Yes, they are here! The almond trees are blossoming everywhere in hues ranging from white to a sharp pink. It is absolutely beautiful and some of the hills here where I live are covered giving them a slightly furry look.

And here is a picture to show you the nice flowers. I took it while I was out walking the dogs (El Rubio was at home playing with his daddy) and again I am really impressed with the quality of photos that come out of my little phone. Go Nokia!

As you can see the weather is looking a bit dramatic, let me just get you another photo so you can see the countryside a bit better.

There you go! Nice isn’t it?

Just before the almonds trees blossom they look all boring and dead with their dark branches and hardly any leaves. And then this explosion starts. I don’t think I have seen this amount of flowers on any other tree, they are so closely bundled together you almost wonder how they manage.

I do prefer the view here more when it is not summer. First of all you get some great dramatic clouds like the ones in my photo. Completely changes the whole landscape. Secondly, in the summer when the sun is high in the sky it almost washes out all the colour and contours and makes everything look much more flat and just yellow and hot. Of course it is yellow (due to the dry grass) and it is very hot, but you definitely get the best photos in the early morning or in the evening when you might manage to get a bit more depth in your images.

Over and out, must go and pick up little one from nursery.

Unfortunately my blog has been down, so I have not been able to let you all know that it was my birthday in the weekend.But it was, and it was a really nice day, even though the weather has gone a bit cooler and it was a bit overcast.

We drove to Marbella and had a really nice lunch in the harbour, just me and my little family. And when I say the harbour, I don’t mean Puerto Banus. I think I would be silently grinding my teeth (or maybe not so silently?) during our meal just thinking of how large the bill was going to be, had we gone to Banus.

Anyway, I don’t think Banus and Nuevo Andalucia (located just behind Puerto Banus) has that much atmosphere, I much prefer some of my secret places down in Marbella. Those sorts of cafes and restaurants where you won’t find many tourists and you certainly won’t find steak, eggs and chips on the menu.

I wonder what it is like living in Puerto Banus? Would it feel like the real Spain (and what is the real Spain anyway? That’s a discussion for another day…) with all the rental apartments, villas and hotels everywhere? I really strike me as one of those places that triple in size in the summer and might be a bit empty the rest of the year.

This post wasn’t supposed to be about tourists and non-tourists in Spain and where they live, but about my birthday.

Suffice to say I had a really nice day. With El Rubio being so small and the fact we have a really good routine going at the moment, I find it so much easier to go for a nice lunch rather than go out for a meal in the evening.

Tired now, even though the little one slept through last night! Hurray. Let’s have some more of those.

Here we are again. On hold on the phone trying to get through to Telefonica. Telefonica, the company we love to hate…

As the name suggests Telefonica has to do with telephones here in Spain. They used to have monopoly on offering phone lines, but some years ago they got privatised and other companies could move into the market.

Tele2 now offers line rentals in some areas, but of course they start in the larger and more populated areas and cities, so I will probably have to wait a few year more…I wouldn’t mind being able to move away from Telefonica straight away.

Some areas in the countryside/campo you cannot get a phone line. Telefonica used to be obliged to provide every house with a telephone connection if they so desired, so some places they had radio or satellite phones (not quite sure which) but this is no more. So you might be so unlucky that they don’t want to provide you with a phone now.

Anyway, it was all about being on hold. Which I have been. A lot.  And sometimes they put you through to this stupid automatic system which tells you you have tell them which department you want to go to. About 50% of the time it does not understand what I am trying to say and hangs up on me after 2 attempts! How bad is that? Doesn’t even put me through to someone, just hangs up on me.

So as soon as it is possible I will get a fixed line with someone else. I guess you can expect me to be whining about them when that happens.

Today I am going shopping! The sales start a bit later here in Spain, just after Reyes, and with us being in Las Alpujarras I just haven’t had a chance at all.

Usually they are quite good here in Spain. They have a big sale in January and a big one in August and if you need something fairly expensive there are some good deals to be made.

So we are going to La Cañada, the shopping centre in Marbella and just maybe moving on to another shopping centre in Fuengirola, but I think that might be a bit too much for our little man.

The great things is because he is still so small, it doesn’t really matter that we buy his birthday presents whilst he is there. I doubt we will be able to get away with that next year though.  The only bad thing about all these sales and the shopping is of course that everybody else will be out as well. It makes me so tired walking around a shopping centre absolutely full of people, but with all the rain we’ve got today, I doubt I have much choice. Maybe it will be a little quiet because it is Monday?

I shall keep you posted…

Here is our harvest. (Notice how I keep going for the “we” even though I didn’t do anything.)  21 big sacks of olives. The weigh so much that we had to load the car several times to drive down the bumpy  campo track  to the mill in the village.

From the village you can just see the snow covering Sierra Nevada, even though I doubt we will be going up there this winter to have fun in the snow. Not enough time  and the little one will enjoy it a bit more next year.

Look how stained ones hands get from picking olives! It is quite incredible how that ends up as golden. I wish I knew the whole process of making olive oil, but I don’t. I did have a tour of the local mill but that was some 6 years ago when my spanish wasn’t that good. And my memory has gone to shit anyway, so I don’t remember all the little olives have to go through to become olive oil.

The sacks weighed in at 631 kilos which will translate to approx 120 litres of olive oil. I think there might be a lot of cooking to be had over the next few months. And a lot of pressies!

Luckily I have not had the experience of olive oil going all over my luggage when I transport it home, but now I can’t have it in my hand luggage due to the new restrictions, I could be in for a nasty surprise one day…

So we did end up picking olives anyway. Or to rephrase that, El Hombre ended up picking them.I have been involved in picking them before and quite enjoy doing it (maybe for the first day or so, but then…) but with the arrival of El Rubio there was little I could do. Olives stain like crazy anyway, and I can just imagine him crawling around on the nets covering the ground, squashing olives and getting absolutely covered in the red colour.

And then he would probably try to eat it. Yummy, you might think. I love the taste of olives. Well so do I, but never ever bite in a fresh olive as they are nothing like the olives you know and love. The are the most bitter thing you can imagine, and I have several times stopped people (tourists) in the nick of time (or not quite in the nick of time, unlucky for them) from showing fresh olives straight into their gobs.

Our olives are not going to be eaten but going to the local mill so we can have some liquid gold, Olive oil!
Since we don’t have enough olives to make a proper business out of it, we just take them to the mill and get some oil in return. The miller will keep some of the oil as payment and will probably sell it on. We will be collecting all the olives together soon, so you can see how many we’ve got!

We are on holiday in Las Alpujarras in the Granada region.  The plan was to see some family who are down here for a while, and when we realised that the nursery is closed until the 8th of January anyway, this was a good time to go.

Since it has been pissing down more or less since we arrived, activities have been restricted. But I don’t really mind as it means that we have been spending a lot of time cooking and, more importantly, eating. Kind of like a continued Christmas which is fine as we didn’t overeat that much in December.

We were hoping to pick some olives, but we have had conflicting information on whether they are ready or not. There doesn’t seem to be much point if they are not coming off the threes easily, as you will spend so much energy beating the poor threes over and over again to make the olives come off. Yes, that’s how you do it. Beat the threes with stick and then collect them as well as hand picking some of them. First though you cover the ground with netting which you can easily gather together, getting all the olives on the ground and then gathering up the net once you are done.

I’m guessing we have to come back later in the year when the olives are more mature.

I felt a bit rude when I took this photo the other day. I just spotted these vulgar cakes in the window in a bakery in Malaga, so I popped my head in, took a picture and left. Quickly.

I thought they illustrated very well what Spanish cakes are generally like. Too much, is one way of describing them. Usually very large like the ones in the photo and just too much. They are too sweet, too fatty too boring and just not very tasty. There seems to be no finesse in Spanish cakes, just vulgarity.

El Hombre is getting a bit annoyed at me for insisting on buying and trying various Spanish cakes and confectionary in cafés, bakeries and shops. I arrive home excited thinking that this might be the one nice cake, only to usually get very disappointed because I do love my cakes and I do desperately want to find some nice ones in Spain.

France seems to have that sophistication when it comes to cakes, that doesn’t seem exist down here. I am desperate to go to Barcelona where I have never been. To see all the cultural highlights and try the food and cakes. I am getting quite sick of the food here in Malaga. I think it is boring and same samey. So when I do go one day, I will give you the verdict afterwards.

Oh…continuing my talk of dogs here in Spain, it is funny how many people comment on how large our dogs are. Our Labrador is a small female Labrador and our other dog is a slightly smaller Labrador mix. Maybe they seem larger and more dangerous to the Spanish as they are black and I have heard from someone that Spanish people consider it bad luck. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure of.
One of our neighbours was very surprised when I told her that yes; our dogs sleep inside the house. If she had known they often sleep on the sofa she’d probably have a heart attack.

I have a theory that the dogs recognise when people speak English or Spanish. They certainly seem to perch their ears when they hear English if we are out for a walk, knowing that these people are more likely to give them cuddles and be nice to them and I don’t know any nation more dog friendly than the British.

Now we have a baby I am sure our neighbours think we are nuts for still having the dogs in the house. But he adores the dogs and they adore him. Especially around feeding time when they congregate around his high-chair eager to snap up any bite that might get thrown to the floor. And it nothing comes their way, they might just nuzzle his hands a little bit in the hope that he drops whatever he is holding. What can I say…greedy Labradors!

Three little piglets went to the market…and they all ended up in the freezer in a Spanish supermarket! These two pictures are from the Alcampo supermarket, but can generally be found in any Spanish supermarket. I know that this is what a little pig looks like and that when I eat pork it comes from a pig but still..it is a bit graphic. I’ll try to get some picture of the rabbits they sometimes have as well. Lying there de-skinned their eyes look huge and so does their front teeth and the skulls stand out. I had to look twice the first time I saw them to determine what animal it was.

In Spain you can find quite a few animal parts in the supermarkets that you don’t normally see in the UK unless you go to the butchers and, I dunno, ask specifically for them? Pigs trotters, snouts, ox tails, chicken necks etc. I think it is because it is a more rural country and it really isn’t that many years ago that a lot of people were extremely poor. So you use everything from the animal for sausages, stews and fry-ups just like we used to do in Britain.
As Britain got richer, people started only eating the nicer and choicer parts of the animals and maybe the same will happen here eventually.

I must admit if I buy some chicken I usually go for the chicken breast. I don’t buy a whole chicken and use all teh other parts for soup or paté or whatever you are supposed to do with them. And I am quite happy that there is no head on the pieces of meat that I buy as well.

Yes, I know I go on and on about all this Christmas stuff, but I really do enjoy Christmas and it is an important subject for me. So I thought I would do a bit of a comparison.

Weather
UK: Mostly wet and depressing weather in the winter, but there is that chance of snow.
Spain: Could be so so, or you might be lucky enough to be able to walk around in a t-shirt and enjoy the sun. This is obviously nice but not very Christmassy at all.

Decorations
UK: Lots of decorations everywhere, in every shop and on every corner. Can be a bit overwhelming.
Spain: Quite a few decorations, but they do it a bit differently. I have seen a fair amount of trees with a shooting star in the top of it. Everybody knows there is not supposed to be a shooting star at the top. Especially not one which threatens to topple the tree because it is so absolutely massive.

Snacks and sweet things
UK: Abundance of yummy things that I would like to eat!
Spain: Uhm..Turron (see picture) in its many many varieties. And I am not sure I like a single one. They also have some cookies called Polverones with Polvo meaning dust, and I tell you they are dusty. You bite into them and they kinda disintegrate into your mouth leaving you coughing and spluttering with all the dust going down the wrong way. Not nice.

What a nice Christmas we had yesterday. First a lazy morning tidying up and eating some leftovers for breakfast (I love warm food for breakfast…) and in the early afternoon we went to the house of some of our friends in the village as they had invited us over to celebrate Christmas with them..

I went over about half an hour before El Rubio and El Hombre as El Rubio just kept sleeping and sleeping. I think all this holidaying has played havoc with his sleep rhythm, but I didn’t want to wake him up. So I went over a bit earlier as we were late (it was literally just around the corner from us) and El Hombre followed when Rubio woke up.

And what a feast. I am so impressed with what they managed to stuff into that little oven of theirs. Turkey, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips and a pie. Quite an organisational nightmare cooking that much food in a little kitchen.
For dessert we had home made cheesecake which was absolutely gorgeous! So we definitely have something to live up to for when they come over for dinner at ours some day.

El Rubio was having a great time crawling around everywhere. He is starting to want to walk more with you holding his hands, but mostly he prefers crawling because it is much faster and he decides where to go himself. Out friends have 4 cats so we spent the whole afternoon and evening crawling after one, then the other again and again.  

So when it came to his bedtime (we had brought over a travel cot) he didn’t give in until he was absolutely exhausted. I can’t blame him though as all the cats were in the room looking at him, so it was far to much fun to look back at them. A really nice Christmas.

Today it is Christmas day. It is never quite the same here in Spain.

I think most people will feel that a real Christmas is a Christmas that resemble the happy memories they have of Christmas as a child and then try to re-create that each year. Ok, obviously providing there are happy memories.
If all your childhood memories of Christmas were shit, this might give you a chance to create a completely new kind of tradition which is just yours as Christmas is Spain for me even after all these years still doesn’t feel like a real Christmas.

First of all Christmas is not as big here as in the UK. You see, the real deal in Spain takes place on January 6th when the 3 kings come and hand out presents to the children. Los Reyes - The Kings the call it. So when the highlight of Christmas is not until January, they don’t start the whole decoration and general shenanigans until much later that Britain. I mean, I can sometimes get well into December before you start to notice Christmas around you. Which is good in the way that you don’t get utterly sick of it come mid December, but for me it also means that I am still warming up to the fact that Christmas is coming soon when suddenly it has been and gone.

It is nice that you are not bombarded with Christmas, but a little bit more wouldn’t hurt. Of course I live in a village down south in Spain and I don’t really know what it might be like in say, Madrid or Barcelona. It could be completely different. Le t me know if you live there and have celebrated Christmas there as well.

You must admit it is pretty damn nice where I live. We have had some of those cold and crispy clear days, perfect for going on a walk. So on a walk we went with our two dogs, a Labrador and a Labrador mix.

People are funny up here in the campo, some of them really shit themselves when they see our two very friendly dogs pottering along.

I always joke that you can tell the difference between a foreigner’s dog and a dog owned by a Spanish person by throwing or pretending to throw a stone towards them.

The Spanish dog will shit itself and make a run for it and the foreigner’s dog will think”Great. Someone to play with.” and pick up the stone and come to you. I know it is a generalisation, but hey, if we can’t generalise how is it possible to explain anything?

Their general attitude towards dogs here in the campo is quite different to in the larger cities. Firstly, the only dogs you see as “pets” in the village a various small dogs, I guess the large ones are too scary or only associated with being a type of working dog as they keep them out in the campo. If they do not hunt with them, then I am not sure what they do do with them. They just seem to be tied up, or in a dog house or allowed roam on the land, but never really loved or taken care of. I always wonder why on earth they have the dog, as they seem so disinterested. Maybe just so they can say they have one? It really is a mystery to me and a sad one at that.

It has been raining quite a bit lately. I don’t actually mind when it rains down here unless I had a specific plan to do something which cannot be done when it’s raining or I have a leak.

I think it is a nice change and it does remind me of living at home. Sitting inside in front of the warm fireplace with a cup of tea or hot chocolate listening to the weather outside.

My wellies get some use now as well. I actually imported wellingtons to Spain as I found the only ones I could get were those long green ones. You know the prober farmer/fishermen type of boots.

When I am out walking the dogs in the rain with my all weather coat and my wellies I do get some looks. Spanish people don’t tend to dress appropriately for the weather in the winter. At least not down here in Southern Spain. Unless you have to work outside all day, people seem to think that an umbrella will suffice just fine.

I disagree. You will not see me in high heels walking down the steep village streets when the rain is hammering down creating little rivers in the street. To me that’s just plain stupid.

And when El Rubio gets older I will be right out there with him jumping in the poodles..