Almeria Living - May 2019

May ‘19

Issue 75

Almería Living

A Great Read - Original, Inspiring, Local

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Almería Living A Great Read - Original, Inspiring, Local

Welcome to our May issue of Almeria Living - another bumper edition!

April 2019 will hold lasting memories for many reasons. It has been a month of more ‘lows’ than ‘highs’ for some of us but it will make us stronger to deal with what lies ahead. Appreciate what you have - don’t take it for granted!

Sadly my Mother-in-Law passed away a few weeks ago. She was such a character and will be missed by us all. Reaching your 90’s used to be breaking news but now it isn’t unusual at all. Soon, being 100 will just be the norm! God bless you Mum x Our Harmony Easter Craft Fair went well and was enjoyed by many. The weather was glorious, unlike Easter itself, and it was good to see familiar faces and lots of new ones too. We raised over 650€ for charity, which will go to help worthy causes.

I have been reminded several times over the last week that ‘as one door closes another one opens’ and, with that in mind, there is a great opportunity to join my winning team - see our ad on page 6.

My scribes have been hard at work as always and we welcome Emma Randle, who is going on a very interesting life journey (p.53) and I think Cora is soon going to need a showcase! (p2124). Have you ever heard of Tomas de Zumalacárregui (no, nor had I) - read his story on page 43 and our little green friend Neila continues her story on page 42.

I have been sent a short story that was written many years ago, which I will be publishing next month and it got me wondering how many more readers may have compiled something and then shut it away - find it and send it to me - it could be in print!

We hope you enjoy your read - there is so much of it - and please don’t forget to continue to tell our advertisers that you saw them in the Almeria Living!

Take care, stay safe and talk again in June.

Karen (Ed)

What’s Inside........

Regular Articles & Feature Sections Spanish Provinces

P.6 - P.7

Cora’s Diary

P.21 - P.24

History of Spain

By Mike Woolnough Day Trips & Mini Breaks ¡Buen Provecho!

Our Food & Drink section Cooking with Nina

P.31 - P.37

Wine Critic - Bill Riley

P.70

‘Look Good - Feel Great’

P.11 - P.20

P.60 P.61 - P.71 P.62 - P.66

Health & Fitness with Jacey Canovas P.12 La Alpujarra P.84 - 85

By Phil Taylor ‘Homes & Gardens’

P.27 - P.58

Puzzles

P.44, P.79 & P.87

New - Emma Randle’s Feature

P.53

‘Mojácar Section’

P.73 - P.80

‘Trades & Services’

P.81 - P.87

‘Classified’

P.88 - P.89

‘Wheels’ P.91 - P.99

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What Goes Where?

Do you recycle your rubbish? Properly?

In spite of the fact that we have now had the different coloured rubbish containers for more than 20 years, a lot of people are still not quite sure what goes where, and there are no clear instructions on them either to help us know exactly how to recycle correctly.

We probably all know that paper goes in the blue bin, plastic in the yellow, glass in the igloo and the rest in the grey container. But there’s slightly more to it than that…

The Blue Bin: Paper and Cardboard If you keep a paper bag in a dry place, you can deposit all your paper rubbish in it until it is full, and then either throw out the whole lot together, or empty the bag and reuse it. What goes in the blue bin?

- Most of the stuff that you receive through the post, catalogues, envelopes, junk mail etc - Cardboard boxes from cereals, biscuits, shoes and frozen products - Cardboard egg boxes - Old magazines, books and notebooks, the latter after removing any plastic cover or back they may have

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The Green Igloo: Glass All glass packaging go in this bin.

- All glass bottles from wine, beer, mineral water, fruit and vegetable juice - Perfume bottles - Glass jars from preserves In an ideal world we would take off the paper labels before throwing our glass containers in the igloo, but that may be a bit of a tall order…

The lids should never be thrown in the igloo; throw plastic and metal lids in the yellow bin (or separate the plastic lids and give them to one of the many charities that collect them), corks go in the grey bin.

The Yellow Container: Plastic, Tins, Cans and Cartons Note that all the above should be household containers, not any old plastic etc.

- Tins from preserves and cans from drink - Disposable plastic food containers and aluminium foil - Plastic yoghurt containers and their lids - Lids and covers from glass containers - Plastic water bottles and bottles and containers from cleaning products - Plastic covers from all manufactured goods

Continued on page 4 .....

May ‘19 03

.....Continued from page 3

make sure we dispose of it in the proper containers, not in the yellow or grey containers.

The Grey Container: Organic Residue and NonPackaging Rubbish

In the old days housewives made soap from their used cooking oil, but nobody does that anymore. Therefore, when you change the oil in your deep fryer, or even just throw out the oil from shallow frying, make sure that you collect it all in a plastic container (for example the one that you bought the oil in in the first place).

- Food leftovers - Wooden fruit crates - Glass, metal and plastic objects that are not packaging - Toys

Warning: Wait until the oil has cooled down completely before transferring it to the plastic container.

Batteries No matter their size, big or small, batteries pollute and should be disposed of responsibly. Nowadays, rechargeable batteries are easily available, and they can be used up to a thousand times.

Once it’s full, take the bottle of oil to the special oil container that you will see in most towns and cities, and place the full bottle inside.

This container is usually orange and has ‘Aceite Usado’ written on it (amongst other things).

Medicine

But rechargeable or not, and no matter the size, everything from small distance control and watch batteries up to large batteries needed for old-fashioned torches and the like, must never be thrown away with the ordinary rubbish.

And last, but not least, medicine that you have stopped taking or which is out of date.

Again, medication can do a lot of damage to flora and fauna and should be destroyed or re-used.

There are plenty of collection points, both in supermarkets and public buildings where they can be placed. (You will find one in the office of C.A.T. Services).

Do yourself a favour, though, and don’t collect too many before going – they may rust and start leaking, and furthermore, it doesn’t take many batteries to make up a heavy load that may well break an ordinary cardboard box or plastic bag.

Used Cooking Oil Cooking oil is very bad for the environment, and it is important to

Translation Service Residencias & NIE General help & advice UK driving licence to Spanish Vehicle transfer/matriculation Utility company issues Written translations Letter of invitation Police Check Certificate and so much more

UK Passport Renewals

Mailpoint Worldwide Service Correos & Courier Letters & Parcels Send & Receive

If you can’t find one of these containers, take medication you are not going to use, be it out of date or not, to your local doctor’s surgery or indeed to a pharmacy.

They will almost always take them off your hands and make sure they are disposed of in a correct and environmentally friendly fashion.

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Doctor & hospital visits

If you have stopped taking a medicine which is still perfectly good, there are NGOs and charities which will use them in Third World countries, although their containers are few and far between in our part of Spain.

General Office Services Fax & Photocopy

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El Canal de Castilla Maybe the concept ‘canal’ turns your thoughts more towards Holland and France, who are famous for their canals and barges, than to Spain, but the truth is that there are canals in Spain, too.

And the most important by far is the Canal de Castilla.

It was built between the middle of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and it is an impressive piece of hydraulic engineering. It runs through the provinces of Burgos, Palencia and Valladolid in the autonomous region of Castilla y León.

The original vision was to construct a canal consisting of four branches that would connect Segovia with Reinosa, but in the end only three branches of the canal were built, the North Branch, the South Branch and the Campos Branch.

The canal was much needed as a way of communication and transport to help the badly isolated Castilian plateau which did not have a sufficient road network to transport their agricultural products to other localities.

The canal served its purpose and improved business for farmers and commerce in the area for many years; however, it became obsolete when the railway system was expanded to cover central Spain, and the last working barge was laid up in the 1950s. Since then, the canal’s main commercial use has been for irrigation, domestic water supply and, increasingly over the last couple of decades, tourism.

The width of the canal is between 11 and 22 metres, and the total length 207 km. The canal has the shape of an inverted ‘Y’, with the North Branch starting at Alar del Rey in Palencia and running southwest until it reaches Grijota. Here the canal divides into the South Branch, which runs via Palencia city almost due south to Valladolid, and the Campos Branch which continues south-west to Medina de Rioseco.

Over the whole of its length, the canal has a drop of 150 metres.

The North Branch is 75 km long and has the largest drop of the three branches, requiring the construction of 24 locks. Its water comes from the River Pisuerga in Alar del Rey and run into the River Carrión in Calahorra de Ribas.

The Campos Branch is 78 km long and its level drops very little, so the construction of it only required 7 locks. It starts in Calahorra de Ribas and continues to Medina de Rioseco.

The South Branch is 54 km long and has 28 locks. It runs from Calahorra de Ribas to Valladolid. At the beginning of its journey south, the canal reaches one of its most emblematic points where it

crosses the River Carrión from which it gets its water.

The Canal de Castilla has conserved a great network of historic locks, flour mills, storage facilities and docks; it also supplies water to towns and irrigation water for agriculture. Apart from that it provides an important space for cultural and leisure activities.

The tow path along the canal has been restored to make it suitable for walking and cycling. A number of tourist barges do canal tours which take the visitors through some of the locks and give them a chance to visit some of the localities and sights along the route.

With time, this manmade canal has turned into more of a river than a canal, and several wetland ecosystems have developed along its shores. Right on the water’s edge there is a belt of hydrophilic vegetation consisting of reed and bulrush; behind this, a gallery forest which creates a corridor along and over the river. This is made up by elms, black and white poplars, willows, alders and other trees.

On the other side of the gallery forest there is a third belt of low bushes.

This vegetation has become home to a large variety of wild life, both aquatic and other birds, small mammals and reptiles.

For this reason an important part of the Canal de Castilla, its groves and wetlands have been included in several protection catalogues like Red Natura 2000 or the Regional Catalogue of Wetlands which aim to keep these beautiful and important ecosystems alive and thriving.

May ‘19 05

Spanish Provinces & their Capitals

There are 50 provinces in Spain, each with its own capital city which usually, but not always, carries the same name as the province. Our next of Spain’s provincial Capitals takes us to .........

San Sebastián in Guipúzcoa

Guipúzcoa is one of the three provinces that make up the autonomous region of País Vasco, the Basque Country. It is also Spain’s smallest province, covering only a surface of 1997 m2. With its 720,592 (2018) inhabitants, the province of Guipúzcoa has the fourth highest population density in Spain.

It is situated in the easternmost corner of the Cantabrian Sea and borders on France, Navarra, Vizcaya, Álava and the Bay of Biscay.

The highest point in Guipúzcoa is in the Sierra de Aizkorri which reaches 1,528 m.

Guipúzcoa’s intense green countryside is an emblematic trait; this

is a product of the province’s oceanic climate with its very limited thermal range and abundant precipitations, especially in autumn and early winter. The annual rainfall amounts to between 1,200 and 1,700 mm.

This is one of the few Spanish provinces whose history has not been touched by the Al Andalus realm, and the Romans only made it to the very eastern part with a settlement in the city which is today known as Irún.

The capital of Guipúzcoa is San Sebastian, which is home to 186,064 (2016) Guipuzcoanos.

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The city was founded in 1180 by the Navarran king Sancho el Sabio (Sancho the Wise) near a large monastery devoted to San Sebastian, and took its name from this. Being known all over the world and the rest of Spain as San Sebastian, the city does actually have a completely different official name in Euskara: Donostia. But this again has the same origin.

San Sebastian in old Euskara was ‘Done Sebastiáne’ which through the centuries and various ways of speaking (Donasa astiai, Donasastia, Donastia) has finally become Donostia.

San Sebastian had its ‘Belle Époque’ at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. When King Alfonso XII died in 1885, his widow, Queen María Cristina, who acted as regent until her son was old enough to rule, moved the court to San Sebastian every summer, to the Palacio de Miramar.

Queen María Cristina’s summer courts in San Sebastian did the city a world of good. The modern architectural development that took place there in those years, plus the construction of a casino in 1887 and the city’s stunning La Concha beach were all factors that helped attract visitors from all over Europe long before any other areas of Spain turned into tourist destinations.

Indeed, when the First World War broke out in 1914, San Sebastian turned into one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe with the names of the day such as Mata Hari, Leon Trotsky, Maurice Raval and the like holding court there. There were performances by the French Operetta Company, the Russian Ballet and stars from the international opera scene.

Queen María Cristina spent all her summers in San Sebastian from 1885 until 1928, the year before she died, and the council made her an Honourable Mayoress in gratitude for all she had done for the city.

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Early on in the Spanish civil war, San Sebastian fell into the hands of the Falangists, and afterwards the city acquired a central role in Franco’s government. Just like Queen María Cristina, the Generalissimo spent every summer there until his death in 1975, turning San Sebastian into the Summer Capital of Spain.

Modern day San Sebastian is still an extremely popular tourist destination, and the La Concha Beach was recently voted the best in Europe and the sixth best in the world. This, combined with international events such as the International San Sebastian Cinema Festival, the San Sebastian Jazz Festival and the Quincena Musical, a classical music festival and the world’s oldest music festival, has contributed to making the city a magnet for beach lovers and cultural tourists alike.

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May ‘19 07

The Mediterranean Monk Seal and Morocco; and in the Atlantic between Mauritania and eastern Sahara and in Madeira.

They live both out to sea, on small islands and coastal areas, but always in areas that are not accessible to terrestrial predators. They love caves with underwater access and interior beaches, and that is where they have their young.

The monk seal is a medium size pinniped. The adults measure between 2 and 2.8 m. and weigh 240-300 kg. The females are slightly smaller than the males.

They have a robust, spindle shaped body and a round head with a prominent snout. Their limbs are short with claws on all the toes; their tails short and wide. They are dark grey or brown on the back and their bellies are white. Often the male is darker than the female, but each individual’s colour varies with its age.

Once upon a time you could meet the Mediterranean monk seal on all the Mediterranean coasts, and even in the southern part of the Black Sea. Due to the threat these loveable creatures have faced and are still facing, they are no longer so wide spread and there are only three main areas which they now call home: The eastern Mediterranean including the Ionian and Aegean seas and the Turkish, Albanian, Croatian and Greek coasts; the western Mediterranean in Algeria

They catch their food in shallow waters, close to the surface. They mainly eat fish and molluscs, especially octopus and skate, and the occasional shellfish. Sometimes rests of turtle have been found in the stomach content of dead monk seals.

There is no special breeding season for monk seals, they can mate and give birth any time of year, although late summer and autumn seem to be the busiest months. The mating takes place in the sea.

The females have one calf a year, and it is thought that the gestation takes between 9 and 10 months.

The young ones shed their fur between 7 and 10 weeks after their birth, and they start hunting for their own food at about 4 months of age, when they stop suckling. The females reach sexual maturity when they are 4 years old, the males at 5.

The Mediterranean monk seals live in colonies. When their offspring are young they get territorial and jealously guard the entrance to the caves where they gather to give birth or rest.

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08 Almeria Living

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However, not everything is doom and gloom.

Maritime environmental groups are coming to the rescue, and these are some of the conservation measures that they are working on:

If their food is scarce they go down very deep in search of prey, and they can stay submerged for 5 to 7 minutes at a time. But they can stay in the water for much longer than that.

Sadly, the Mediterranean monk seal is one of the world’s most threatened pinnipeds, and their colonies are ever smaller. There are thought to be only 600 specimens left.

- Legal protection in the countries where they now have their habitats through various national laws, regional and international treaties and EU regulations.

- Establishment of protected areas: reserves

As with so many threatened species, both maritime and terrestrial, their habitat is under constant attack by humans.

- Protection of the caves where they rest and have their young

Human presence is encroaching heavily on the coastal areas preferred by the monk seals, both through industry and tourism. Furthermore, industrial fishing has reduced the monk seal’s food sources considerably.

- Positive measures to control fishing in the seals’ areas

The monk seal has also been widely hunted and killed, partly due to the commercial value of its fur and oil, and because it was considered that they preyed on the fish that the human fishing industry considered its own.

- Investigation into the exact number of specimens left and monitoring of the population

- Creation of rescue and recuperation centres for ill and wounded specimens, especially calves

Another big problem for the monk seal population is the so-called by-catch, which refers to the animals getting caught up in fishing nets and they are then unable to rise to the surface to breathe.

And last but not least, pollution has made huge inroads in the population of monk seals. In 1997, the so-called red tide caused massive loss of life amongst the species, and repeated oil spills have taken their toll too.

- Education and information for the conservation of the Mediterranean Monk Seal, especially amongst the local population As with so many rescue operations to save a threatened species, the effort is happening in the eleventh hour, but let us hope that it is not too late, and that the population of these worthwhile citizens of the sea will start growing again.

Back with a SPLASH Vera Aqua Park situated on the Vera to Villaricos Road offers a warm welcome to all its guests both young and old. This year the park will opening its gates to the public on 23rd MAY. For regular visitors you will notice that the park has been very busy during the winter months preparing itself for the summer season.

Some of the major improvements include: Fresh looking rides and swimming pools, not forgetting last years new attraction the Tsunami along with all the usual favourites such as slides and flumes of all speeds and sizes.

A new Self-Service Restaurant offering a wide selection of delicious food to suit your budget and your taste.

Improved Wash and Changing facilities to use after your fun day at the park.

So when the weather gets too hot, when you are wanting to entertain your summer guests or if you just want to have a fun day out with friends.

COME AND MAKE A SPLASH THIS SUMMER AT VERA AQUAPARK Don’t forget to cut out and keep this discount voucher for use through the summer

May ‘19 09

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Look Good - Feel Great Top 10 Ways to Protect Yourself from the Sun As we head into the summer season most of us will be taking advantage of the warmer weather by spending more time outdoors.

While it may be good for the soul to soak up some sun after a long winter, it can mean trouble for your skin.

More than 90% of skin cancer is caused by sun exposure. In recognition of National Skin Cancer Awareness, The Dermatological Society is urging the public to take preventative measures in the sun this summer, and to see a dermatologist if any blemishes or lesions are spotted.

Top Ten Ways to Protect Yourself from the Sun 1. Use sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of at least 15. Make sure it is water-resistant and reapply every two hours, especially after swimming or sweating.

2. Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before going outside so your skin has time to absorb it.

3. Be generous in application of sunscreen. An ounce of sunscreen should cover the face, neck, arms and legs of the average adult.

4. Wear protective clothing, like hats, sunglasses, long-sleeved shirts and pants 5. Seek shade when possible, especially during the hours of 10:00 am to 4:00 pm when the sun's rays are strongest.

6. Avoid tanning beds as ultraviolet light can cause skin cancer and wrinkling. Use a self-tanning product but use sunscreen with it.

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8. Babies under the age of 6 months should never be in direct sunlight and should always wear a hat and clothing that protects them from UV rays.

9. Adults should perform regular self-exams. It is an easy way to detect abnormalities 10. Talk to your dermatologist.

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May ‘19 11

Knee Care - part 2

By

Jacey Canovas

Knee Pain

Knees rank high on the list of hardworking joints. They are constantly called on in everyday activities - walking, standing, sitting, climbing stairs, carrying the shopping - and in almost all sports and exercise.

Every step we take on level ground puts one to one-and-a-half times our body weight on each knee, and going up or down stairs doubles that load.

So what are the main contributors to knee pain? And what can we do about them?

Wear and Tear Articular cartilage protects the ends of the upper and lower leg bones where they meet at the knees. Constant friction of movement - from extensive exercise, or just adding up over the years - can wear this cartilage away.

If the bones then begin to rub directly against each other the result can be chronic inflammation in the joint. This in turn can lead to osteoarthritis, a condition estimated to affect one in six adults - most of whom are over the age of 55.

Injury Whether the injury is to the crossover ligaments (as is mine), or due to internal physical damage such as Amanda deals with, the results are the same. Pain, sometimes to the point of immobilisation, swelling, a few days of limping - and possibly some accompanying muttering!

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Solutions While age is something that we can't stop from happening, and remembering that all injuries and persistent pain should be evaluated by a licensed medical professional, there are everyday lifestyle adjustments we can make.

• Dietary awareness is recommended. For every extra kilogram over optimum body weight the knees have to deal with an added couple of kilos of pressure per step.

• Exercise can also help to counteract the causes of knee pain.

Strengthening the appropriate muscles is a way to both support and take strain off the knees. In the next issue we will be detailing exercises that are designed to do this.

Lifestyle Tips • When standing up or sitting down, consciously engage the core muscles before exerting pressure on the legs (Fab Abs, Almeria Living, October 2018). Then keep the movement smooth and try not to lurch forward or to push with the arms only.

• Use two sticks when out walking. These provide an incentive to use equal effort in both legs, they help maintain balance - and there is the added bonus of exercising your arms.

• When going down stairs rest a hand lightly on the banister, but don't lean on it. Keep the weight distribution equal over both legs.

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12 Almeria Living

In June the important topic of knee care will be continued.

Comments and queries welcome. josnovas@gmail.com Jacey Cánovas is a journalist on a discovery journey about diet and fitness. Amanda Cantle is a qualified trainer, nutritionist and competing athlete. This article is ©, an extract from the book they are currently writing.

Information and opinions contained in this article should not be used as a substitute for the ad-vice of a licensed health care professional.

Top DIY and Natural Skincare Solutions for Better Self-Care

What do you value most when it comes to your skin?

Is it a short list of ingredients you can pronounce, multi-use products you can use for your body and face? Are you interested in products that clear and prevent acne, soothe irritated skin, and smooth fine lines and wrinkles?

Skincare needs change as you get older—what you put in your body is just as important to as what you put on it.

Essential Oils in the Shower After a long day or an intense workout, create your own luxurious, healing steam room by adding a few drops of your favourite essential oils to shower gels. Essential oils are potent, liquid plant extracts that are used for many health, wellness and beauty purposes. Eucalyptus, lavender or peppermint oil allow you to breathe deeper to calm your nerves and soothe muscles before settling in for a good night's sleep.

A little goes a long way—5-10 drops is all you need to relax.

DIY Sugar Scrub Sugar is a natural humectant that draws moisture from the environment to help hydrate the skin. Sugar scrubs are used as topical exfoliants to gently scrub away dead skin to reveal the healthier and younger looking skin underneath.

This is a simple DIY sugar scrub recipe: 1 cup organic granulated sugar (Brown sugar is softer than white sugar. Use white sugar to make the scrub for your feet, and brown sugar for a total body scrub.)

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½ cup oil (Some online recipes recommend coconut oil or olive oil, but use sweet almond oil for the scent and lightweight texture.)

20+ drops of essential oils of your choice (tea tree oil for the antifungal properties, especially when making a sugar scrub for feet.)

Store what you don’t use in a wide-mouth glass jar.

Continued on page 14 .....

Jules Outlet was established 18 months ago and is going from strength to strength. The concept of the shop is to provide women’s and men’s UK high street clothes at an outlet price.

This enables the stock to move fast so every time you visit there will be something new.

Jules background is in finance and her husband is an architect.

After living in Spain for 4 years, Jules foresaw a gap in the market and as her husband designed and built shopping centres in the UK, she was able to find the UK contacts direct with the big name stores, including Marks and Spencer, Next, Asos and Matalan.

Jules also supplies UK Vapes, which are plant based as well as electronic cigarettes. Jules offers a try before you buy service and has many clients who have managed to quit smoking, after many years.

Jules would like to thank all of her customers for their continued support.

Lovely sea views and a welcoming chat are awaiting you, so pop down and say hello.

May ‘19 13

Aloe vera absorbs quickly without leaving a sticky film, heals dry skin, soothes sunburns, psoriasis and cold sores. The antiinflammatory and cooling properties of the gel provide a protective layer to retain the skin’s moisture.

....Continued from page 13

Epsom Salt Foot Soak Epsom salt is a magnesium-based salt that is most often used with warm water as a soak for sore and tired muscles.

Mix a few pumps of 100% clear, fragrance-free gel with fragrancefree Alba lotion, and apply it to the entire body, paying extra attention to hands and feet. It’s lightweight and can be worn yearround without clogging pores or worsening acne.

Among its many benefits, the magnesium in Epsom salt helps promote restful sleep, maintain a healthy blood pressure, promote bone health and muscle strength. Magnesium has very minimal reaction to cold water; mix with warm water to achieve the full benefits of the soak.

Jojoba oil as A Deep Conditioner Jojoba oil is an oil-like wax extracted from the seeds of the jojoba plant.

It is rich in vitamins and minerals that nourish hair, including vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamin E, copper, and zinc to prevent hair loss and promote thickness.

onarte una experiencia personalizada. Si continúas navegando, consideramos que aceptas su onarte una experiencia personalizada. Si continúas navegando, consideramos que aceptas su

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Use as a weekly hair moisturizer by massaging a few drops into wet hair and scalp and then shampooing and applying a leave-in conditioner to seal in the moisture. By using jojoba oil, hair retains moisture Empresas longer between washes and keeps a healthy shine without having toEmpresas reapply oil sheen sprays.

España España

You can add jojoba oil to your shampoos and conditioners for extra Cesta andCesta shine.

Continued on page 17 .....

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Lonas y pósteres Lonas y pósteres

Tarjetas e invitaciones Tarjetas e invitaciones

Regalos con foto con Regalos foto

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Ropa personalizada Ropa personalizada

Aloe Vera Gel as a Skin Moisturizer

Iniciar sesión Mi cuenta moisture Iniciar sesión Mi cuenta

Páginas web Páginas web

Ofertas especiales Ofertas especiales

Elegir un nuevo diseño Elegir un nuevo diseño

Deshacer

Rehacer

Prueba

Deshacer Rehacer The medicinal properties of aloe vera gel—the substance obtainedPrueba Línea de seguridad from the cells in the center of the plant’s leaves—have been used for Línea de seguridad thousands of years.

Guardar

Ayuda

Guardar

Ayuda

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Then selecting one, or a mix of therapies, to help you regain your health and vitality.

Allergy Therapy

Allergy Therapy

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy Massage

Aromaflexology CranioSacral

Reiki C/ Ceramica 3 La Alfoquía Karen Green Calle163 Ceramica 615 416 / 3850 993 150 La Alfoquia www.karengreen.es Vista previakaren@karengreen.es Tel: 615 163 416

Miguel Angel Navarro Fernández Siguiente Siguiente o Col. N .: 6337 Avda. Lepanto, 29 ALBOX Mov. 629 40 28 52

Do you suffertofrom any ofsolution the followin Working together find the best for your health problems.

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Aromaflexology CranioSacral

Reflex points on feet with blend of essential oils

Manual Lymphatic Drainage I can test for food, chemical or environmenta

intolerances, which can cause these and many

Reiki other symptoms.

Contact me for further information or to mak an appointment

May ‘19 15

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..... Continued from page 14

skin type and consider trying natural remedies that are less likely to worsen any conditions you're trying to address.

Oil Cleansing Researchers are starting to uncover the many benefits of washing your skin with Almond or Jojoba oil and water.

Oil cleansing removes makeup, dead skin cells and dirt, lifts excess oil and cleans whiteheads and blackheads. Do some research to find out which type of oil is best for you based on your skin type.

Try a sample of anything new on one section of your inner arm to see how it reacts before using it all over your face or body.

And speak to your dermatologist if you're experiencing chronic skin issues.

Try using this method every day for 1 week until your skin stops responding (it may start looking dull) and then use monthly as needed, primarily in the summer.

Vitamin E for Dark Spot Removal Black skin is more prone to dark spots and scarring due to the higher levels of melanin as compared to other complexions.

Use a few drops of vitamin E oil on those spots at night to help lighten and soften them over time. This sticky, fragrance-free oil also helps smooth and hydrate skin, lighten stretch marks and reduce pain and inflammation for newly forming breakouts.

Use it at night (because of its super sticky texture) and rinse thoroughly with warm water before applying your favourite moisturizer in the morning.

Finding What Works for You The beauty industry is largely unregulated and new products are introduced every day.

It's easy to get swept up in the desire for skin that looks good, but what matters most is the health of your skin and finding a skincare routine that is easy, affordable and fits with your lifestyle.

Before you spend big on products you might not need, research your

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Touched by Cancer – A Carer’s Perspective and shed a tear whilst Sharron was in hospital.

Twenty or thirty years ago most of us probably had not been touched by cancer. But due to the incredible advances in cancer detection it is now more likely than not that we have all been touched by it in one way or another.

Personal experience of this awful disease hit home when my wife Sharron was diagnosed with oral cancer on her tongue.

It was something that was hard to comprehend. Yet something that as a family we all fought together.

I was fortunate, but many carers are not so lucky. They have to deal with being touched by cancer on their own. But they need not, there are groups here locally in the Almanzora Valley that offer support. Walk for Life, MACS, AECC and Little Owls; all offer superb support not just for the cancer sufferer but also the carer and their family.

By Phil Taylor

Sharron went through two lots of surgery to remove most of her tongue. Followed by fourteen days in hospital of twenty-four hours a day chemotherapy. Two months later she had 30 days of radiotherapy that burnt her upper chest and neck so that it blistered.

It was a very tough time for her. She battled through it with immense bravery, trying to smile as much as she could. Although she would say it was a case of having to or just give in to the cancer.

It helped a great deal that our daughter Justine was there to help both Sharron and myself. Plus, the support from some great friends who rallied around us helping where they could. As Sharron’s carer life was hard. It is something that goes unnoticed by many. Except those that are carers themselves. However, in the group of friends that we had at the time it was nice to be able to go and talk to them

WE TAKE CARE OF YOUR SMILE

It is difficult trying to put on a brave face for your loved one whilst at the same time be worried about them. We do it because we love them, because we want them to recover and not suffer anymore.

Even now after two years since Sharron was told she was cancer free we both subconsciously are still on tender hooks in case the cancer rears its ugly head again. This is something that unless you are or have been a carer it may be hard to understand. Just because the sufferer is showing all the signs of getting back to good health does not mean that they are cured, it is being cancer free not cured.

If, as a carer, I could take one thing out of this traumatic time, it is that life is too short. That each day that Sharron wakes up next to me is another day that I can spend time with her. It was worth all the hiding of emotion from her at the time, sleeping on the floor next to her bed in hospital, caring for her at home whilst she recovered.

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in mouthwash. Sharron used it two or three times a day. There are research findings that support this possibility. Which is the reason most mouthwashes are now available without alcohol. If you have an ulcer in your mouth longer than three weeks, go to your doctor, just in case.

Sharron did not until it was too late.

Luckily, she is a survivor, many are not.

If any carer would like to talk to me about how to cope with being a carer, I am happy to lend an ear. Contact me through the magazine.

If you would like to come along to our Cancer Awareness Day at the Almeria Tenpin Bowling Centre on the 25th May, you will be more than welcome.

No carer seeks sympathy, we do it for the love we have for the sufferer. But it is vital that if you know someone that is carer, go and talk to them ask them if they ever want an ear to bend, or a shoulder to cry on, offer it to them.

The release I got from being able to do that with my friends was what helped me, and I will always be grateful to them for being there.

Oral cancer is on the increase, possibly due to the use of alcohol

You may want to enter a team of three into the competition. There will be craft stalls and wine tasting. Disco in the evening and food served all day.

Over the last three years that we have organised the event with support from Rafa at the bowling centre, we have raised nearly 6000€ for local charities that support those touched by cancer. So why not come along and join in. You never know, some day you may need their support.

Send an email to admin@amigosbowlingleagues.co.uk

What makes joints Pop and Crack?

Historically, there’s been lots of debate about what causes popping and cracking noises in joints, and the scientific debate wasn’t resolved until 2015!

A real-time imaging study proved that the noise occurs when a gas bubble forms in the fluid within the synovial capsule which surrounds each joint, as a joint is rapidly forced apart through natural everyday movements, or deliberately, such as by an Osteopath.

You may have heard that if you crack your joints, you will give yourself arthritis, but several studies have shown that this is not true However, this doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to continuously ‘crack’ your own neck and spine, as typically all you are doing is moving an already mobile joint, resulting in adjacent joints becoming more restricted over time, as the body attempts to protect and stabilise the spine, leading to pain and dysfunction.

If you’re experiencing restriction and discomfort in your spine, it’s always best to see a qualified Healthcare Professional such as an Osteopath, who is trained to assess and diagnose areas of dysfunction, and focus treatment where it is needed, restoring normal function and getting you out of pain.

May ‘19 19

Let’s Talk Spanish Changelings!

Do you remember that we talked about gender last month?

Well, the gender does not only affect the actual noun – it also affects the adjective(s) used to describe it. The adjectives are also affected by the number, i.e. is it singular or plural.

Nationalities that end in a consonant or –o change when they are feminine: Un hombre español – una mujer española Un hombre inglés – una mujer inglesa Un hombre japonés – una mujer japonesa Un hombre argentino – una mujer argentina

Let’s take the adjective ‘malo’ – bad/naughty.

If you want to say ‘You are so bad!’ to somebody, you have to stop and think first, because it depends on whom you are talking to: To one male: To one female: To several males*: To several females:

¡Qué malo que eres! ¡Qué mala que eres! ¡Qué malos que sois! ¡Qué malas que sois¡

*Or one male and one or several females. Although there are efforts being made to change this age old rule, it is still a fact that 100 women and 1 man will be collectively regarded as masculine as far as grammar is concerned.

Let’s take a look at the adjectives whose endings change with gender: - Those ending in –o, as in the example above - Those ending in –ón: mandón, mandona, mandones, mandonas (bossy) - Those ending in –or: hablador, habladora, habladores, habladoras (talkative) And a few other more obscure endings that we will ignore for now.

There is a number of adjectives that end in –or in the comparative form which do not change in feminine. These include: mayor (bigger), menor (smaller), mejor (better) peor (worse); and superior, inferior, exterior, interior, anterior, posterior and ulterior, which all mean the same as in English. However, they do change in plural, where you add –es in both masculine and feminine: Mayores, menores, mejores, peores, superiores, inferiores, exteriores, interiores, anteriores, posteriores, ulteriores.

N.B. Note that nationalities are not written with capital letters in Spanish.

A number of adjectives do not change according to gender: Alegre (cheerful), fácil (easy), belga (Belgian), demócrata (democrat), agrícola (agricultural), nacionalista (nationalistic).

We have already looked at some plural formations above, so suffice it to say that if the adjective in singular ends in an unstressed vowel you add ‘s’ in plural: Bueno – buenos (good) Fuerte – Fuertes (strong) If the adjective in singular ends in a stressed vowel or a consonant, you add ‘es’ in plural: Marroquí – marroquies (Moroccan) Azul – azules (blue) Mejor – mejores (better) If the adjective in singular ends in –z, the plural form ends in –ces; as you may remember, ‘c’ before ‘e’ and ‘i’ is pronounced like ‘th’ in ‘thought’, so we don’t need the ‘z’ anymore to produce that sound.

Feliz – felices (happy) Capaz – capaces (able) Let that suffice for now – next month we’ll take a look at where to put our correctly conjugated adjectives!

Out of Hours Farmacia Time-Table - May / June Huercal Overa

Albox

Farmacia Jaime Jiménez Gómez - Avda Guillermo Reyna 24 – 950 135 427

Farmacia Llano de Los Olleres

08/05, 12/05, 16/05, 24/05, 27/05

Farmacia Miguel Ballesta Ballesteros - Avda Guillermo Reyna 7 – 950 470 040 07/05, 15/05, 18/05 - 19/05, 23/05, 31/05, 03/06

Farmacia Jose Soto Caparros - Doctor Jimenez Diaz 26 – 950 470 131 09/05, 17/05, 20/05, 28/05

Farmacia Rocio Bergillos - Plaza Constitucion 14 – 950 470 082

Ctra Albox-Chirivel – 950 434 170 21/05 - 27/05

Farmacia Felix Luis Miron Lopez Plaza Garcia Haro 1 – 950 430 037 06/05, 28/05 - 03/06

Farmacia Paredes Plaza del Pueblo – 950 121 079

11/05, 13/05, 21/05, 29/05, 01/06 - 02/06

07/05 - 13/05

Farmacia Ambrosio Bernal Asensio - Plaza Consticion 5 – 950 470 014

Farmacia Esteban Granero

06/05, 14/05, 22/05, 25/05 - 26/05, 30/05

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Information supplied by Junta de Andalucia - Almería Living are not responsible for any inaccuracies

14/05 - 20/05

20 Almeria Living

CORA’S DIARY

Knock Me Down with a Feather!

Hoolaaa! It’s meee-heee, Proud Cora.

general direction of home, seeing as the rabbit had got away anyway.

Gosh, we’ve been training so hard for the competition, every day at home and on Sundays in the training club! Auntie Chris has been taking us through our paces, and we were all getting really good at all the exercises (even Brutus), and we were all looking forward to a last little tweak and fine adjustment the last Sunday before the competition.

When I got near the house I could hear mum calling me, and then Brutus came running up to me, laughing! Cor, are you in the dog house, or what! He said. Where have you been? Mum’ll kill you when she sees you, we’ve been at home for at least 10 minutes and she’s been out calling you and we even went back the way we’d come. Which incidentally is the opposite way of where you came from. You just wait till mum sees you, she’ll tell you!

And then it rained…

It was no good, we had to cancel the last Sunday’s training. Rain is for fun and for mucking about, not for training, nobody can concentrate when it rains. Mums and dads moan and complain about the weather, and none of us dogs want to sit or lie down on a wet surface or walk through puddles. So we had to stay at home.

Continued on page 22 .....

When Auntie Chris phoned to say it was cancelled mum had already put on Our Walk Boots and the bum bag, but not yet cut up our training sausages. We’d had our biscuits ages ago and no meat, so we reckoned it must be a training day, but in the end the weather won and there was no training.

Now, it would have been nice to get the last exercises perfected in training class, but never mind, there’s nothing like a good, long run in the rain! And that’s just what we had…

I’m afraid mum must have felt a little lonely on the walk, ‘cos there were so many smells and sounds and sights that me and Bru both just went off, each of us right behind our own nose, going where the smells took us and forgetting all about mum. I did hear her call a couple of times, and I went back and said hi, but soon I was so far away that no shouting or whistling would have reached me. Sorry mum.

I saw Brutus in the distance a couple of times, but he was far too occupied to notice me. I didn’t mind, it’s nice to be on your own sometimes. And when a rabbit suddenly jumped up out of a bush right in front of me, I forgot everything else and went after him in hot pursuit.

What a wonderful, wonderful morning! But suddenly I realised that I hadn’t seen neither Bru nor mum for ages, in fact I didn’t have a clue where they were. Oh-oh, I thought, maybe I’d best go in the TU TIENDA DE MASCOTAS EN ALBOX

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May ‘19 21

..... Continued from page 21 I got quite worried, but when mum saw me she was ok. She did say, Where have you been you silly cow? And Boo, you naughty girl, don’t go off on your own, we are supposed to be walking together!

But at the same time she cuddled me (by now we were both soaking wet) and I could tell she was happy to see me.

But I will try not to do it again. Famous last words!

The following Sunday was the Long Awaited All Important Competition Sunday. Me and Brutus had been practicing every day all week, and felt positive and confident. And then it was blowing a gale! There was no way anybody could hold a competition in that weather, nobody would be able to hear their commands, the agility equipment would go flying all over the place together with the judge’s papers and the rosettes – and none of us dogs would be able to concentrate with the wind blowing in our ears and eyes and noses and making us dizzy.

So we had an ordinary training session in the wind, which gave us that last chance of fine tuning that we had missed the week before, and it felt good to have that in place.

And then finally, the Big Day came. I know that mum has thought for a while that I’m not as interested in training anymore as I used to be, and I had myself thought of maybe not doing my bestsest. I have won the first prize several times, and maybe it was time to take it a little easier.

But you know, when you’re there on the day and you feel mum’s excitement (she did try very hard to hide her nervousness, ‘cos she knows it puts me off), and you see all the others making a great effort, you can’t help but want to do well.

On top of that, Bru had really got himself all worked up and said he Really Wanted a Rosette. Forget it, I’d told him, but I must admit

22 Almeria Living

he did pretty well when him and mum practiced at home, and I suddenly got the dreadful thought that he might do better than me!

So that was another very valid reason for me to do My Very Best!!

There was only seven of us competing in our class, and seven in the beginners’ class. All the beginners did really well, and it was nice to watch them putting to use some of the things they had learned over the last few months. Of course there was the odd mistake, and not all of them have learnt the whole agility course, but they made Auntie Chris proud.

In our class, mum drew numbers four and seven. I know she hates the wait, but there was nothing to be done about it. I heard her saying to the others that she’d do me first, ‘cos she was more nervous for me and wanted to get it over with. She said she wasn’t really nervous for Brutus because she didn’t expect too much of him.

I felt I’d done so well that I could afford to wish him good luck, so I did.

My mates Dexter, Daisy and Patch went before me, and all did really well, and that inspired me to do my very best. Mum was great: kind, gentle and loving, and she said the prettiest things to me as we went through the paces. And although I could feel her nerves, it didn’t put me off too much.

Auntie Jan said to me that he had done extremely well, and don’t I dare slag him down in my diary. Who, me? Wouldn’t dream of it!!

Mum was very pleased with me when we had finished, and she cuddled me lots and gave me lots of sausages. So many, in fact, that Bru came and reminded us of his presence and that she had to save some for him as well.

After me Kailey went and then Pips. And then it was Brutus’s turn!

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And knock me down with a feather, he really went to town, pulled out all stops and performed really well. Mum was really pleased with him, she said he’d done his best and that was all she could ask.

We then milled around for a while waiting for the judge to add up our points. Mum threw my ball a few times and all the humans put away the agility equipment while us dogs rested on our laurels.

Then Auntie Chris called us all over. The results were ready.

Pips came fourth, which I thought was really lovely; she’s had a bit of a rough year what with various injuries and stuff (too much rabbit hunting, she once confided to me.)

Continued on page 24.....

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May ‘19 23

brother! I quickly recovered though and told him well done, and I must admit that I was proud of him.

And yours truly managed to squeeze into the first place, and mum was both in ecstasy and very embarrassed.

The judge said about me that I may be getting on (I thought that was a bit cheeky) but then went on to say that I certainly haven’t lost it! So I quickly forgave her the first part.

I must say that I’m very grateful for having managed to win our Obedience Competition again. I only wish there could be rosettes for everybody, ‘cos they all deserved it.

But as you can imagine, we three were a cheerful lot that drove home in the sunshine.

..... Continued from page 23 Third was Kailey; she started together with Brutus four years ago, and they have both gone through various periods of teenage rebellion and obstinacy, so it was great to see her mum’s efforts pay off.

Second was – Cassius Brutus!! Both mum’s and my jaws dropped so hard and fast that we only just managed to stop them before they hit the ground! Stupid little useless upstart Brutus! My obnoxious kid

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Now I’ve just got to figure out how to stop Bru from going on and on and on about How He Came Second in the Difficult Class. I’ll let him enjoy it for a week or so, then I’ll put a stop to it. I’m sure I’ll think of something scathing to take him down a peg or two, I normally do.

Oops, I’ve gone on a bit much this time, hope I haven’t bored you!

Don’t yet know what’s on the agenda for next month, but I’m sure I’ll find out, and when I do, I’ll share it all with you!

Until then, wroof wroof!!

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24 Almeria Living

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Spanish Income Tax Returns It is fast approaching time to complete the annual Spanish Income Tax Returns and below are some of the frequently asked questions: Do we have to declare all of our income?

Yes, the law states that ALL income has to be declared and tax paid in the country that you are living in, the caveat to this is that Crown Pensions, UK Property Rental and Royalties, the tax has to be paid in the UK but it still needs to be declared in Spain and any tax paid in the UK will be taken into account.

What is the difference in State Pension and Crown Pension?

A State pension is the Old Age Pension, a Crown Pension is Armed Forces, Civil Service or Local Government Pensions Is the State Pension taxable in Spain?

Yes, it is liable for tax in Spain as it would be if you lived in the UK. Can we choose to pay our taxes in the UK? No, if you are a Spanish Tax Resident, then your income needs to be declared and taxes paid in Spain.

When am I classed as a Spanish Tax Resident?

If you live in Spain for more than 183 days in any year, you are deemed as a Spanish Tax Resident.

What happens if I do not make a declaration or only declare some of my income?

The Spanish Tax Authorities have direct access to the UK Tax Authorities system and are fully aware of your income, if you do not declare or declare incorrectly, the Authorities can go back four years and claim the tax that was due, plus interest, plus they will also fine you.

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What are the allowances and tax limits in Spain?

The Spanish system is totally different to the UK and is based on your personal circumstances.

In the UK everyone has a personal allowance of £12,500 and any income above that allowance is taxed at 20% up to £32,000. In Spain there are tax allowances and liabilities for Madrid and your local Authority ie. Andalucia. Once your income figures are entered onto the system, allowances and liabilities are applied according to your personal circumstances and any tax due is calculated by the system.

When does any tax liability have to be paid and how do I pay it?

The income tax returns need to be completed, submitted and any tax due paid by the 30th of June each year. There are three ways to pay the tax: 1. Go into a bank and pay over the counter.

2. Direct Debit taken from your bank.

3. Direct Debit of 60% taken at end of June & 40% taken at the beginning of November

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May ‘19 25

26 Almeria Living

HOMES & GARDENS A is for Azalea

Caring For Azalea Plants in a Pot

Azaleas are hard to beat if you’re looking for a low-maintenance plant that produces masses of bright colour and attractive foliage.

Some deciduous types produce gorgeous autumn colours, while evergreen varieties add yearround interest to the garden.

Neat and compact, azaleas are well-suited for container growing. If the prospect of growing azaleas in containers piques your interest, read on for more information about caring for azalea plants in pots.

in partial or dappled sunlight is also ideal. Azaleas don’t do well in total shade or intense sunlight, or in temperatures above 85 F/ 29 C. Azaleas are hardy and can tolerate cold, but container plants are more exposed. Protect your plant during the winter, if needed, or bring it indoors until spring.

General Care for a Potted Azalea Water azalea in planters whenever the top of the soil feels dry to the touch. Check your plant daily during hot, dry weather; potted azaleas dry quickly. Use rainwater, if possible, as rainwater is less alkaline than tap water.

Container planting Azaleas are ericaceous plants, which means they thrive in acidic soil. This is one advantage of growing azalea in planters, as you can easily control the quality of the growing medium.

Look for a potting soil mixed specifically for acid-loving plants, or create your own by mixing half potting soil and half fine pine bark.

Plant your azalea in a container that provides ample growing space for the roots and keep in mind that a small container will limit growth. Be sure the container has at least one drainage hole, as azaleas are likely to rot in poorly drained soil.

Feed the plants every month between spring and late summer, using a fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants. Alternatively, use a slow-release fertilizer a couple of times during the season.

Deadhead azaleas regularly to keep the plants neat and promote continued flowering. Prune your azalea immediately after flowering if the plant looks straggly, or if a trim is needed to maintain the desired size and shape. Don’t wait too long to prune, as pruning close to blooming time will reduce the number of flowers.

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Plant the azalea at the same soil depth it was planted in the nursery container. Planting azalea too deeply can cause the crown to rot.

Water deeply immediately after planting, then cover the top of the soil with a thin layer of mulch to keep the roots cool and moist.

Pot Location Azaleas thrive where they are exposed to sunlight during the morning, but protected by shade during the afternoon. A location

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Build a stone-walled planter There is always a spot in the garden that doesn’t take well to plantings. It can be because the soil is shallow or too dry.

An easy way to green up a problem site is to install a garden bed that sits above ground level. They are easy to maintain, as there is less bending down, and you can bring in good quality soil to ensure plants thrive.

Raised planting areas are also a good way to add definition to a landscape. Dry-stacked stone walls are a fairly inexpensive DIY solution for shoring up a slope or building terraces and raised planter beds.

Traditionally constructed without concrete or mortar, they can last forever if the stones are positioned to fit with minimum gaps.

Natural stone blends in outdoors, weathers nicely as it ages and is easily softened by overhanging foliage.

Building the bed

Tailor the plants to suit the location of the raised bed, choosing shade-tolerant plants for dark areas or sun-loving varieties for spots that receive plenty of light. You can even add a large pot that can be changed to accommodate plants for different seasons.

LARGE BASE STONES at least 300mm long. To calculate the number needed multiply the bed length by three.

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Source stone for building from your local landscape supplier or nursery, choosing rectangular or squarish types in three main sizes.

MEDIUM WALL STONES 250mm long for the centre. Multiply the bed length by the number of rows then by four.

LARGE FLAT CAPSTONES for the top. Multiply the bed length by three to find the number needed.

Step 1 - Excavate base trench Mark the outline of the raised bed on the ground using a rope or a line-marking aerosol paint then use a square shovel to dig a wide trench next to the outline about 200mm deep and 250mm wide.

Level the base of the trench and fill with 100mm of gravel for good drainage.

Step 2 - Lay base course Roll out landscape fabric along the trench, keeping one edge in the centre and weighting it down with bricks to keep it in position.

Install the base course of stones over the edge of the fabric and gravel and firm down using a rubber mallet, checking for level from stone to stone.

Step 3 - Build the wall Lay the centre stones, offsetting the joints between the courses to give the wall greater strength. Lift the landscape fabric tight against the back of the stones as you go and backfill with topsoil against the wall to the top of the last installed course to stabilise the stones.

Step 4 - Mortar the capstones

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28 Almeria Living

Lay out the capstones along the top of the wall, roughly checking for level. Remove three or four stones at a time, using a trowel to spread a bed of mortar both under and over the fabric then reposition the capstones, tapping them with a mallet until level.

Step 5 - Fill the joints Use a small pointing and brickie’s trowel to pack mortar into the joints on the top and front of the capstones. Overfill the joints, rounding over the mortar with the pointing trowel for a neat finish.

Brush away excess mortar, sponge the stone surface to prevent staining and let it set overnight.

Step 6- Plant the garden bed Arrange the plants in the bed, allowing room between each for their mature size. Dig holes twice as wide as the rootballs using a spade then position the plants and backfill with topsoil, gently firming them in. Add a 100mm layer of mulch and give the entire raised bed a deep watering.

Once all your stones are in place you are then ready to fill the area with soil and start planting.

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May ‘19 29

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30 Almeria Living

The History of Spain The Civil War had ended, but the repressive policies of Franco carried on unabated. Franco is often referred to as a fascist, but this is not strictly true as his regime does not fully fit the definition. His regime is more accurately described as authoritarianism, nationalism, Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, and anti-Communism.

The Catholic Church had restored to it all the rights and privileges that the Second Republic had removed. He centralised the government and supressed regionalism, especially regional languages. Legal documents in anything other than Castilian Spanish were considered null and void as were civil marriages conducted under the previous regime. Contraception, abortion, homosexuality and prostitution were all made illegal.

Part 17

By Mike Woolnough

certain demands (getting Gibraltar back was one of them) which Hitler was not happy about granting. Hitler subsequently remarked he would rather have his teeth pulled out than negotiate with Franco again! Franco did consider joining the Axis later in the war but it suited Hitler’s purpose to have Spain remain neutral. He could use Spanish ports to import raw materials and they provided his navy with a safe haven. In addition, by this time Hitler was also having to divert forces to Italy and Greece and did not want to have to bolster Franco’s limited resources. Franco did provide a regiment of “volunteers” to fight alongside the Germans against the USSR.

Continued on page 32 .....

The rights of nomads were severely restricted.

Bullfighting and flamenco were actively encouraged as being indicators of Spanish culture, despite flamenco being Andalucian and Franco not being very fond of Andalucía!

In the first decade of his rule, Generalissimo Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde Salgado-Araujo y Pardo de Lama (to use his full name!) continued to exterminate his opponents. As is always the case, estimates vary but most experts have a figure of around 45,000 executions in the period up to the end of World War II. He had not been in power for long before the outbreak of the Second World War. Franco prevaricated about joining the Axis forces, he made

May ‘19 31

The History of Spain continued from page 31

Many Republicans took refuge in France at the end of the Civil War, some were able to move further afield – to Chile and Mexico; some were “encouraged” to return to Spain where they were interred and underwent “purification” according to the Law of Political Responsibilities. After France was occupied by the Nazi’s those who remained were rounded up and were sent to the Mauthausen Concentration Camps where 5,000 of them died.

However, in contrast, Franco did allow a large number of Jews to enter Spain and to move on to safe havens elsewhere. Later in the war, under pressure from Himmler the names of 6,000 Jews in Spain was given to the Nazis. In 1943 Germany gave Spain two months to remove all its Jews from Europe. After the war, Franco exaggerated

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the number of Jews he had saved in order to improve his image and end Spain’s isolation.

Franco continued to suppress all opposition after WWII, particularly placing undercover police in universities. Civil servants had to be Catholic, and some official jobs even required a "good behaviour" statement by a priest. Francoism professed a devotion to the traditional role of a woman in society, that is being a loving daughter and sister to her parents and brothers, being a faithful wife to her husband, and residing with her family.

Official propaganda confined the role of women to family care and motherhood. Immediately after the Civil War, most progressive laws passed by the Republic aimed at equality between the sexes were nullified. Women could not become judges or testify in a trial. They could not become university professors. Their affairs and economic lives had to be managed by their fathers and husbands. A woman could not have a bank account without a co-sign by her father or husband. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that these restrictions were somewhat relaxed.

One thing that Franco had going for him was his dislike of Communists. This endeared him to the west, in particular, the USA. Spain was invited to join NATO and following a visit from US President Eisenhower Spain was admitted to the UN in 1955.

Franco and Eisenhower signed the Pact of Madrid which was instrumental in ending Spain’s isolation. This isolation was in part self-inflicted but also as a result of many western countries seeing Franco as tarred with the same brush as Hitler and Mussolini.

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32 Almeria Living

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The pact committed the US to provide economic and military aid to Spain and in return, the US could build a naval base and two airbases in Spain. It also had the use of Spanish bases. Over a period of 36 years, several trillion US dollars came into the Spanish coffers.

The relationship with the US soured a little after the Palomares incident in 1966 which resulted in a ban on US aircraft carrying nuclear weapons from using Spanish airspace. (The ramifications of this incident still rumble on to this day!)

The injection of US capital gave the Spanish economy a massive kick start, but more than this it prompted a shift in Franco’s attitude.

He relinquished some control to his ministers, many of whom were quite liberal by his standards!

The economy grew, between 1959 and 1974 it was the world’s second fastest growing economy; only just beaten by Japan. This economic boost, often referred to as “The Spanish Miracle” was helped by mass emigration to other parts of Europe and to South America. This dramatically reduced the unemployment rate and the number of mouths needing to be fed.

Companies wishing to export to Spain found they had a new mass market and those wishing to build factories here found that wages were low, trade unions were controlled by the State and strikes were banned. Boom time! It came to an end with the oil crisis and general slowdown of the 1970s.

The other things that Spain had going for it were sea, sun, sand and sangria which Franco exploited to the full! The coastal areas of Spain came into their own as had the inland areas with the industrial boom.

Franco proclaimed Spain a Monarchy in 1947 but declared himself a de facto Regent for life. Amongst his many titles he also added “by the grace of God”, a title normally only used by royalty. As Franco began to accept the inevitability of his life being finite he began to look around for someone to be his successor.

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He had a bit of a problem, the Carlists were still active and wanted Franco to put their claimant on the throne but he was not convinced they could provide a King that would be universally accepted. (Not least amongst the Carlists themselves!)

Franco was also concerned that the Bourbon dynasty who provided the last Kings (and Queen aka “that woman”) of Spain had not been very popular either. He looked back to a time of Spain’s former greatness and decided to offer the throne to a Habsburg (the ones with the chin).

Continued on page 36

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34 Almeria Living

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Lovely townhouse with 3 bed / 2 bath located on a highly desirable urbanisation. The property boasts a wonderful covered terrace for outdoor dining and a private garden that has access to the communal pool and gardens. There is off-street parking and a private lock-up garage. Excellent rental potential.

Built area 135 m2. Plot 170 m2.

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Lifestyle Living Levante

May ‘19 35

The History of Spain continued from page 33 To be precise he offered it to Archduke Otto von Habsburg. The Archduke declined, saying that he would be seen as a German king on a Spanish throne and, anyway, he could never renounce his Austrian heritage. In the end, Franco appointed Prince Juan Carlos as the heir apparent. This came as a great surprise to many, not least Juan Carlos’ father who had a superior claim to the throne but Franco considered him to be too liberal!

Juan Carlos was given the title “Prince of Spain”. Franco delegated much of his power to the Prime Minister, retaining only the positions of Head of State and head of the armed forces. On 20th December 1973, an ETA bombing killed the Prime Minister. This strengthened his liberal opponents but did nothing to improve Franco’s health – he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease amongst other things.

Towards the end, he was holding Cabinet meetings whilst connected to monitoring machines overseen by doctors in an adjoining room.

In July 1974 his health was so poor that Juan Carlos had to take over as Acting Head of State. (Although Franco had previously prevented him from sitting in on Cabinet meetings as he would, “want to do things differently!”)

Franco’s health recovered sufficiently to take over the reins again

in September and continued for another year after which Juan Carlos had to take over again.

This time Franco did not recover and “officially” died just after midnight on 20th November 1975.

This was the anniversary of the death of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falangist movement. However, there is considerable evidence that he had died around 6 pm the previous day!

Franco is buried in the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), a colossal memorial built by the forced labour of political prisoners in order to honour the casualties of the Spanish Civil War. To jump forward to the present, many people have objected to him being buried there and the Spanish Government recently gave his family fifteen days to suggest an alternative burial site.

The family has expressed their wish that Franco's remains be reinterred with full military honours at Almudena Cathedral in the centre of Madrid. This was not acceptable to the Government and they gave the family a further fifteen days to come up with an alternative suggestion. Following their failure to do so the Government has decided he will be reburied at the cemetery at El Pardo next to his wife Carmen Polo. His body is due to exhumed on June 10th.

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36 Almeria Living

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To return to the story, Franco had expected Juan Carlos to continue his policies but he lost no time in dismantling the institutions of Franco’s regime, including releasing most of the political prisoners.

In 1976 a new constitution was introduced restoring a constitutional monarchy. In 1977 Spain held the first General Election for 41 years.

He oversaw a return to regionalism especially the use of regional languages.

There was to be one last throw of the Francoist dice.

On 23rd February 1981, Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Tejero led 200 armed Civil Guard officers into the Congress of Deputies during the vote to elect a Prime Minister. The officers held the parliamentarians, ministers and members of the press hostage for 18 hours, during which time King Juan Carlos I denounced the coup in a televised address, calling for rule of law and the democratic government to continue. Though shots were fired, the hostage-takers surrendered the next morning without killing anyone.

Over the centuries Spain has had a number of Monarchs and Presidents (about 50) and they have varied from good to downright awful, but it is generally reckoned that Juan Carlos was the best.

He took the country from the dark days of the Franco regime into the EU and turned it into a liberal, open and generous society. His reputation took a bit of a dent in 2012 after an ill-timed safari and following a bout of ill health he decided to abdicate in favour of his son. Felipe VI came to the throne on 19 June 2014.

There are still some odd reminders of Franco; the most notable is the menu del dia. Franco decreed that bars and restaurants had to provide a nutritional mid-day meal at a price that the working man could afford.

On the meal theme, some people have commented on the lack of vegetables in Spanish meals. I am told that in Franco’s day only the wealthy could afford meat, the poor having to make do with

June 19th 2014 - Juan Carlos & Felipe VI vegetable (some had to make do with grass!) so it is considered bad taste to offer guests veg!

The other vestige is to do with volume. People often comment that Spanish people talk loudly, especially in bars. I am told that in Franco’s day if you spoke quietly there was a risk that you could be thought to be speaking subversively. So you spoke loudly so you could be heard by everyone!

Spain has gone from strength to strength, from a downtrodden dictatorship to modern democracy and, despite a few minor faults, looks to continue moving forward. The rest, as they say, is history!

My inspiration for these articles comes from “SPAIN, an amazingly short history” by Bob Fowke. Published by Travelbrief Publications.

ISBN 0-9548351-0-7

May ‘19 37

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The Oso y Madroño The bustling Puerta del Sol square is the location of one of the most famous symbols of Madrid: a 20 ton statue of a bear eating fruits from a tree. The official name of the statue is 'El Oso y El Madroño' but is often refered to as the Bear & the Strawberry Tree.

The 4 metre high statue, constructed of bronze and stone, standing on top of a cubic block of granite was built in 1967 by sculptor Antonio Navarro Santa Fe. However, the symbol dates back to 1212 and can be found as a main feature on the Madrid Coat of Arms Originally, Madrid was named URSA, which means “bear” in Latin.

There were various forests around Madrid where bears lived and there were trees that produced fruit that looked like strawberries.

The berries of the Madroño tree are very sweet and are really not good eaten raw, but are great when made into a jam.

Why does the flag of Madrid carry the 7 stars, the bear and tree symbol?

The seven stars on the flag represent the consternation of Ursa Major (meaning “larger bear” in Latin).

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40 Almeria Living

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stars on its body.

The first mention of the national symbol of Madrid was back in 1212, at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, between Alfonso VIII of Castile and the Almohads. Hence the Council of Madrid sent a detachment in support of the Christian King. Back then, the troops carried a flag that showed a bear on a silver field with seven

In 1222, the clergymen of the Madrilenian parishes confronted the Council for the use of the fodder in the fields and forests in the municipality. These were important resources for both institutions, and both wanted the use of these lands. King Alfonso VIII determined that the fodder would belong to the clergymen, whereas the forests would pertain to the Council. This decision did not convince the clergymen, but satisfied the Council. In fact, the council was so satisfied, that it immediately modified the shield of the municipality, adding a tree as proof of its new possessions. The bear, which formerly had been displayed walking, now stood on its hind legs to eat fruits from the tree.

Other adaptations have been made to the Coat of Arms but the bear remains!

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The Adventures of Neila - 4. Complicated & Confused You see, the trouble with explaining is that not everybody is sympathetic towards those from another planet.

I think I am on Earth; what a relief, it might have been Klingon – they are awful! Always squabbling, and I hear that they eat anybody who accidentally lands on their planet – except us from Notreally. They don’t eat us because we are green, and they think we are vegetables, and Klingons don’t eat vegetables.

‘My name is Mrs Worsley.’ The woman beside me said. ‘And I’m not cross with you.’ She didn’t sound cross, she had a very kindly voice.

‘But I am worried about you, out here all by yourself. Are you lost?’

I felt my antennae droop. ‘Yes, I am so lost!’

‘Where are your friends, or your Mum?’ I felt another sob coming on, and I wasn’t quick enough to stop it.

She bent down and took one of my hands, and gently rubbed all my three fingers. ‘There now, we’ll soon get you sorted out. Don’t cry.’

‘My name is Neila, and I come from Notreally.’

‘I see. And where is Notreally?’

‘In the same orbit as Esle Erehwemos.’ She looked confused, so I added ‘Near Wayoutthere.’

I could see she was thinking about this.

‘I was going shopping, but I got lost in the InterGalactic Space Works.’

I could see she was thinking about this too.

‘And did you fly in from Notreally in this?’ She pointed to my dear little inter-planetary 4 Warp Drive, sitting so small and steel blue next to all the other very strange looking transporters parked in their white boxes.

I nodded.

‘Why don’t you fly back home then?’

‘It’s broken. Look.’ I reached out and touched it. Nothing happened.

She paused. ‘Let’s start with your name.’

‘It should open up and switch on when I touch it.’

I looked up. She looked as worried as I felt. I’ll have to explain, and hope she understands.

Does she understand? I felt myself turning white again.

She took a deep breath. ‘So you are from Notreally, then?’

She reached into a bag thing that she was carrying, and pulled out a small rectangular thing. She tapped it a few times, held it up to her ear, and then she spoke to it. ‘Cyril, can you come to Tescos car park, and bring the trailer and winch. I’ve got something a little out of the ordinary for you to mend.’

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‘Cyril is very clever. ‘Don’t you worry, he’ll get it going in no time.’ She said with another smile. ‘Now, while we’re waiting, why don’t you tell me all about yourself?’

Does she understand? Is Cyril going to capture my little spacecraft?

Oh dear, it’s so complicated and confusing.

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42 Almeria Living

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Tomás de Zumalacárregui Affectionately known by his troops as Tío Tomás (Uncle Thomas), Tomás de Zumalacárregui was a general in the Carlist army during the first Carlist war. He was also sometimes called ‘Lobo de Amezcoas’ (the Wolf from Amezcoas).

Tomás de Zumalacárregui was born in Ormáiztegui in Guipúzcoa on 29th December 1788, son of a local notary. The young Zumalacárregui wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and went off to study in Idiazábal.

When the Spanish War of Independence broke out in 1808, Zumalacárregui enlisted in the army in Zaragoza, and he defended the city during its first and third sieges. During the third siege, he managed to escape from the city and he returned to his native Guipúzcoa where he took up with a local guerrilla leader, Gaspar de Jáuregui, who fought against the French from the Basque mountains.

When the War of Independence ended in 1813, Zumalacárregui decided to stay in the army, and he became an archivist clerk with the rank of Captain.

Over the years he ascended through the military ranks and he became a well known absolutist, in favour of the heir to the throne of King Fernando VII being his brother, Carlos María Isidro de Borbón (Don Carlos), as opposed to Fernando’s daughter, Isabel.

until the child was of age.

However, Fernando’s brother, Don Carlos had other ideas, and decided to try to oust Isabel from the throne by force.

The Basque Country and Navarra had always been mainly conservative, and that’s where Tomás de Zumalacárregui was located at the time of Fernando’s death.

He used his great organizational skills and his guerrilla experience to challenge and distract the liberal troops at the same time as he recruited and trained men for a proper army to fight for the Carlist cause, and he was soon promoted to general.

Throughout 1834 he went from victory to victory and by early 1835 the Carlists dominated most of the Basque country, however, not any of the big cities.

In order for foreign backers to keep pouring money into the Carlist side, they needed to occupy a large city, and Don Carlos ordered Zumalacárregui to take Bilbao.

On 15th June 1835, during the siege of Bilbao, while he was leading his men from a balcony, he was hit in the leg by a ricocheting enemy bullet. Just a flesh wound, everybody agreed, and nobody, including Zumalacárregui himself, was too worried.

However, the Salic law (only the male line can inherit) was abolished in 1830, leaving the infant Isabel as heir to the throne, and when Fernando VII died in 1833, Isabel’s mother, María Cristina de Borbón, who was a liberalist, took the reins and intended to rule

However, the wound got infected (maybe to do with the fact that nobody knew, at that time, to wash their hands before treating and dressing a wound), and the general died, probably from septicaemia, on 25th June 1835.

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Ctra. Lorca-Baza, Km. 84 - Los Carasoles, Zurgena 04650 950 449 013 / 645 947 328 www.mueblehogarmilenium.es mueblehogarmilenium@hotmail.com May ‘19 43

Quick Crossword Puzzle - 07 ★★✩

Puzzle Time

Try and solve our Quick Crossword Puzzle in 10 minutes!

Quick Crossword

Puzzle solutions on page 96

Easy

Regular Sudoku Every Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically.

Across Clues: 1 Leafy vegetable Enter numbers Across 5 Movie star into the blank 8 Pulled with a magnetic force 1 Leafy vegetable spaces so that each 5 Movie star 9 Chafe row, column and 8 Pulled with a magnetic force 10 Disreputable 3x3 box contains 9 Chafe 12 Lights out 10 Disreputable the numbers 12 Lights 13out Shortened forms of words 1 to 9.

13 Shortened forms of words 15 Egotistical 15 Egotistical 17 Regal 17 Regal 19 Gallop 19 Gallop 20 Height above sea level Medium 20 Height above sea level 22 Clothe 22 Clothe 23 Relating to pants 23 Relating to pants

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44 Almeria Living

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A Walk through the Dalí Museum works of surrealism: A Cadillac with a sculpture representing Queen Esther on the bonnet; a pillar made from tyres on top of which Dalí’s own sailing boat rests; and if you stick a euro in the slot next to the car, it will start raining in its interior, soaking the occupants and the escargots they are enjoying.

Next, you get to The Stage, which is crowned by a huge multi faceted cupola, not unlike the inside of a fly’s eye; and that is often what we need in order to appreciate the works of Dalí: a compound vision like that of a fly.

Especially worth mentioning in this area is a theatre curtain, covered in a painting representing ‘Gala, naked, looking at the sea’, and a tapestry with a double image, The Hallucinogenic Toreador: Behind multiple silhouettes of Venus de Milo you can make out the face of Manolete, a famous bull fighter.

The Dalí Museum in Figueras, Gerona, is the late artist’s greatest work of art, and anybody finding themselves in the general vicinity of this marvel would cheat themselves of an amazing experience were they not to take the opportunity to visit.

It all started in the early ‘60s when Ramón Guardiola, the mayor of Figueras, Dalí’s place of birth, asked him to donate a work to the town’s Museu de l’Empordá; Dalí’s reply was immediate: He was not just going to donate a work, he would donate a whole museum. In his own words: "Where, if not in my own town, should the most extravagant and solid of my work endure, where if not here? The Municipal Theatre, or what remained of it, struck me as very appropriate, and for three reasons: first, because I am an eminently theatrical painter; second, because the theatre stands right opposite the church where I was baptised; and third, because it was precisely in the hall of the vestibule of the theatre where I hosted my first exhibition."

The Municipal Theatre had been destroyed by a fire at the end of the Civil War, and had since then been left in ruins without any attempts of reconstruction. Until Salvador Dalí arrived on the scene and changed the building’s, and indeed the town’s, fate.

From the early 70’s onwards, Dalí devoted almost all of his time to the creation of his museum, and it was officially inaugurated on 28th September 1974.

The Dalí Museum is not just an exhibition of the artist’s work, it is a work of art in itself.

In Dalí’s own words, entry was ‘prohibited to art critics and experts’ – meaning that the museum was intended to be experienced by each visitor on their own premises without being told how to interpret or understand what they saw. Indeed, Dalí didn’t particularly want anybody to ‘understand’ his work.

When you enter the Dalí Museum the first area you get to is the patio, which was the main floor of the old theatre. There you are welcomed by an audience of Oscar statuette-like figures set into the walls; in the middle is what is probably one of Dalí’s most monumental

46 Almeria Living

Hanging on one side is a reconstruction of President Lincoln’s face which changes when you look at it through a lens, and also on the stage you will find a slab without a name: Dalí’s final resting place, right in the centre of his greatest creation.

The Mae West Room is probably the most famous part of the Dalí Theatre. The actress’ face is made up by the components of a lounge. Two pictures constitute the eyes, a double fireplace the nose and a sofa is her lips. And of course, to complete the room, a fully fitted bathroom hangs upside down from the ceiling.

In order for you to see the room in two dimensions like Dalí’s own picture that inspired it, you go up a set of steps where, looking through a lens mounted on a camel you will see the elements reorganized to make the room look like the picture.

Passing through a humble little door you reach the Treasure Room, a room covered in red velvet like the inside of a jewellery box. This is where the most precious of Dalí’s pictures can be found, cubist and impressionist paintings from the twenties side by side with surrealist masterpieces and oil paintings from his more classic period. It is a highly charged ‘free for all’ presided over by his magnificent painting ‘Basket of Bread’ and several renderings of Gala, his wife.

Intimacy rules in this space.

The ‘Fishmongers’ area is situated in what was the fish market adjacent to the Teatro Municipal when this was still functioning.

Here you will find valuable pictures of large dimensions running in time from a young, very ‘Picassoesque’ and ‘Matissesque’ Salvador Dalí, to the mature artist who made paintings of sculptures by Michelangelo.

Of Russian origin, Elena Ivanova Diakanova has become known to history as Gala: Dalí’s wife, muse, administrator, friend, lover and confidante. A special love affair which started in 1929 and lasted until the end of their lives. By way of his museum, Dalí remembers and reveres her constantly, both artistically and as a source of inspiration. How many times do we see Gala? Uncountable!

The Palace of the Wind is situated in the old theatre’s rest room, where the town’s social interactions took place between acts. On its ceiling there is a giant painting dedicated to the ‘Tramontana’ winds that beat the region of Emporda. The dizzying perspective of Gala and Dalí seen from underneath is stunning. The room on the right, with its vintage furniture, reconstructs a bedroom, and the one of the left an artist’s studio. At the bottom of the room, a corridor with lithographs urns into an art gallery.

Upstairs, on the top floor, the visitor discovers the importance to Dalí of his art collection. Works by Bouguereau, Cuchamp, El Greco, Fortuny, Urgell etc. cover the walls and intermingle with Dal’s own oil paintings. Simultaneously, a homage to other artists and a recognition of the inspiration they gave him.

An adjacent building houses a collection of jewellery, 37 magnificent pieces that belonged to the American Owen Cheatham family, all designed by Dalí. They were acquired by the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in 1999, and their value is incalculable. Precious stones transform into fantastic designs; a beating heart, an eye that measures time and a mouth with the lips made from rubies and teeth from pearls.

The Dalí Museum in Figueras was Dalí’s last and greatest work of art. It is a place where content and ‘container’ become one, and one does not make sense without the other. It is an extension of Dalí’s personality and a generous gift to all who visit this unique masterpiece.

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48 Almeria Living

Are You a Guiri?

visited only by country lads and wild beasts. Benito Pérez Galdós used the term in his novel ‘Zumalacárregui’ about the 1st Carlist war; this caused the word to be included in the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary in 1925 with the following definition:

The Spanish Word ‘guiri’ (pronounced ‘geeree’ with a hard ‘g’) is well known among expats – as it is often used by the Spanish as a nickname for us foreigners.

But not all foreigners; immigrants are also foreigners, but the term does not apply to them. One disgruntled Brit said it was used derogatively by local Spanish people about British tourists who ate ‘fluorescent paella’ and frequented bars that no Spanish person would set foot in. Another definition is ‘a foreign tourist who makes his presence known through festive or formidable behaviour, sometimes even for years’.

A name which was given, during the 19th century civil wars, by the Carlists to the followers of Queen Cristina, and later on to any liberal, especially government soldiers.

But where does the word actually come from?

Some people have tied it to the Turkish word ‘gauri’ which means infidel or foreigner, but it does actually have its own Spanish origin. It is thought to be derived from the Basque word ‘giristino’ which again comes from the word ‘cristino’, meaning loyal to Queen María Cristina’s side; so guiris were, in other words, the soldiers from the opposing side.

The word popped up in Spanish literature for the first time in a story by Emilio Pardo Bazán; he put it into the mouth of a Basque local who was complaining about parties of foreign tourists who unceremoniously ran about in the mountains that had formerly been

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In the early 20th century, guiri was used as a slang word for the Guardia Civil, and it was not until the 1950s that the word came to describe ‘foreign tourist’; this was the definition of the Spanish dictionaries towards the end of the century.

In our part of Spain, in the province of Almería, we also have a special use for the word: it is used to describe a bush which in the rest of Spain is known as ‘retamo’ or ‘espinillo’. The origin of this is thought to have been a pun to the amount of Western movies filmed here in the 60s and 70s: We have a good handful of planted ‘guiris’, and a good number of acting ‘guiris’.

But whether you feel offended or not, at the end of the day each person uses the word with his own connotations and meanings, and being a ‘guiri’ is far from always something negative.

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Get your agent round for a chat!

By Voss Homes Estate Agents - Huércal Overa

Well! Speaking to a number of agents the property market is still going from strength to strength. Jan, Feb and March were great months and April was even better but if your agent was not bringing so many clients during April then don’t be too alarmed. We saw sales go up but viewings did reduce a little during the month.

This was mostly because British buyers thought at the end of March the UK was coming out of the EU and wanted to delay their visit but mostly because we had a late Easter break and of course the lovely flight & car hire companies and hotels etc put up their prices. This meant a lot of property hunters preferred to wait until the prices drop in May and June.

This is often the case during the public holidays even Christmas as viewings do generally dip down but the serious buyers who are intent and ready to buy still come out to buy.

There are now a couple of bank holidays in May but we are expecting a very productive month as our diary is already filling up.

So... there are plenty more properties buyers on their way from all

52 Almeria Living

over Europe but us estate agents still need more properties to fill the increasing demand.

Even if you are not thinking of selling for a few months or even next year it is worth getting your local agent round for a good chat to get an idea of what your property is worth.

Please pick an agent who is known for actually selling properties in your specific area.

That way you will get a true, accurate, achievable valuation and a factual talk about what is specifically happening in your area.

You can also discuss your likely selling costs. However, Please note it is best to speak to a solicitor, conveyancer or Asesoria to get a more accurate idea of your costs and tax liabilities so you don’t get any nasty surprises later.......Please do not go on Facebook, internet forums nor speak to the bloke down the bar expecting accurate advice.

Maybe you are thinking of possibly renting but have heard so many horror stories.....so again another reason to get your local agent´s professional opinion.

Former Costa Almeria News reporter Emma Randle embarks on a new adventure in the historic gypsy quarter of Almeria. Faced with the mid-life challenge of job loss and children leaving home, at the start of the year she upped sticks from her comfortable country residence to experience a different way of life. Over the coming months you can follow her journey, as well as learning about what Almeria city has to offer – its bars, attractions and colourful history.

La Chanca Life Begins: January 2019 New year, new life, new blog. Such a cliche, I know.

ended after the paper became unprofitable and closed down, and my children grew out of village life and the Spanish education system and went to join their father in middle England.

La Chanca Life

But it's true. It's the new year, I'm about to leave my safe middle class life as a respectable British expat living in southern Spain, mother of two, with a large country house with obligatory dogs, cat and reputation to uphold, to run away with the gypsies. And I'm going to write about it.

Well that's not entirely accurate. I'm not sure the gypsies would have me - yet.

But I am moving to what is known as the gypsy district in Almeria, a place called La Chanca where the poverty and rubbish-strewn streets are a far cry from my comfortable existence in the mountains of Cariatiz, a small village just outside the picturesque town of Sorbas.

Almeria is my nearest city, on the Andalusian coast between Malaga and Alicante. It is relatively unheard of compared to those bastions of British holiday-making and expat life, but is an attractive traditional seaside resort, with a Moorish castle said to be second only to Granada's Alhambra.

It is in the shadow of this ancient monument, the Alcazaba, that I will be living over the next year, the only English woman in a community of gypsies and Moroccans, an immigrant among immigrants, on the margins of the city and of Almerian society, where any selfrespecting 'Almeriense' wouldn't dream of setting foot.

Most Spaniards I have told have held up their hands in horror, with cautionary tales of drug dealing, unspecified crime in general and a suspicion of 'gitanos' and 'Moros' embedded deep in their veins, borne out of a history of conflict.

So what is a nice English girl (ok mature woman pushing 50) doing in a place like this?

Well, they say change is borne out of necessity and it's partly that.

Already divorced, in the past year I have lost my job and my teenage children have moved to the UK for sixth form.

Seven years of working as a reporter for the Costa Almeria News

So what was I to do? Rattle around in my empty house with only the pets for company and the beautiful but silent hills to look out on?

I am a terrible countryside dweller, all my resolutions of daily hikes, housekeeping and gardening fall by the wayside in favour of, well of virtually anything really, but especially coffee (beer, wine, whatever's on offer) with friends, shopping, concerts, making music, reading, writing and Netflix. I know nothing about plants, I don't even bother to pick my own olives anymore, my oranges fall to the ground uneaten and the weeds grow everywhere. Sacrilege, I know. I'm so lucky to live in this paradisaical place and I don't appreciate it, and the guilt is eating me up!

So, after 11 years, it's time for a change.

And until I make my fortune (by means as yet unknown) I can't afford a second home or even the rent on a box-like flat in a so-called respectable part of town.

Whereas in cheap La Chanca I will have a spacious house with an amazing view over parkland to the castle and down to the sea.

And who wants to be respectable anyway? I've been there, done that and now it's time for an adventure.

For the next year I'm going to be living the La Chanca Life, exploring the city of Almeria from the inside out - or should that be the outside in?

This blog will document my day to day life as part of that unique community, my investigations into its roots and my wanderings around town, the best sites, attractions, events and of course, the best bars.

At the same time it will explore my inner wanderings, what it's like to be alone for the first time in my entire life, and how it feels to be un-labelled as a lawyer (a past life), wife, mother, journalist. What is my place? Am I just as dispossessed as the migrants who will be my neighbours? Is that what attracts me to La Chanca?

At the end of the year I will see where this journey has led me - will I find my dream job, spiritual home or new purpose in life? Or will I be desperate to get back to the quiet country life and return to my comfort zone?

For more on La Chanca Life go to www.lachancalife.com

View of La Chanca with Alcazaba

May ‘19 53

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“Hear no Evil, See no Evil.....”

By Vic Davey

Just over a year ago I had an operation on my nose, not for cosmetic purposes I hasten to add, although I did secretly hope I might come out looking a little more like Brad Pitt. Unfortunately it was more like 'Frankenstein's Monster' with said proboscis wrapped up like a Mummy's shroud.

No, rather it was to correct a medical condition which had, among other things, caused me to lose my sense of smell. This was not an overnight thing, but gradual over the course of many years.

The result of the operation was incredible. Within days, I could again smell aromas which, for years, had been denied to me and I realised what I had been missing.

As the weeks went by, my sense of smell became unbelievably sensitive, or maybe it was just normal, I had no way of knowing....

Simple things I had missed like trying aftershave lotions and not being able to distinguish between Brut or Beckham.

Similarly, Mrs D's attempts at finding new perfumes were lost on me: choosing new plants for the garden, cooking smells....However, there are downsides, those bad aromas I had blissfully lived without suddenly came alive!

This got me thinking about our Senses and how it appears that the loss of one or more can enhance the others to compensate. But the loss of our sense of smell does not appear to work in the same way.

Instead, our sense of taste suffers as well.

There is no increase in our hearing and our sight doesn't improve since you can't see or hear smells anyway. If we lose our sight, the brain seems to be able to rewire itself to free up the part which processed images, helping us to navigate around using touch and smell and hearing.

Continued on page 56 .....

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..... Continued from page 55 I guess its a bit like deleting all the videos and photos on our computers or storing them on an external device in order to use the remaining memory for other tasks. The brain adapts itself to the new conditions. Of course, people with these afflictions also learn how to cope with their loss, but scientists believe that the brain does most of it.

This seems to imply that our sense of smell and taste are not as important in our day to day lives, kind of 'nice to haves' but we don't rely on them for survival in the way that we need sight and hearing.

I can attest to that. Having little or no sense of smell did not stop me from enjoying a normal life, but I realise now that I did miss out on large parts of it. In the animal kingdom it is different. A dog's sense of smell could be up to 100,000 times more acute and the part of their brain which is used to analyze those smells is around 40 times greater than ours. However, their eyesight is poorer than ours, except in bad light where it is more sensitive.

We have some friends in the UK, who fostered and then adopted a baby girl who was born both deaf and blind. Her world extends to as far as her fingertips can reach. If no one is touching her, she is completely alone. What a sobering thought and what courage of those people, with no experience, to take this child into their home and bring her up as their own daughter. Deafblindness can often be accompanied by other disabilities as she is also not able to walk. But they are providing her with the best life she could have.

This reminds me of the story of Helen Keller who was born in 1880

and at 19 months old, contracted an illness which might have been meningitis, which left her both deaf and blind. It was through the efforts of her teacher Anne Sullivan who was able to break through her 'sea of dense fog' as she called it. They were together as student, governess and eventually companions for almost 50 years. Amazingly, in 1904, Helen gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Radcliffe College of Harvard University.

These and other stories put into perspective my grumbles about my years without a sense of smell, but its restoration has highlighted how much we take all of our senses for granted. I saw a couple of short videos on Twitter recently of two babies, no more than a year or eighteen months old. One was receiving a hearing aid, having never before heard his mother's voice or the sounds of the world around him and the other, received a pair of spectacles, giving him real sight for the first time. The look of pure joy on their faces was something to behold and something which I'll remember for a very long time. I certainly won't be taking my newly found sense of smell for granted again.

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May ‘19 57

Lorca Castle – Castillo de Lorca

When they have visitors from home, most people in our area look for somewhere to take them, something to show them – and many end up traipsing all the way over to Granada or even Seville. Or if they don’t want to go too far, there’s always Mini Hollywood, a guaranteed success, especially for younger visitors.

But truth is that Lorca Castle, which is right on our doorstep, also makes for a great day out, and it has a long and interesting history.

Lorca Castle, also known as Fortaleza del Sol, is a fortress of Medieval origin which was constructed between the 9th and 14th centuries. It consists of a number of defensive structures which, during the Middle Ages, turned both the city and its castle into an impenetrable stronghold. It was a key citadel in the many conflicts between Muslims and Christians during the Reconquest.

With its 640 m length and 120 m width at its widest point, Lorca Castle is one of the largest castles in Spain.

Archaeological studies have revealed that there has been uninterrupted human occupation on the situe of Lorca Castle since the Copper Ages, and there is evidence of a large settlement in the Bronze Age, which extended from the castle and into the city of Lorca. Burial places, dwellings and foundations of defence walls have been found in the area.

From then on, it’s difficult to say exactly when the first defence fortress was constructed on the ridge overlooking Lorca. The first written evidence of a castle in that location comes from Muslim sources, where a city called Lurqa is mentioned as one of the most important in the Tudmir cora (a cora being an administrative region in al-Andalus).

The Muslims used its setting to turn the castle into an impenetrable fort sitting on top of a steep cliff. The interior was divided into two by a wall. The western part was where food supplies and livestock were kept safe in times of danger; the eastern was the residential part, a small town within the castle.

When Prince Don Alfonso (the future King Alfonso X) conquered the castle in 1244, he converted it into a strategic key point on the border to the Nazari kingdom of Granada.

He had the Alfonsina and Espolón towers constructed and he had the castle’s walls repaired and reinforced. In fact, he did so much reform

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and improvement that hardly any of the Muslim building work remains, except in the dividing wall and some of the foundations of the other walls.

In the Middle Ages, before the Inquisition, Jews and their religion were an integral, though separate part of society, and the Jewish quarter, La Judería, was inside the walls of the fort. This served to protect the Jews from aggression from Christians, but it also signified an ethnic division, with the Christians safe down in the city and the Jews up in the castle where the danger from outside attacks was greater.

La Judería covered a surface of 5,700 m2, and archaeological excavations have unearthed 12 homes and a synagogue from the 14th-15th century, the only one that has been found in the region of Murcia. The archaeological finds are exhibited in the basement of the Parador, which is set inside the walls of the fortification, and in the exposition ‘Luces de Sefarad’, which has travelled all over the world.

When the Reconquest was completed in 1492, the castle suddenly found itself surplus to requirements, and it was vastly over dimensioned for the few troops that were stationed there. And with the event of the Inquisition, the last of the inhabitants in the Jewish quarter disappeared.

The castle was abandoned and left to fall into ruin until, at the beginning of the 19th century it was revitalised and partly repaired due to the Spanish War of Independence. Changes were made which changed the castle’s Medieval appearance, such as the installation of cannons in the Murviedro area and the stables underneath them.

In 1934 Lorca Castle was declared a National Historic Monument, and in 1964 Lorca’s old town, including the castle, was declared a Historic-Artistic Compound.

Today, Lorca Castle is a busy tourist destination with thousands of visitors every year and a wide range of activities and exhibitions on offer, including theatre, falconry, workshops, guided visits, nocturnal activities etc.

And within the castle compounds a Parador de Turismo hotel was opened in 2012. It is situated near the two towers that give the castle its characteristic profile (the Alfonsina and Espolón towers), and it was during its construction that the Jewish quarter was unearthed.

The style of the building has been carefully designed to match the existing fortress; however, the year before its inauguration in 2012, the Lorca earth quake shook the compound and obliged the architects to convert the façade to make it resistant to possible future earthquakes. They did this by mounting horizontal steel bands around the front of the building, fixing them to the main structure, which serve to stop any movement at the same time as giving the Parador a unique appearance.

Lorca Castle is open to visitors 7 days a week from 10.30 to 18.30, and the price of entrance tickets starts at 6€.

May ‘19 59

Out and About in Spain Tickets and further information only available from C.A.T. Services (La Alfoquía) Total Entertainments in Albox , Arboleas & Turre & Kukis Mojácar (Bar/Restaurant) 950 63 43 88 627 635 514 travel@catservicesinspain.com Pick-up points vary depending route and demand from Mojácar, Turre, Huércal Overa, La Alfoquía, Arboleas & Albox and more

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60 Almeria Living

Cauliflower Good for Everything!!

¡Buen Provecho!

The dietary fibre cleans out the toxics that our bodies store, and again, the sulphoraphane protects the stomach lining helping to prevent stomach ulcers and cancer of the intestine.

The contents of vitamin C and antioxidants in cauliflower help your eyes to stay healthy. They help prevent macular degeneration – and the sulphoraphane protects the tissue in the retina.

And I could go on: cauliflower is also good for our brain, our nervous system, our electrolytes and a good guard against diabetes, and all this to a great extent thanks to our new friend, sulphoraphane.

However, for the sulphoraphane to really do its job well, the cauliflower must not be overcooked; it should be steamed for about three minutes to retain all its goodness.

When you buy your cauliflower, make sure it’s white with the florets tightly packed and free of blemishes; check that the leaves attached are vibrant and fresh; it should be heavy for its size and it should not smell strongly, which means that it’s past its prime.

This time of year, many fruits and vegetables are at their best, and it is difficult to choose just one out of this lovely and vast variety.

Keep it in a loosely sealed plastic bag in the fridge for 4-7 days if whole; once you’ve cut it into florets use within a couple of days.

However, some friends recently gave us a freshly cut off head of cauliflower from their vegetable garden, and it was out of this world!

I had forgotten what cauliflower is supposed to taste like, and the smells when I cooked it and the flavours when we ate it were truly gifts from the Gods.

Steam, boil, fry, roast, bake or barbecue your cauliflower – it is versatile as well as healthy!

So I chose to do cauliflower this month.

Cauliflower belongs to the family of cruciferous vegetables which also includes broccoli, cabbage and kale. It is a great source of vitamin B-complex and vitamins C, K and E, and is rich in minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphor, potassium and manganese.

At the same time, it’s very low in fat but high in dietary fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. And it’s a great source of something called sulphoraphane, which seems to work miracles on lots of aspects of our body.

And what does all that mean?

Well, for a start, the vitamin K is anti-inflammatory and thus helps our blood flow freer through our veins. And the sulphoraphane helps lower our blood pressure.

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May ‘19 61

Cooking with Nina

Food Glorious Food How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I do believe that Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poem referred to a person, but the initial words always make me think of my passion for food.

I love reading about it, I love shopping for it, I love preparing it, I love cooking it, I love eating it and I love writing about it. And them’s just some of the ways...

This month we have a couple of very different recipes for chicken pieces in sauce, a super delicious and impressive ‘stuffed’ solomillo and my favourite risotto.

Sorry, no bread this time, but don’t worry, I’ve got lots of bread recipes up my sleeve for future editions of Almeria Living.

Chicken Breast in a Mustard Cream Sauce This wonderfully creamy mustard sauce would lend itself to many different dishes. Here it comes with tender pieces of chicken breast.

Ingredients for two:

1 tbsp olive oil

200g carrots, cut in half lengthwise and sliced

Salt and pepper

250g leeks, sliced

100ml cream

1 onion, chopped 300g chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

150ml chicken stock 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard Sauce thickener if needed

Heat up the oil in a deep frying pan. Throw in the chicken pieces and brown them on all sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and reserve.

In the same oil, now add the carrots, leeks and onion and fry them at medium heat until the onion starts getting transparent. Add the chicken stock and loosen any sediment from the bottom of the pan.

Cover and cook over a low heat for 8 minutes.

Add the mustard and cream, stir, then the chicken pieces. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with brown rice and a green vegetable of your choice. And maybe a nice glass of cool white wine!

© Deborah Lee Rossiter

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62 Almeria Living

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Chicken Vol au Vents with Green Asparagus A traditional Danish recipe, these vol au vents were habitually used as a starter in the good old days when you had a hefty three course meal at celebration parties.

This hearty recipe is easily filling enough for a main course, though!

It really calls for a 1.2 kg chicken, but they don’t usually come that small in Spain, so I bought an ordinary one, cut off the legs and froze them for another day.

Ingredients for four (main course) or six (starter): 12 vol au vents 1,200 g chicken 1 tbsp salt 6 pepper corns 1 carrot 1 onion A few stalks of fresh parsley or thyme

25g butter 2½ tbsp plain flour 400ml chicken stock 200ml cream 1 tbsp apple vinegar 2 tsp sugar 250g green asparagus Salt and pepper

Place the chicken in a large soup pan and pour over a litre of water. Bring it to the boil and remove the foam from the surface. Add the next five ingredients, bring back to the boil, cover and simmer for about an hour.

Take out the chicken and place it on a plate to let it cool down. Sieve the stock, pour it back into the pan and boil to reduce it to about half to make it nice and strong.

Pull the skin off the chicken and pick the meat off the bones. Discard all but the meat. Pick or pull the chicken into small bits. Reserve.

Cut the woody end off the asparagus and cut the rest into 20-30mm pieces.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, stir and let it bubble gently for a minute or two. Pour in the boiling soup in batches and stir thoroughly between each addition.

Now add the cream, vinegar and sugar; stir, then throw in the asparagus and let everything bubble slowly for at least five minutes.

Add the meat and heat through then adjust the seasoning.

Heat the vol au vents in the oven, distribute them on warm plates and fill with the chicken mix.

Serve immediately. Riquísimo!!

© Deborah Lee Rossiter

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BAR & RESTAURANT

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Calle Marques 2, Almanzora 64 Almeria Living

Saturday 1st June 8.30pm MICHELLE MILES on the terrace

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Telephone to reserve 642 163 847

Wrapped in Layers That’s what I do in spring, ‘cos even when we have cool mornings, it always warms up in the daytime, so you have to be able to peel off the layers as the day progresses.

We’ve talked about ’solomillo’ before, it’s a cut of pork, the ‘sirloin’ of a pig, as it were, and it is fat free and delicious.

This is ‘solomillo’ wrapped in layers, and it is a wonderfully tasty treat! It takes a bit of preparation, but the final result is well worth it, and something you can be proud to serve when entertaining.

Ingredients for four: 1 solomillo of about 450g 25g butter 2 tsp oil Salt and freshly ground pepper 10 fine slices jamón Serrano

350g minced pork and beef 2 tbsp grated onion 100 ml breadcrumbs 100 ml milk 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped 1 tbsp dried tarragon

Dry the solomillo with kitchen roll; bubble up the butter in a frying pan, add the oil and brown the meat on all sides. Season with salt and pepper and reserve.

Mix the minced meat with salt, pepper, onion and breadcrumbs.

Gradually stir in the milk, then add the herbs and mix well.

Place a sheet of baking paper on the kitchen worktop. Create a large lattice with the slices of ham and spread a third of the mince mix on top along the middle. Place the solomillo on the mince and spread the rest of the mince over the top and sides of it.

Use the baking paper to roll everything into a large sausage with the jamón Serrano on the outside.

Place the sausage in a greased ovenproof dish, and cook it in the oven at 200C for 40-50 minutes until the meat is cooked through.

Take the sausage out of the oven, keep it warm and let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it.

I served mine with oven roasted potatoes and tomatoes with a splash of green.

A meal fit for a king!

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© Deborah Lee Rossiter

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May ‘19 65

Leek Risotto I love leeks, and I adore making risotto; I find the fact that you have no choice but dedicating yourself to stirring slowly for 25 minutes strangely therapeutic, rather than stressing. You just cannot hurry a risotto, and that is why I love it!

This one is quite naughty, which of course makes it even better!

Ingredients for two: ½ g whole saffron, crushed in a mortar with 1-2 tsp coarse salt 250g risotto rice 200ml white wine 2-3 leeks, cut into thin slices 750ml chicken or vegetable stock 50g butter 100g parmesan cheese, grated Salt and freshly ground pepper Soak the salt and saffron in the wine while you prepare the leeks.

Bring the stock to the boil and keep it warm.

Melt the butter in a thick base frying pan and add the rice. Once the rice has absorbed the butter, add the wine mixture and let it bubble until it has almost all evaporated.

Turn the heat down and add a ladle of hot stock. Stir until it has been absorbed, then repeat. Carry on until the rice is cooked and the stock all gone, some 20-25 minutes.

Turn in the parmesan and let it melt. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve the risotto with a tomato- or green leafy salad.

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652 82 74 81 superzurgena@coviges.es

66 Almeria Living

bazar y comestibles loli

What’s On - May / June Wednesday 8th May - DUSTY - 5pm onwards Saturday 11th May – KAYLEIGH – 5pm onwards Sunday 12th May – SHORT FUSE - 5pm onwards Wednesday 15th May – BRIAN DEE – 5pm onwards Saturday 18th May – DAVE ASHCROFT - 5pm onwards Wednesday 22nd May – JACKI & STEVE Del MUNDO - 5pm onwards Saturday 25th May – STEVE FISHER (aka Rod Stewart) – 6pm onwards Sunday 26th May – MARILYN SHIPLEY - 4pm onwards Wednesday 29th May –AFA CHARITY EVENT - 5pm onwards Raising money for a defibrillator for the local area.

Hosted by Jack Savage of Smooth FM, Music with REWIND Tickets 15€ to include BBQ - available at the bar or AFA Shop, Arboleas

Sunday 2nd June – ARTOONAS - 6pm onwards Saturday 8th June – BRIAN DEE – 6pm onwards Sunday 9th June – JACK LAW - 5pm onwards

English and Spanish Cuisine now being served

Every Monday

Quiz Night with Maureen 7.30pm Special Menu 4.95

Full Menu available from 4pm

Tuesday

Steak Night

Friday Fish & Chip

Summer Opening:

12 noon – 9pm

Curry Night available from 4pm

12 til late

Sunday Lunch

Thursday

Large car park with Ample parking at the rear of the bar

Wednesday

Karaoke evening

Served 12.30pm – 4.30pm Booking Advisable

nueva trinidad 850 993 250 / 634 369 833

Arroyo Acietuno 1 Arboleas May ‘19 67

La

V

ida

Restaurant - Bar Danny & Sharron welcome customers new and old

Saturday 11th May

Saturday 25th May

BBQ on the terrace from 2pm Live entertainment from 3pm

BBQ on the terrace from 2pm

Live entertainment from 3pm

With THE ALTOONAS

with ROCIO STARRY

Amy Winehouse & 60s Tribute

Saturday 8th June

Saturday 18th May BBQ on the Terrace from 2pm

Back by popular demand

PATRICK PIERSE singing everything from Irish Ballads to Rock and Roll, accompanied by Fiddle Player STEPHANIE SWANTON From 3pm

BBQ on the terrace from 2pm Live entertainment with SKA BAND - from 3pm

Tribute to Madness & Bad Manners

* For all events please contact the bar to reserve your table

Almeria

Zurgena

A334

Albox

ïƒ

5km

Cucador Murcia

WEDNESDAY STEAK DEAL Buy 1 fillet steak meal & get the 2nd for half price 6pm-9pm

SUNDAY LUNCH 12.30-4pm Choice of Roast Beef, Chicken, Pork, Lamb Shank + a selection of Homemade Starters & Desserts

Open: Monday - Saturday 10am-close Sunday 12-7pm Restaurant open: Mon - Sat 10-4pm & 6-9pm Avenida Europa, CUCADOR (above The Attic)

68 Almeria Living

FRIDAY Atlantic Cod Chips & Homemade Tartar Sauce Full menu also available

950 634 562

Scan code for our Facebook page

The fruit tree known in Spain as Nispero, is actually the Loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica) of the Rosaceae family and indigenous to southeastern China, where it has been cultivated for over 1000 years.

It is an evergreen with long dark green slender leaves with a leathery texture. The plants usually flower in autumn and the fruit is ripe in April to May. The fruit is delicate and bruises easily so does not travel well. It is particularly popular with birds which is why the tree is often seen protected by a net as the fruit ripens.

The flowers are small and white with 5 petals and are produced in clusters of 3 – 10 flowers. They give a sweet heady scent.

The fruit can be oval, rounded or even pear-shape – typically oval in Spanish varieties – with a slightly downy yellow to orange skin.

The tangy yellow flesh becomes sweeter when the fruit is soft. Each fruit contains 3-5 large brown seeds.

The loquat is comparable with its distant relative, the apple, with a high sugar, acid and pectin content, making it a good fruit for jam, jelly and chutney. They are also delicious served poached in light syrup and make a pleasant light wine.

Loquat syrup is used in Chinese medicine for soothing the throat and combined with other ingredients can soothe the digestive and respiratory systems.

The seeds and young leaves of the plant are slightly poisonous as they contain small amounts of cyanogenetic glycocides, which release cyanide when digested. However, the low concentration and bitter flavour normally prevents enough being eaten to do harm.

As the fruit is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and high in vitamin A, B6, potassium and manganese as well as dietary fibre it has many health benefits.

The kumquat, although bearing a similar name is not botanically related to the Loquat.

Nispero Tree & Fruit

La Cala

Speciality of the house Rice Dishes and Tapas

Cervecería

We specialise in Gin & Tonics, Cocktails & Smoothies, Crepes, Waffles and a large variety of choice on the menu Friday Nights are Gastronomy Nights 10th - Burger Night

Mini Burger + Amstel 20l

2.20€ 17th - Montaditos Night Mini Burger + Amstel 20l

2.00€ 24th - Burger Night

Mini Burger + Amstel 20l

2.20€ 31st - Super Montaditos Night Montaditos + Amstel 20l

2.20€

Plaza Nueva 5, ALBOX

Tel: 699 090 183

Avda Juan Sebastian Elcano, 52 04621 Vera

950 093 017 603 804 676 Home Delivery Available

cervecerialacala@gmail.com 626 692 601

Pizzeria Memoli Open: 13.00-16.00 19.00-midnight Closed Wednesday

Urb Las Buganvillas Local 29, Ctra Garrucha-Villaricos, Vera Playa

CHAPMAN’S RESTAURANT & BAR

Open: Monday-Saturday 10am & Sunday 12noon Tuesday 10am - 5pm

Reservations 950 091188 Avda Lepanto, Albox May ‘19 69

What’s it like?

By Bill Riley

Describing a wine is a horribly difficult task.

“Well it’s red, dry and, er, fruity.” Is that it?

Many years ago there was a lovely James Thurber cartoon depicting a wine snob pouring a glass for friends at a dinner party. “It’s a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding but I think you will be amused by it’s presumption” commented the snob. This sort of pompous nonsense makes for an amusing cartoon but has no place in the real world.

Back in the 1980s, the BBC2 programme “Food and Drink” featured Oz Clarke and Jilly Goolden pontificating about various wines. Oz was generally very sensible but Jilly could go somewhat over the top. Her tasting technique resembled someone using “Listerene” mouthwash with much grimacing and sound effects. On one occasion they tasted one of my wines – an Australian Shiraz I was supplying to Safeway Supermarkets. Oz was complimentary but Jilly, after the usual facial contortions, described it as “smelling of boiling tarmac and scented drawer liners.” Yes, well.

Tasting is a very personal practice so one tends to build up a memory bank of tastes and smells which means something to you.

For example: if a wine reminds me of nettles I know it is likely to be a Sauvignon Blanc (not that I have ever eaten nettles). The nose of Chateauneuf-du-Pape makes me think of leather though another taster might associate Chateauneuf-du-Pape with beef or creosote or……...anything. As I say, it is a personal thing. I recall a wine trade friend describing the grape variety Gewurztraminer

as smelling of “cats pee on a gooseberry bush”. Personally I find Gewurztraminer reminds me of honeydew melon but, as I say, each to his own.

Some more mundane tasting terms are: Austere – for wines that lack fruit or body and are thin.

Acidic – needs no explanation.

Length – when the flavour of the wine stays with you for some time.

Oaky – when the wine has a taste/smell of wood.

Steely – the wine is very dry without being acidic.

Recently someone was waxing lyrical about a really superb wine he had tried. “It’s like liquid Viagra,” he enthused. It obviously worked wonders for him! © Bill Riley

MON-FRI: 9am - 6pm SATURDAY: 10am - 5pm SUNDAY: 11am - 3pm

OPEN: 7 DAYS A WEEK

BRANDED PRODUCTS AT GREAT PRICES! AVDA LEPANTO 27, ALBOX TEL: 643 518 352

ARBOLEAS

Paco’s Fruit & Vegetables every Sunday

DELIVERY EXPRESS

Open: Tue-Sun 13.00-16.00 & 19.00-24.00

C/ Nuñez de Balboa, 18 - Vera Playa - 950 804 293 / 610 887 204

70 Almeria Living

Jamón Serrano – a Wonderful Spanish Treat Most of us have tried, and liked, Jamón Serrano (Serrano ham), the traditional air dried ham that Spain is so famous for.

It comes in all shapes and sizes in the shops, from pre-sliced in a vacuum pack to a whole, undivided leg hanging from a piece of thin rope. You can buy whole slices and half slices, the ham cut into tiny bits for cooking and the bone that the ham was cut from, for stock and stews.

We truly live in Jamón Serrano paradise!

In the bars, a plate of Jamón Serrano is one of the most traditional tapas you can treat yourself to, and it is usually delicious: Served in paper thin slices it is a true delicacy with its subtle nutty flavour with buttery undertones which combine with a consistency as smooth as velvet. It melts in your mouth!

In some bars when you order a plate of Jamón Serrano, the waiter will cut the ham from a leg set in a special bracket which has been designed just for this purpose.(In fact, cutting Jamón Serrano without one of these is a very doubtful pleasure.) Other places keep the ham out the back and just bring the finished plate to the table.

Ham cutting is in fact a fine art, and there are several ham cutting competitions in Spain every year; having won one of these is a great asset on any chef or waiter’s CV. Jamón Serrano is a common denominator for the Spanish air dried hams, and if that is what it says on the product description, it will have come from grain fed white pigs and have been maturing for about 12 months.

Jamón Ibérico comes from the small black Iberian pig, an age old breed which has not undergone selective breeding to turn it into a meat making machine which converts feed into muscle at record speed.

If it says Jamón Ibérico on the product description, the pigs will have been fed on grain, and the ham will have been maturing for 18+ months, depending on its size.

The King of Hams is Jamón Ibérico de Bellota. It comes from free range Iberian pigs who have foraged on acorn in the peace and quiet of the great Spanish oak forests. The ham’s flavour is deep and complex and it is never too strong. If you like Jamón Serrano but think it is a bit salty and lacking in nuance, you will be thrilled with the rounded, nutty flavour of Jamón Ibérico de Bellota.

The pigs’ lifestyle and a long maturing process give the meat a very fine structure which results in beautiful slices and a delicate consistency. The colour of the meat is almost ruby red and it has a fine marbling of fat. Try this ham, and you will understand why it is the most appreciated ham in Spain and in the rest of the world!

Now get yourself out in the May sunshine, find a nice street or beach bar terrace and order yourself a lovely plate of ham. Sit back and enjoy the food, the spring weather and maybe a glass of wine; and savour the fact that your Spanish dream has come true!

AKUA

Now offering a special Sunday Menu featuring The Rosie Roastie Wrap “Making your Sunday Special Again”

El Tío Tomás BAR - TOP RESTAURANT

OPEN EVERYDAY

Restaurant

10AM-11PM

& Lounge Beach Reservations

621 210 854 Playa Quitapellejos

PALOMARES

MENU DEL DIA & NOCHE - 12€

Tel: 950 109 230 672 628 939

Cementerio

Superturre Turre Centre

Brid

El Tío Tomás

ge

Cortijo Grande

May ‘19 71

VENUS

CARS S.L.

BUY - SELL - PART-EXCHANGE UK or Spanish Right or Left-Hand Drive

S R A C

R A C -

D E T

S AR

C S

S R CA

N A

W

All legal paperwork completed Immediate decision/payment given

www.venuscars.com 965 368 274 / 666 298 689 WE WILL TRAVEL TO YOU ...

Fully legal S.L. company established in spain for over 15 years 72 Almeria Living

Wed

KUKIS Mojacar

Richard & Belinda Welcome you

Drinks & Cocktails  Breakfasts  Snacks  3 course Menu del Día 15€ Sunday Roast from 9.95€  Monday Fun Quiz 8pm, Free entry Wed 5th June - 9pm - 5€ Open 10am - late Food served all day Billy Curtis Closed Thursdays

Internationally acclaimed guitarist & singer Rockin Country & Pop

950 475 766

www.kukismojacar.com

Fun Monday Night Quiz

Play Your Cards Right with Sharon at 8pm Half the proceeds are donated to Equinac charity

Wed 24th July - 9pm - 15€ Headline act ‘Our Trace’ from Britain’s got Talent, also featuring Sam Rhodes, Mia Zuanic & Basil Jamm

Paseo de Mediterráneo 75, MOJACAR PLAYA (near Hotel Indalo)

Property/Community Administrators Calle La Mata N01, Local 2 04638 MOJACAR – Almería

950 475 199 / 638 00 62 10 Mon - Fri 09.00-14.30 & Sat 10.00-13.00

Restaurante Casa Egea

Fresh Food

Mojácar Playa - 950 472 190

Veggie Friendly

Specialising in Fish, Meat & Arroz Caldoso (house speciality)

Vegan & Vegetarian Tapas

Playa Las Ventanicas

Special Menu del Día Tuesday - Friday Open: Tue - Sun 10am-late Closed Monday

Live Music Every Saturday 8pm 651 802 415 620 386 039 Paseo del Mediterráneo, 325 Mojácar Playa (next to MACS) May ‘19 73

Mojácar

The Ever Flowing Fuente The fountain has twelve spouts in front and one to the side, which feed into three basins. Perpendicular to these, there are three different channels to one side, and another. Each one fulfils a separate function. The site of the fountain is mentioned in old Arab writings, it being of vital importance for the main location of the village.

In olden times, the fountain was the neurological centre of mojaquero social life due to the importance of water for livestock, agriculture and a continuous supply for human use. Throughout history it has served various purposes, and has given rise to the development of trades such as water-carrier, washerwoman or irrigationwatchman. Nearby used to be the water mill, which together with the fountain, made this an area of socioeconomic importance, which in turn was the basis of an important commercial structure.

In 1488 the fountain provided the historic background for the ambassador sent by the Catholic King and Queen to pursue a peaceful surrender by Mojácar. One can observe the commemorative plaque which recalls the interview between Garcilaso de la Vega and the Moorish mayor. The fountain was completely renovated in the 19th Century and had another makeover in the 1980s.

The most recent works changed the fountain’s traditional appearance for a more modern look.

Celebrating

51

Years

Live Music

Every Sunday

MOJACAR PLAYA

All meat & fish cooked on volcanic stones

For reservations & information call: 670 018 035 / 629 287 265

Holiday & Long Term Rentals Property Maintenance & Management

950 478 643 - 634 325 057 info@blueseavillas.co.uk www.blueseavillas.co.uk Paseo del Mediterráneo 77 - Mojácar Playa

74 Almeria Living

Large selectio n of Fresh Fish, Paella, Pincho s, great variety of Salads, Snacks, Burge rs & Menu del d ía Open daily from 10am

With many long term clients trusting in Blue Sea Villas, we urgently need your properties for waiting clients.

Don’t leave your investment empty and unloved, let us place our valued clients in your property, ensuring it is looked after and earning you a monthly return.

The Blue Sea Villas dream team are waiting to hear from you.

Properties on the beautiful Mojacar Playa are always a must, but properties in other areas are also more than welcome.

Mojácar

S.L.

May ‘19 75

Mojácar

Chelsea flower show, the inside story The show is open for 1 week in May but work towards this event in some cases starts 2 years previously to that. Designs for the show must be submitted by September the year before the show.

You will be notified if you have been given space during October.

Applications for space are extremely popular and oversubscribed by 100%. So, there is a criterion to follow. You should have gained 3 gold medals at other RHS show or be inspected by a panel of judges to ensure you can create a garden.

Being a prison and never having entered a show before, we had an inspection of RHS members viewing our facilities. They were satisfied with what they saw. It was novelty value for Chelsea having a prison exhibiting. For us it was an opportunity for the public to see some of the positive work we were doing.

When you are accepted, that is the start of the paper work. You must apply for work passes to get on site, lorry passes to get landscaping material on, plants delivered in lorries must be arranged. This means you need to plan what days you need deliveries. Bear in mind, this is the following year. Then you need passes for workers, exhibitors, guests, the list goes on.

By Jeff Goundrill It is that time of year again when the worlds best growers and designers come together for the best flower show in the world, trying to achieve a dream of getting a coveted Gold medal at the Chelsea flower show.

I have designed and built 6 show gardens at Chelsea and received 2 gold medals, 1 silver guilt, 2 silver and 1 bronze medals. Also received the BBC peoples award for the best show garden.

BAR - CAFETERIA Live Music Every Saturday 8pm

Breakfast • Sandwiches Snacks • Tapas

The organisation by the RHS is amazing. The site at Chelsea is very small and extremely difficult to get lorries in. They introduce a oneway system around the site and if your lorry gets stuck in a line, you could be waiting half a day for delivery.

You are allowed two weeks to complete the hard landscaping, one week to do the planting and one week to show the garden. Everything is planned to the last detail. This is without the problem of getting all your plants in perfect condition for the show. Very few other show garden exhibiters grew their own plants, they often bought them in, on a specified date in a specified condition. This took the strain away from the designer. But it escalated the cost of producing a show garden. The budget for some of the show gardens is in excess of 400 thousand pounds. My budget was £10,000. Most designers look for sponsorship. Again, we could not do this.

Scotty’s at El Tropico Bar & Eatery

Paseo del Mediterraneo, 373

Mojácar Playa

platos combinados Coffees

•

Copas

Friday Night is Quiz Night at 8.30pm Avda. Med 413, Mojácar Playa (opposite Hotel Continental) 634 312 820 76 Almeria Living

Open all day (closed Monday)

687 382 540

Me and Mrs Jones FURNITURE & BEDDING

Visit our Home Store on Mojácar Playa (next to New One Stop Property Shop) and at

Los Llanos Market every Saturday

(between Arboleas & Albox)

Furniture Beds & Mattresses Pillows & Duvets UK Bedding Single, Double, Kingsize, Superking

Tel: 634 364 795 or 07850 840288 Email: meandmrsjonesfurniture@outlook.com www.meandmrsjonesfurniture.co.uk

Mojácar

R E S TA U R A N T E & E V E N T O S

MOJÁCAR

THE FRESHEST FISH AND SEAFOOD IN MOJÁCAR I tried to design gardens with a natural theme, using wild flowers and natural hard landscaping features. With Chelsea being in May, the weather is very unpredictable. We were fortunate to have heated greenhouses to force plants on during cold spells and cold storage to store plants during hot spells to hold them back.

In one of our gardens, I wanted bluebells in flower, cowslips, cow parsley and a full range of natural water plants. Moving our plants from heat to cold to ambient temperatures was a full-time job for one of our prisoners.

When you arrive on site at the beginning of May, you know your site and dimensions. The RHS go on site before you arrive and the top two inches of grass and top soil are removed. You are left with what appears to be a ploughed field, all to be transformed into a garden of perfection in three weeks. You will complete the garden, there are no maybes in it and within the timescale given. You become totally engrossed in the project, it is your own little world, working from 8.00 in the morning until it gets dark in the evening, hail, rain, sun, whatever. It has been known for some gardeners to work through the night.

Sardines, Sea Bass and Sea Bream cooked fresh to order on our fire pit.

Why not also try our BBQ, our various meats, Paellas & other dishes.

The real problem starts when the growers from the marques are allowed on site the weekend before the show opens. These exhibiters have 3 days to get there stands set up. Absolute chaos.

Not only are you focused on building the garden, but the worlds media want to talk to you. We only did these projects to show the public positive aspects of the prison service, so it was extremely important to get every bit of publicity possible. During the year, I had earmarked a couple of prisoners who would speak well on camera, so this relieved the pressure a little. The prisoners reward was to meet the Queen on her visits to the show. My only hope through the year was that they did not get early release!!!

A BEAUTIFUL SETTING ON A BEACH FRONT LOCATION

Whilst all of this is going on throughout the year, you also have your day to day work to complete, but also start planning the next years garden. At this pace, it is impossible to carry out too many show gardens. I usually had up to 40 prisoners working on the project, we also designed and printed the 20,000 leaflets that we handed out during a show.

We had a few of the negative critics saying prisoners should be locked up and not allowed to complete projects and work like this.

It costs on average £40,000 a month to keep a prisoner locked up. If by working and teaching prisoners a new skill, we kept a few from returning, then we were saving the tax payer a fortune.

Open every day - Serving Lunch & Evening Meal

It was summed up to me when a prisoner’s mother contacted me after a show. He had met the Queen and was photographed doing so. She had his photograph on the mantlepiece. She said it was the first time in his life that she had been proud of him. Says it all.

T. 616 005 387 E. info@neptunomojacar.com www.neptunomojacar.com

Dish of the Day - Mon-Fri

A choice of Fish or Meat plus salad or soup and water or beer

only 8€

@neptunomojacar. Pso. del Mediterráneo 62E, Mojácar Playa

May ‘19 77

Mojácar

New One Stop

Tel: 950 473 040 Fax: 950 472 412

EST. SINCE 2002

www.newonestop.com

info@newonestop.com Paseo del Mediterraneo 275, Mojácar Playa 04638, Almeria

Ref:

Ref:

Mojácar

€249,950 REDUCED Excellent detached villa in very good condition, set on a beautiful, tranquil plot with 80m terrace with fantastic sea views. 3 beds, 2 baths, plus large double garage underbuilds can be converted.

Fireplace, large kitchen, roof solarium.

Carboneras

€195,000

Superb opportunity – First line, large penthouse apartment with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, super ultramodern, in excellent condition with large terraces giving wonderful beach/sea views, A/C hot & cold, secure parking, store room.

Ref:

€139,000

REDUCED

Los Gallardos

BARGAIN

Ref:

€ 89,950

Opportunity first line, large first floor apartment, of 65m with 1 bed, 1 bath, beautiful swimming pool, Private secure community, fitted kitchen, fully furnished, close to all amenities and the beach, sea views.

78 Almeria Living

REDUCED € 69,000 Beautifully furnished 3rd floor apartment with lift, 2 beds, 1 Bath, 62m built plus terrace, lounge/dining room, fitted kitchen, private secure parking, walking distance to amenities, sea views.

Ref:

€120,000

Ref:

Mojácar

REDUCED

836

€ 95,000

A beautiful brand new villa in excellent condition, with wonderful garden of 225m, terraces, private solarium, communal swimming pool. 4 double beds, 3 baths, air-con. Off- street parking. Excellent rental potential or full time living.

1049

Mojácar

Garrucha

1037 Villaricos

A big country property, just outside Mojacar, the house is on one level 143m2 built divided into 2 parts, 50.73m liveable and the other 93.07m need finishing, large garden of 2,500m2, will make in total when finished, 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms, space for a pool, all mains connected.

1029

Ref:

1079

Turre

Ref:

1097

1028

Mojácar

BARGAIN

€139,995

Well represented apartment with 2 double bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with large terrace, fully equipped kitchen & laundry room, living/dining room, beautiful pool, furnished, underground parking and store room, very easy access.

Ref:

593

1094

€149,950

Mojácar €349,950 Mojácar €139,000 BARGAIN Detached villa with 3 beds, 2 baths,

A beautiful 3 double bed, 1 baths apartment, with easy access, only 150 metres to the beach, lounge/diner, fitted kitchen, 3 communal pools, parking space & store room, sold fully furnished, large terrace.

set on a fenced and gated plot of 450m, large swimming pool. 150m2 built, garage.

Tranquil location, 3 minutes’ walk to the beach.

Puzzle Time

Mojácar

Puzzle solutions on page 96

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row of each 9x9 cube must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.

ROSETTA

1

5

2 3 4 A Rosetta is made up of a 7 6 centre coloured hexagon Example encircled by 6 white hexagons.

A is made of a centre hexagon ToRosetta complete the up puzzle, fill incoloured all 7 Rosettas encircled by number 6 white between hexagons. 1Toand complete the with each 7 in no puzzle, fillorder in allwhile 7 Rosettas with each particular also ensuring that :number

Rosetta

between 1 and 7 in no particular order while ensuring that: is repeated in a horizontal row 1. No number 2.No Each number from 1 in to a7horizontal are represented in 1. number is repeated row the 7number grey coloured cells. in the 7 2. Each for 1 to hexagon 7 are represented grey hexagon cells

Samurai Sudoku

© Engaged Learning

For all your glazing needs including....

Windows, Bath & Shower Screens, Mirrors & Mirror Murals, Safety Glass, Double Glazing

950 475 376 / 672 042 853

We also supply all types of Toldos / Awnings

cristaleriamojacar@hotmail.es www.cristaleriamojacar.es

Paseo del Mediterráneo 401, MOJÁCAR

Subida de la Marina 14, GARRUCHA

MIMI’S BAR

Mark & Julie welcome you

Open: 10.30 - late 7 days a week

Bar Snacks & Tapas

Quiz Nights (Wed & Sun)

for all the big sporting events

Avda Mediterraneo 443, Local 12

Mojácar Playa

651 872 604

MENU DEL DÍA Served Monday - Friday no fiestas

ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES ACCESSORIES - REGALOS SOUVENIRS Tel: 699 975 552 Email: volutasplace@gmail.com

Parque Comercial Mojácar, Local 18A

Tel: 664 097 279

Mojácar Playa (200m from Parque Comercial) May ‘19 79

Mojácar

Places to Visit in Mojácar Plaza de Ayuntamiento Town Hall Square Here we find a giant, old tree, Ficus Benjamin, brought by an inmigrant from America. On the floor there is an Indalo mosaic and on the wall of the building the Mojácarshield (A two- headed Austrian household eagle, a prize awarded to the village for its loyalty in the battle of the Alpujarra) with the leyend: “To the very noble and loyal city of Mojácar, key and protector of the Kingdom of Granada“.

San Pascual Baylon hermitage Located in the Agua Enmedio area, near the hamlet Sopalmo, it was built in the 20th century thanks to the money sent by Pascual Artero: he was a mojaquero who emigrated to the island of Guam and he he never forgot his roots. It is now used by the Anglican Church.

∼ Legal Services ∼ N.I.E. Numbers ∼ Resident Certificates ∼ Conveyancing ∼ Contracts ∼ Accounting - Payroll ∼ Tax Returns ∼ Vehicle Registration ∼ Licenses ∼ Deeds ∼ Wills & Inheritance ∼ Power of Attorney ∼ Insurance Paseo del Mediterraneo 46 E, Mojácar lucas@geckolegal.com www.geckolegal.com Tel/Fax: +34 950 475 949

80 Almeria Living

Statues to Mojaqueras In Mojácar, we have two statues that honor “mojaqueras”. The statue of “La Mojaquera” (Mojácar woman) has stood in front of the Church since 1989. Sculpted in marble and dressed in the typical attire, she holds the Arab scarf with her teeth and carries the water vessel that was used to carry the precious liquid from the fountain.

Castle viewpoint The spectacular views of the sea from this point are well worth the walk up. The site was once a watchtower and fortress, even after the 1518 earthquake demolished its walls. It is really worth spending some time looking at the magnificient view of the Mojácar coastline.

Trades & Services IMAGINE RECEIVING A WATERBILL OF 1000€ !!!!! This is what an undetected water leak could cost YOU! A Water Watch System can provide an early warning leak detection, therefore saving you from receiving that unexpected large water bill.

The system is designed to detect water leaks as they happen and can be set to turn off the water to your property automatically. It is suitable for all uses from a holiday home that is infrequently used to a home that is permanently used, whilst still allowing the use of an irrigation system.

The equipment is installed between the water meter and the house and fits neatly inside a standard water meter cabinet and is operated by mains connection or battery.

Water Watch helps to look after all aspects of water usage including swimming pools and outside shower.

Carlos Saliente is your local supplier of this new innovative system. For further detail see the advert below for contact details or visit him at Los Llanos Market every Saturday.

Carlos Saliente Plumbing & Heating Services Fontanería y Calefacción

NOW STOCKISTS OF THE INNOVATIVE WATER WATCH LEAK DETECTION SYSTEM

General Plumbing Solar Hot Water Water Systems Home Heating Pool Heating Bathrooms

FULLY LEG AL

Exclusive supplier & installer of Edil Kamin wood burners & pellet stoves

Tel: 620 742 954

carlos.saliente@gmail.com www.carlossaliente.com

If it involves water - we can help!

Established in Spain since 2004

Tel: 659 685 133

• GENERAL BUILDING • SWIMMING POOLS

Established in Spain since 2001

info@almeriabuilders.com Pol. Ind. Los Llanos - Arboleas www.almeriabuilders.com

• RENOVATIONS • ROOFING • PATIOS • AND MORE.....

THE METAL WORKS GATES REJAS

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Local Family Goes Organic

Olive Tree Farm´s diary continues......

With Spring definitely in the air here at Olive Tree Farm, the inevitable happened ‌ New babies! We had been keeping a close watch on mum pig. We could see her belly was almost touching the floor and the birth was imminent. The best way to test if things are about to happen is to clean out the pen and pile in some fresh straw.

We then wait and watch. We were right. Within minutes of putting the straw on the ground beside her house, she got to work.

Pigs are funny creatures. Despite what many people think they are actually very clean animals, when they are given the space. Toilet duty is done in the same corner of the pen, never inside the house, unlike with goats, who do not care and it drops as they walk. Mum pig began her nest building routine. Snuffling around she started to get hold of clumps of the straw and holding it between her teeth she began to fill the house with it. It took a number of journeys. She moved it around a few times to get it how she wanted it, a bit like how we might tidy up the bed. Finally, it was right for her. She had some supper and into the house she went. We left her to it.

The following morning, she greeted us at the gate to her pen, eagerly awaiting breakfast. Whilst she was busy eating, we took a quick look inside her house and there were 5 tiny piglets, all cuddled up together in a little pile. Just over 3 weeks on and the piglets are doing great. They are also amazing escape artists. They manage to sneak through the tiniest of spaces and run around the olive trees at a rate of knots. Mum watches them and when she decides enough is enough, she grunts different noises which attract their attention and they all troop back to her ready for their next meal. They are fascinating to watch.

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On the planting front, the onions are already being harvested. There are a lot ready and they are really big, so I have been using half and chopping the other half up and putting into the freezer in bags. No need to blanch onions, just chop and freeze. They come in handy for soups and stews.

In the orchard, the orange and lemon trees are amass with blossom.

The lemon tree always fruits and flowers perpetually, so there are some nice big fruits ready to be picked. Some of the lemons I will use to make lemon curd, and some I add to jars with salt and lemon juice and make preserved lemons, which are lovely to cook with and to use on salads. The almond tree is now full of nuts and are a good size. These will not be harvested until August when we will take them off the tree, lie them on a sheet on the ground to dry in the sun and then after peeling off the outer husk, we can either store them whole, or remove the nut from the main shell. We can talk about this in more depth in a couple of months.

The nispero tree (also known as loquat or medlar) is also full of fruit which is ripening quickly. It isn’t the prettiest of trees, but the fruits are really nice. I always liken them to a cross between a melon and a strawberry, it is quite an unusual flavour. They also have a number of health benefits including helping with water retention. They are good for eyesight, your liver and have anti-inflammatory properties, so quite a good all-rounder health wise. They are also excellent for making chutney.

That is about it for this month, thank you for reading.

You can follow the progress of the family and farm on our Face Book page https://www.facebook.com/OliveTreeFarmSpain/ To contact us regarding restoration of your swimming pool, find Olive Tree Farm Pool Services on Face Book https://www.facebook. com/Olive-Tree-Farm-Pool-Services-297410080711334/ or contact us by email … olivetreefarmalmeria@outlook.com

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The Beautiful Region of La Alpujarra

By Phil Taylor

first major town is Alhama de Almeria. The last is Lanjarón in the western Alpujarra. With countless beautiful white villages in between.

The whole of the Alpujarra is much as it has been for centuries.

True there are some obvious modernisations that have taken place. Roads and power cables for example. But the basic infrastructure is much the same.

First occupied by the Romans, they were the first to build aqueducts in the area to aid irrigation of the land at the lower levels. The Moors that were expelled from Granada to La Alpujarra in the late 15th century following the Catholic victory over the Moors; further developed the irrigation methods of the romans and created an intricate system of water irrigation by following the contours of the land.

I have visited La Alpujarra on a large number of times. My first visit was as a mature undergraduate student in 1997. I immediately fell in love with the region.

This wonderful location is a mountain range in Southern Spain.

Situated overlooking the Mediterranean Sea it is the second highest mountain range in Europe. Most of it is now protected and is a National Park. The backdrop to La Alpujarra is the magnificent Sierra Nevada with its snow-capped peaks. Well, from late October through to June anyway. You can ski in the morning and sunbathe in the afternoon on the beaches of Salobreña and Almuñeca.

Only a one-hour drive from the eastern end of Almeria province. The

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84 Almeria Living

The irrigation channels are called acequias, many of them are still in their original state. However, because they take a great deal of maintenance the acequias are now being repaired with polythene piping and concrete channels. The terracing and irrigation of the mountain range enabled the Moors to grow mulberry trees for silk worms and the region became a centre for silk production. Much of this has now unfortunately disappeared.

The acequias are still used for irrigation of the land on the steep slopes of Las Alpujarras. The terraced land allows for the Alpujarreños to grow a variety of crops and fruit trees. Following several decades of decline in farming the region is now producing a wide range of vegetables and fruit, in part due to having to cater for the increasing volume of tourists visiting the region each year.

The acequias, unlike the rivers that have cut huge gorges into the soft rock, flow continuously throughout the year, fed by snow melt from the high Sierra Nevada. Where the rivers have cut through the rock and created these gorges, magnificent scenery beholds the visitor around every bend in the road; especially the final hairpin bend on the road into the Poqueira Barranca.

Ahead lay the three popular white villages of Pampaneira, Bubion and Capileíra; which is the second highest village in Spain. Snow covers these villages for much of the winter. The villages are a must visit for anyone living within a one or two hour drive. You can purchase locally produced wine, goat’s cheese, (both of which are excellent) handmade carpets/rugs and a whole host of artesian products. All available at reasonable prices from the white villages.

The best village is Capileíra. Park the car at the bottom and enjoy a gentle walk up through the village. At the very top is a picnic area. You can walk through that and follow one of the acequias as it winds its way up the mountain. You can even walk as far as the highest mountain peak in Spain. Mulhacén at 3481mtrs. But it is an extremely long walk and not possible in winter.

The villages are about a 30 minute drive up the winding mountain from Orgíva. The drive alone is worth the visit for the amazing views around every bend.

A very good place to stay in La Alpujarra is Orgíva. It is the capital of the region yet is not a huge town. It has everything you need for your stay. Banks, supermarket bars etc.

The region around Orgíva is a walker’s paradise. You can follow predetermined routes, follow the dry river bed up or down, follow the acequias as they follow the mountain contours. Orgíva is centrally placed for doing lots of things.

The spa town of Lanjaron with its relaxing spa baths is a short drive, Trevelez, the highest village in Spain and where some of the very best cured hams are produced is further up the mountains past Pampaneira and Pitres. Torvizcón, is a small village where Saffron is harvested from the crocus fields. It is just a short drive out the other side of Orgíva and East along the bottom of the Sierra de Contraviesa.

Granada is now only a one hour drive away. Where you can visit the ‘must see in your life time’ La Alhambra Palace. Granada has a fantastic shopping centre and is also home to the famous Albaicin, the old Arab quarters of the city. The great thing about this region is that you spend a wonderful peaceful time in the mountains and yet within forty-five minutes you can be sun-bathing on the beaches of Salobreña and Almuñecar on the Costa Tropical. The people of the

Alpujarra have a saying ´We have our head in the clouds but our feet in the sea´.

I have only briefly touched on this wonderful location. All of the towns named in the article are situated in the Western Alpujarra.

There is a myriad other beautiful villages if you drive from West to East along the twisting mountain road to the far end of La Alpujarra through Yegan and on to Laujar de Andarax.

Some books on the region worth reading. Gerald Brenan South from Granada offers a great synopsis of life in the pre Spanish Civil War years in La Alpujarra. Three books by Chris Stewart offer a good insight into modern Alpujarra life. Driving Over Lemons, Parrot in a Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society.

Phil Taylor Bsc Msc

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At the Third stroke ... The speaking clock!

Some time ago, I wrote about a chap called Mr. Strowger, inventor of the automatic telephone exchange. He set the way to enable us to call other phone users, without having to go through the operator, politely asking to be “connected” please.

Up until the mid ‘30s, different areas of the U.K. had their own independently run telephone networks. This mismatch and incompatibility, lead the government to bring everything together under the control of the G.P.O. (general post office). In fact up until relatively recently, Kingston-Upon-Hull still run a separate network.

Guess it didn’t matter as nobody could understand them anyway.

The cost of rolling out the telephone network was costly and the G.P.O entered into a massive advertising campaign to sell the service. One idea to show off this new technology was to provide an accurate speaking clock time service. The G.P.O research laboratory at Dollis Hill, North London, set about creating the speaking clock machine. The result was a masterpiece of electro-mechanical, optoelectronics. Basically, the machine had 4 glass discs, about the size of a 7” single record. These discs contained recordings of words, in a similar way as audio was recorded into the edge of cinema film, sort of black and clear troughs of transparency.

As the information was etched and sealed in glass, it would never deteriorate. The discs were linked on a shaft, rotated by a highly accurate speed motor. 2 discs had spoken minutes recorded, odds and evens. The other 2 discs had hours and other words. A set of special lamps, lenses and photo cells read the audio from the discs.

The position of the photo cells determined which words were read at what time and in what order. Every 30 seconds, the cells, moved to different parts of each discs via an intricate mechanical cam system.

So, every 30 seconds a complete sentence would be reproduced by playing parts of each disc one after the other. “At the 3rd stroke, it will be 10, 23 precisely”. 80 odd different words had to be stored.

The speed of the main motor controlling all the actions was locked to a central signal, governed by the Greenwich Observatory. The accuracy was about 10th of a second!

The first recorded voice used was that of a Miss Caine. She had won the competition (15,000 entries) set by the G.P.O. She became

known as the girl with the golden voice. The recording of the phrases was done in one take and took a couple of hours. The machine went into service in High Holborn Exchange in 1936. In fact 2 machines were fitted. Should one fail, the other took over automatically. They were both synchronised together. With the associated electronics, it fitted into a large front room. Dialing 8,4,6, (TIM) connected you to a distribution system, feeding you the speaking clock. Initially the service could only be heard around the London area. A few years later, the same system was installed in a Liverpool exchange. So you could now accurately tell when your car wheels were nicked.

With the creation of Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD, no, not a nasty transmitted disease), whereby you could call any phone user without operator intervention, the number for the speaking clock became 1,2,3.

The public’s need for accurate time telling took the G.P.O a bit by surprise. In the first year of service, over 20 million people called the speaking clock. The revenue as a result was about £85,000. Between 1936 to ’49, Nationwide, 400 million calls were made and 40,000 called between 8 am to zero hour on Armistice day. During the war years, the speaking clock system was made ready to broadcast recorded messages and instruction to the nation should it have been needed.

Throughout the following decades, different voices were used.

Sponsors such as Accurist came on board. Machines used magnetically stored speech and ultimately became a solid state computer controlled system the size of a desktop PC. Writing about this made me remember how your telephone bill was calculated. In the old electro-mechanical Strowger exchanges, every subscriber (landline user) had their own Fee Meter. This was a device that read fee meter pulses that were superimposed on your line, when a call was connected, in such a way that you could not hear them.

The meter did however. The number of pulses per minute depended on time of day. At the end of each month, a photo was taken of your meter and the units compared with that of the last photo. A lady would punch the numbers into a comptometer and a bill to pay would follow. How quaint!

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Puzzle Time

Puzzle solutions on page 96

Reverse Word Search

Reverse Word Search Puzzle #M937QH

H

S

C

O

M B

L

O

V T

B

A

A

H

R

S T

P

C

A

B

B S

S S

R P

B

S

H

C

B

J S

E Z

P

D

J

Amend

Daisy

Panacea

Sunnier

Artistic

Eagle

Pelts

Tawdry

Attach

Harms

Pique

Ticks

Beasts

Heaves

Raked

Trough

Blobs

Hobos

Readings

Valves

Boxes

Jaguars

Sages

Zucchini

Brash

Juggle

Sense

Break

Loafer

Shuns

Bugle

Maidens

Sixes

Clamp

Orals

Cordials

Overbore

Corny

Paced

Each of these circled letters is the first letter of one or more of the words on the given word list. Your task is to fill in the grid completely using only the given words. No word will repeat itself. Words can be positioned the same as in a regular word search – horizontally, vertically or diagonally, reading frontwards or backwards. Remember, any starting letter may be used by more than one word at the same time!

Amend

Heaves

Sense

Artistic

Hobos

Shuns

Attach

Jaguars

Sixes

Beasts

Juggle

Snail

Blobs

Loafer

Spleens

Boxes

Maidens

Stencil

Brash

Orals

Sunnier

Break

Overbore

Tawdry

Bugle

Paced

Ticks

Clamp

Panacea

Trough

Cordials

Pelts

Valves

Corny

Pique

Zucchini

Daisy

Raked

Eagle

Readings

Harms

Sages

Snail

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May ‘19 89

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SPAIN AND FRANCE We specialise in relocations to and from France and Spain, and often have weekly loads going to both destinations. By combining knowledge of the European laws with local information and years of overseas experience, we have managed to remain as reliable in Europe as we are in England, and consequently have built up a good reputation in both countries.

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Contact Us: +44 1634 856433 Email: fredphillipsremovalsltd@ymail.com 90 Almeria Living

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Driving through France to Spain ALL ROADS SOUTH LEAD TO SPAIN ......

Western routes

There are four main routes south through France, and all of them lead to Spain.

These are recommended for travellers aiming for central or southern Spain or Portugal. Routes to southern Spain via Bordeaux and Irun are actually shorter than those via Lyon and Perpignan. Western routes cross into Spain south of Biarritz, at the border at Irun and continue towards Zaragoza, Burgos or Bilbao.

They all include long stretches of toll motorway, but three out of four also include long sections of road that are not toll roads.

While it is of course possible to find a route south through France from Calais to the Spanish border avoiding all tolls, this is generally a pointless exercise except for very slow-moving vehicles, as it would involve hundreds of kilometres on slow roads with numerous towns and villages to negotiate.

The Fastest Route to Spain - Eastern route or Western route ?

Eastern routes are recommended for visitors travelling to the Costa Brava and anywhere on the Spanish Mediterranean coast north of Valencia. They cross into Spain south of Perpignan, at the border at Le Perthus / La Junquera and continue towards Barcelona.

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Travel times are liable to be considerably longer on peak holiday Saturdays (July August), particularly on routes E1, E2 and W2 When driving through France, don't forget to carry a yellow fluorescent jacket. All vehicles driving on French roads are obliged to carry a yellow fluorescent jacket, that must be put on if the driver has to get out in an emergency. (In Spain, it's one per passenger).

The jacket must be stored in the car, not in the boot, and be easily accessible. Failure to carry the obligatory jacket may lead to an instant fine of up to 130 Euros, if stopped by police.

Continued on page 92 .....

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..... Continued from page 91 Also don’t forget that the default speed limit on single-carriageway French roads has gone down from 90km/hr to 80km/hr.

Driving in France is perfectly easy, and does not need any specific preparation. Nevertheless, there are a number of things that need to be seen to before starting your journey - particularly if you are coming from the United Kingdom or the Irish Republic, or another country where cars drive on the left.

Here is a quick checklist of the points to check before you leave: Driving licence Proof of vehicle ownership or hire Vehicle insurance Headlamp beam deflector Spare set of bulbs Breathalyzer kit Hazard warning triangle Spare set of car keys High-visibility waistcoats Vehicle condition Emission Disc

card. For visitors from countries like the UK which do not issue ID cards, a valid passport is required.

Proof of ownership. This is the car’s registration certificate (for cars registered in the UK, the V5C certificate). If stopped by the police, you may well be asked for the “Carte grise” (grey card) : it is the vehicle’s registration certificate that you are being asked to show.

Driving licence. When driving in France, you will need a recognised full driving licence. An international licence is not required for short term visitors (up to 90 days) from countries of the EU. For specific details, check with the local French embassy in your country of origin. The minimum age for driving in France is 18, so drivers under the age of 18 cannot drive in France, even if they have a full driving licence issued in their own country.

Proof of insurance. The standard international and European insurance document is the “green card”, though a standard insurance document from any EU country provides basic insurance for your vehicle (third party cover) throughout the Union, whether or not a green card is provided. As regards the extent of your vehicle insurance cover, you should check with your insurance company before setting off for France or beyond. Many insurance policies that are comprehensive policies in the UK only provide third party cover when the vehicle is taken abroad.

Personal ID. Anyone visiting France must have a valid personal ID

Continued on page 95 .....

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May ‘19 93

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..... Continued from page 92 Headlamp beam deflector. Depending on your car, you will either need deflector patches or have to adjust the beam manually. In the UK, headlamps dip to the left, which is a big problem when driving at night on the continent, as that means they dip into the path of oncoming traffic. Beam deflectors (often just a bit of opaque tape to stick on a part of the headlamp) correct this.

Spare set of bulbs. Though it is highly unlikely that you will be stopped and asked to show your spare set of bulbs, and though it is not practical to carry spare sealed-beam units that require a garage visit for fitting, French rules of the road require cars to carry a spare set of bulbs. Many French drivers do not carry them...

Breathalyzer kit. or alcohol level test. In theory, it has been obligatory to carry one of these since 1st March 2013 - but there is no penalty for not having one.

Hazard warning triangle. A red reflective triangle that can be placed at a suitable distance behind a car if it is immobilised on the highway or hard shoulder Spare set of car keys. Not obligatory, but highly recommended.

After all, it would be unimaginable hassle to lose your keys, then have no way of getting into your car... or once in it, of starting it.

High viz waistcoats. All cars are required by law to carry a highvisibility waistcoat (fluorescent yellow or orange). This must be carried IN the car, not in the boot (not in the trunk), so that it can be slipped on immediately by any driver who needs to get out of an immobilised vehicle, notably on a motorway or main road.

Vehicle condition. Don't set out on a long journey to France or beyond, to Italy or Spain or wherever, without having first had your car serviced or checked. In particular, check tyre pressure and condition.

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Maps or Satnav. One or the other of these is always advisable, even if you are planning a simple journey on motorways or main roads.

Detailed local maps can help you in the event of the unforeseen.

They can also help drivers of larger vehicles avoid unsuitable roads.

Emission Disc. This is a clean air sticker that needs to be fixed to the windscreen and is a legal requirement in some cities, to identify a vehicles emissions level. If driving in France without a “clean air” sticker called a Crit´Air vignette which costs 3€ makes them culpable for an on-the-spot fine of up to €117 When you are sure that you have all the relevant information and details to hand, remember enjoy your trip and don’t forget to visit some of the tourist attractions along the way.

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May ‘19 95

New F1 Clutch rules for 2020 The FIA has introduced a raft of changes to the clutch management in Formula 1's 2020 technical regulations, increasing the difficulty for the drivers at the race start.

burning within the car, creating more stringent rules for the transfer of oil to the powertrain.

Along with making pull-type paddle-activated clutches mandatory for each driver, the clutch signals used by the standard ECU will also be heavily monitored by the FIA to limit any advantageous mapping.

Should a team wish to use two clutch paddles on the steering wheel, each paddle must now be identical in form, motion and mapping.

Drivers may be asked to demonstrate that both paddles work identically.

Furthermore, the paddle must work linearly with the clutch meaning that the drivers' actions must be wholly representative of the engagement of the clutch.

Article 9.2.1, section F in the technical regulations states that: "To ensure that the signals used by the FIA ECU are representative of the driver's actions, each competitor is required to demonstrate that the paddle percentage calculated by the ECU does not deviate by more than +/-5% from the physical position of the operating device measured as a percentage over its entire usable range."

This ensures greater responsibility is placed on the driver at the race start and means that there is the potential for greater variation off the line.

This comes in the definition of the auxiliary oil tank, of which only one may be included within the car.

Further changes have been made to stamp out the effect of oil

This, and the pipework connecting to the engine, cannot exceed 2.5 litres - and must be solenoid controlled.

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The amount of fuel outside of the survival cell has also been reduced from 2 litres to 0.25 litres, stopping any fuel flow trickery or mixing of oil with fuel in other areas of the car.

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In addition, the FIA has also made changes to the regulations restricting rear-view mirrors, enclosing them in a smaller box to minimise the aerodynamic gain that can be taken from them.

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These have also been moved further inwards, following suggestions that the 2019-specification mirrors offer limited visibility, and must now be 30mm closer to the survival cell and 40mm lower down.

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Quick Crossword Puzzle Solution- 03

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Puzzles pages 44, 79 & 87 Rose_0009_Solution

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2 7 1 5 1 2 5 4 6 7 4 7 1 3 2 1 3 2 6 5 4 6 5 4 1 7 3 7 6

3

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May ‘19 97

Fernando Alonso will leave the World Endurance Championship after the end of the current season The 37-year-old won Le Mans with Toyota last year and is racing at Indy for a second time with a new McLaren team this month.

Alonso, who has two more races to complete with Toyota at Spa in Belgium this month and Le Mans next, said he had "enjoyed" racing for the team but added: "This chapter is ending.

"Winning Le Mans is one of the highlights of my career as part of my Triple Crown challenge and I will always remember that victory, which we achieved together as a team last year."

Alonso, who also has an advisory role at McLaren, said at the Bahrain Grand Prix last month that he was not planning an F1 comeback - but could not completely rule it out.

The former Formula 1 champion's Toyota team said he would "explore new adventures within the Toyota family", without explaining what those might be.

Alonso tested a Dakar Rally-winning Toyota Hilux in March and has been linked with an attempt at the iconic desert-based endurance event in 2020.

The two-time F1 champion is also seeking to win the Indianapolis 500.

That would complete motorsport's unofficial 'Triple Crown' of Monaco Grand Prix and/or F1 world title, Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500 and make him only the second man in history after Graham Hill to do that.

98 Almeria Living

"My idea is not to come back," he said. "When I said last year byebye, it was because I felt this chapter was already complete. Coming back is not in the plan.

"But if something happens and a great opportunity arrives, I will probably consider it. I don't close any doors to anything in the future."

Alonso will be replaced in the Toyota team by New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who has won the World Endurance Championship twice with Porsche, and had an ill-fated F1 season with Toro Rosso last year.

Hartley said: "I believe I am returning to WEC an even stronger driver following my experience in Formula 1 and I look forward to getting on track and building a strong relationship with my new team."

• Auto electrician • Air conditioning • Vehicle matriculation • Pre ITV check • ITV arrangement service • Headlight polishing • Specialists in French, German & Jaguar/Landrover vehicles

email: thegaragearboleas@hotmail.com Nave 20, Poligono Industrial, Arboleas , 04660 (Next to Almeria Bowling Alley)

May ‘19 99

Mojácar Playa

Mojácar Playa

Antas

Sunny South facing 2 bed, 2 bath apartment with nice sea views and close to amenities, with an allocated under ground parking space, store room and a communal pool.

This third floor and front line apartment is situated on a secure and gated community with lift access, communal pool & parking space. The property is East facing with good sea & mountain views.

Lovely ground floor 2 bed, 2 bath apartment, with good size living / dining room & underground parking with lift access. Within walking distance of the town centre of Antas.

A1371

A1298

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140.000€

115.000€

53.000€

Mojácar Mojácar Playa

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These are quality 3 bed properties with many extras and with very large terraces. The urbanization has an outdoor swimming pool, a child’s pool, indoor swimming pool, Jacuzzi & communal gardens.

Super south facing 3 bed top floor apartment with views over the elegant gardens and swimming pool. La Fortaleza is a gated community and is situated very close to all amenities.

A super 3 bed village property, with a large south east facing terrace with lovely sea & mountain views, that is very easy to access and with parking close to the property.

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145.500€

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A beautiful ground floor 3 bed, 2 bath apartment on a high quality development with sea and mountain views. Good communal areas with 3 swimming pools, underground parking space & large storeroom.

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Situated in the heart of Cortijo Grande and built around an old olive mill a first floor 2 bed apartment with bags of character. Moorish arches & unique quadruple aspect windows in the master bedroom.

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85.000€