The speed with which this year is passing is breathtaking and we cannot believe that the last time we posted anything on our blog was in April!! Here we are at the end of October and we can’t even remember having a summer. Normally, we would spend the hot, lazy days of July and August nipping back and forth to the beach, but this year that didn’t quite happen.

So, what have we been up to since April? Rather than going into too much detail, it seems like a better idea to summarise all the activities that have occupied us so fully for the past 6 months.

MAY

This is the month during which our lives took on a different dimension in a number of ways. Firstly, we were putting the finishing touches to our latest (or as Andrew states, our last!) restoration project, Esperanza 9. There were issues, as there always are in any building project, but towards the end of the build we just ended up rectifying many of the problems ourselves where possible. I spent much of May repainting the plunge pool and the arabic baths in the house as the paint that had been used was too shiny and we had always requested a matt finish. I suppose it was one way of getting a tan! We also tiled the kitchen and bathrooms, as it was easier than asking the builders and getting yet another bill.

The month was also spent canvassing.

Earlier in the year, we had been asked if one of us would like to consider being a councillor for Moclín in the coming municipal elections. This became, and still is a long story and I won’t go into too much detail, but as a result of saying “yes” we ended up on the campaign trail; something that neither of us had expected and which took up rather a lot of time and energy.

On 28th May the results came in and as No 7 on the list of prospective councillors it was touch and go as to whether or not I would make it onto the team and it was not until we got the count from Puerto Lope (one of the larger villages in the municipality) that it became clear that I had made the cut and I was the new councillor for Tourism, Heritage and Transparency. As I say, I won’t go into too much detail as the story is far too long for this catch-up post. A new career had begun.

Earlier in the month, temperatures rose and we had a fabulous visit from the family during which we learned that we were to have two more grandchildren. My daughter, Lucie, and her partner George are expecting their first baby, a boy, on 27th November. My son James and his wife Hannah are expecting their second child a couple of weeks later in the middle of December. So, yet another seismic shift in the make up of the family and we will have to think about getting more space for family visits. Whenever the family come and stay we manage to take time off and have a break, and this time we visited the Alhambra and the beach as the weather was unseasonably warm.

Towards the end of the month, our Granada Cultural Holidays started off again with a week of Andalucian Cookery and Children’s Book Creation, and it was a brilliant start to the season with two groups of lovely guests, lots of food and wine, chat and creativity. At the end of the week, we held our now traditional concert with illustrations by tutor James Mayhew, and the cookery guests prepared tapas in the square and our local bar provided drinks. The villagers turned out in their numbers and we had a wonderful evening as another hot day drew to a close.

June

Esperanza 9 opened for bookings after a last scrabble to buy the finishing touches and fill the house with art and soft furnishings. Our first guests were Stephen and Ann who responded to a promotional post I put on Twitter and so much did they enjoy their stay they subsequently booked again for September! Thankfully, this lovely new house has been almost fully booked for the entire summer, and we have bookings extending into the winter and for next summer, too. After the months of financial and emotional investment, we are pleased that we can let this latest project find its wings and we will be able to breathe a little more easily.

We managed a weekend of tranquillity when a friend came to run a Botanical Watercolour Painting course with us at Casa Higueras, and the studio became a place of creativity and colour. It was lovely having guests in the house who helped us to look beyond the hard work and focus on the beauty of everything we have around us.

On 17th June, I was sworn in as the Councillor for Tourism and Heritage. I am the first non-Spanish councillor in the history of the municipality and at times it is a struggle; the first couple of weeks were very difficult for one reason or another. Again, I am not going to go into detail as we’d be here all day.

It rained. The start of the year had been very unusual as we had heat waves in March, which is when we would normally expect rain, and the wild flowers of May barely made an appearance before they were scorched back into the ground. Then June arrived and with it some March-like weather. Rain, but not enough to fill reservoirs or help the withered shoots of spring.

At the end of the month, we had more guests arrive for a week of Flamenco: Dance, Music and History and a joyous week of stamping, singing and clapping with another group of lovely, committed and passionate people. There is something about our Flamenco course that is so life-affirming and exciting. Our end-of-week performance in the square outside the church nestled below the castle was filled to capacity; the bar possibly added another dimension and was certainly a draw for the audience!

We got written about on a number of occasions in the first part of the year, in the Daily Telegraph, and the publicity always helps!

July

We helped to organise the 20th Wedding Anniversary celebrations for our good friends Guy and Kavita. The couple and their daughters have a cortijo in the countryside near Limones, not far from us, and they invited a collection of their closest friends over for a weekend of food, drink and dancing. It was our first taste here of organising events for 50 or so people, with caterers, music, DJ and logistics over the course of 3 days, and we had a lovely (if exhausting) weekend with plenty of time to enjoy the celebrations.

No sooner had we said goodbye to Guy and Kavita’s guests and we were straight into the detailed organisation of ‘Moclín Arte’, a 3-week art festival in the municipality.

I’ll take a little step back to the beginning of the year to explain. When we were planning our new mosaic course for Granada Cultural Holidays, we asked the town hall if we could create a mosaic work of art in a corner of the village somewhere as part of the course. That resulted in us being invited in to chat more and during this chat we were asked to create an event to create other lasting works of art in the village and, while we’re at it how about becoming a town councillor to boot? So, Moclín Arte was born and more of that later. Suffice to say that much of the summer was spent organising and promoting Moclín Arte and liaising with artists, performers and competition winners, so there was barely a moment during which we could sit out in the sun and read a book. To be honest, the heat that we experienced earlier in the year returned and the afternoons became too hot for anything other than seeking the shade indoors.

August

I had my first role in the local theatre group as part of Cultural Week, and what a fun time we had. Summer was filled with other cultural activities in and around the municipality in what became a bit of whirl of fiestas and concerts and plays. We managed to escape to the beach on one or two occasions, but certainly didn’t have the time to get away for our customary short break to Torremolinos or the Marina del Este. We also missed seeing the children.

On 5th August, my niece Mattie had a celebration for her wedding to Matt (they had officially got married in June) and we were unable to go as our diaries had become impossible to navigate sufficiently to allow for time away. Again, there is a bit of a story that added to the difficulties and it became too expensive and stressful to consider a trip for 2 nights, and it would have meant my going on my own as we had guest bookings dovetailing at Esperanza at the same time.

We finally got to go horse-riding in neighbouring Colomera with the wonderful Vita, whom we met at the Tózar fiesta. Andrew had never been on a horse before; I have, but the experience is often better in the memory than in real life. However, we had a fabulous evening riding through the olive groves as the sun set, returning to the stables in the dark. Then, off we took to yet another village fiesta!

Andrew’s horse dragging him through the olive trees again.

September

September arrived and with it ‘Moclín Arte’. This festival, that took months in the preparation, opened on 17th and for almost 6 weeks we didn’t stop. The festival had 3 artists-in-residence, 4 exhibition venues displaying works by international artists from all over Spain, 6 main concerts, workshops, craft markets, conferences and events run by local bars. The festival was spread over 6 villages and it proved to be a mammoth exercise. You can see a summary of the festival in the video that Andrew put together for the closing event, and we thank the many people who helped uncomplainingly and without whom we could not have managed.

Moclin Arte 2023

The festival lead straight into the fiestas of Cristo del Paño in early October and we followed this with the hosting of a group of 16 artists who came to Moclín to paint. In the middle of all this, we also ran our own season-end courses of Abstract Landscape Painting and Mosaics, so you can see why we had little time for anything during the months of September and October.

Has it been worth it and have we enjoyed it?

I am not sure.

As always, we do enjoy our Granada Cultural Holidays courses even though they are hard work. Each year, we get into the rhythm and find ways of managing the details more efficiently. Our workload definitely increased with the arrival of guests for Esperanza 9, while still managing guests at Casa Higueras. Next year, we will get help with the running of both ventures so we don’t have to be physically present all the time. The work as a town councillor has undoubtedly had an impact as it became clear that it is a full time job and requires dedication. I need to think about that as we enter the winter months, as neither of us has the capacity to take on additional projects without letting other projects go. Already, I have had to turn my back on painting in the studio for the entire summer, as there was simply not enough time. That has been disappointing and returning to painting is definitely on the cards as we canter towards chillier days and darker nights.

Granada Cultural Holidays Acrylic and Mosaic course guests

We have had a stream of great guests at Casa Higueras, including two friends from school whom I had not seen for nigh on 42 years.

However, I return to the theme of missing family and friends and we have undoubtedly missed family this summer. Our aim, on moving to Spain, was to return to doing things we love doing and to see more of family and friends and this year I am not convinced that this has worked as well as we would like.