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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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MAY
2009
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May
began (as everywhere in Europe except the UK) with, believe it
or not, May Day. The usual celebrations took place but
were perhaps slightly overshadowed by the fact that this year
the holiday fell on a Friday thus precluding the chance of a
“bridge”!
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The
early month saw the summer-weight duvet being packed away for
another year to be replaced by a sheet (well at least on
cold nights).
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The
auxiliary electrical heaters have similarly been put
in store until the back end
to
be replaced by strategically positioned fans.
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Our
eating habits have changed with the season for the Spanish
custom is still to buy and eat fruit and vegetables that are in
season.
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April saw us gorging ourselves on strawberries, which were
replaced this month by our favourite, cherries. |
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Our
local melons are now superbly ripe and our standard starter at
supper time is Serrano Ham with fresh ripe melon –
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...alright its boring, but it's also delicious. |
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It
was a source of great amusement to all and sundry here that,
early in the month, the English Press announced that in the
event of the Met Office forecasting nine continuous days of 30
degree temperatures
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National State of Emergency would be declared. |
Well we are well into that now and indeed 40 degrees plus on a
good day. This will last through until late September
probably and, without any Government Health and Safety warnings,
believe it or not we will survive! |
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Mind you the problem children are the British tourists who still
insist on a “full English breakfast” to start the day .... |
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....followed by a lunch of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding three
veg; two kinds of potato and a good thick British
gravy |
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For
some reason the Brits seem unable to adapt and so it's probably
understandable that in the event of a few warm days the U.K.
Government feels obliged to warn people that habits should be
changed to suit hot weather.
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The
papers also reported that Spain had been nominated as “the
noisiest country in Europe” .
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I
can quite believe this as it is not unusual to find a small bar
with three television sets,
all
on different channels,
blaring out
at
full
volume!
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this of course means that the customers have to converse at full
volume accompanied by the peculiar sounds emanating from the
fruit machine!
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Add
to this the sounds of coffee being ground, milk being steam
heated and the crash of the coffee measurer into the metal
trays... i
and
you can imagine the award was justified. |
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This will be a disappointment to all Italianophiles like
ourselves who were proud of the decibel levels we experienced in
Rome.
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one memorable night we were awoken at 2.30 a.m. by the dustman
with a large orange flashing light crashing of bins
and the crew giving us an opera serenade!
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Well they may have lost their title in the Euro noise contest
but they can take solace in the fact that theirs is a better
class of noise! |
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During the month the Siris tree came into blossom and perfumed
the air with its glorious scent,
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The
Morning Glory burst into action ~ and the Gazanias
continue to carpet the garden.
The
succulents are just about over and had to be deadheaded whilst
up in the campo the wild oats etc have ripened.
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The
sky has been busy with breeding and feeding swallows, while the
sparrows have been hard at it producing their second brood of
the year; they are unlikely to finish there! |
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It
is setting up to be an extremely
good year for olives |
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This is due to the damp mild winter and whilst Spain is the
world's leading olive producer and exporter (much of the
oil is shipped by tanker to Italy to be bottled and sold as
“pure Italian olive oil” at inflated prices!) about 80% of the
crop is concentrated in Andalusia which is the biggest olive
growing area in the world.
click
SPANISH OLIVES & OLIVE OIL
One
unfortunate effect of this is that at this time of year hay
fever can be a problem and with allergic
symptoms beginning to occur at 400 grains of pollen per cubic
metre you can imagine what has happened this year when readings
have shown over 5 million! |
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One problem is that olives are sneaky and you cannot see the
blossom. |
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One
of our local free papers (we get five or six) recently had an
article on Spanish Trivia
...so I thought I would share a couple with you. To see the new
feature
just click on
SPANISH TRIVIA
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It is worth mentioning, I think, that we get our newspapers from
our pueblo English shop
“Essentials”,
ably run by Pam and Dave and their charming assistant Jane.
Since they opened about 4½ years ago they have been a Godsend to
the expat community, providing a focal point in the area - and I
was their very first customer!
Prior to 'Essentials', when we first moved here
about 8 years ago we had to travel about 25 miles to obtain an
English newspaper –
and that was yesterday’s! |
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Now for more
ALMERIAN INFO
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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