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 OUR
REGULAR NEWS FEATURE FROM
SUNNY SPAIN |
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To
find a diary month from our Newsletter, just click
DIARY DAYS IN SPAIN
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JUNE
2009 |
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June began with a change of gear on the weather
front as summer blazed its way into being.
Night-time temperatures were in the 20s with
daytime around the mid 30s.
Even a sheet is too much to bear
in bed!
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In fact summer this year seems to have started at
least a month earlier than usual with all that that
entails.........
Whilst we enjoy the
heat when the Peninsular heats up early bad weather from the
Atlantic tends to bounce off the Iberian high pressure and head
north thus bringing bad weath er
to the Bay of Biscay
(Including Northern
Spain)
bouncing around over
Brittany and Normandy before finishing up over dear Old Blighty.
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I suspect that the
Met Office forecasting a “BBQ summer” for all who stay in the UK
was either plain wrong or Gordon had bribed them
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FIESTA
The beginning of the
month was marked by the blossoming of the Jacaranda, which
traditionally marks the beginning of the Fiesta season.
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It is perhaps
interesting to note that there is no traditional event to mark
the end of the Fiesta season thus it is commonsense to continue
the Fiestas until the next blossoming of the trees. |
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The major fiesta this
month on the 24th, was that of
SAN
JUAN,which
is celebrated all over Spain but especially in the fishing
villages.
Our major fishing port
nearby is Garrucha and thousands of people enjoyed the free
sardines on the beach before a fantastic fireworks display,
which was followed by the burning of several fishing boats.
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At the majority of
Spanish fiestas food is free although many bar owners put their
price up for drinks by about 20%. This can hardly be deemed
profiteering as they are losing the profit on food and have to
compensate staff for missing the festivities. |
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San Juan is not just
a fisherman’s festival, it is celebrated all over the country
and in many ways has parallels with Guy Fawkes Night and
Halloween in the UK. |
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Bonfires are very much
the theme of the night and according to tradition if people jump
over a bonfire three times on San Juan’s Night (the 23rd) they
will be cleansed and purified and their problems burned away.
Ritual rules at San
Juan after midnight people wash their faces and feet three times
to be granted three wishes and a happy 12 months.
Children tend to do
Witchy things
and traditionally the
Spanish did not visit the beach until San Juan’s Day each year.
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The Oleanders
are now in
blossom, looking and smelling as beautiful as always. I note
that they are now advertised in the British Weekend gardening
Press as ideal indoor plants, however there appears to be no
warning of how toxic this plant is ...
it is
in fact one of the most deadly plants known
Several years ago there
was the tragic case of a family who skewered meat onto Oleander
branches for a BBQ and they all died. Prunings and even the
smoke from burning the plant is toxic.
[Medical
advice link]
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On the positive side
they are extremely tough and easy to grow shrubs, which in Spain
are good pioneering plants on poor ground and are almost
maintenance free, hence many dual carriageways out here have
them planted in the centre aisle. |
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Another welcome
arrival was the flowering of the Yucca plants ... |
which always
seems to represent the hot weather but they only lasts about a
week.
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We are now getting down
to some serious Veranear which sort of means to summer or to
spend the summer and has no immediate equivalent in English,
probably due to the fact that the Spanish summer has no
immediate equivalent in English either.
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Toward the end of
the month Spain began to grind toward the summer time halt with
many people taking a month’s holiday, though others will take
August, thus bringing welcome business for the tourist industry
to help tide them through the bleak mid winter.  |
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At this time of year
MADRID
is approaching a ghost
town; being sort of in the centre of the country it has very
cold winters and bakingly hot summers that most people run away
from.
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However as always the
wives and children can find the time for enjoyment,
...whilst husband and
father has to work at least some of the time to pay for the
holiday,
thus he has to
“quedarse de Rodriguez” (to stay like Rodriguez) -
Rodriguez is the second
most common name in Spain and the expression describes the way
men stayed at home to, er, work whilst hanging out with their
similarly unfettered mates, there’s always an upside!
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A major crime outbreak
in the area has disrupted our lives this month with the arrival
of “El Bandido”.
Wanted for the theft of
pussy dins and kittybix by both Cho Cho our inside cat and Zoo
Zoo the outside cat we have reported this matter to the Guadia
Civil and the Policia Local.
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The problem is
that their search is made much more difficult by the fact that
no one knows his true identity – because he always wears a mask
he’s known to folks in these parts simply as The Bandit!
As you can see
from the photograph...
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...+ for more
ALMERIA SPANISH INFO - and my SPANISH
TRIVIA...
see links below |
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Sue says
remember to click
for more in her
Spanish Garden:
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REMEMBER! To find
a DIARY MONTH from our Newsletter,
just click
DIARY DAYS IN SPAIN
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And
see more recipes at
MIKE'S TAPAS BAR |
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©
PLUS
2006