This double-page advert comes from today’s El Mundo newspaper:
Category: spain
sodden
It’s been raining for days. I could have taken a photo of the two inch deep puddle in front of the greenhouse, but instead I went to the piscina natural and made a short video:
Boxing Day
on a foreign shore: icing-tipped waves
toss tinsel into the clear air. We play
at Wenceslas in the sand, taking it in turns
to be the page. We look for sea holly and sing
carols under the curious gaze
of a parrot in a palm tree.
olive gathering
It turns out they are harvesting the olives and the pole is being used to beat the trees to make the ripe fruit fall.
I know it’s totally non-pc, but I am reminded of the saying about “a dog, a woman and a walnut tree”. I don’t suppose anyone dares say that anymore.
Apparently they’ve decided it’s not good to beat olive trees, either. This list of harvesting methods describes “el vareo” as “un método no aconsejable ya que daña al olivo” – it’s not advisable as it damages the tree. The advantage of the method, though, is that it is quick and simple and a lot of fruit is retrieved.
la matanza
Today I came across the Asociación Cultural “Tradición Arenense” , and discovered that at least one of the “cultural traditions” of the town of Arenas de San Pedro sounds quite bloody.
This weekend, according to a poster I saw in a bar window, they are celebrating “la matanza, dios mediante, en la plaza de las víctimas.” They could hardly have chosen a better venue, could they?
Presumably dios mediante doesn’t mean that God will be officiating at the upcoming slaughter; it must be the local equivalent of d.v. – deo volente – God willing. Personally, I’d always hoped the Spanish phrase might be con dios al volante – “with God at the steering wheel.”
don't confuse the narrator 