitage--we dug into a potluck lunch and very shortly thereafter, I had to take Adam and María to catch the train back to Madrid.  It was a very quick visit, and with so much celebrating going on it went by even quicker, but it was lovely to see them after so much time and great share the party with them, too.

I owe you more than one back-blog about my Aunt's visit and other goings on in town...but for now they'll have to wait.  

Semana Santa

Semana Santa is always a holiday I enjoy--the marches echoing through town, the scent of incense wafting through the air, and of course the ornate and undeniably beautiful pasos that are marched through town with such grace.  But the highlight of this year's Semana Santa was by far the visit we received from my cousin and her family. They weren't here for long, Wed-Fri. but it was wonderful nonetheless. 

This time of year, of course the main attraction are the procesions so I played tour guide and explained as much as I could about the history and traditions of Semana Santa in La Roda.  We have just under 5,000 inhabitants, but there are five procesions total throughout the week here, and our Semana Santa has been declared of "National Touristic Interest".  They had seen some procesions in Seville and Granada before arriving here, but I think there's something special about seeing it in a small town.  You can get much closer to it all than in the city, and of course there was the benefit of having me around to field all the questions from the significace of this or that color to how they carry the pasos.  

Making wax balls

Their son Danny, who is six now, was tons of fun.  He's apparently been begging his parents since they left to promise him they can come back next year for Semana Santa.  And the real reason he's so particular about coming back for Easter is because Thurday night we discovered the secret to keeping a kid entertained as we watch the slow moving pasos march around town--wax balls!  

All Spanish kids do it.  It's part of the Semana Santa tradition: collecting wax from the penitents' candles as they march along.  Every time the procesion stops to let the costaleros  rest, kids come rushing out from the crowds with wax balls of varrying sizes and race to find a penitent willing to drip their candle over the ball.  Kids grow these wax balls from one year to the next.  Danny didn't believe it when we asked one kid with a ball a little bigger than a softball how long he'd been growing his: two years!  

I have always been fascinated by the kids and their wax balls, but it's of course a child's game...I don't think it would be very appropriate for me to scramble out into the procesion vying with the kids for candle wax for my own wax ball souvenir.  So this year with Danny, I had the perfect excuse. :)  He was excited when I asked if he wanted to make a wax ball so we approached a group of girls gathered around other children who were walking in the procesion (children with lit candles...I don't know how there never seem to be any burn injuries year after year...) and asked them how they started their balls. 

My handsome nephew playing in the band

Most kids are thrilled when they can explain how to do something to an adult and so about five girls began talking all at once to give me very specific directions.  We needed a small bit of aluminum foil rolled into a ball to start with.  In the middle of the procesion, of course, there was no foil to be had, but one girl cleverly suggested rolling up a napkin from a nearby bar--perfect!  The first few drops of wax on the paper burned Danny's little fingers and so I was helping him, but when our young teachers saw the mess we were making they remembered to tell us that when you first start you need to put your ball on a stick so you don't burn yourself and cover your hands with wax instead of the ball!  So Danny was slowly growing his wax ball marshmallow-roasting-style!  

The best part of the whole exchange was how excited the kids were that he was from America.  One little boy who is probably about four, maybe five, was following him around and just staring.  I'm sure he didn't know what America was when his older brother called him over, pointed to Danny and said, "He's from America".  For all he probably knew Danny was from Mars, and that's certainly how he was looking at him for about 10 or even 15 minutes!  It was adorable.  

The older kids were a little shy at first and completely disbelieving that he actually spoke English.  For them, English is something you study at school and a language that only adults speak.  They've never seen a kid their age speaking English, so they were totally blown away when I was talking to him and he seemed to understand everything.  One little girl looked at me skpetically and asked, "Is he getting all that? Because I can't understand a word!" :)  

Keeping the candles lit for the Virgen de Esperanza

But as the march through town went on, they began to get braver.  I taught them to say "wax" in English and so they were asking, "Do you (want) wax, Danny?", and when they saw that he understood and answered they were encouraged to search for more things to say.  One little girl proudly popped out with, "Do you like cheese?" and Danny was completely confused as to where the question had come from.  We adults all nearly peed our pants listening to the exchange.  All the little girls were doing their best to flirt and asked me more than once how to say, "You're handsome" in English!  They were practically fighting with each other to give Danny wax; and he was in heaven having people his own age to interact with.

This year the weather cooperated fully, too.  Only today is it rainy and cold.  There are very few procesions on Easter Sunday, anyway so nearly all of Andalusia is happy this year because all of the procesions were able to go out.  Good Friday was even a little too hot.  I felt sorry for the penitent with their hoods and even more sorry for the costaleros carrying those tremendous pasos through the streets, but the sun did make for some beautiful pictures and very good business at the bar. ;)

Happy Easter all.

Palm Sunday

Today begins Holy Week (Semana Santa), and here in La Roda we have a new paso and procession joining us: La Borriquita (the little donkey).  Palm Sunday comemorates the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem.  He came riding a donkey and bearing triumphal palm fronds; thus the name.  Anyway, our new addition to Holy Week in La Roda is really quite beautiful.

The "brotherhood" isn't officially a brotherhood yet as it isn't recognized by the church still (bureauocratic details) so Jesus made his first entry onto the streets of La Roda from the garage of one of the brotherhood members. ;)  We were waiting in the hot, April sun for about half an hour before everything was finally in order and He made his grand entrace (or would it be exit?).  Now we've dashed back to the house because A has to open the bar and I have to walk the dog... although I'm stalling hoping for the heat to abate somewhat.

I'll probably go out a bit later to catch more of the Borriquita along the Calle Real, but in the meantime, here's a picutre for you.

Happy Holy Week.

BBQ season...

Today it's raining and has been raining since about 2 this morning, so you'd never suspect that last weekend was bright and sunny with highs in the 80's--welcome spring!  

A friend from Barcelona was here in Andalusia on business and stayed at the house so we took advantage of the opportunity to have the first BBQ of the season.  It also coincidentally was another friend's birthday: two birds with one stone. :)  We had a great time and propperly stuffed ourselves with chorizo, filetes, bacon, sausages, pasta salad, olives, cheese and potato chips.  All followed, of course, with café and sweets for all, compliments of the birthday girl.

Our smallest guest, three and a half years old, had a blast playing with Bela (see videos below).  Later in the afternoon, Angelines remembered that we had an unopened Christmas present from my mom that would also be perfect to keep this little guy busy: "living sand".  We hadn't taken the time to open the box and play with it, though my mom assured us that it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. ;)  It's a kind of synthetic sand dough, and it really is pretty cool: soft the the touch, non-sticky, easy to mold and super fun to play with.  Little Nico was in hog heaven...but his mom (and maybe Bela, too) liked it even more!  He was totally absorbed all afternoon so the rest of us were free to chat, laugh and in Bela's case nap, without having to worry about entertaining the little one.

You'll see in the videos, too, that Nico was not the least daunted by Bela's playfulness.  He has a dog at home, also, who is apparently his number one playmate.  He got knocked down a fair share of the times he threw the ball for Bela mostly because he seemed to throw it straight up rather than away from him...but he never cried even once.  Believe it or not, I do think Bela was being gentle, although as you'll see in the video she's pretty glued to the ball. ;)

This past Wed. Nico paid us another visit.  His mom  was working nearby and apparently he was crying and being a pain.  "You want to go play with Bela?," she asked him...the answer was a no-brainer! :)  We broke out the living sand again and Angelines said that when it was time to go he was pretty upset about leaving. Poor kid.  So we've become babysitters by default. :)

There is always more to report, but I'll save it for another post. Besitos!

BBQ fun Part 2

This is what happens with both boy and dog want the small ball.  You've got to hand it to Nico, he's trying to share, giving Bela the big ball as an alternative; but she'll have none of it.  Pay close attention to the end...the things kids do!

BBQ fun Part 1

I love this one!  Pay attention to how he counts: una...tres...una!  He knows there should be three digits...just not so sure about the order yet; the "dos" has gotten lost somewhere along the line. ;)  And I especially love how he ducks to protect himself from the dog (you can tell he's been taken out a few times at this point!).