Bedrock

I noted today at Yoga that our guide Brian uses a decent incense to help get everyone in the mood – I thought I’d take the time to show him which incense we use here at Bedrock – and in the process reminded myself of the vast range we’ve collected.

Since being a teen of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s and using incense sticks to put my mother “off the scent” as it were, I’d completely forgot about the delights of incense until a few years ago our neighbours here in Spain introduced us to something called “Precious Yatra” which they brought back from Dubai (and which remains one of our favourites along with “Nag Champa”).

Since then we’ve been on a journey of discover, in the process discovering that Chinese incense is largely rubbish – thankfully some of the better names over in India produce some of the finest scents in the world (IMHO). Fantastic places to get this stuff in Spain include Ronda (GREAT store on the high Street), Granada (including a little Indian store just across the main road from the Cathedral), Nijar (up near the top of the high street) and no doubt countless other places, I’m told there’s a store in nearby Huescar. Back in the UK we discovered a store just off the high street in Hexham (Northeast of England) which keeps a decent range of incense.

Here then, in imagery is a summary of just SOME of the scents we keep at home here in Spain and in the UK. This also gave me a chance to try out my newly-acquired photo package Luminar 3 from Skylum. No attempts here to demonstrate any photo skills – just straight off the camera and a spot of straightening up.

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This entry covers our trips this weekend to Orce pool and the Huescar Ruta De La Tapa with friends. In this late-June heat, anything more energetic has to be saved for early in the morning or later in the evening. For anyone looking in and not familiar with the area, our home town of Galera is 90 minutes drive Northeast of the city of Granada in Southern Spain and Orce “Piscina Natural” or pool is around 8 minutes drive south-east from Galera whereas Huescar is just 12 minutes drive up north.

We share the spring-fed pool with the local fish, some of which grow into monsters well over half a metre in length but they are completely harmless.

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Watched a decent and original sci-fi movie “FAST COLOR” tonight while earlier today we saw a great example of Spanish driving: Maureen and I were enjoying Cafe Con Leche in a little park in Huescar this morning when along came a supermarket delivery truck. Determined to get through the very narrow road, he ploughed across the pavement and into a road sign, damaging the sign and no doubt his side-mirror in the process. I’d be surprised if his vehicle side escaped unscathed. This is not untypical behaviour but it did raise a nervous laugh or two. When done, the driver just continued on as if nothing had happened..

After that, we popped by an office building and just happened to notice the most beautiful wall tiles you see in the photo above. As always I had my phone handy to take the odd pic while out and about. See church below – also in Huescar, a town which has more than it’s fair share of Kodak moments and I can never resist, especially when the sun is out.

Next, Maureen found a new (to us) Chinese store to buy some embellishment for at least one of her dresses. The results I’ve seen so far look good.

We also had a reminder of just how treacherous our little approach road can be to someone not familiar with it. Our neighbours were getting a large delivery and Dave and I were guiding the driver from the village and to his cave. We’ve been doing this for so many years it is second nature but the delivery guy seemed absolutely mortified at the idea of driving down a road only marginally wider than his rather large vehicle. As you might imagine we found that incredibly funny.

This evening, I went with Dave who was taking the dog for a walk and I took my wanna-be dogs with me. Simba and Ruffy (our cats) both enjoy going for walks with us, something denied to them for so long in the past when we had inconsiderate dog owners for neighbours – unlike the current situation where the dogs are all well behaved, lovely animals with responsible owners. Today our corner of Galera is generally very peaceful though we did have a scare as 2 women came by with 5 barking dogs NOT on leashes, which scared the cats – there are laws about keeping dogs on leashes, sadly not too well policed and even if they were, the laws don’t seem to cover the noise aspect of unruly dogs. Thankfully in this case no harm was done as the cats were quick to find hiding places then re-joined us when the danger passed. Perhaps next time the owners may be more considerate – one can only hope.

Finally, for technical readers I’ve discovered a relatively new web browser today (always something new) called “Brave” – got it running on the PC and Android phone and it is looking very promising. Also found several new watch faces for (IMHO) one of the best watches in the world, my Samsung Gear Classic – the experience is almost like getting a new watch every day and most of the watch faces are free – I keep several dozen on the watch at any time.

Here we are, despite recent setbacks – including the (hopefully first and last) epileptic fit I had last week and the washing machine back in Wark on Tyne giving up the ghost (exactly, what can go wrong, machines like that are so simple? – sadly so are the people who deliver new ones, so simple in fact that they could not fit a mains plug – sad doesn’t begin to describe that situation as a result of which we had to get our own guy to organise getting the new washing machine running), despite all that and given some helpful weather, we’re here in Andalusia, making the best of retirement and have joined the local yoga group and I’ve joined the local photographic club. I’m not about to attempt a demo of yoga so here instead are some photos taken over the last few days.

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We just happened to be wandering through the nearby town of Huescar this weekend on our way to the fair and I got a sudden urge to take some snaps at the park on the way. Got to make the best of this weather.

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We took a short drive out yesterday with friends to Orce, mainly to cool off in the spring-fed pool just out of town – and while there I took a few photos… well, you never know, it might rain for the rest of the year (probably not).

Amazing how you can visit a place year after year and not spot its best features….