Pensión El Bosque open again – visitors from Yecla. Lazy August days, visit to Copenhagen.

Hello again

So when it looked like the whole family were back together again, my Father went off to Copenhagen for a week. Not bad for an 88 year old to travel that far on his own. Judging from the phone calls he’s having a great time. My father loves the Nordic countries and this must be his 3rd or 4th visit to the Danish capital. He will have visited Malmo across the bridge (the 3rd biggest Swedish town), Hamlet’s castle in Elsingor, the home town of Hans Christian Anderson and of course the museums, his favourite being one of Viking ships being an old “sailor” himself.

So the 4 of us were left alone together – the nuclear family, but not for long because a couple of days after my Father left, Merce and Josema from Yecla came to visit and The “Pensión El Bosque” was reopened after the holidays. Merce is a friend of the girls from their younger Santa Pola days. They come from Yecla, a smallish town in Murcia famous for furniture and wine, where, according to Josema, Merce’s boyfriend, there are more luxury cars per capita than any other town in Spain! They are guests we will love to welcome again as they came with their arms full of delicious local produce including 2 kilos of wonderful smelling home grown peaches.

So I have been very busy in the kitchen this last week cooking for many hungry young people, but also have had time to enjoy the afternoons spent lazily by the pool, reading, drinking tea and chatting with Eladio. I must add that this is always after a lovely long Spanish siesta.

Tomorrow there will be more cooking as my dear friend Julio will be coming for the now traditional summer lunch of “cocido madrileño”. He comes every year and I always cook his favourite dish, “cocido”. It is actually a very heavy winter dish; a sort of vegetable and meat stew where the main ingredient is the Spanish “garbanzo” or chick peas. So it’s a bit of a contrast to eat it in the summer, but then none of us are really very conventional in this home.

As they say at the end of the cartoons, “that’s all for the moment folks”.

All the best until the next post.

Masha
PS the picture is of Josema and Merce who came to stay last week.