Exploring

The beautifully deccorated turn-off to another small town
"witch" we did not explore.  Everything was witch related...it
would have been interesting to find out why...

Sadly our vacation's ended and even Bela's got post-vacational blues!  We had a fabulous and very relaxing week.  We got up early every morning let Bela do her business, had breakfast and then set out to explore; then it was tapas time, home for lunch and a little siesta, a dip in the pool around five, relax until later in the evening to take Bela out quickly, then dinner, a movie and bed. :)  The perfect vacation routine, right?

Bela checks our the community laundry facilities.
Pretty sure no one actually washes here any more,
but this was definitely the center of the rumor mill
back about 70 years ago. ;)

The first few days we decided to explore other small towns in the area: Pampaneira, Bubión, Capileira and Trevélez.  They're all beautiful.  I especially wish we'd had more time to explore around Trevélez.  It's one of the highest towns in the Alpujarra and just on the edge of the declared Natural Park.  Unfortunately, the windy roads meant it was a little over an hour from Lanjarón and so we didn't have time for much hiking once we arrived and had a look around town.  Some day we'll go back for sure though because the town is also famous for its jamón serrano which because it isn't cooked, but rather salt cured, I cannot eat in my current state.  There were all kinds of places offering free samples... Angelines has promised that when I can eat whatever I want again, we'll go back.  I will stuff myself on free samples like a true American! ;)

Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira are three lovely little towns tucked into the mountainside and just over a kilometer away from eachother.  There is a popular trail that leads from one to the next so you can easily walk between the three towns.  Perhaps "easily" isn't the best word for it since there is a very steep climb between Pampaneira and Bubión.  It's about 250m of elevation in that one km--basically all straight uphill.  It was slow going for us, but thankfully we got an early start and the trail was shaded throughout the morning.  The bit from Bubión to Capileira was more level, but less shaded and we actually ended up losing the trail at one point!

This was before getting lost...a tired me after a rest stop between
Pampaneira and Bubión.

Angelines was about to have a heartattack thinking about being lost in the Alpujarra with her eight-month pregnant wife...but I am a fearless Somes Bar-barian to the core (aside from also being quarter Okie as my Whoa Whoa loved to point out) and I really wasn't phased; even though at one point we were basically scrambling straight up the mountain on all fours!  The frustrating thing was we could see the town the whole time (most of why I wasn't really scared), but we just didn't have any clear way to get up to it!  And the annoying thing is that in losing the trail we also lost elevation and so had to climb much more to get up to the town than if we had been on the real trail.

Like I say, Angelines was pretty freaked out and every five seconds or so would ask if I was okay... but once we made it into Capileira and we had our cold beers (well, I had aquarius) and tapas, the frantic scrambling on the trail was all but forgotten.  On the walk back we were able to follow the trail and as it turns out we had been very, very close to NOT getting lost but the trail passed through a marshy area with zig-zaging sheep trails cutting all helter skelter and there was no clear sign marking the way.  All's well that ends well, though and now we have a great story to tell about Emily's first adventures in the Alpujarra.  She had better be an outdoors girl! ;)

Bela and I in the lower end of the parque Salao in Lanjarón

Sunday we drove into Granada capital and visited my host family.  Although the original plan was to visit in the morning and be "home" in Lanjarón for lunch, Isa convinced us to stay for lunch.  So the nine of us (they already have two Americans living with them for the semester) squeezed around their tiny dinning room table to enjoy Isa's "arroz amarillo", she never calls it paella for whatever reason.  It was a great visit, and they were very happy to get to see me with my big belly!

The rest of our vacation we spent just hiking around Lanjarón.  I was plesantly surprised to find that there were so many hiking opportunities right out the front door.  There is a beautiful park in town with a stream running through it--the highlight as far as Bela was concerned.  From the park we found a trail leading to the old moorish castle of Lanjarón.  We also completed about 6km or so of the trail that completely encircles the town on another day's adventure.  Needless to say we got our exercise in!

But now we're home and getting back into the routine.  A week was the perfect ammount of time to be gone.  We are well rested and slowly getting back into our "real" life activites.

Picture from the Castle in Lanjarón.

Vacation

The sun heats the pool all day and the water is absolutely
divine!  We were worried that this late in the summer it
would be too cold to swim, but it's been perfect.

Angelines's birthday was at the end of August and I decided I would surprise her with a vacation.  However, August is when EVERYONE is on vacation in Spain and so it was pretty tough to find anything available.  In any case, the last week in August as I mentioned in a previous post was pretty busy for me and I decided that earning the extra money in that last week would go a long way toward paying for this surprise.  

At the beginning of summer we had talked about taking two "mini-vacations" since our original plans of something more grand disappeared as the budget for the work around the house grew.  We went to Cazorla, Jaen for four days at the end of June and beginning of July...but with all the craziness of the tiling, etc. any relaxing we got in during those four days was quickly forgotten.  

For some time now we've wanted to visit the Alpujarra in Granada.  I have been before with my parents some 11 years ago when I was studying in Granada.  The Alpujarra is part of the Sierra Nevada mountains outside Granada capital full of tiny villages and lots of hiking opportunities.  This was the final refuge of the Moors after the fall of the Kingdom of Granada to the crusading Christians in 1492.  

Angelines and Bela next to one of the aqueducts that riddle
the mountainside.  These are all thanks to the Moorish
engineers of Al-Andalus.

I was able to find a great little house for two that offered a discount on the price per night if we stayed for a full week.  Of course, staying for a week means closing the bar...  That part of the surprise was something I was more than a little worried about.  In the end, I decided to tell her about the "surprise" about a week before we were supposed to leave.  It's a good thing I did because although she's happy to be here now, she had to adjust to the idea of having to close the bar, etc.  

So here we are in Lanjarón, Granada.  The house is up on the mountain above the town so we have great views.  The only downside is the steep path up or down from here to walk the dog!  We are getting our workouts for sure.  

The landscape is amazing because this time of year especially everything is quite arid, but there is still a good ammount of runoff from the high peaks.  You can see the house has got a great lawn and beautiful flowers; there are pear trees and persimmon trees, too.  And on our walks I snack the whole time: figs, blackberries, pommegranets, grapes and cherry tomatoes.  Today we even saw kiwis!  Walnut, almond and chesnut trees shade our walks along with the ubiquitous olive.  Every house has a stupendous garden and it seems like they all produce far more than any of the gardners are able to eat!  There are all manner of peaches, tomatoes, apples, figs, etc. fallen and rotting on the ground.

Tomorrow we're going to explore more of the nearby pueblos. It feels great to be away from home and on an adventure with Angelines and Bela. :)

The view of Lanjarón from the house.

Without Me...

I'm sure you'll all remember this is the time of year when we make our night-time pilgrimage to Corcoya to visit the Virgen de la Fuensanta.  It's a 12km (7.5 mi) walk and this year I stayed home.  I do walk every day with my puppy, and probably do between 2 and  4 miles daily...but Angelines was adament that this was too far for me in my "delicate" condition. ;)  Instead, I stayed home, watched a stupid movie and waited for her phone call that they were there to go run pick-up.

I'm glad Angelines went.  It's not often that she is able to go out and do much with anyone other than me.  I'm fine with that, of course, but a person needs time with friends.  Her work conflicts with virtually everyone's schedules to the point that at best we have a few beers with friends on a Saturday around mid-day.  I think she had a good time, so I didn't mind fighting off my sleepiness with a stupid romantic comedy (really stupid) and driving to pick her up.

Not a lot of other news to report.  August left with a flourish.  I had classes every day for the last two weeks--kids preparing to re-take their failed finals mostly.  It was nice to earn a bit of spending money, but we've decided that come October I'll be quitting definitively.  For a while I was thinking that I would try to teach a few of my less stressful conversation classes through the Fall...but monetarily it just wouldn't compensate for the stress; besides, once Emily Alejandra makes her entrance I know I won't want to be doing anything other than snuggling her.  What's the point in stressing over classes if I can put it off for a few months.  I will be starting up in January, but by then I hope to know my little one well enough that we'll be able to schedule, at least somewhat, according to her needs, too.  Working for myself is very nice in the flexibility aspect, but I will admit that a paid maternity leave would be great right about now!

Here's a picture of me and Miss Em at 32 weeks--8 months.

Furniture

Since Angelines and I have been together, the only furniture of importance that we have purchased has been

We also bought this lamp for the bedroom.
It's from the same Moroccan emporium as the
wall tiles in the living room. :)

our dining room table with six chairs and a couch.  Granted we have had a few things made, like the table in our kitchen or the sofa in the living room, but my point is we have been living for seven year with mostly gifted, hand-me-down furniture.

For years now, my mother-in-law has been after us to get a headboard for our bed (hand-me-down gift from my sister-in-law).  First of all, this has never seemed like much of a priority to me, and second of all, we just never seemed to be able to find anything we liked.

Last year we found a full bedroom set from Ikea which we both really loved, but just couldn't justify spending the money at the time.  Finally with little Emily on the way, we decided we would buy the bedroom set (bed, night tables and a nice, big dresser) thinking tha the dresser could be for all the baby's clothes.  When we finally went to Ikea to make our big purchase, it turns out they don't make the set in the color we liked anymore!  Now they only have it in either black or white, neither of which works for us. :(  We were quite upset and kicking ourselves for not having bought it way back when.  It was back to the drawing board for the bedroom, but we decided we would at least have to buy some kind of dresser for Emily Alejandra's growing wardrobe.

Our bedroom looks legitimate now!  My
mother-in-law was thrilled to see our
purchase. ;)

Another item on our shopping list was an armchair.  We have a nice big couch, but it isn't very comfortable for sitting on.  It's more of a sprawling type couch; so with the prospect of breast-feeding in the future and the possibility of being very uncomfortable in a completely prone position as my pregnancy reaches full term, we began the hunt for a nice recliner.  At first we were looking for a rocking recliner thinking it would be nice for baby comforting, but a saleswoman at one furniture store (upon observation of my bump) pointed out that breast-feeding can be tricky enough as is at first without the added complication of rocking.  She said she had bought a rocking chair when she was pregnant and it's sat virtually unused in her living room ever since.  It seemed like sound advice.

After all the bother of renting a van to take back and pick up the closet units from Ikea, we weren't keen to find a nice armchair in Malaga.  Angelines suggested we look at the local furniture store.  As long as we were in there, we decided to have a look around at possible bedroom sets (or at least dressers), too.  Alas, they were all too modern and quite frankly, ugly; but hidden away at the back of the shop behind several unassembled bed sets, something caught my eye.  It was a beautiful, rustic-style headboard--exactly what we've been looking for!  I asked about the price.  It is solid teak and valued at 500 euros...my heart sank.  But, as it turns out, it's been sitting there for some time and being a solitary piece--not part of a set--the man was looking to get rid of it.  We took it home for 195 and we were also able to find a suitable armchair!

I'll have to put up a picture of the chair in our living room...this is obviously in the store.

Hooray for supporting local business!

...of course, the dresser has yet to be purchased... Ha!

Outings

July and the beginning of August have been full of home-improvement projects.  We really haven't had much time at all to enjoy the summer.  Until just last week we hadn't even been to the beach!  But now we seem to have reached an appropriate resting point on all our various projects.  We continue to peck away at things--our closet isn't completely finished yet and we still have to organize the upstairs bedroom and do a bit more mop-up cleaning--but it seems that the most urgent parts of everything have been finished and so we can carry on normal life in between spurts of organization and cleaning.

Being back to "normal" has freed us up to do more fun things.  Angelines especially is prone to diving head-first into projects and not coming up for air until they are 100% completed.  Of course "100%" completed is an unattainable goal when you're a home-owner.  There is ALWAYS something more to do!  So her get-it-done attitude in this case is more harmful than admirable.  We've been working to break-up the work and enjoy the small, daily progression of things as opposed to holding off to celebrate the elusive End to work around the house.

In the past two weeks we've taken several evening trips out.  We had a picnic dinner at El Chorro and also visited two different fairs in towns nearby.  Our most recent trip to the fair in Puente Genil on Sunday resulted in a delicious and oh so unhealthy dinner of churros con chocolate!  Angelines loves potato churros and they're hard to come by except at fairs so we ordered to go and brought them home for a greasy, sweet dinner. ;)  Puente Genil is the town that we always visit at Christmas time because it's famous for the great lights.  The lights at the fair were equally exceptional.  I think a summer pilgrimage to see the fair lights might become a tradition. 

Tuesday went to the beach to take advantage of the fact that I had no afternoon classes.  It was fabulous.  When we headed out in the morning it was cool and overcast in La Roda and I was worried that we'd chosen a bad day for the beach, but as we came down from the costal mountains to Málaga the temperature had gone up to 30ºC and it was a clear, sunny, windless day!  Perfect!  The beach was full, but not packed and the water was the perfect temperature--just cool enough to be refreshing.  As the afternoon wore on the wind picked up and we got to have some fun playing in the waves. :)  Around 5 we decided to pack up and head home.  Although we were only on the beach for about 4 hours, it felt like a mini-vacation. :)

At the fair in Herrera we decided to get shwarma for dinner--Mmmmm!

Posing in front of the waves in Rincon de la Victoria, Malaga.

The churro stand at the fair in Puente Genil.  Aren't the lights great?!

Silhouette at dusk looking out over the reservoir at El Chorro.

Picnic time!

Perks of Pregnancy

In Spain they say that if a pregnant woman has a craving for something and she doesn't satisfy that craving, the baby will have a birthmark in the shape of whatever it was.  Birthmarks are called antojos--"cravings".  Needless to say they take this very seriously.

Being the stupid American that I am, I haven't taken advantage of this major perk: everyone, everywhere will heed my every whim and fancy!  For example we were out having beers before lunch one day and when everyone else had ordered a second round, I was still nursing my lemon soda and therefore wasn't entitled to a tapa.  When Angelines chose some salami (which I cannot eat), I said, you should have got the cheese to share with me!  Nuria, who was sitting on my other side, overheard and immediately called the waitress over: "She's craving cheese, give her a tapa of cheese".  The effect was immediate: a mini plate of cheese was placed before me within seconds; although I'm sure it was added to our tab. ;)

There is a small, family owned and opperated dairy farm behind our house down a dirt road where we walk the dog most days.  For some time now, I have been wanting to talk to the owners about buying milk straight from them, but I´ve never had the oppotunity to bring it up and I didn't feel right just waltzing up to the farm with a bottle and asking for milk.

Wednesday evening Angelines and I were coming home from our evening walk when we ran into the dairy farmer heading for home on his tracktor.  He stopped and as we were chatting, I noticed that he had a small tin canister by the tracktor seat.  This was my chance to bring up the topic: "What's that," I asked, "milk?"  It was.  Apparently he takes some home every day... I would too if I had a dairy farm!  When I told him that I wanted to buy milk from him, he wanted to give me the cannister then and there: "Take it!  You don't want your baby to have a milk-shaped stain across her face!"  I laughed and said that we'd talk about it after the baby was born.  I know that fresh milk can be more dangerous to drink than what you get in the store and playing with risky foods during pregnancy isn't a good idea.  

I was finally able to dissuade him and off he went.  But the next day coming home from my walk, as I was turning the corner to go home, his 85-year-old father, Pepe, flagged me down and said he had a bottle of milk for me!  I wasn't about to argue with an elderly man who spent all his youth milking straight into a glass and drinking it about the possible dangers of raw milk... so after asking about how to boil it and for how long I  graciously accepted the bottle and headed home to do a few google searches just in case.

Pepe had assured me that I just needed to bring it to a boil, that once the milk had formed a foamy head and risen to the brim of the pot, I could take it off the stove and let it cool.  I should stir it as it was reaching the boiling point to kill anything in it, but "nowadays there are all kinds of controls and vaccines for cows, they're healthier than we are!  There's nothing bad in this milk" he assured me.  The germaphobe got the better of me though and I opted to follow some advise I found online on home pasturizing which said to let the milk simmer at 145 F for thirty minutes.  I took out the meat thermometer I only ever use at Thanksgiving, and got to it.  

The milk was on average well over 145 and so I took it off the stove two minutes early.  Even though I know that cooking it so long changes the flavor somewhat, this was by far, the best milk I've ever drunk.  It was delicious.  I didn't even wait for it to cool, but instead grabbed a chocolate chip cookie I'd made a few days earlier and sat down to enjoy--divine. :)

Today Angelines and I finished off the last of the 1.5 liters that we were given.  They say that you should drink fresh milk between 36 and 48 hours after milking...although I think if you cook it as I did it will last a bit longer.  In any case, we finished it off with no problem within the 48 hour time frame.  Breakfast this morning was homemade pancakes with peanut butter, maple syrup and ice-cold, FRESH milk.  Yum!

...and just for fun, here's my belly at 7 months. :)

Back in the Pool

Last Thursday, after about three months of no swimming, we finally got back in the pool.  Life just got too crazy for a while and driving to and from Antequera took up precious time we needed to spend elsewhere and so our swimming routine was put on hold.  During the summer months, however, the outdoor pool here in La Roda is open and so we're finally getting back in the water.  July flew by with all the work we've been doing here in the house and so we've only just bought our pool passes for August.

It felt great to be back in the water, but the first lap was a long one!  Our pool in town is 50 meters instead of 25 like in Antequera...and after three months of nothing, I could feel it about half way across.  It didn't take more than two laps to get back into a rhythm.  I ended up swimming 1,200 meters.  Not bad, right?

But as is always the case when it comes to me, the real highlight of the day was coming home to the great lunch I'd prepared ahead of time: homemade pasties with tomato, cucumber salad and a side of zucchini cream soup. Soooooo good!

No picture of the pool...but those of you who know me aren't surprised by that!