Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

Another weekend of festivity...the village held its very intimate Candelaria, when just the locals, their family and a few friends gather to eat paella, morcillas and bacon and dance around the fire.  In fact we also had chicken broth, kebabs, hot chocolate & bunuelos and the local brass band playing the can-can!  The Virgen was carried through the streets at sunset yesterday, we lit small candles and fireworks bounced off the moonlit sky soon afterwards.  Some folk carried on today but we decided to stay indoors and watch a bit of rugby...oh Ireland, what did you do?!

We had spent the day walking above Berchules (again) with some English visitors and were delighted to be back for the fun.  On the walk we encountered frozen trees, icicles, a boar-hunting group and a minor snowstorm.  Steve brought his homemade wood stove and was able to boil up water for tea and coffee (taking great care to keep the flame contained within the stove) and we all had enough warm clothes on to cope with the chill when the sun disappeared.  Winter walking up here means proper gear, especially boots.  I usually leave Steve to bring emergency stuff but I think I will make sure I have my own knife, torch etc in case we get split up.  I did make sure the mobile was fully-charged however, and took spare socks and extra base layers.

I see that I have had almost 26,000 views of my Blog.  Thank you to everyone and I hope you keep on reading it.  The motorbikes have not featured much recently (weather) and even my recipes have fallen away (will try harder), but the Spring may see more outdoor adventures...who knows.

At last!  The dead chestnut is down, laid full length on the ground like a beached whale or an old elephant...and no damage done  to man, beast or electricity cable either!  This last point was our main concern and right up to the last minute we were spending a fortune trying to contact someone at Endesa to come and lower the line...in the end we had to get on regardless and luckily all went well. 

Our friend Giles, a trained arboriculturalist, got up to about 30metres and carefully trimmed off the main overhanging branches.   Steve had already put  a rope onto one of them, so it pivoted in a very elegant fashion and dropped into the barranco; the other, bigger set of branches did catch the cable on the way down but there was enough slack for it to take the hit and bounce back up again.  The final job was to bring down the rest of the tree, main trunk et al which Giles was able to do on the ground.  He cut a 70 degree wedge on the side that we wanted it to fall (away from our neighbour's swimming pool), then chain-sawed the other side until there was just a sliver of wood holding it all upright.  Then he hammered in a few iron wedges, swung the sledge at it a few times and ....down it crashed, to a round of cheers and claps.  We were delighted and we now have a lot of firewood for next winter.

The other, live tree has also been trimmed down and cleaned out by Giles, adding to our supply.  The next challenge is cutting it all up and hauling it up to the village.  There is no vehicle access within 100 metres so it's a case of 'have wheelbarrow, will travel' and a lot of sweated labour.  Our new daily workout!

A bit of the wood has already been burned on the village bonfire (the Chisco) but this was nothing compared to the Torviscon celebrations...bonfires blazing all through the town, fireworks and fairgrounds and hot chocolate...the winter cold has been kept at bay and we've all had a weekend of hangovers, but also lots of fun!

It's getting much cooler up here and we are anticipating some rain and snow over the next few days.  Today I made a yummy soup which we ate out on the balcony, but then the clouds came over and now we are inside with the woodburner!  No doubt it's cool 'oop north' as well, so here's the recipe in the order in which you'll need things:

40g butter, 1 onion chopped fine, 675g parsnips, peeled and diced or chopped fine, 1 leek (optional) chopped fine, 3 or 4 stalks of celery chopped fine

1 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground turmeric, 1/4 tsp chilli powder

1.2 litres chicken stock,  150 ml single cream

1 tbs sunflower oil, 1 x garlic clove finely sliced, 2 tsp mustard seeds, salt & pepper  seasoning

Melt the butter in a big pan, add the onions & parsnips and fry gently for about 5 mins.  Stir in the spices, put the lid on and sweat for a further 5 mins.  Add the stock and seasoning if required.  Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 45 mins or until all the vegetables are tender.  Take off the heat and cool slightly, then puree in a blender (if you don't have one it doesn't matter, it will be just as tasty left au natural).  Return the soup to the pan, stir in the cream and heat through very gently.  Heat the oil in a small pan and quickly fry the garlic & mustard seeds.  When the garlic is browned and the seeds popping, remove from the heat.  Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and garnish with the hot spice mixture.  Serve immediately with some fresh and crusty bread.  Expect everyone to have second helpings!

Hasta luego!

After 2 late nights in succession, we blew away the cobwebs today with a 5 hour walk above Berchules in the Eastern Alpujarras (Walk 12 in Jeremy Rabjohns' book) and had the hills all to ourselves except for a brief encounter with a horned mountain goat and several grouse.   This walk is really worth doing just for the beautiful mule path up the hillside and the amazing stone-built acequia on the ridge.  Also stunning views to the south and east.  Even at 1700m it was T-shirt weather - Steve still in his shorts but he had the grace to pack some lower 'legs' in his rucksack just in case!  I boiled in lined trousers and tied my jacket round my waist for the whole trip, but  I was glad of it by the time we got home (after another stupendous red/purple sunset.) .   If you decide to give it a go, we would suggest that you allow a good 5 hours for the walk, take water and don't whinge on the steep bits!!   We had coffee before and a cerveza afterwards in the excellent bar at the bus station car park...lots of photos of James Dean & Marilyn Monroe on the walls, with guitars and motorbikes hanging from the beams and a very genial owner who speaks some English.  

Back to normal routine now and I must make some lemon and ginger marmalade...

What a great day we had yesterday...our small village really burst into life for a few hours...another unique moment... We started with a walk at 11am, around the valley and then returned to the plaza with firewood, food and booze, to find the local bar also open and people beginning to drift into view.   By 3pm we had the bonfire ablaze and 2 local and excellent drummers had got the tom-toms started.  Everyone brought a plate of food and a bottle, so there was no shortage of sustenance.

A 5-a-side football match followed, played around and over the bonfire but with a decent leather ball.  The children, dogs, cats and onlookers kept to the sides of the plaza more or less! For the first half our team (the Village/honorary Spaniards) consisted of 4 men and 1 woman (me) and the Visitors (a similar gender balance and Dutch, American, also some out-of-town Spaniards).  The second half (with a long break for refreshments) saw us 2-4 down, but Steve went off and changed his flip-flops for boots, I substituted  with Francisco and we finally won through to 7-5.  Everyone was hot and exhausted by the end but it was great fun.  Next year we might go for an oval ball and some touch rugby!

As dusk drew near, 2 guitarists and a violinists struck up alongside the drummers and around 50 people listened or danced to music that ranged from Santana to French country dances to the Last of the Mohicans track.   At some point we tried to dance a bouree (a minuet I believe), we managed a bit of tango and of course everyone can jig from one foot to the other...the ages ranged from a babe-in-arms to 70+ and as is so common in Spain, everyone mixed regardless.  The teenagers mingle very well here and once we had all had a glass or two of wine, a snatch of tequila and various other beverages, we were set to party until the early hours.  The fire kept us warm and was still just alive at 10am when I went out to check and clear up the empties.

Another splendid Christmas in the Alpujarras!

I hope you are all having a very cheerful time tonight, having walked, run, biked, eaten, sung and slumped through the Christmas festivities!  It's a clear and starry night here and our roast lamb,chocolate cake, various alcoholic beverages and sweeties have all been long since digested.  I had another go at making Florentine biscuits (recipe by Delia is great) and can only say that you absolutely must get the ingredients right especially the weights/proportions.  Otherwise the biscuits flow all over the place!  Also, watch the oven like a hawk!  A perfectly cooked Florentine is a thing of joy; a burnt one is of no use at all!

We took the VFR out for  a run in the sunshine on Thursday (when was that? what day is it today?) and followed some lovely roads over the Contraviesa near Rubite and Murtas.  Spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada and its delicate covering of snow...more to come on Tuesday I believe, and of the Mediterranean to the south.

Our Kaki (Sharon) fruits are browning nicely in the winter sunshine and fresh air, so we should get some yummy dried fruit in a few more weeks; the winter lettuces (letti??) are doing well and a few beans are poking their heads up through the soil.  We have done a lot of soil turning and preparing, with a rotation plan so that we don't plant in the same place 2 years running.  The goat compost is dug in, the seed packets are rattling...all the usual Xmas expectation of greenery to come!  I expect many people are doing this with much greater expertise than us!

Tomorrow we are going for a long walk in the morning with friends, then there will be a musical 'event' in the plaza - bring your own plate of food - followed by a quiet evening by the fireside.  One or two evenings like that and then we will be ready for the Old Year/New Year fun to begin!

Calling all (male) tangueros or would-be tangueros who live/visit in this part of the world!  I am seeking a regular dance partner for classes and milongas (tango dances) in this area, between Motril and Granada!  Having attended the Lanjaron Festival this weekend and enjoyed  the experience, I feel that I will only progress further with a regular partner at intermediate level.  So come on chaps, polish your (leather-soled) shoes and get in touch.  These days you can wear jeans and be yourself, it's not a formal ballroom thing at all.  Ideally you would be between 5'4'' - 5'9'' but age is not an issue.  If Steve was interested he would clearly be my only choice, but though the man rides motorbikes like a dream, he has 2 left feet on a dance floor (unless it's Blues of course).

Time to go round the house and batten down the hatches...night has  fallen and the village is silent...

We've had a busy and useful couple of days down on the huerto (kitchen garden), getting ourselves on the road for 2012,  What shall we plant and where?  How much goat shit do we need and are we ready to dig some in yet?  Can we remember where things went last time so we rotate our crops properly?  Today we sat in the sunshine with pad, pencil, thermos and biscuits, gazing out over the available space and pondering on the possibilities.  Then we did a lot more digging, put in a crab-apple tree, a redcurrant and a blueberrry, and lightly watered the broad beans (habas) and winter lettuces (lechugas).  The garlic is already out of the ground and looking good.

Tomorrow we will go for a walk as it is St Nicholas Day, my birthday (Steve's was yesterday, the poor old boy - 2 days older than I am) and forecast to feel like 17 degrees.  Probably about 0 just now with the moon up and a clear sky, but oh what fabulous sunsets we're having!  Or we might put on our leathers and get out on the roads...but so will half of Andalucia so maybe not! 

We are also planning a supper for our French and Spanish walking friends, sometime before Xmas, and my 'pudding' plan is three-fold: chocolate & chestnut truffle cake, pears in red wine sauce and delicate Florentine biscuits.  All fairly easy and can be made in advance to some extent.  The main course might be wild boar with mushrooms and the starter something with prawns and chilli, but not sure yet.  The there's tapas to consider as well...

I have offered to post this message for a friend out here.  She is looking for a lodger to share her very pretty house:

Single person accommodation available in an attractive house in Atalbéitar. Recently renovated and all in good order, fab terrace with mountain views. Own room, share bathroom/kitchen/washing machine etc. Short-term stay is OK.  Weekly rate of 50 euros to include elecs/gas/water etc . 

Phone: 0034 672 778 622

I cannot pass on messages for her so please ring her direct!    

Steve has posted a video on YouTube of his recent walk in the mountains.  Go to 'Mulhacen in Winter' and you should find it.  Apologies for the quality, especially the sound at the end, but it will be better next time!