Tales of wine

Another drive to Albox-Aljambra this morning to celebrate the Eucharist in honour of Saints Simon and Jude. There was a excellent shared lunch afterwards in church, and an opportunity to talk with people I'd not spoken with before. I had a small glass of an interesting Alto Almanzora Valley wine, named Este from a vineyard west of Albox. The label said it was a blend of 47% Monastrell, 23% Tempranillo, 12% Syrah, 6% Garnacha, 6% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. Remarkable.

Using six varieties of grape is fairly unusual these days. One or two is more normal, although I've come across Valencian wines which use more. Some regions still have estates where traditional wine making recipes have persisted, or been revived and refined with modern brewing technologies. Using whatever kind of grapes can be grown rather than being so selective, in fermenting is the ancient way of doing it. With mixed results though, not to everyone's taste.

After the meal and clearing up, Lay Reader Duncan took me a cafe in Albox, much frequented by English speaking people, to meet a couple whose baby I'll be Christening at Aljambra in a fortnight's time. Their little eight week old daughter was born with a full head of chestnut coloured hair, and it hasn't fallen out yet. It's lovely to behold.

I stopped at Lidl's in Garrucha on the way back for some food shopping. In the wine aisle I overheard this remark from a Spanish couple: "Si ese vino es de Catalunya, no debemos comprarlo." Mojácar is about five hours drive from the Catalan border, but it seems people all over Spain are unhappy about the events unfolding there. The company has over 500 stores in Spain but seems to be run from Barcelona. It'll be interesting to see what economic impact separatism has on this significant trader in the Euro-supermarket field.

    

Columbus Day

Apart from a walk up to the bridge over the rio Aguas to check out the evening wildlife, I stayed in, all day Tuesday and Wednesday, sleeping, eating and drinking Thyme Tea, to alleviate the symptoms of the cold. And it worked. By the time I woke up today, my head was clearer than it has been for a week and my chest was less sore. I wasn't concerned that another 45 minute drive up the Almanzora Valley to Aljambra would make me feel worse, and set off for the Midweek Communion service in the capilla with confidence. It was made a little easier by the lack of traffic on the roads, as today is Columbus Day, a Spanish Bank Holiday.

During my two days of down-time, I wrote both a Thursday and a Sunday sermon using Trinity 18 Mass readings, but focusing on the Related for one and Continuous for the other. There are times when both are interesting enough to be worth exploring separately, which you can't do in one sermon. I continue to enjoy working on Jewish scriptural texts in a way I didn't when I was younger, when I would happily have done away with Old Testament readings on grounds that they lacked relevance to today. As I get older, many more of the Psalms seem to connect with how I experience what is going on in the modern world, and difficult though Old Testament stories and prophecies can be until their context is exposed, I can find contemporary relevance in them more easily than ever. Here's hoping my audiences agree!

After the service, David and Kath took me for lunch at 'Bistro Bonita' in in the country village of Oria on the plain north west of Albox. All shops close, and most restaurants are fully booked with families enjoying time out together. The restaurant is owned and run by an ex-submariner British chef, with his sister, since his wife died. It's a favourite eating place with expats as his menu is wonderfully unpretentious British 'home cooking', delivered with the highest quality fresh ingredients, and loving application of olive oil and garlic where necessary. The Aljambra congregation can raise forty for the annual Christmas dinner here, and it's packed to the doors. Salad, spatchcock chicken, apple and plum crumble with custard. It was most enjoyable, and the conversation over lunch was also a pleasure.

The journey on minor roads of the main highway took us past a huge industrial plant, whose purpose seemed to be the conversion of locally quarried gypsum into plasterboard panels. Trees and plants in fields for a kilometer downwind from the factory were coated greyish white with stone dust. It would be impossible for people to live in that zone. I wondered about the health of the wildlife too.

Much of the region's gypsum is exported from Garrucha Port in bulk carriers, for use in similar manufacturing plants in other Mediterranean countries where I imagine labour is cheaper. Last weekend I observed one bulk carrier loading on my way through Garrucha, and three anchored off shore. That's twice as many ships as I saw queuing to load up this time last year. Also I noticed a tower crane in action lately on the unfinished apartment buildings on the tall escarpment overlooking the rio Aguas. Small symptoms of an economy beginning to pick up? I hope so.

Worship travels

I woke up yesterday morning conscious that a chest cold was developing. Whether it's a late development of the bug that laid Clare low last week, or a bug picked up on the journey here is anyone's guess. The roads were almost empty as I drove the twenty minute journey to the Capilla de San Pascual de Baylon to celebrate the Eucharist there were over sixty of us present. I was glad the Chaplaincy's resident retired Church Army Captain Edwin Bates was there to assist on my first Sunday back here since this time last year. 

After stopping off for a drink with half a dozen fellow worshippers on the way back to the apartment, it was half past two by the time I was cooking lunch. Then I had an hour to prepare another sermon for Evensong, before setting off on the forty five minute journey to the Almanzora Valley to Aljambra, where there were fifteen of us for the service. Instead of going out for supper with members of the congregation at a favourite Chinese restaurant, I decided to head back to Mojacar and bed, as the effects of the developing cold became more apparent.

Sure enough I woke up with a miserable cough, and though it took me a while to get going, I knew I would be able to cope with another drive up the Almanzora Valley to Arboleas Thanatorium for the funeral at midday, this time a forty minute journey. There were about thirty mourners there, many of them from the neighbourhood where all had bought homes and settled in retirement back in the early nineties. Afterwards, the hearse drove the coffin to a crematorium on a separate site elsewhere. Mourners stood outside, and gave a round of applause as it went past them.

On the way back, I stopped at a hardware superstore in Los Galliardos and bought a small saucepan, one of the few essentials lacking in the apartment kitchen. Then, the week's main grocery shopping at Lidl's in Garrucha, before returning to the apartment to lie low for the rest of the afternoon. I did go out later in the evening, in search of something to take for my cold, and decided to try thyme tea, a herbal remedy much used in France apparently. It has a distinctive taste and a wonderful aroma. I hope it makes a difference, or I'll have to move on to something stronger. At least the 4km walk in the dark warm evening air (21C), didn't make me feel worse. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday at Mojacar and Aljambra

This morning, my first assignment to celebrate the Eucharist at the Ermita de San Pascual, some 6km from Mojacar Playa centre and 10km from where I'm staying. I got there in good time, and found already a dozen or more people were organising and getting ready to welcome people to the service. By eleven o'clock sixty people were gathered for worship, and some of them had come a long distance to pray together. The service was conventionally Anglican Common Worship, with hymns that were sung with enthusiasm.

Afterwards there were refreshments on the church terrace - there's no church hall, but there is an outside servery, nicely tiled, integrated with the exterior of the building, from where refreshments are served. It's an ingenious arrangement, and characteristic of what's possible in an environment where the sun shines and it's not too hot for most of the year. Anglicans have use of this Ermita, with the practical support of the local Alcadesa (Mayor) On occasions the place is used for Catholic celebrations, but maintained and run for Anglican services - a superb attractive community asset.

In the afternoon, I drove inland to Aljambra to officiate and preach at Evensong, leaving early enough to give myself half an hour to look around Albox, and take a few photos. I found the east side parish church of St Francisco, and talked in English  with two foreign visitors, who were looking for a place for Sunday worship, but was unable to help them, as it was impossible to  find a noticeboard with local Mass times. 

In by brief walk, I found the place where there was a local mosque. There were two buildings on the site, one which was apparently the original, and another in front of it, a lot more imposing, representing a substantial funding investment. A social expression of confidence by the Muslim community, in this town whose development a millennium ago was due to the conquest of southern Spain by Arabs (Moors), but whose resurgence reflects immigration over the past quarter century.

At Aljambra I had the pleasure of officiating and preaching at an English Prayer Book Evensong. It's a long time since I last sang the English office in its entirely, though we did the Church in Wales edition in St John's City Parish Church most Sunday when I was Vicar. My guess is, that the last time I did a full BCP Evensong was September 2000 just before I left Geneva for my sabbatical in Jerusalem. I still relish speaking Prayer Book language. It's not a performance, like participating in a Shakespearean work of art. Memory and understanding connect heart and mind differently. These ingrained words date back to childhood, well before the Church in Wales started work on revising it, to create its own version. I'll be here, doing Evensong here again next month, and that'll be another pleasure to savour.

After the service, two thirds of the congregation went to a Chinese restaurant a few kilometres away for supper. It ranks as one of the busiest I ever recall visiting. We had to wait to occupy tables and then wait for over an hour to be served. Having had a big lunch I wasn't that hungry, but enjoyed the company. Sweet and sour aubergines with ham 'n egg flavoured rice was as much as I could manage to eat. It's the second time this week I've driven this road back to Mojcacar. It gets easier every time.

Albox-Aljambra

Having received an invitation to attend a church social evening in the chapel at Aljambra, I didn't do much today apart from domestic chores, and made sure I was well rested, with the prospect of a return journey in the dark. I received excellent instructions from David, to help make sense of the maps I'd consulted. I needed to take the same route up the autovia, along the A334 to the turn off for Llanos, then go a further 20k west to Albox. It's a strategically placed town, with a population of nearly 12,000, developed by the Arabs from the eleventh century and fought over several times since the reconquista. Its name means 'The tower' in Arabic. This region is renowned for its marble and other minerals. Aljambra is a hamlet to the north east reached by passing through the east side of town and going north east a few kilometres. 

Arriving in Albox, I missed two key landmarks - the estadio de futbol with a Mercadona opposite. I ended on the west side of town negotiating narrow old streets, but soon got my bearings. I'd been looking mistakenly for an arena with tall floodlights, when the tall main entrance building is right there on the main street. I hadn't looked high enough to see the writing on the wall. Curiously, I was reminded of visiting Bilbao with my sister June back in April 2009. There, we stayed in an hotel with the Athletic Bilbao San Mamés stadium at the end of the street. Too big to miss. 

Aljambra is in open countryside riven with wide ramblas dry river beds channeling rainwater from the surrounding sierras - they are also called arroyos. It's not an area of high rainfall, but the sandy soil and friable bedrock hold enough moisture to permit orchards to grow. Occasionally a massive dump of rain happens so quickly that catastrophic floods occur. Floods as well as earthquakes plus wars have taken their toll of Albox over the past millennium, so it's been rebuilt several times.

The capilla is a single roomed building, used for community purposes, as well as worship. Its little sanctuary, with a niche containing an image of the Nuestra Señora de Saliente is in the north west corner, with a movable altar on a plinth in front of it. On this occasion, tables were introduced and the church benches re-deployed to make it possible for more than two dozen people to sit around and eat picnic suppers together. The evening's entertainment was two hours of listening to assorted classical music videos, projected on to a screen with music coming from a big hi-fi sound system, provided by church friends. A great idea. The highlight was a performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concert no 2, a favourite with many people present. 

I'm not sure how old the present building is, but a banner on the exterior of the building proclaims the third centenary of association between Albox and Nuestra Señora de Saliente. 20km north in a mountain beauty spot is a substantial pilgrimage church, which houses an icon of our Lady, in the place where a local shepherd boy had a vision which he later identified from a painting of her which was mysteriously acquired and brought to Albox. This led to the building of the sanctuary to house the image, a good day's pilgrimage journey from the town. People speak highly of the beauty of the place. It certainly sounds like it's worth a visit.

It was gone half past ten when we finished and I started the three quarter hour journey back to the coast. The stars and a crescent moon were out, and the cool night air was scented with the aroma of herbs and flowers. Finding my way in the day with the sun in my face seemed to take a long time, whereas the return journey simple sped by. But that's perhaps because I now have a clear idea of the route and its landmarks - football stadium and all.