Those were the days?

An interesting photo montage of Montanchez from the 30s/40s from the archives of Eugenio a.k.a. Jimi Blues our local Hendrix.
There is a strange insert with comment about the modern day plaza de toros, a dismal place, a rectangular space devoted to the amateur torture of bulls.......we went once and saw drunken idiots baiting a bull in the most barbaric fashion and then botching their moment of truth disastrously...the local police had to called in to shoot the poor creature in the head with a pistol...I mean the bull.  Also some comment on the modern graffiti against the proposed wind farm.   Still a quaint reminder of how Montanchez was, well within living memory.

MEDIEVAL FAIR IN CACERES

I had been looking forward to the Medieval Fair as I remember how entertaining it was 2 years ago, it didn’t take place last year as there were too many renovations going on in the ancient part of Caceres. This year we had the company of a client staying for the cooking week* (SEE WEB SITE FOR DETAILS www.finca-al-manzil.com)

This would a good opportunity to see some Iberic and Moroccan street food in action. Of course a medieval fair taking place anywhere in Spain or Portugal always has a strong Moroccan influence. Even though the Moors were defeated in Extremadura by 1230 their influence certainly continued in customs, cuisine and dress for some time to come…….they were not finally defeated in Spain until 1492, nearly 3 centuries later in Granada.

The fair runs for 3 days in November. It takes place in the ancient part of Caceres which is simply magical as a setting especially at night when the soft lighting and many candles illuminate scenes of colour and fun. The stall holders and food vendors do a marvellous job with their costumes, not over done with gaudy stuff but natural fabrics in muted colours, leather, sheepskin, amazing range of headgear, hoods, caps, turbans. In the Moroccan food area up by the Parador the colours are more vivid but everyone is well wrapped up, it’s quite chilly.

There was so much to see, just as we were rounding a bend in one of the narrow streets a troupe of chain- mailed Templers came clanking along singing raucously, costumes looking extremely authentic even with some mud and blood smeared about. There were wonderful wooden carousels and dippers run by energetic men peddling away like mad, not sure if this was a medieval design, surely someone would have made the leap and invented a bicycle from this idea!

The food was really good, lots of sticky honey and nut pastries just like the ones in the Marrakech souk, huge grills with spicy kebabs which were stuffed into flat breads with delicious salads. Tea stalls with mint scent wafting about.

The Iberic food part of the fair was down by the Santa Maria church, piles of meat and sausages grilling, baked potatoes, wine and beer stalls, one stall selling Ginginha, a sweet aromatic liquor made from cherries, sold in small old fashioned bars in down town Lisbon, very warming!

A corner of the upper square was roped off for the most gorgeous miniature ponies and beautifully groomed camels for childrens’ rides, the camels behaved with impeccable grace and their usual hauteur, magic seeing these mythical beasts trudging around the alleys of Caceres.

After sampling various foods and beverages and enjoying some pretty music played by wandering minstrels we headed back down to the main plaza for one last drink. A really entertaining evening, can’t wait for the next one.

Millions of shots of Venice....but these are mine ( LOTS more soon)

A superb time in Venice 05- 11 October -  a complete report soon!

THE CRANES ARE BACK!

 1 hour from Finca al-manzil

Each winter, starting at the beginning of November and continuing until late February thousands of Common Crane (grus grus) decend upon Extremadura from their breeding grounds in Northern Europe. At the peak of their migration there are up to 20,000 between 15 December – 15 January. There are two specific areas where they arrive. One is South of Badajoz and the other is Dehesa Moheda Alta South of Gudalupe within the irrigation system of the Guadiana river near Obando. There are hundreds of hectares of rice fields nearby as well as arable land and huge areas of dehesa covered with cork oak and holm oak both laden with ripe acorns that start to fall at this time of the year. These are ideal conditions for the cranes, they gorge on acorns, insects and herbs in the dehesa and grains of rice and corn left after harvest in the fields. It’s a wonderful sight to see these huge birds crowned with a startling red crest grazing amongst the trees together with the chubby iberic black pigs who have free range of the dehesa for fattening purposes. They form large separate groups of several hundred birds, however, family groups of adults and the current year’s chicks, one to three, can be seen grazing by themselves. All very fascinating, the cranes are quite content to graze within a short distance of passing walkers. There are two observation towers in the area which give an even better viewpoint.