Feria Alhaurín El Grande 2016

Had a little play around with a new program I downloaded the other day... turned a photograph of a dandelion clock into the above sphere... would look great as a poster wouldn't it?

Today I went to a friends funeral, here in Alhaurín, he was too young, taken too early... He had a great many friends, and the church reflected that.... When you live far from your home of birth and so many of our friends and family are 'over there' some funerals are lonely sad places with only a few new friends or acquaintances... This one was full of the life of our friend, sad but full of good memories and color... he wanted people to wear the colors of our town; pale blue, purple or green... and most people did....

I had to go on my own, Franco had a previous appointment, we met up afterwards and had lunch in town, where can you get a plate of fresh hake and fries, a burger with fries and salad, a basket of bread and two coffees for €9.50?  Arh yes, Bar Cruz!

Some photographs from the Feria! Above, a ram crashing into the crowd near us!  Looks a bit scary actually... and the little babe in arms was scared, from then on in!

A giant chicken, you would not want in a basket later with fries!! Luckily the American Indian nearby kept us safe from him!

 

Lots of fun giants, the larger ones run by men in machines underneath.... turning the giants this way and that, dipping and diving into the crowds, the King and Queen at the lead.... the Queen had the hairiest legs and trainers on... for comfort probably!

Wednesday night we went into town and there was no where to sit at all at Bars Cruz or Rosa, so Franco and I took a seat at the little bar on the corner on the other side of the street, we were the only ones... to start with!  Watching people hanging over tables and standing like vultures for a table to free up at the other two... It really wasn't going to happen, because for the next three to four hours everything was happening at the Cruz roundabout!

One by one people came over and took the tables near us, our friends came over, they didn't see us and had gone to an inside table over the road, I ran over and got them! This little corner bar has recently been taken over by new people and the food smelled lovely, after the parade had finished, we ate, must have been about 10pm, not a great time to eat but we were so hungry...

Not only were there the giants, there were the bands, and a train!! The train took people to and from the feria ground, it was strange seeing one here, it was like the ones down on the coast we are used to seeing, down on the coast!!

The lights over the streets hadn't come on and about 10:30pm a cherry picker came along and a man tinkered with the electrics over by the bars and voila! We had lights!

On Friday day we ventured back into town again... Met up with friends down on the lower road; our town was alive and kicking!  All the bars had their bars outside in the streets, nothing went up in price, the food was cheap, the cars gone, and we were all on the streets, everyone happy, laughing, dancing to the music coming from different bars and DJ's... This is the best time in the town, and even with all the people, all so close, you don't see any drunks, don't feel any danger or worry about who might be bumping into you and why.... you feel safe and the whole town feels happy and is buzzing!

 

Its such a great atmosphere, we had a couple of drinks in two different bars, and then went up and sat at Plaza Baja... there was a mariachi band outside of the purple church, a boat full of hot coals with sardines cooking... from the very young to older girls in flamenco dress' everywhere.... One poor girl was too hot in her dress and her mom was kneeling on the ground with a fan... trying to cool her down from the ankles up!!! lol... so no photograph for that but you can imagine I'm sure!!

We went from there down into the town, Bar Rosa and then to a small bar near the Correo, the post office, and finally a Dutch bar right up the far end of town, everywhere, every street, every table chair and piece of pavement was full with happy smiling dancing people, of all ages and all countries, wonderful, beautiful...

TTFN
Marian

Alhaurín El Grande Feria 2016

Well today is getting busy about town!  The 2016 Alhaurín El Grande Feria is about to start...

Calle's Nueva and San Sebastián are colored purple white and green, stunning and shady, the plazas empty for now, but not later!!

On our way back from our walk, Pippa and I spotted the moon hovering over the terrace....

And below is part of the park we walked.... beautiful, and no dogs off leads... or otherwise!  So it was a good walk, I get so stressed when we're out and there's some massive dog running about off the lead!  Pippa senses my fear and we have to turn tale and go another way!

Down at Bar Rosa this morning, Bar Cruz was too packed to perch at!  So we had churros and café at Bar Rosa, one of the girls who used to work there ten years ago is back, so that was really great!  The town was full of people and cars and its great to see it so bustling and full of life... We have one thing to do today later, then at 19.30 we will be where the action is! Note to self, charge my camera battery now!!!

TTFN
Marian

School of Buddhists...

This morning we went to the local garden centre, had a coffee and then continued down to the coast, Calahonda, again also, another coffee and quick visit to see if friends were home, unfortunately they were out... So onwards to Aki and bought some wood!  Then Mercadona and home!  Bench started, and now nap time!  Well, its Spain and its allowed!  Especially getting up at the ungodly hour of 3:45am to get Franco's son back to the airport!

As earlier mentioned on Facebook, photograph taken below... looks like a school of Buddhists, and most of them with their hands over their ears!!

TTFN
Marian

VidBlog

Don't freak out on me!  My first VidBlog!

Crazy chick that I am! Its this Facebook 'live' thing everyone seems to be doing, and I don't!  I don't know most of the people on my fb any more, and of course I know all of you!!!

I am very confused as to how to turn it off at the end, this is the end of a 27 second vid! Not the longest, I promise future vids will be longer, and only from interesting places, not the safety of my sofa! Because, really, what is the point of that!?!

A trip to Mijas Pueblo today could have been more interesting but I chick-chick-chickened out on that!

So here are some photographs instead!

An insects view from beneath this beautiful flower...

A birds eye view of this human rock climber!

Small frog who I am sure was in the exact same spot last time we were here!

Tiny lizard soaking up the sun before getting frightened away by my phone...

Y al final.... the stairs up from the plaza [still in reform], the beautiful blue flower pots matching the beautiful blue beyond...

It was very windy up in Mijas today, stood in certain spots one could be blown right over!  We had coffee in the little bar up near the famous steps and the small church, lots of tourists about which is great, the roads are closed all over the place, but still accessible by car into the big car park, so no problems for anyone wanting to visit right now; we did see lots of people seemingly lost in their cars [driving!!!], but then, they could have been lost anyway regardless of the roads!

And we are still trying to work out where a new road that has recently appeared starts and finishes, so next time, we will try to find it, and end up lost no doubt! Hmmmm, maybe that is what those people today had been doing, all has become crystal clear... as mud!

Tapas in the bar on the way home and now... home!

And now I must 'publish' or the vidblog will be lost!

TTFN

Marian

In Search of.... Barranco Blanco water fall!

So today in search of the elusive Barranco Blanco waterfall... We have searched for it a few times now, we tried both options roadwise off the main drag... The first brought us almost there.. 

And the second near but not close enough!  Both now seen from the comfort of my lap top and not mobile phone, so now I can see exactly where we went wrong!

But still three photographs otherwise would have been left un taken, so always a plus somewhere in the searching!

Some very beautiful properties down in the hidden valley, although not somewhere I would want to be if unable to drive or walk or want to go for a wander of an evening!! Absolutely fabtastic though, idyllic, stunning... Maybe somewhere I could build my 'cabin by the lake'... very private!

Its been a very busy week, I got home on Sunday evening and Franco's son arrived Tuesday mid day, we met with friends in Malaga airport arrivals first and had a couple of coffees with them... Then the grand tour started on Wednesday!  Malaga by train from Cartáma Estacion, Thursday Plaza de Naranja in Marbella followed by lunch in Puerta Banus and a wander around the million euro yachts rental Lamborghini's and posh shops!  Friday and down to Calahonda, Fuengirola and the tapas bar near Mijas pueblo before home... Saturday and we were down to Benalmadina, and Plaza Mayor in Malaga by way of Torremolinos!  Today, Sunday as you know already, mystery tour of the Barranco Blanco and Casa de Flores for coffee and chips!

Its been coffees teas and random food all over the place!

Franco and I are exhausted!  Tour guide can be hard going when you've been at work for a month with no real break, and especially no exercise!  I don't think I walk a mile a week, maybe I should just randomly run up and down the stairs every half hour or something at work, just to get some exercise in?  And Franco has been struggling with a stomach thing we're not sure of, blood tests taken last week and results a week tomorrow, wish we could find out sooner, its our town feria coming up on Wednesday through to Sunday, so the banks and doctors have restricted hours!

TTFN
Marian

Rain rain rain!  Summer was here last week, it lasted for about three days... I went outside to fill the bird feeders and the heat actually shocked me, hadn't realised exactly how warm it was out there.... Been muggy since, and the sun has shown its face over last two days, but only in-between rain showers...

Soon time for home, where it has been raining and thundering and hailstones too!

TTFN
Marian

Be careful what you wish for...

Wild garlic!  I remember saying "I will miss seeing the wild garlic on the road to Rhossili... Well it may not be Rhossili, but its here... I have been seeing and taking photographs of these white flowers as they came to bloom, not even aware or thinking about the leaves!  And suddenly this morning, standing well back and seeing them on approach I realised that's what they are! Wild garlic!  I grabbed a leaf and breathed in the wildness of the fragrance... beautiful...

A little peachy colored poppy thrown into the bargain here... for no reason, because I don't need one"

I'm going to add some of the garlic today to my dinner, I think just for me... in case... In case of any wild animals which may have passed by lol!!

Just adding to my Blog... Having a conversation with the lady I support, I was reminded of a phone call when I was 17! Yes, a while ago forsure... You see the phone rang here, I answered and a man asked for bon-bon I thought, he repeated it when I said "sorry?" and it turned out he was asking for a solicitors in Builth! And we talked of extraordinary things [the lady I support], and I said to her "every day is an extraordinary day." But how we forget this... Come on amigos, make today EXTRA ordinary somehow! Do it now!  We have no idea of tomorrow, don't let today get away...

TTFN
Marian

Couldn't be stranger couple of photographs here... the woodpecker below... flying away from the bird feeder towards the window and up and away from under the veranda... and above the stairs, they can be seen from the high street in Builth Wells, a nearby town to where I am working at the moment...

Lynne, who had come to pick me up and go for walk about and coffee... we both wanted to climb those steps, see where they went!  We went for coffee in a coffee shop, it was 3pm and the owner came out to where we were sat in a lovely little patio area, surrounded by plants and flowers, really lovely... anyway! She came out and told us we had to go!  She shut at 2:30pm and it was 3pm and she had cashed up and closed all the rest of the restaurant up!  What sort of Tea Room.... shuts at 2:30!! The very word TEA seems to suggest its an afternoon place!! Crazy!!

Today had been a bit gloomy, but the sun is showing now a little and the sounds of the little lambs next door bleating away is lovely! It says its going to be warmer here than in Spain over the next few days! Really??? Get a grip on reality, it just isn't!

TTFN
Marian

Whoa... two blogs in one day! Hold the horses! and check your pockets!  Above a small weed growing through the path above... and below a misty photograph... due to taken through glass this morning, catching the dew on the grass...

I did get a better shot of this but, as usual, elusive to me now! and the head line should ready... Stop looking! I've worked it out!  Several Blogs back and a couple of months too probably!  I posted a shot or maybe more of this strange image below!  I could not fathom it at all, and in past shots it looked to be a strange flower in this pine tree... and maybe something stuck to the top, blooms perhaps, or a plastic carrier bag!

And then suddenly, the other photograph being much clearer [when I find it again!]... it also became very clear to me exactly what it is!  It's a bough of the tree peeled away from the branch and still hanging on for dear life...

So clear now to see!

Also remembered another thing from before I had forgotten!  Not sure how much beer I will drink again, without checking it does not contain isinglass first!  Who, after all wants to drink the dried bladders of fish! It must be the little amount of beer I drink though too, because I will not be stopping from eating marshmallows full of gelatin [animal bones], any time soon!

TTFN
Marian

Some photographs today!  This Chromebook is great, but the trouble I seem to have shifting things over so I can actually find them where I want them to be to get on my Blog is crazy! Hmmmmm!

Some more of the beautiful blue bells growing randomly in the garden here...

And I seem to take photographs of the glasses all the time, from different angles with or without the sunshine causing natural effects!

This visit here I suddenly thought to clean out and keep refreshed the little bird bath out by the feeders, so now they come for food and a bath!  Just need to build them some nests and we can put up a BB&B sign!

I never seem to be quite quick enough to get a really good shot of the woodpecker, he lands, tilts his head this way and that, looking into the cage as if to say, how can I get those blooming things!  Although I keep telling him from inside the house... "go to the feeder in the middle!  Its not squirrel protected, or woodpecker!!"

And my little favourite blue-tit with one leg... He can only eat from the easy feeder, and flies off to the caged ones to clear out of the way whenever another bird comes along, then back to the easy one, I feel so sorry for him, but he is brave, and non the worse, adapted using his strengths, and I would miss him if he failed to turn up... Bit like the previously [in other Blogs] mentioned pheasant, he seems to be gone for good, and maybe not for the better...

I remembered a couple of things from yesterday, eventually!  One, the day before yesterday when I started cooking lunch at 11:30, by 13:00 I had cooked three meals... As in lunch for then, stuffed peppers, Mexican style; salmon for the evening meal; and roasted chicken for making Coronation chicken, and it was all done by one!  Felt like I was on an episode of Master chef!!

Rainbow tinted sky the other day... More photographs soon!

TTFN
Marian

All day yesterday had a thing on my mind to tell... kept thinking, get it down, get it somewhere and Blog ASAP... so you know where I am headed... no where!  What was it! Who knows!  Have my phone at hand, I really should have just made a note somewhere on it and... my thoughts would not have been lost now...

I am just really too tired, been a few very early starts, and then at night its too quiet out in the countryside for me!  There was some weird bird or animal noise the night before last, in the end had to shut the window and cook, then the animal in the loft started tramping about like a small elephant!  Rolling things about and jumping from rafter to rafter!  Last night after a long day, it was back at its tricks again!  I will have to get someone to go get it!  We had glis gliss in our house once when the boys were small... he was cute, this could be a squirrel I guess?  It sounds far to heavy to be a mouse and I hate to think of it as a rat!

Weather has been here and there... today looks okay and I need to make the journey on foot into town to run an errand, so it better stay that way!

I am on my count down now, a week on Friday... The first week is okay, the second seems like an upward hill and usually the third is better, but this one feels like glue!  Looking forward to this Friday so can count down the days, maybe thats what I should do... like when we were moving home to Malaga, I had a countdown on my phone!!

Blank mind at the moment, better get some photos today at least to add to here later, sorry for so much nothingness...

TTFN
Marian