Lace day at Cartagena

Yes, it's me again. I had two more days to tell you about, but I thought yesterday's blog was long enough so I saved the rest. Here is part two, and I will do one more, probabaly over the wekend, and then I should be up to date again.

On Sunday 26th March, Pam and I went to a Lace Open Day, organised by the group in Cartagena. This was about an hour's drive on the coach going northwards along the coast, so not a great distance from us, but there was a marked difference in the way the day was run compared with the ones we have been to locally, and quite a difference in the styles of lace, both on show, and work-in-progress. The Spanish ladies around here tend to do quite heavy lace with failry coarse threads. There we saw much finer lace ,which personally I prefer, and which Pam and I do as it is also more the English style of work. But as well as traditional bobbin lace we saw a variety of other related crafts. I saw one group doing something similar to macramé with three-ply weight wool, to make a wide edge on towels. Others were doing drawn thread work but with coarse linen cloth and fine wool on a strange frame. One lady was embroidering flowers with wide silk ribbon, and a whole group were doing free-hand embroidery on heavy wool fabric in white wool, and I now know that this is part of the traditional fiesta costume in the Valencia region.

When we arrived we queued at a caravan in the hall grounds for our breakfast which turned out to be long strips of fresh cooked churros (sort of doughnut batter) with a thick, rich drinking chocolate to dunk them in. (After that we knew it was going to be a good day!) Then we did some of our lace, walked around to see what everyone else was making, and visited the various trade stalls. I picked up a few patterns that I wanted, and a reel of pretty thread. Then we were taken in small groups to some mini-buses that ferried us to a display of lace work at the town hall. This had been in place all week, and it was much more impressive than the usual table at the side of the hall displaying work by the host group. There were some exquisite pieces in the display, ranging from towel edgings to full sets of table-ware, petticoats with lace bodices, tee-shirts with appliqued lace motifs and baby clothes, plus doileys, flowers, and jewellry. Each minibus load was accompanied by a member of the Cartagena group, and they all wore hand made blouses in fine white material, with tiny pintucks all the down the front, and inlaid with bands of fine hand-made lace. We were very impressed!

Back at the hall we were asked to clear the tables so they could bring in our lunch. It was around three o'clock by then, a long time since the churros and chocolate, so we were ready for a meal. First they gave us all cuttlery, cups and serviettes. We could have a can of soft drink, beer or water. We sat at tables of around a dozen people and on each table they put dishes of home-pickled olives and potato crisps. Then we were each given a huge slice of empañada (tuna pie), followed by big platters of entramesas, (a selection of sliced meat and cheese), with fresh bread rolls. Next came individually packed foil dishes with a quarter roast chicken and jacket potato in them.(The local chicken man had a good day. There were about five hundred of us to feed!). We thought that must be it, but then we were given a cup of sweet moscatel wine followed by strong black coffee and hard aniseed cakes. And finally they came round with an ice cream cornetto each. We were stuffed!! And the whole day had only cost us €6 each.

There is always some form of entertainment during the day, and so far this has been provided by the local dancing school doing traditional flemenco dancing. But again Cartagena did it differently. As we sat down for our lunch, a group of five young men arrived wearing black 'tights' and a sort of blouson tunic in black velvet with blue slashes in the sleeves and blue sashes, and they carried musical instruments. During lunch they went to each table and sang a couple of songs before moving on to the next one. Sometimes they got quite animated leaping about and tapping tambourines on their heels. They had super voices and were such fun. Everyone enjoyed them, and they looked as though they enjoyed doing it too.

Usually we are given a little 'goodie' bag when we arrive at a lace day, with a free pattern, and a roll and drink for breakfast in it, but we weren't on that day, though we felt we had been more than compensated by the churros etc. But when they had cleared the tables they came round and gave each of us a bag containing a really nice cream linen apron trimmed in blue gingham with their group name on the pocket. So all in all it was a really good day.

I took some photos of the lace display, but rather than choose a couple to put on here, I will make a mini album of them on my gallery that is only visible using this link. So do click here and see what had been made. I haven't made it completely public as none of it is my work, so I didn't like to.

I'm back!

Hi all. Sorry to those who thought I had gone AWOL. It has been a busy time, and somehow I didn't find a moment to write a blog. It was lovely having Jean out here for the week. It would be wrong to say we were busy really but we were occupied! The weather was beautiful so we got out and about a bit, even if it was only to the market etc. The strawberries are in season now and I bought a whole box (2kg) for just €5. That's a lot of strawberries, so we had plenty of treats with them. We also bought a kilo of melons for one euro. They were only small and looked more like grapefruit but they tasted lovely. One day we had them for breakfast, and I cut them in half and filled their centres with my own preserved ginger. Very nice!

My leg that had the torn hamstring is taking a long time to get back to full strength and my doctor told me to walk more. So we walked along the beach and paddled in the sea and it wasn't a bit cold. Then we found a bar with a big, soft settee on the sand in front of it, and we relaxed with a drink there before walking back. One day we walked around the campo to see the wild flowers, but it turned out to be a bit further than we had intended, and we were worn out by the time we got back.

On Thursday we went to the opening of a new supermarket in Vera. It is an Iceland, which over here trades as part of Supermarkets Overseas. They already have a couple of stores but the nearest was at Murcia, and this is supposed to be their largest store in Spain. Some people are really excited about it, and I must admit I was curious to see what they had to offer. We arrived when it had been open for a couple of hours, and it was quite busy, though nothing like the manic crush you might see in UK. The car park was full but I managed to squeeze into a road-side gap at the back of the store, and we did a quick look round to see what sort of stock they were carrying, and to buy a few things I haven't seen for a while. When the owner of the local shop I go to asked me what I thought of it (he had been to suss out the competition!) I said it was too English! I must admit it will be really nice to get a few things that just aren't available here, such as English sausages and individual packets of crisps, and a few of the familiar frozen foods, but whenever possible I buy fresh meat and vegetables, and the Spanish alternatives for other things, and I don't want to go back to buying prepared meals, and lots of packets and tins. Nor do I want to pay for air miles for anything that is produced locally. Many items had their English price stamped on them and they seemed to be priced for us at €1.40 for every pound, which isn't too bad considering the transportation costs, and it makes them cheaper than other 'English' stores around here. They did have fresh milk considerably cheaper than I can buy elsewhere so I shall go there for that as I don't think I will ever get used to using the boxes of UHT milk that is the norm here, but once the novelty wears off, I don't think I will use it too often.

Most afternoons Jean and I sat in the garden and read, did puzzles or a bit of sewing etc. Jean and Chris both got a bit sun-kissed one day (I stay in the shade!) so the next day we stayed indoors and did some crafting.

Jean flew in and out of Alicante this time instead of Murcia, as we wanted to try it to compare travelling times. It took around two and a quarter hours each way, so it was a bit more driving for Chris, but with no tolls to pay, it cost a bit less, and it was a very straightforward journey.

We have more visitors in a couple of weeks when Ben and Dave come out for a few days on 16th of this month. I'm looking forward to that. It is over a year since I saw them. They are coming all the way by train as Ben hates flying, and he gets excellent concessions on fares through his work for the railway. They are going to Benidorm first, and then coming on here.

One day last week I received a letter from a crafting friend in Australia. She does exquisite embroidery and she sent me an ATC with a branch of what I thought was mimosa, embroidered on it in tiny yellow french knots. She titled it 'Aussie wattle', so I looked it up on the internet, and sure enough, Australian wattle is the same plant as some of the Spanish mimosa, and they are all in the Acacia family. They are in full bloom everywhere now, and you see huge masses of them together, probably because they self-seed very easily and are fast growing. This group was beside the main road that runs along the beach at Mojacar.