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Outside of Dublin and London we don’t think we love – and know – a city more: Granada. Long before lockdown, privately-made ‘strolls’ though cities – normally filmed in 4K – started appearing. Some might say they are a niche market: ‘why would I spend an hour watching a walk through the streets of Lisbon, … Continue reading
It’s noticeably busier in Granada this week. The streets will progressively fill over the coming months until August, when the heat gets too much and people head out to cooler places. It’s already mighty hot; Spain’s first proper heat of the year has swept across Andalucía. Weather maps have turned from orange to red, and now … Continue reading
This cute window, full of jars of miel tomillo (thyme honey), was spotted today in Lanjarón. Órgiva’s nearest town even has its own honey museum, which, like this person’s home, is filled with honey collected from the hundreds of hives that perch on mountain sides in the area. To us it sums up what La Alpujarra … Continue reading
We know the exact time these watches and timepieces stopped ticking, but when? Where was Uri Geller when we needed him? Perhaps he was enjoying a bowl of salmorejo with a bent spoon in a tapas bar around the corner. While we were looking for a certain tapas bar in Málaga, we stepped back in … Continue reading
As we enter the last week of February, devoid of a leap day (the next is 2016), we awake to light and not dark. For several days the air has been warm, the daily ritual of building a fire will soon be gone. Away from the roads and bustle of Órgiva, the rocky, mainly dry riverbed of … Continue reading
As Ernest Hemingway once said after eating half a tuna in one go: ‘Si tuviéramos que visitar una sola ciudad en España, esa debería ser Granada’ (If we were to visit one city in Spain, that should be Granada) – and we’re tempted to agree with him. A little biased perhaps – it being our … Continue reading
On a clear day you can see forever – just not today. While the UK faced its coldest night of the winter so far, here we experienced our first Spanish snow. Not exactly crisp underfoot – more soft and a bit sludgy – we still had to take care on the road leading into Bubión, one of … Continue reading
A while back, the internal courtyard next to Órgiva’s fishmongers was suddenly emptied of cats. After buying some gambas we’d always take a peak at the throng of moggies behind the glass – a bit like Clarice Starling approaching Hannibal Lecter in his cell – only with lots of miaowing instead of the sucking of teeth. … Continue reading
Here are a few things collected from the garden as the warmth very slowly recedes. On the left is a prickly pear which are a nightmare to handle. They have tiny spikes, thinner than a strand of hair, which can get into your skin with ease. What’s more, they are then almost impossible to see to … Continue reading
We’re the millionth visitors to take the same pictures of ham but that is, after all, what Trevélez is famous for. The highest village in mainland Spain (although some would dispute this) is similar to most other white villages in Las Alpujarras: Moorish, cute (mostly), touristy in places – mainly the lower part (Barrio Bajo) – and … Continue reading
In the 1970s, a family friend posted various bits ‘n bobs to a boy (one of us) about R.M.S. Queen Mary – the ‘Quadruple-Screw Turbine Steamer’ that sailed the North Atlantic from 1934 to 1967 for the Cunard White Star Line (as it was at the time). The ship is now permanently moored at Long … Continue reading
This shot, taken when friends Zainab and Kurban came to stay, was taken in Pampaneira – one of the nearby ‘white villages’ in Las Alpujarras. We’re not sure if the seated man had lost his tour party or was a local taking a rest. Either, what a lovely spot to relax. Related posts: Pampaneira: traveller, … Continue reading
Walks around the vicinity throw up all manner of things: half-alive cicadas, scorpions, decapitated mice, rogue dogs chasing our cats up trees, dung beetles, wild boar damage, 20-metre trails of black ants and the odd dead bird (not resting). So here today, gone tomorrow – we can now add a shed snake skin to the … Continue reading
A walk in heat that would melt a candle in minutes probably wasn’t a good idea; still, we headed off west out of Órgiva towards the solar plant. No idea why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. With almost-crispy wild fennel and thyme each side – dried in the merciless heat with … Continue reading
We smelled the fragrant blossom in March and watched the velvet pods grow and burst open to reveal their fruit; almond season has arrived. It’s a labour of love harvesting them; the husks split allowing the shell to dry, then they’re blown to the ground or plucked from the tree. For much of the year the trees … Continue reading
con jamón spain 