Feliz año Nuevo, Frohes neues Jahr, Bonne Année for 2020!
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| Plaza Nueva |
I went to Parceria with Angela and Ryan and met Sam, lastly from San Diego but has lived on the east coast of the US also. A lady in her late twenties who has the bug for travel and when she outlined her next two months in Europe we were amazed, and not with envy. She called her travel "efficient", well it is certainly that, at most two days in each city and a wide range of cities in that time. She seems quite independent and not the tour type, does research ahead and has a plan of action, good for her! It was good to go to Parceria again, Cata and Andres are always welcoming and Gil burnt his hand with steam that day, I’m hoping it won’t be too serious, (wasn't) he kept working but by the time we left he was looking pretty pale.
I went into another church, above link. It is Baroque style with fabulously painted columns and ceiling, showing some wear. They didn’t have a belén but had a lovely Christmas wreath on the Dias. Intention was to visit the Christmas markets at Plaza Nueva, didn’t get there, made a wrong turn somewhere, but the bonus is that even if you are a bit turned around it always presents you with something that you haven’t seen before. This time it was a socks shop, the entire small shop had socks hung from ceiling to floor, unfortunately none of the designs jumped out at me.
We’ve had a lot of rain this last week and my doors upstairs were leaking again. The wind blows in the rain, Pepe came over and re-hung the big bamboo blinds and tied them down which did the trick. That Spanish sun in the summer really does a number on the finish of the doors and the wood itself. I had them re-done only two years ago and they need doing again.
Carrot salad for Christmas lunch, my first clue should have been when the recipe said “put it in your food processor” doh, all done by hand folks with the usual grating of my thumb at the knuckle. Peeling and grating that many carrots caused for
a warning to everyone to enjoy because they won't be getting it from me again. Oh well, the upshot is that it tasted good and I did it the day before so no panic for the day. I served baked chicken in herbed panko crumbs, mashed potatoes, stirred fried snow peas and asparagus, the carrot salad, bread and butter, Pepe’s mom’s olives, pistachios, honeyed almonds, chocolates, red wine (everyone brought a bottle) and a bottle of cava (Spanish sparkling wine). Dessert was brought by Liz, a German stollen cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen and we had Turrón liqueur (like Bailey’s but we all agreed better, Ryan calls it crack) and coffee.
My guests were Angela, Ryan, Pepe, Pepe’s mom, Liz and Benny. Benny is a new acquaintance to me, he’s a lawyer from California, living here now, his dog is Ottie that Ryan and Angela take care of quite a bit while Benny is traveling. They came about 2:00 pm and left about 9:30 pm, typical timing for a celebratory Spanish lunch. It was a jolly group and I really enjoyed having them here.
Boxing Day and I prepare to box, made soup from all the left over carrot salad, then another from the veg and chicken and froze them. This is now my third day of cooking and tomorrow I will not be in the kitchen except to make coffee, no complaints though, I enjoy cooking but missing Bruce’s advice usually "more salt", etc.
I made it to the Christmas market, second attempt successful! Realized where I’d gone wrong the first time and now I have another area to visit again. The market is not what I would expect of a “Christmas” market at all, much better in my opinion, or more to my interest. It’s called Feria de Artesanía Creativa de Sevilla, sponsored by the City and the Federatión Artesanal de Sevilla.
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| The poster, same image on the brochure and the paper carry bags. |
It is an artisan market and the products were beautiful, each in their own way, in 72 different stalls. Products included leatherwork, jewellery, pottery, silk painting, weaving, and a few more but those were the main items on show. This is the 20th anniversary of the craft fair and I was impressed with the quality of product, I am certainly no expert, but have been to many artisan’s studios over the years in Canada. The brochure and signage are professionally done and every purchase was carefully wrapped and put in the logo’d bag. The brochure cites where the booths are located by number and categorizes their speciality, and includes a listing of each booth participant with name and contact information. It was a sunny warm day, I left the house later than usual, after Rocio cleaned, had to kick my ass to get outside, but was well worth it and very glad I did and since it was Sevilliano lunch time there were no crowds which made it easy to enjoy each booth and actually see the product.
Good wishes for the year 2020! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat
P.S. I want to know why we don’t have flying cars and laser guns (maybe a good thing) and all the things they portrayed in the Sci-Fi movies yet. Those creators were visionaries but slightly off the mark to real creations for today.
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