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.