I was deeply saddened yesterday to hear about the death of our Queen. She was a lovely lady, beautiful inside and out, and I have nothing but admiration for the way she has faithfully led her people over the past seventy years. May she rest in peace.
As my intentions are at least for me to return to church some Sundays from this coming weekend, I thought last Sunday might be my last free Sunday morning for a while, so I suggested we went out for a little break. We settled on Villaricos, a small coastal village near where we rented a flat for our first six months in Spain. Once a mining village it is a maze of narrow streets, some steep hills, and a selection of small shops and bars. It is relatively quiet all week but very busy each weekend as Spanish families return from wherever they live and work, to their family homes in Villaricos. They have quite a big market on Sundays and I like wandering through it as there is a much wider choice of both clothes and fruit and vegetables than we get in our little market. I managed to buy a very comfortable pair of navy sandals (it's unusual to find them in my size), and also bought a little bit of fruit. After the market we had a wander along the sea front. There is an excellent paved promenade which makes walking easy. The first section of beach had a dense line of folk, probably holiday makers but maybe some residents, each with a seat and a parasol, as the beach is stoney and not ideal for sitting on. But there were several people in swimming so I guess the water was not too rocky or weedy.
The next section was empty except for a couple of dog-walkers so I am guessing here it was too rocky for swimmers.
Continuing round the promenade we came to a sudden end at a small marina. There is a bar here where we have often enjoyed a cool drink after our walk, but on Sunday there was a sign that said only open for those buying food, which was a bit disappointing. I took this photo of some of the yatchs in the marina and beyond them you can just see two of the barges waiting just out in the bay, for their turn to pull into Garrucha harbour to be filled with gravel. (You can actually see them better in the previous photo!).
But it was too hot to linger for long, and as the bars were very busy we went back to the car and drove on towards San Juan. We passed our old flat and relived a few memories, and eventually took a right turn down a sand and gravel track towards the beach at El Pozo. Herre there is a restaurant called El Frontera that was one of our favourite haunts when we were living near here nearly fourteen years ago. We have brought visitors back for a meal ocasionally but it is several years since we were here last, and we were pleased to see it was thriving still, and as busy as ever. Such crowds say a lot for the reputation of a place and we knew we would not be disappointed. They are right on the sea wall with tables and chairs stretched all along the front, as well as a good size dining room inside.
When we arrived they were busy but we were just a little ahead of the usual dining time for the Spanish folk, so we did manage to get a table. We were 'inside but still outside' as we were under a lean-to on the front of the building. So we had open sides with a soft breeze to keep us cool, but the roof sheltered us from the hot sun. You can just see the glass frontage in this picture, and the folk sitting on the wall are waiting their turn for a free table.
There are team of young men serving, each with their own area of tables to look after, and they literally ran from table to table all the time we were there. So we didn't have to wait very long for our order, and the meal was all we had hoped for. As we left we walked passed all these tables filled with happy diners.
And then round the corner there were even more, so the lads waiting at that group must have run a few miles by the time the place closed!
I confess we got home and had a siesta before getting on with our day.
Tuesday was market day in our village. I just love the soft fruits that are in season right now. The cherries and apricots are finished but I bought lovely red plums to cook and freeze away for winter crumbles, soft yellow plums, ripe and ready to eat now, some paraguayas, the peaches that look as though they have been sat on! They are easily bruised and only have a short shelf life, but they are sweet and have a lovely flavour. The big yellow fruit in my photo are also peaches. These are quite hard and have little flavour eaten raw, but I peel them and lightly poach them and they are exactly like the yellow cling peaches we buy in cans in UK. I like to have a few boxes of them in the freezer too and I think their season will soon be over so I made sure to buy a few. I saw one supermarket advertising that they had their first batch of this year's mandarines in store, and that is a sure sign winter is coming.
The mornings have continued to be a bit cloudy here despite the continuing heat, but the sun is usually out by midday, and then the clouds gather again in the evening. These provide a possibility of a nice sunset and as it has been very windy some afternoons, the clouds get tossed around giving some lovely sky photos. Here are few that I liked.
And this one was taken just last night. It is unusualy because I managed to catch the moon rising and also the refexion of the setting sun in the clouds. The actual sun had already gone down behind the hills that are at the back of me, but the clouds were still picking up a bit of colour high up, as well as the sun's reflexion. I might make this my header for a while.
