The Sun Shone........

........ the village came out en masse, joined by revellers from further afield, and this was Carnaval 2012. Toe see the rest of the set, go to this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_batch=recent_uploads

Something To Watch

There was a flurry of excitement this afternoon. Smoke started to billow up on the mountain behind the village, shortly followed by bursts of flame. Fortunately today has been a day with very little wind, and such breeze as there was came from the south so that the only threat was to the empty territory beyond the village. Fortunately, too, very close by is the Lizar reservoir which feeds the irrigation system, so that when the helicopter arrived it had only a very short distance to go to fill its water bucket, and very quickly matters were under control. It was my first experience of a helicopter with a siren, though.

"Here We Are Again, Happy As Can Be.............

.... all good friends and jolly good companee.” as the words of the old song have it. You can’t keep your inner child down for very long out here, and it does seem an awfully long time since Los Reyes, our last opportunity for a knees-up. Well, not much longer now. Today is the feast of St Valentine, and so we are off out for a meal at our favourite local restaurant. Then next week sees the start of La Cuaresma (Lent), and so on Saturday of this week there will be the Carnival parade through Nerja, our neighbouring town. Fancy dress will be much in evidence, though often scanty despite the cold winter we are having this year, and - so far as the men are concerned - decidedly bawdy. This will be followed on Sunday by El entierro del chanquete, which translates into English as the sardine’s funeral. The marquee set up for Carnival will be pressed into use as a chapel of rest for a large papier-maché sardine. The widow and family, veiled and dressed in black, will receive el pésame (expressions of condolence) from friends and neighbours (i.e. everybody), and the mourners will assemble. The women, including those who have adopted the gender for the occasion will be dressed in the elaborate black and purple funeral attire of yesteryear, and there will be much howling, wailing and downing of the free drinks laid on in the marquee by the town hall. When all is ready, the town band will head the funeral procession playing, alternately, suitable dirges and lively, upbeat ragtime numbers, as the cortege wends its way around the town behind the pall bearers carrying the sardine on their shoulders, arriving eventually at the beach where the cremation takes place.
We then have to wait a whole week until Frigiliana’s own Carnival on the 25th of February, but then the following Tuesday (28th) we get to celebrate Andalucía Day. You may remember that we already celebrated it once already in early December, but the 28th February is the official day recognised and celebrated by the whole of Andalucía; it would be churlish not to join in.

It's Snug Under The Duvet, But............

It looks as if our winter rains are going to follow the pattern of the autumn rains. Only a light shower since the ‘grey day’, with plenty of sun and mild temperatures. My online weather forecast isn’t showing any serious rain over the next two weeks. However, before anyone presumes that I am spending my afternoons topping up a tan on a sun-lounger on the roof, I have to add that a couple of days ago the wind swung round into the north and picked up force. We had an overnight low of -2º and expect a high of no more than 6º today, so we are sharing some of Europe’s discomfort.