Monday 4 September 2023

Sta Pola fiesta photos

A blissfully sunny day with cloudless blue sky and 29C in the afternoon. I woke up in time to hear Bishop James Jones on 'Thought for the Day'. He was talking about the latest schooling crisis, with an interesting perspective on what learning must achieve today. He pointed out that formation and training although essential are inadequate unless they educate young people to be resilient, adaptable and confident in what they know and can do in a fast changing ever uncertain world. To achieve this they need to discover their own imagination and creativity, and this is is a contribution which religion, the arts and humanities offer, and can get neglected in an era where technical know-how is emphasised.

Kath sent me more marvellous photos of the Sta Pola Fiesta de Moros y Christianos street procession, plus short video clips to convey the atmosphere on the street. I well remember witnessing this fiesta in Peñiscola seven years ago, and would love to be there for it in Sta Pola, a town I am much better acquainted with. The festive weekend was hit by strong winds over the weekend, leading to delays in getting the evening procession started. A video clip from this morning showed surfers out on three metre waves off shore.

After breakfast I worked on my Thursday prayer video for Holy Cross Day. Clare cooked chick pea curry for lunch and we ate in the garden under our big sunshade umbrella. I snoozed for an hour afterwards then prepared bread dough for the next batch bake. I inadvertently used too much yeast, and with today's added ten degrees of heat, dough rising won't take as long as usual.

I went for a walk, slightly nervous that the dough might overflow the large bowl all over the kitchen table in my absence, but walked for a couple of hours with my Sony Alpha 68, nevertheless. I've equipped it now with an 18-55mm lens for a change. This time I want to learn about different configurable settings available. Today, I concentrated on the same photo subject using several different ISO levels, as I'm curious about how this works in with direct sunlight above and behind the subject.

When I reached home I found the dough wasn't out of control. I knocked it back and put it in the baking tins, noticing how fast it was rising. It looked good when I took it out of the oven forty minutes later. Once it had cooled a taste test showed that it was none the worse for the surfeit of yeast. Another good result. Just!

After supper, I changed some of the visuals on this week's Sway and added some new material, then uploaded the day's photos, before settling down to read for an hour before bed.

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