First off, we had a walk up to the indoor market. In the sun and high (23degC) temperatures it was strange to find that some trees hadn't any leaves yet. I suppose it's easy to forget that winter is relative and all deciduous trees have to have a rest sometime.
Markets in Spain are always interesting to walk around, especially those with fishing ports. The variety of fish is amazing, and it was really nice to see, while we were there, a party of school children being shown round the market and learning from the stall holders about their wares. From their laughter and shrieks it was obvious that the children were enjoying the experience. Hard to see that happening at home.
Eunice's annual trip to the Blanc du Nile (White Shop) produced another white garment (I didn't ask what) to add to the collection - at least I think it was only one. Hmm, then again that would be a first ...
After that we stopped for lunch at the Cafe Bar Central in Orange Tree Square, for a traditional meal of egg and chips (Eunice) and cheese omelette (me). While we were waiting we had a visit from this little chap. Maybe It's impossible to be certain, but as far as I'm concerned this is the fella that crash landed in my coffee the other day come back to say hello.
Ok, here's a question for you. The sun dial on the town hall, just above our heads was registering time an hour earlier. Now this can't be due to daylight saving time because that only comes into effect during the summer months. I think it's probably because of Spain's acceptance of Central European time, which is one hour ahead of GMT, even though the Greenwich meridian passes through the country, but I'm not sure. Anybody know for certain?
After lunch we took a walk up to La Canada (pronounced Canyada), Marbella's out of centre shopping mall. We walked up through the Parque Arroyo de la Repress, which is where the bonsai museum is we visited last year. I may have included a photo of the bridge last year (or two or three), but here's another!
The shopping centre is modern, airy and contains a good verity of shops. Where else, but in Spain, would you find a shop selling dry-cured ham (jamon) next to designer clothes and electrical goods in a prime position in a shopping mall. Not in the Trafford Centre that's for sure!
Nice detail work around what is in effect just a service entrance. The lighting seen here is artificial, although the effect is of a natural skylight.
When it comes to public realm works, the Spanish to my mind, have incredible vision, style and an ability to get things done. Their modern architecture is second to none (just look at Valencia) and they treat their heritage with a sensitivity and care that we seem to have lost, or really never had, (just look at their old town areas). But such a lot of what they have achieved seems to be crumbling away. Whether for lack of money for maintenance or a lack of interest once projects have been completed, I'm not sure, or maybe they just haven't got the skills to get it right first time. It's such a shame. And what started me on this subjected? A pothole in the lovely Parque Arroya de la Repress in a footpath, which shouldn't be there because it only gets foot traffic and has been repaired Spanish style.I've added photos from the first couple of days onto a web album, including ones which didn't make the blog. I'll be adding more as I get time. If you fancy a look you should find them here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115876148290792812709/albums/6122500364124954545?authkey=CJvt1rSTrKeybg
Well, for a rest day you packed a lot in!
ReplyDeleteNice that your little butterfly friend stop by to say hello... although I was surprised to see he had grown a pair of tail-streamers overnight ;0)
That's a lovely shot of the schoolchildren by the fishmongers - Spanish culture seem to be more family-based, where all generations seem to mix quite happily. Very refreshing. Also I guess the climate helps with more incentive to be out of the confines of the classroom ?
Yes, it's a shame about the patch-up solutions applied to some beautiful public works craftsmanship - just look at the gorgeous paving and tiling everywhere on the streets (and that shopping centre looks like an art gallery in places!) Many of these old structures have stood the test of time for many hundreds of years, why is a pothole so difficult to fix.
Sorry, I have no idea why the sundial is wrong - maybe it needs winding up.
Anyway, very cool selfie! You both look like movie stars!
I think the original tail-streamers must have been left behind in my coffee...
DeleteI agree with Tony, this doesn't sound like much of a rest day but I suppose these things are relative. I don't think many countries recognise GMT anymore, they've adopted Universal Time (UTC) which is more or less the same but without the British imperialism and our fancy science know-all-ness. Spain and France are mostly on CET which is an hour ahead of UTC/GMT in Winter and two hours ahead in Summer which puts them an hour ahead of us throughout the year. It's a very good question though because I don't think Spain uses its natural time zone - would that make a difference to the solar time? And how do you adjust a sundial for BST/CET/UTC in any case? Is there an engineer in the house? I wonder if it has just been set to UTC so that they don't have to take it down and realign it every six months but I'll consult the great Oracle, Wiki later.
ReplyDeleteI love the selfie by the way and I'm enjoying the Marbella pictures very much. It's bringing back lots of nice memories, and as this is the closest we'll get to some holiday sunshine for some months, it's very refreshing. Enjoy your last al fresco supper. x
Love the selfie by the way.
As for adjusting sun-dials, I think you just take a big hammer to them.
DeleteA bit more research on sundials. It turns out that Spain didn't have a standardised time until 1900, when it was set (appropriately enough) to match GMT. So the sundial was still doing just fine at that point. There was a bit of messing around with summer time on and off between World War One and two, and in 1938 someone tried to put Spain on Central European time by stealth. They advanced for summer at the start of March, again at the end of March(!) and then only moved back once in the autumn. It got spotted and put right in 1939. Then General Franco put them on the same time as Germany during WW2. Most thought it was a temporary war time measure and would get sorted out afterwards, but it never did. And so they are at least an hour ahead of their natural solar time. It is worse in west Spain (Galicia), where the difference means that 'noon' happens at 1440 hours in the summer. This is thought to be responsible for the general trend of, for example, eating late - a big mismatch between natural rhythms and clock time. There are some efforts to put them back on GMT, so it looks like it would be best to hold off with the big hammer for a while.
DeleteMore good pictures and info about the area. Great selfie . Who needs a selfie stick
ReplyDeleteHmm, selfie seems to have gone down well, maybe I should have taken a few more.
DeleteWow, Julie certainly knows her sundials - a marvellous explanation - I almost understood it mysel!f
DeleteA last word for this thread - I know it's Friday and the post was for Wednesday, but I have been getting a new freezer delivered/ installed/ filled up with vegetarian sausages etc... and only just got around to a much more worthwhile task - identifying strange new bugs!
I apologise for being flippant, as it looks like Peter was certainly close in thinking this was the same unfortunate critter who took a bath in his latté. Although the later specimen is a smaller image and very dark, I was able to lighten it a lot, and realised that despite the lack of tail streamers this would seem to be the same species - a 'Geranium Bronze'. (I think the first one's streamers might have flopped on account of it's unfortunate dunking...
Whoopee, I was afraid you were going to burst my bubble! Same species is close enough for me. :0))
Deletewell, both the sexes have tail streamers, so butterfly 'A' must have had tail streamers when it splashed - they are not likely to have been melted off by the coffee. So it follows that if it did recover, the streamers would pop out again by the next day - so it could really have been butterfly 'B' as well... :o)
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