BELEN

Nearly into mid December and the weather continues to be good. Like the summer before it, that lasted until nearly the end of October, this autumn doesn’t seem to know when to move on. Except from one wet day, that deposited a dusting of snow on the highest peaks of the Sierra Maria, we continue to enjoy sunny days with clear blue skies. ‘Strappy top weather’, as Heather calls it! The forecast is, that it will remain the same, at least until the winter solstice, but no doubt we’ll get our ‘comeuppance’, before too long.

But if the weather doesn’t know when to change to reflect the season, you only need to check in the local shops, to see what time of year it is, and how the year is moving on. In the late summer they all had piles of white paper bags. Yes, white paper bags!  What are they about? Well they’re to put your grape bunches in, so that they can be ripened on the vine, without being damaged by wasps.

These were soon to be followed by the colourful plastic flowers. Right through October and November, most kinds of shops, as well as their normal goods, had plastic flowers for sale. The wholesalers, where I buy my market supplies from, had several rows devoted to nothing else. Then, on All Soul’s Day the extended families, armed with picnics, descended on the cemeteries for the day, to remember their deceased relatives, and decorate their internment niches with these flowers.

Last month, Gallegos’s, where you can buy absolutely anything – apples to ‘Z beds’ - in his rambling four story store, (and if he’s not got it in stock, he’ll have it in a catalogue, that you can order from) had grape presses on the pavement outside. So had Biona, where they had also been accumulating great piles of olive and almond wood for the home fires. Also in Biona were large plastic wrapped bales of straw – seeded with sitas – for a tasty home crop of fungi.

Today, Merito told me that he will pick his olives the first week of January, and sure enough, just now in the shops around here, you will be tripping over short handled plastic olive rakes.  

A couple of years ago, I went to help Mel gather some of his - he has over a hundred trees and that year had been a very good crop. Paco, another friend was there to help him too. Mel and Paco couldn't agree on the best way to collect the juicy black olives onto the nets spread below the trees. Mel favoured an olive rake - he claimed that it dislodged fewer olive leaves that later needed cleaning from the crop, than Paco's more direct approach of beating the branches with a large stick. I actually favoured pulling the strings of olives with my hands, but I always had to watch what Paco was doing with his stick, because I was very likely to end up with broken fingers!

Turón, nut nougat can be bought all the year round, but is really synonymous with Spanish Christmas, when it is found in all kinds of varieties and textures, including chocolate.

As I’ve blogged before http://petesinspain.blogspot.com/2011/01/rambling-on-twelfth-night.html many churches have huge displays to depict the nativity, and here in Oria, a couple of brothers Juan and Miguel, who have been creating a Belen for a number of years have put their latest creation onto ‘youtube’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWqRRubNRKE&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1