Oil Painting - Chopos del Otoño

Oil Painting - Chopos del Otoño
Originally uploaded by Sonriendo
Have been meaning to blog this for ages - oops!!

Girlie #2 has been having art and painting lessons since about November last year. This is the third oil painting she has brought home, and I really think she has done rather well :-)

What do you think?

Oriexpo 2010

So, way back on the weekend of 22/24 April our Camera Club - AFOTO was invited to have a stand at Oriexpo.  We worked hard all week, collecting teeshirts, mounting the stand, sorting and cleaning photographs and even had time to swill the odd beer or two as is our habit!

We were hindered a little by adverse weather conditions as on two of the days the heavens completely opened and the wind got up.  But fortunately we managed to save enough to put on a fairly presentable exhibition.  We also ran a few workshops, with models - as above and below.

Another workshop with kids on a blue background to have their pictures taken with their favourite characters

The queue for this was long, and we had to employ a secretary ;-)

And, I spent most of my time snapping faces in the crowd

Such pretty little girls, who could resist :-)

True to form, we also managed to fit in time for lunch

All in all, a good time was had by all, although like the numpty I am I rather forgot to take any pictures of our entire stand.  Oh well, good job it was only fun and not a paid job!

Female Monkey with Egg ...

 is what a Mona con Huevo is when literally translated.  But in reality is one of these little beauties above.  They are traditionally eaten on the Monday after Easter and are to be eaten up a mountain, so who were we to argue.  We packed up a picnic tea and set off for the Rio Chicamo, which is one of our favourite places to go.

A spot of fishing (?) was the first port of call

Although they didn't actually manage to catch anything

A short walk and we found somewhere suitable to picnic

Hard boiled egg removed and eaten and cakey bits were then demolished.  Seems a rather strange combination, but hey ho, tasted OK.

Due to the very wet winter we have just had, the spring flowers were everywhere.  Luckily I had my macro lens, although the slightly breezy conditions made focusing a little tricky!

White flowers

Yellow flowers

Blue flowers

Pinky white flowers

Lilac flowers

Fried egg flowers

Dandelion clocks

and Poppys

¡Aproveche!

Paella is the traditional dish of the Valencian region of Spain.  To be considered "proper" it must be cooked over an open flame and the most authentic of ingredients are thought to be rabbit and snails.

Ingredients for a Paella to serve 8 -10 People


1 Rabbit (or chicken)
1 Red Pepper
2 Large Tomatoes
1 kg Paella Rice
Saffron
Olive OIl
Thyme or Rosemary (or both)
Salt
Water

First chop the tomatoes in half and then ...

Grate them until only the skin remains.  Set aside.

Fry the strips of pepper in olive oil 

Untill they are well cooked and lightly charred, remove and set aside

Brown the meat, add the grated tomatoes and salt to taste, cook together for about 10 to 15 minutes

Add water to the level of the rivets in the pan, saffron and herbs

Leave to boil untill the meat is well cooked and tender, adding water if it boils away too much

Remove large bunches of herbs and add rice, distributing evenly over the pan

Place peppers on top of the rice

And leave to bubble away over a lowflame until all the water has boiled away

Once the water has boiled away

Leave to rest for about 5 minutes and serve

With lemon wedges, crusty bread and salad.


¡Aproveche!

Getting All Art Crafty

 

I had a bit of an accident whilst cutting the hair of himself.  He handed me the clippers after trimming it himself and told me to tidy it up at the back.  I of course obliged, but he had taken the comb off, one swift manouvre and Oooops too late!!!  It all had to come off.  Now, contrary to popular belief, it does actually get quite chilly here in Spain in January and the poor thing was nearly bald.  There was nothing for it but to knit him a hat.  I managed to find a free pattern  and off I went.  In two evenings it was finished and I'd got the knitting bug back :-)

A  friend directed me to Ravelry  and here I am totally hooked once more.  My first completed project is this hat and scarf.  Hat actually knitted up a bit big, so I will have to rip it back and start again.  But, on the whole I am realy quite pleased.  I now have on the needles, another scarf like this

 

 

and a white baby blanket/shawl type thing. which I might just have overfaced myself with.  I also managed to find a real wool shop Lanas Orihuela who are so very helpful.

But of course this is not enough, now that I had rediscovered my love of knitting again, I really needed to have all my needles, scissors and other such gubbins kept in the same place.  So a quick search of the internet and a day on the sewing machine, one pair of old jeans and an old smock top of the girls and I managed to come up with this...

a knitting needle case.

Medieval Market

So this years market was even bigger than usual - Fantastic.  The only problem being that I only had a few hours to myself.  Met up with the AFOTO peeps, but soon had to leave them in my wake due to their dawdling - hahaha.  I was specifically looking for the birds of prey, that are normally on display.  Unfortunately they weren't in their normal situation, which is excellent for photographs but in another, not quite so photogenic.  

 I managed to catch the display, but there were a lot of people around, making it very difficult to isolate the birds in flight.  This one here is looking right at me ¿No?

The stalls were their normal colourful selves and instead of going for lots of portraits this year as I did last year, I concentrated on the produce they were offering.

I was quite tempted by these dried flower headbands, but as I have no forthcoming bridesmaid appointments nor maypoles to dance around, I decided to forget it,

These wooden roses were also very tempting, especially as they were sprayed with a gorgeous smelling oil.

Now I'm really kicking myself that I didn't pick up one of these 

And, incense sticks to colour coordinate with every room in the house

Delicious looking homemade bread, which smelt divine.


Next year, no excuses, I will be dedicating the entire day to this.