Strawberry season

Hello Spring!  Strawberries are in the shops again.

Despite the recommended plunge in water with vinegar, they always seem to deteriorate too soon, so  I stewed them up with a sprinkle of sugar, some lemon peel and a dash of vanilla.

I also did a batch of the very first rhubarb I´ve ever laid eyes on in Spain.  They were in the window of a frutería downtown and I decided I had to have some on the spot.  Turned out they were imported from Holland and priced at 9€ a kilo!

Note to self - immediately plant rhubarb.

The Holy Grail?

There´s a book coming out that proposes the ¨Cáliz de Doña Urraca¨ housed in the San Isidoro Museum in Leon is actually the Holy Grail (so anxiously pursued by Arthurian knights and Indiana Jones)! Torres y Ortega del Río presented their work Los Reyes del Grial, detailing the investigation yesterday.

In theory, the grail was housed in the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem until 1054 but traveled as a gift from a powerful Vizir of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt to the Emir Denia in Spain, who in turn gave it to Ferdinand I of Leon, as described in documents discovered in Egypt. Ferdinand´s daughter, Urraca had the chalice decorated with her own jewelry to signify its importance.

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The chalice is in fact two cups, joined by gold work and gems in the middle. The upper half is the supposed grail, made of a Qumran ceramic typical of Palestine at the time of Christ. Also, researchers have claimed that when Saladin gave permission to move the Holy Grail, he demanded a shard, and one of the scrolls found in Egypt suggests that the chalice of Christ is missing one, as does the Cáliz de Urraca.

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How interesting! And they didn´t even need the holy hand grenade.

Sneak peek

This just in. . .

Stay tuned for more.

The Winter Rose

Camellias are a big deal in Galicia.  They started bringing them from the orient centuries ago, and they thrived in the humid, temperate climate.

Pontevedra is hosting the International Camellia Society Congress this week:

The Congress sessions will cover different fields, which enable the participation of the different sectors involved in the camellia world: tourism, ornamental, nursery field, landscape gardening and scientific sectors, trying to deal with all aspects related to the camellia plant.
Sessions will be held on Wednesday and Thursday morning and on Friday afternoon. The rest of the days include visits to the gardens, nurseries, exhibits and other attractions.

Attendees will be going to the Estación Fitopatolóxica do Areeiro 

one of the most important camellia research centre in the world, gathering an important camellia collection with more than eight hundred camellia cultivars. Their studies are mainly focused on camellia identification using morphological and molecular markers, on the viability and profitability of tea and oil camellia production in Galicia.

I have a spot picked out to try a couple.  I´m intrigued by the camellias grown for oil, although a couple of camelia sinensis for tea might be a good idea too.

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Of taps and toilets

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Pushing on with the baths.  They ended up with smooth wall finishes and not stone, so my dreams of a truly rustic bath have been dashed.  We´re now headed into ¨Craftsman¨ or ¨Edwardian inspired¨. We find our antiquated tastes at odds with the design zeitgeist in general - Spanish design is noted for it´s sleek, modern lines.  Ikea is very big.  So it´s been a bit of a struggle to locate the oldey-timey stuff we prefer.

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Our tile is limited to the shower stalls.  Partly this is economics, and partly a reaction to the floor-to-ceiling expanses of tile in baths and kitchens so popular here.  I think it must be considered low maintenance.  We ended up at Azulejos Peña, a ¨de toda la vida¨ shop in Madrid.  They have a fabulous selection of stone, ceramic, porcelain, and cement floor, counter and wall tile.  We ended up with an off white ¨Kent Bisquit¨ slightly irregular subway tile for the main bath and a classic white beveled subway for the second small bath, which should be on their way to Galicia.

 

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Toilets also present a challenge.  Roca is one of the most poplar brands, but the only model with an even slightly ¨retro¨ feel was in an eye-watering 300€ range. 

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We finally ended up with one from the local big box chain Leroy Merlin. It´s a Sensea, model Roncal and a more reasonable 150€.  Our builder warned us against off brands citing the difficulty of finding parts in the future, so we´re waiting before purchasing the second toilet for the small bath.  We may end up with the most innocuous, discreet Roca model we can find for less.

We´ve also been buying faucets- one for the tub, two showers and two lavs.  We looked first online, and at the big box, but ended up at another Madrid institution,  Saneamentos Pareda.  There´s a display in the lower level where the taps and showers are found, a self-service plumbing area on the ground floor and further displays of shower enclosures and kitchen installations upstairs.  We managed to find taps, compromised on a shower for the second bath, but didn´t find anything to convince us for the main shower.  V´s gotten spoiled by the fancy hotels in China, so a rainhead was important.

The one we liked at the big box store turned out to be sold out all over and they had no idea when it might be in stock again.  After searching Ebay (both UK and Spain), Amazon, Segundamano and Milanuncios, V finally found one online that we´re hopeful will work.  Fingers crossed.

We also need a small bowl for the lav cabinet in the main bath. I prefer undermount, but the dimensions of the opening are a little complicated, so we may have to use a drop in.  I´d also love to undermount the tub, but at a distance that seems like too much to hope for.  Once again, our options for DIYing the interiors is limited by time and distance.

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Firsts

Made a notebook cover for my dear friend W, whose b-day was in January.  She was very gracious about the crude rustic nature of the finished product, but it was a great learning exercise for me.  New-to-me sewing machine, first time using leather, and first time embroidery with coton a broder thread.  Baby steps.

The monogram came from Broderie d´Antan.

Laissez les bons temps rouler

Mchael Doucet & BeauSoleil

Happy Fat Tuesday!  There´s nothing like Cajun music for getting the housework done.

From the Youtube post:

By capitalizing the "S" in the middle of BeauSoleil, the Cajun band's name becomes beautiful sun, but the truth is the band is named for an Acadian resistance fighter. Joseph Broussard Beausoleil fought the English in the mid-1700s during what is known as The Great Upheaval (or Le Grand Dérangement), when a British governor removed 10,000 French Acadians living in Nova Scotia from their homes by force. A number of them ended up in Louisiana. Living in the backwoods and bayous, they managed to hold onto at least some of their Acadian/Cajun culture through the years.