Spring 2005
Andalucia Day Here in Spain the 28 February is Andalucia Day when they make the migas, a sort of fried breadcrumbs, and the mayor provides a party for all the villagers. There are slices of cheese and chorizo, free wine and beer which can’t be bad. They set off fire crackers, the band plays and the children dance. All the shops will be closed today, and tomorrow too in order to recover. |
There is a certain myth that the weather is always hot in Spain. Brits have this vision of swimming in the pool in February. Well, let me explode that one. It ain’t gonna happen. True, it’s not as cold here on the Iberian peninsula as it is back in the UK, and certainly warmer than Shap fell where we used to live back in the 80s with minus 10 at night fairly common. Nevertheless, we did have a cold January here in Spain, with temperatures dropping to 2 at night and as low as 8 some days. On other days it can be as high as 12 or 14. The benefit of living here is that generally it is dry and more often than not fairly sunny, though of course we can get periods of cloud and rain. On the really bad days in this remote rural area, this results in no electricity. Not good for a writer dependant on her computer but really quite romantic in a way. We light our candles and sit by our blazing log fire and read our books. What could be better than that?
We have spent much of the winter working on our garden, building dry stone walls, laying gravel on the pool terrace (now there's a delightful job) and making path edges. This is the best time for such physical labour with the kind of temperatures you would expect in an English spring. The soil is moist and friable so we can weed and dig it over and plant out new plants before the sun bakes it hard again. We thought we’d lost our bougainvillea in the cold of December but it is bouncing back with increased vigour, bless it.
|
|
Click to sign up for my Quarterly Newsletter
