31 October 2009
Prickly food
Although it's the end of October, the weather's still pretty warm (24C today, which is midsummer temperatures...) and we took advantage of it to head up to the Naranco, the hill that overlooks the city. We were going to pick some chestnuts...The paths were covered in dry crunchy leaves (but no frost) and the spiky chestnut coats (sweet chestnuts are a whole lot spikier than the horsey variety). In short order we had four or five kilos, and Julio was telling us we should be boiling them and then eating them with milk and sugar. Which we will, although some will definitely be roasted.
This has been a bumper year, we scrumped a few apples and figs as we walked enjoying the last of the indian summer. Tomorrow the rain arrives from Galicia, and on Monday, they say it'll be ten degrees colder, then on Tuesday, snow down to 13oom. Maybe on Wednesday it'll be spring.
23 October 2009
Pop! Flash! 'This way David... over here Norman... smile 'City of Berlin'
According to Juan Ramón Lucas, Spanish radio's version of John Humphrey's (minus the probing questions and harrumphing), the Prince of Asturias Awards are second only to the Nobel prizes. I'm not sure who keeps the list... or by what criteria these prizes are ranked. But never mind that. All week there's been a buzz around the Campoamor Theatre and the Reconquista hotel because the prizes are being awarded tonight.
If you've already followed that link you'll know that David Attenborough and Norman Foster are amongst the prizewinners... they might need to watch what they say, when Woody Allen said nice things about Oviedo, they made a statue of him... The prize ceremony is on live on TPA (Asturian telly) and on TVE1, it really is quite a big deal. All week I've had students expressing republican sentiments about the royal family, the police presence, the pat down searches... one went so far as to complain about the excessive washing of the pavements, so much so she needed to have two pairs of shoes to walk into town.
While I'm with them on the republican side of things... I do like the whole prize giving, and I'll be watching the speeches on the big screen in the main square (as I walk past on my way home from work).
¶ 12:34 PM 1 comments
17 October 2009
Autumn
Julio, being keen, suggested another walk (truth be told, we were on a walk with the group when he presented us with a list of three options) for the long weekend (last Monday was a national holiday, El día de la hispanidad - the day of spanishitude).
We picked a short walk up a hill next to Covadonga, mainly to avoid having to get up too early. As we drove over there, looking at the mist, the low cloud and the drizzle suggested we might not have the best of weather.Not a bit of it. Blazing sun, really rather hot... especially as we went down from the peak. Autumn has only just started here (it's only in the last couple of days it's been below 10C at night) and the trees were still pretty green. We did, however, have rather a lot of bounty to pick off the trees as we went. The cold winter last year seems to have been good for the figs, the pears, apples and the chestnuts.
The trees were groaning under the weight.
So we munched as we walked, then at the summit we looked down on the massive (for Asturias) traffic jam heading up to Covadonga, while munching some more. As we walked, we picked up chestnuts.
Julio likes a bit of 'salt' on his walks, and this time it was a new path (with a damn great sign saying 'closed for building work') that led to a dead end and a steep scree slope down to the road.
Still, at the end we had a couple of kilos of chestnuts and it was topped off with a stop at the Cheese of Eastern Asturias show in Cangas d'Onis and came home with more food than we started with.
01 October 2009
