So that’s it for another year. You spend weeks, if not months, looking forward to the build up to the festive season and then BANG! It’s gone! Suddenly, in spite of January seeming to often last for years, it’s February at last, and we’re rushing headlong towards spring. It’s beginning to warm up in the sunshine during the day, though the nights are still cold and down as low as -2C. I’m very glad we have two big log burners, hot air con and an electric blanket. No doubt it won’t seem long until we’re complaining about the heat – if we get another summer with shade temperatures of 44C we will be justified in complaining!
One thing I hate in the post-Christmas slump is losing the tree. There’s something just so flat about the light in a room when the tree is gone, the candles are out, the baubles aren’t there to reflect anything. It’s a bit like when you get home from holiday and you wonder why the light in the house looks so different. I’m seriously considering calling our tree a “winter tree” next year, which would involve putting it up, fully decorated, around the beginning of November, and not taking it down until the first whispers of spring, around the end of March. Or maybe not! At least this time we had the wit to wrap the tree tightly in a big tarpaulin, avoiding the need to remove each branch separately. Trying to fit all the branches in the right place is akin to solving a Rubik cube while blindfolded.
Look at that poor, miserable looking thing!
Especially when you compare it to when it’s all dressed up and ready to party!
Now that spring is on the way, the almond trees are starting to burst into bloom. Ours are always a wee bit behind the ones lower down in the valley where it’s a degree or two warmer, but the blossom is just so fabulous to see. You can book tours to see vast orchards of almonds in bloom, all along the Hondon valley and beyond. Makes for a lovely day out, though we’re very happy to have our own small show at home!
We’re still not altogether sure how many almond trees we have, we keep finding other little trees here and there iN bits of the garden that are currently less accessible. There’s around a dozen, but when we came here six years ago (six years ago!!!) Peter planted some almonds and they’ve now grown into little trees so we’re gradually increasing the stock.
It was the boss’s birthday recently, and I treated him to a night away in a palace. Yes, really, a palace! We stayed in the Sercotel Palacio de Tudemir, in Orihuela, which is only about 40 minutes from home. We just wanted a nice relaxing night away, something a bit different, and my word this hotel was different! It is just fabulous! It was an old palace, and is right in the heart of town, so very easy to walk everywhere. The room was the biggest we have ever had in a hotel as was the en-suite bathroom and even the bed – so, so comfortable! I have to tell those of you who are not in Spain that part of the reason we’re able to head off regularly for hotel stays is that it is so much less expensive here than in the UK. Our night, in a superior room, cost €82, which is about £68 at the time of writing this…seriously great value, in a palace, for goodness sake!
We had dinner that night at a great Indian restaurant recommended by our friend Tesne, as the boss loves curries, and altogether we had a wonderful relaxing little break. Highly recommended!
While we were in Orihuela we’d taken a wee dander round the town. It’s not somewhere we really know at all, as we tend to go to Orihuela costa, which is obviously the coast area, very touristy and busy. Orihuela town is quiet during the day as it’s a working town, but we had found a little bar we had looked up and were keen to have lunch there. However, we had turned up very late and the kitchen was closed – very different form the touristy coastal towns where everything’s open all day. The owner took pity on us and made us a big plate of freshly oven-warmed crusty bread, with allioli, and tomato and olive oil dips on the side. I have to say it was absolutley delicious, and they’d gone out of their way to give us something so we were very grateful…and I promised I’d include them in the blog so they could read about themselves!
So here they are, and a big thank you from us, the pan y alioli con tomate estaban deliciosos!
And now for something completely different…I ordered a face powder compact (I sound like my Mum now!) and this is what arrived…
Yes, that is actually the colour of it, and it looks kind of waxy, not powdery as you might expect. However, when you swipe the wee powder puff thingy across it, you get a layer of translucent powder which does exactly what it says on the tin, ie, it stops the shine and gives your skin a lovely glowing, even finish. Amazing!
On the way home from Orihuela we stopped at a little town for a quick bite of lunch at a restaurant we’ve been to before, called the Rincon de La Murada. Great food, great prices, in an honest-to-goodness unpretentious little working town. I noticed that a waitress was putting out plates of hot cooked food onto empty, but laid, tables. The plates sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes, not getting any warmer, and then suddenly a group of women arrived, checked what was on each plate, and sat down to eat. The same thing was repeated at another table, so it seems that people often call the bar, order their food for a certain time and then turn up for lunch. We’re more used to booking a table and then ordering when we get there, but it seems there are places where you order the food for a certain time and it’s up to you to get there on time! We have noticed that the Spanish often eat their food cold, or at least not very warm, and they find we’re a bit peculiar as we like to have everything piping hot, so that might explain why those folk in the restaurant weren’t at all put out at the fact their meals had been sitting out for 10 to15 minutes waiting for them!
I’m not sure that cold egg and chips is very appealing, but they got stuck in with gusto and were having a great blether at the same time.
Speaking of food, people all over the rest of the world eat some things which are very peculiar to us….I’ve eaten pigs’ ears by mistake, and will NEVER make that mistake again! It is said that in Mediterranean countries like France and Spain they eat every bit of the pig except the squeal, and I have certainly seen trotters, tails, snouts and ears on supermarket counters. The other day, while getting the groceries in Mercadona, I saw packs of beautifully white and clean chicken feet for sale. I nearly fell over at the thought of it…but I know they’re eaten regularly all over the world. Isn’t is funny how there are things we have a real aversion to eating that others find completely normal, and vice versa?!
Oh, and speaking of hateful things to eat, I have always wondered why Peter likes the taste of coriander so much, and describes it as “fresh and cirtusy”, when to me it tastes like soap. So, here’s the explanation and a bit of fun as well…..
and the reason WHY it tastes so vile….so now you know!
Since it’s heading rapidlytowards spring now, it’s time to do a bit of a spring clean and clear out again. Today, starting with the kitchen, I spent far too long once again cleaning the boss’s fiddly wee spice jars on their glass shelves. I’m aways scared of dropping one or two but sure they’re all replaceable! Peter uses most of the spices, and they’re frequently topped up, though some are past their time and just sit there looking decorative – a bit like me! In total, over 2 opposite walls, there are 14 glass shelves, each containing 7 jars, which all need to be wiped, dried and replaced without the whole flipping lot crashing to the ground! So, just 2 short of a hundred, hateful job but I try to do it weekly so it never gets too bad.
The next rotten job in the kitchen is to replace the extractor fan filter – yuck! Actually we really need a new extractor fan, as the one we inherited with the house is really not up to much at all, it’s far too small and there’s no light with it. Maybe if I wait a wee bit longer we can buy a new one and I won’t have to clean this hateful thing…..
Well that’s about it for this time, though before I go here’s a poem….
I hope you die first, before I do.
I hope you go gently, easily, too.
Hearing rushing of wings, the whispering heart
Not seen for so long, yet you know you’re a part
Of this new home, no not new, always there
Waiting for us, with soul stripped bare.
And oh, what a welcome you’ll find when you wake
In the home that you’ll reach, and for us you will make
A place of such love that whenever I come
There’ll be no more heartache, no grief to strike numb
The soul. I’ll not weep, not mourn, no longer be lost
For home is the goal, and worth the high cost.
I hope you die first.
I cannot conceive of how you would grieve
If I was to go before you, to leave
While you would be left in unbearable grief.
I would save you from that, but make my time be brief!
I hope you die first, so that I’ll do the grieving,
And you will be spared of it all, by your leaving.
I hope you die first.
My life in Spain 