AUTUMN RAMBLE

Yesterday we repeated the long walk which I recorded on this blog on the 30th April. This time, our fiends Mike and Trudy came up from Salobreña, on the coast, to join us. It was another beautiful morning and very warm for late October.

The first part of the walk is a long climb up a track through almond groves and pine woods until the top of the ridge of Entresierras, at an altitude of 1,000 metres, is reached. Here, there is a crossroads where we encountered another group of walkers, the first we have ever met on our rambles. Although the group comprised only 8 people, there were Spanish, English, French and Germans in the company. They had driven up from Almuñecar on the coast and parked in the village of Lentegi below. The steep climb to the summit was as far as they were going. Meanwhile, we took a right turn and followed the ridge. To our east we could see the mountains of the Sierra Nevada with almond groves in the foreground. Unlike the end of April, there was no snow - very unusual for this time of year - on the peaks. To the west was the jagged outline of the mountains of Malaga, while to the south a thin veil of sea mist obscured the coast.

We continued along the track behind El Fuerte, the mountain that dominates Guájar Alto, and stopped for a picnic lunch. The late autumn sunshine provided beautiful light for photography, casting long shadows that accentuated the relief of the mountains and illuminated the dried grasses in the foreground. We then began the long winding descent down to the Rio Toba. Just before we reached the country road that follows the river, we stopped to look at the old oven which was once used for extracting the essence from juniper berries.

Our mountain track joins the river track about 7km from Guájar Alto and we made our way along it back to the village and a well earned beer at Carmen’s Bar. We had set out shortly after 10am and arrived at the village at 5pm. It was a very enjoyable day but the walk is quite demanding and both humans and dogs slept well last night.

GUÁJAR LA VIEJA AND GIRALDA

After our morning walk we took a short drive up the rural tracks to the highest mountain, Giralda, in the Sierra de Las Guájaras (note the feminine ending here) situated directly opposite our house, passing Guájar La Vieja (Old Guájar) on the way. This is an isolated group of houses which once was an important farm. Over generations the land has become divided and the hamlet deserted. A few of the buildings have been converted to barns as some villagers who own parts of the original estate still farm bits of the land.

The light was wonderfully clear and the panoramic views were stunning. We took many photographs. Even at that height, it was exceptionally warm for late October. The rich greens of the pines and the leaves of the almond trees, now russet, contrasted strikingly with the grey and brown rock of the mountains. From our elevated position we could see the the sierras of Motril and the Mediterranean shimmering in the distance.

We collected firewood in anticipation of the colder winter nights, and on the way back, stopped to pick some pomegranates on an abandoned piece of land. The Spanish word for pomegranate is ‘granada’ and I think it’s a great pity that the fruit which symbolises this province is nowadays not considered worth harvesting.

BACK TO NORMAL

In contrast to Thursday’s rain and rainbows, yesterday was much brighter, and this morning was even more glorious. We took the dogs for a walk first thing, before it got too warm in the unusually hot sunshine, and repeated the photo I published on the last blog. Also, here is a photo of the village of Guájar Alto taken during our walk.

OCTOBER RAINS

At last the October rains have arrived. There is thick snow on the Sierra Nevada and the temperature in Los Guajares has dropped to 19C. After a long dry spell the rain is welcome particulary for the vegetable garden and the olives which we will start harvesting for oil in about 2 weeks time. Here is a photo taken this morning from our land of the mountain, El Fuerte. In the clear mountain light the colours of rainbows are always intense. The unsettled weather is not set to last as we are promissed a fine weekend with temperatures bach up to 25C.
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GHOST STORY FOR HALLOWEEN

I posted the article, Ghosts of Granada, on this blog in October 2008.
Please have a look at it again.

Some time later, I was asked by someone who'd read the published piece if
I'd ever seen any physical manifestations while we were living in the
villa. I replied that although I hadn't seen anything or anyone, I had
formed in my mind an impression of a man. He was bearded, wore spectacles
and was neatly dressed in - unusual for a Spaniard from the area - a light
coloured tweed jacket and a shirt and tie. I sensed that this person had a
deep loathing of dogs and that our presence in the house was resented. My
husband said, on hearing this, that he'd seen the landlady not long ago in
the company of a man -evidently her new boyfriend - who fitted this
description entirely. From this, I conclude that she's attracted to this
type of man and that the person whom I'd pictured in my imagination was
her dead husband.

The other day, I was chatting to a woman who asked me to drop in on her
should I be passing. When I asked her where she lived, and she told me
that her house is on the same urbanization as the rented villa which we
were forced to abandon, I explained that I was reluctant to return to the
area in question and gave her a brief account of what had happened to us.
She then told me that she, too, has experienced strange happenings - in
this instance, the kitchen- where objects have been moved, lights
unaccountably dimmed and a strongly felt presence of whom she believes is
the son of her friend, a young man who committed suicide from an overdose
of drugs.

I'm wondering if it's possible that some kind of unusual radiation,
emanating from the geological fault lines with which the zone in question
is riven, could be a reason for these curious events. The whole area has
an unpleasant 'feel' about it, and there is a sense of it having a dark
history. Indeed, it is known that a number of Nazis, fleeing retribution
after the German surrender in WW2, settled there.

This article is being set up for discussion on the American web site on 19th October
http://www.phibble.com/halloween
and will be talked about on the radio (link from the site) on the 26th October.

GUAJAR ALTO - LENTEGI

Today is a public holiday in Spain - el Dia de la Hispanidad - so we decided to take a drive over the mountains to Lentegi. As the eagle flies (no crows up in these mountains) Lentegi is only about 6km from Guajar Alto but to drive to it up and down the winding mountain track takes about 40 minutes.

The journey is worth it for the spectacular mountain views, particularly on a day like today in the lovely light of the soft October sunshine. As you climb above Guajar Alto you can look back at the Sierra Nevada mountains but no snow has settled on them yet. In the opposite direction the jagged peaks of the mountains of Malaga, the Sierra de Almijara, soon come into view.

Lentegi is a pretty, well kept village and we sat on the terrace of the little bar next to the church and had a glass of wine and tapas before going for a stroll through the avacodo and nispero orchards that surround the village. The rock formations around Lentegi are fascinating and the soil must be fertile to support such an abundance of fruit trees. I hope you enjoy the photos.

OCTOBER MORNING

We are having a spell of beautiful, warm weather so I took these photos of our house this morning with the cosmos daisies in flower at the entrance to the terrace. To read more about this property go to www.countryhouseinspain.wordpress.com.

ROMERIA DE ROSARIO SALOBREÑA

This morning we drove down to Salobreña, on the coast, to see the annual procession and fiesta of The Virgen de Rosario. She is one of the patron saints of Salobreña and every October a romaría is held in her honour.

I was particularly keen to look at the parade of beautiful Andalusian horses as my most recently published book, The Adventure of Princess The Pony, is about horses and I was hoping to get some inspiration for another book, or perhaps for some paintings of horses.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed: the weather was glorious and the light, the colour, the noise and the festive atmosphere created a wonderfully vivid scene. There were numerous, brightly decorated floats and horse-drawn carriages. The men were elegant in dark trousers, waistcoats red bandannas and boater hats, and the women and girls resplendent in frilled dresses, their hair adorned with ornate combs and flowers. The immaculately groomed horses gleamed in the bright sunlight, as did the two oxen pulling the lavishly decorated carriage on which reposed the Virgen de Rosario.

Led by the band, the procession made its way through the streets lined with spectators and down to the beach, where a solemn mass was held to honour the virgin. Afterwards, the horses ‘strutted their stuff’ along the beach. We took lots of photos and I hope you enjoy these images.

PRESERVING OLIVES

Olives destined for the table are picked while they are plump, firm, and just beginning to turn from green to yellow, as they are now. When the olives become soft and black, which will be in a month’s time, they will be harvested for oil.

Having selected the best of the olives, the next step is to make a slit in each one with a small, sharp knife. This is very important, as it draws out the bitterness. The olives are then covered with spring water, into which a handful of sea salt has been dissolved. After four days, the olives are drained and covered with a fresh solution of brine. This process has to be repeated at least four times, or until the bitterness has been removed. Some people preserve the olives in water, but I prefer to put them into jars, with plenty of peeled cloves of garlic, plus a bay leaf or two, and cover them with last year’s olive oil. After a few days, they are ready to eat. Prepared this way, olives keep well, retain their nutty flavour, and don’t become soggy.

WINTER VEGETABLES

WINTER VEGETABLES

There has been more torrential rain to the north and east of us, and this morning we were watching on Spanish TV film footage of the floods in Almeria, Murcia and Alicante. These areas are still on orange alert for more heavy rain. Up here in Los Guajares we have escaped the worst of the weather and the rains have been welcome. Showers, punctuated by long spells of warm sunshine, have provided ideal conditions for replanting our vegetable garden with winter produce.

We have sown broad beans, carrots and spinnach. Broad beans (habas) are a very popular crop in Andalucia during the winter. They are very sweet and because they don’t have the tough skins of beans grown in colder climates, they’re often eaten raw. When the first crop is ready, you often see piles of discarded pods on the floors of the local bars, where they’re offered as tapas. Habas need to be sown early because later crops suffer from blackfly infestation, a garden pest which is on the increase, and occurring earlier with each consecutive spring, due to climate change. We have also planted seedlings of winter lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage and onions. Our vegetables are grown without pesticides and we compost all our kitchen waste. We also collect goat manure from the nearest corral.

Our organic vegetable garden is a wildlife haven. The compost bin is literally alive with all kinds of insects, worms and grubs. Spotted flycatchers perch on the bean canes all day long, making frequent forays to snatch flying insects. Frogs and toads have also taken up residence by the compost bin, again because of the plentiful supply of insects. I’ve seen numerous male spiders of the Argiope lobata genus, which favour rank vegetation, but only one female example. Five times larger than the male, it is a most striking creature with a pale, yellowish abdomen, lobed around the edges and shaped like a limpet’s shell. Small rodents are also attracted to the vegetable garden and are hunted at night by owls. By day, eagles circle overhead, looking for the lizards and snakes which feed on the insects.

A STROLL TO FARAGÜIT

Today, on another beautiful September morning, we set off to walk along the old mountain track to Guájar Faragüit. You start this walk by taking turning left at the entrance to Guajar Alto. You can either follow the old mule track upwards, as we did earlier this week (see previous blog), or stick to the wider country lane. Either way, when you come to the first junction, turn left.

This wide track, passable in a 4x4 vehicle, hugs the contours of the mountains overlooking the valley of Los Guájares. We wandered through pine woods and olive and almond groves. When Guájar Faragüit comes into sight there are some spectacular views of the village, looking into the light through the pines and olives, with the Contraviesa mountains as a backdrop.

Although I am not a geologist, I found the rock formations and the lovely shades of the different minerals, in the form of very fine sand, along this walk fascinating. Next time, I shall take some containers so that I can collect samples.

The track ends abruptly in the middle of an olive grove, but from here we picked up a narrow path which winds in a steep descent down precipitous slopes to the Rio Toba below. We were glad we had good walking boots for negotiating this path. The going is muddy as you approach the valley, and the stones are slippery. Curtains of maidenhair fern tumble from the damp rocks, and there are frogs and darting dragonflies.

When we got to the river, the dogs had a welcome drink and a swim in the clear, turquoise green water. We then forded the river and found a path that took us up the opposite bank to the main road and through the valley outside Guájar Faragüit. We returned to Guájar Alto along the road, stopping for some refreshment at the communal picnic area along the way. The walk took us 4 hours.

RUTA DE LOS GUAJAREÑOS

This morning we walked the first part of the old mule track, Ruta de los Guájareños, that the people from the village took to reach civilisation before the current road, along the Rio Toba, linking Guájar Alto with the main Granada road, was built.

At the entrance to the village turn left up the rural road and then, about 100 metres on, just before a little goat farm, take the track to the left. This winds down into a barranco (ravine) and from here you need to climb up the path on the left of the barranco, through the pine forests. Nobody seems to use this path now but you can tell from worn cobbles that it was once a well-used camino (road). There are some lovely views of Guájar Alto as you look back. The meandering path eventually comes out on to a wide dusty camino. Here, the old villagers would have turned left and continued with their mules, carrying produce to sell in the market, to Motril via Guájar Fondón. However, as we were going for a short stroll, we turned right and eventually came to a crossroads where another right turn brings you back down to the village. This walk takes about 2 hours.

It was a beautiful September morning (the autumnal equinox) with clear light and intense blue sky, but as usual we encountered nobody except, towards the end of our excursion, a farmer harvesting grapes. With the generosity typical of the villagers here, he presented us with a bunch of juicy sweet fruit. This provided welcome refreshment as it was beginning to get very warm. Here are some photos taken along the way.

SEPTEMBER WALKS

Although it was a beautiful morning, a fresh breeze made it feel cooler than usual for the time of year, and so we decided to go on one of the long circular walks around our mountains. The walk was the same one I recorded on this blog on the 10th April, but if you look back in the archives at the photos I took that day you can see the change in the landscape. Dried grasses have replaced the colourful wild flowers of Spring but colour is provided by the fruits of the prickly pear cacti and pomegranate trees against the clear blue sky.

This walk takes about four hours if your starting point is the village centre. You take the camino out of the village along the Rio Toba and turn right just past the picnic and bathing area. When you reach the T junction at the top in the pine forests, turn right again and keep right, passing the ruins of Guájar La Vieja and hugging the north face of the Espejo, the escarpment that dominates Guájar Alto. After passing through the ruins of Cortijo de Girón, the camino descends to the main road, 2km before Guájar Alto. Here there is a picnic spot with a waterfall where we stopped so that our dogs could refresh themselves.

Mountain goats may be seen in the rocky slopes along this route, while eagles and kestrels patrol the sky. At the end of this month many migratory birds will be passing over our village, while already the swallows and bee eaters are lining up along the cables in preparation for their return to Africa.

SEPTEMBER RAINS

After months of drought we had some heavy showers yesterday evening. The rain was very welcome as the two reservoirs which collect water from the Rio Toba to supply us and the neighbouring fincas are at a very low level. The olives which are ripening on our trees need water at this time of year to plump them up, otherwise they will shrivel to nothing. Here is a photo of this year’s crop taken this morning. Next month we will select some of the best olives for preserving and in November we will start to harvest the rest for oil.

We heard that there had been some early snow on the Sierra Nevada so this morning, which was beautifully clear, we walked up the mountain track behind our house until we reached an altitude where the Sierra Nevada comes into view. We were hoping to get some photos of the snow-clad peaks, but unfortunately the snow had already melted. Nevertheless the view was beautiful, as you can see from the photo.

At least this year we have so far escaped the terrible storms we experienced in September in 2006 and 2007. A storm reminiscent of these inspired the climax of my children’s book The Wise Old Boar (see www.margaretmerry.wordpress.com). Jaen, the next province, north of Granada, has not been so lucky. After heavy rains, there were severe floods there last night which caused two fatalities. The film of this on the news this morning was horrifying.

Regular readers may notice that I have changed the layout of this blog. It now has a follow feature in the margin. Please click on this to become one of my followers.

COUNTRY HOUSE FOR SALE

Our country house in Guajar Alto is for sale. We are not moving from the area but need to move on to our next project. We have created our own blog for this property which we think is the nicest cortijo in the valley of Los Guajares. Have a look at our blog where we have posted a full description and lots of photos. This photo is of our pool terrace. www.countryhouseinspain.wordpress.com

PRINCESS PROOF

I have just received the print proof copy of my third children's book, The Adventure Of Princess The Pony. I am very pleased with the quality of the production and it should be released for sale within a few weeks.

I posted a synopsis of the book and some of my illustrations on this blog in June. Here are a couple more. I will let you know when it is finally on sale.