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Seamens Fiestas

Calendar of fiestas – Virgen del Carmen fiestas – Elche Film Fest – Novelda la Mola – Orihuela Moors & Christians – Tiny saints Almoradi – San Javier Jazz – Torrevieja Habaneras – Cartagena Mar de Music – Joan Miro painting – Flowery talk – Torrevieja Nighthawks – Trip Adviser awards Torrevieja – Pamplona more than just bull – Summertime Torrevieja – Trying to forget—Alzheimer’s – The Nuns Study – ABC Spanish Cookery – July Musicboard aormi@icloud.com

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Virgen del Carmen

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One of the principal fiestas of July is that of the Virgen del Carmen, 16th July, who is the patroness of those at sea. Most seaside towns hold a maritime parade, ships adorned with bunting, the lead one carrying the image of the Virgen del Carmen on the prow; foto credit Javier Torregrosa .

1st July Pego celebrates el Día de la Sangre.

First weekend of the month there are the fiestas of “Bouet de la Sang” in Castalla: in the Dulzura district in Ibi: in the San Pedro area of Benifato.

Unusual fun fiestas of “de las Fadrins” in Tárbena: Patronal fiestas in honour of San José in Millena.

10th July Biar celebrates the fiesta de San Cristóbal.

12 - 27th Main fiestas of the VIRGEN DEL CARMEN in inland Algorfa.

Second weekend of the month: Hogueras 4-day fiesta in San Vicente del Raspeig.

Moors & Christians in Benitachell.

Patronal fiestas in Orba.

14th July Santa María Magdalena are the main fiestas in Tibi, ending around the 25th July.

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Patronal fiestas in Cañada week preceding 17th July in honour of Virgen del Carmen.

14 - 18th July Patronal fiestas in honour of Virgen del Carmen in Cox. Moors & Christian parades on the week preceding 25th, for Saint James the Apostle, held in Albatera.

15 - 22 July Moors & Christians in Orihuela.

15 - 25th July Santa María Magdalena celebrated in Novelda. These fiestas include a romería and Moors & Christian parades and are held the weekend prior to 20th July. .

15 - 16th July Moraira holds sea procession.

16th July Virgen del Carmen: Benidorm, Calpe, Tabarca Island, La Villajoyosa, Santa Pola, Torrevieja and Xàbia are among those who celebrate this fiesta.

Altea combines this feast with that of St. Peter.

El Campello holds a maritime procession, the start of the summer fiestas.

17th - 21st July Moors & Christians in Jávea.

17th July Fallas (bonfires) in Orihuela.

19th - 26th July Fiestas in honour of Santa Ana in Ondara.

Third weekend of the month: patronal fiestas in Pedreguer and at Ibi. 20 - 21st July Guardamar del Segura honour San Jaime with Moors & Christians parades.

22nd July Fiestas of Santa María Magdalena in Banyares de Mariola.

22 July - 11th August Alicante fiestas in honour of the Virgen del Remedio.

22nd - 25th Patronal fiestas in Benitachell.

24th July Moors & Christians in La Villajoyosa.

25th July Benijófar patronal fiestas of San Jaime the Apostle.

25 - 26th Torremanzanas fiestas of Santa Ana. Patronal fiestas in Castel de Castells. aormi@icloud.com

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25 - 27th July 25th July Castalla.

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Fadrins festival in Callosa d’En Sarrià.

Middle of the year fiesta of Moors & Christians in

Weekend nearest to this date Altea fiestas.

26th July Romería in Benefallím y Onil.

Fiestas in Campell (Vall de Laguart).

27 July- 4th August Moors and Christian fiestas in Almoradi 28th July Desembarco in the beach of La Villajoyosa begins the Moors & Christian fiestas.

28th - 30th July Patronal fiestas in Algueña.

30th July Weekend nearest to this date fiestas in Pilar de la Horadada and Los Montesinos.

30th - 31st July “Bous al carrer” in Els Poblets.

Last weekend of the month patronal fiestas in Benimarfull. summer festival in Benirrama.

Popular fiestas in Tollos.

Between last weekend of July and the first weekend of August there are fiestas in Orba.

End of July Teulada holds the fiestas dels Sants de Pedra.

Last weekend and the first weekend of August main fiestas in Gata de Gorgos. aormi@icloud.com

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As can be seen there are plenty of opportunities to join in the fun of the Moors & Christian parades. However, the principal fiestas in nearly all seaside towns is on the 16th July, the Virgen del Carmen. Torrevieja is traditionally a fishing and sailing town so these are important fiestas with lots of events for the sailing community and families, but also for the general public.

Maritime procession of El Campello The people of El Campello also take to the streets, mostly around the seaside area, for the feast of the Virgen del Carmen. For a week there are several fiesta points along the promenade where people congregate for various types of entertainment in the evenings after ten o’clock. Music and theatre in the streets are daily events, with a full programme to keep the kids entertained.

The maritime procession of the statue of the Virgen del Carmen has been going on each year since 1975: this is normally the Saturday night nearest to the actual feast day of the 16th and takes place in the evening. Local women, dressed in traditional fisherwomen clothing, normally carry the statue of the Virgen del Carmen.

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There are the traditional meals served in the stalls such as ‘puchero’ and the ‘olleta’, backed up by the drinking of mistela. Nearby restaurants also prepare samples of local cuisine and the famous chocolate famous in this part of the coast. The main patronal fiestas of Moors and Christians take place in October.

Film Festival in Elche During July and August Elche has a full programme of events with medieval music festival, the Misteri play and Moors & Christians.

Elche plays host to the annual Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (now in its 39th edition)held at various venues in the city during July. For information contact the Elche Tourist Office or the CAM Bank Obras Sociales.

Among the favorites is a short film “Rancour” about tensions in a family and how every member is affected so much that it can lead to violence.

DUELE EL AMOR NO TIENE QUE DOLER is another short film reflection of broken relationships and in this instance it is the man who who is the victim of psychological violent treatment.

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Friendly Fights in Novelda

Mary Magdalen is the patron saint of Novelda and her feastday is the reason for a full week of festivities in the town. This takes place from the 19th to 25h July.

A romeria pilgrimage has been held in the town since 1866 on 20th July when the image of the saint is carried from its normal home of the Santuario de la Mola to the town’s church of San Pedro. The statue carries bunches of grapes in her arms, symbolic of the work of this agricultural town. Fruit is an important element in the fiestas and on the day it is customary to eat melon in the open-air ‘almuerzo’. Her actual feastday is on the 22nd July and the statue remains in the town centre until the first Monday of August, when it is once more ceremoniously carried back to the sanctuary.

The Moors & Christian festivities are fairly new as they began in 1969 in the area around the castillo de la Mola and developed into today’s grand parades with 10 comparsas - six Moors groups -Negres Betànics, Árabes Beduinos, Árabes Damasquinos, Àrabes Omeyas, Piratas y Mudéjares and 4 Christian bands Astures, Caballeros del Cid-Rey Don Jaime I, Tercios de Lepanto y Mozárabes.The attraction is obviously the splendor of the Moorish garments and their waving scimitars.

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Gloria Valero is this year’s la Armengola in Orihuela Orihuela is famous for it Moors & Christians festival. These commemorate the Reconquest of the city and the legend of la Armengola of 17th July, 1242. According to the tale Benazaddón was Mayor of the city residing in la alcazaba while living not far away was his children’s wet nurse, Armengola, the wife of Pedro Armengol; as such she had free access to the fortress. It was secretly decided by the Moorish elements that on the 16th July the local Christians would be put to the sword; however, the Mayor decided to make an exception of the wet nurse’s family so she would be saved. But she herself decided on a ploy to save the Christians: she dressed two young men, Ruidoms and Juan de Arún, in the clothes of her children and together with her husband gained access to the fortress where they silently, secretly and swiftly slaughtered the guards. Armengola herself took up arms and fought like a man with great bravery. A cross was put on top of the tower to show victory.

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With the death of the mayor and his men the plot to massacre the Christians failed and the army of Don Jaime came to the rescue of Orihuela. Every year this tradition is re-enacted on 17th July as part of the annual celebrations. This event took place on the feast of Saints Justa and Rufina who became the patrons of the city.

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Almoradi has tiny saints

Almoradí celebrates the fair and fiestas “Feria y Fiestas de Julio” starting with the crowning of the Queen and her Maids of Honour.

In front of the Casino of Almoradí there is a Medieval Market in honour of this agricultural town’s patron saints - Abdón and Senén. These saints are also nicknamed the “Santicos de las Piedras” in reference to the need to keep hailstones away from the crops. These were noble Persians who aided Christian martyrs and also buried their remains with dignity, thus evoking the wrath of Prefect Valerian, who ordered that they be fed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. First of all they were beaten and whipped to draw blood, but once in the pit the fierce animals came and knelt before them, licking the saints’ wounds. After this they were decapitated. During the fiestas, those who labour in the fields make a floral offering to the two diminutive statues of their patron saints.

These fiestas feature the strong association of the town with the fields and in recent years have recaptured some of the atmosphere of days bygone. Groups form other nearby towns participate and wear typical clothing of the 18th/19th centuries.

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San Javier 2016 Jazz Festival

San Javier town becomes the centre for jazz fans at the 19th International Jazz Festival in the auditorium of the Parque Almansa. It is not just jazz, but there will be the bossa nova, flamenco, gospel music, and even some funk. If you can, book bonos, that is a series of entry vouchers which makes it much cheaper. Here you can hear some of the finest international exponents of music of all classes.

1 JULY

LARS DANIELSSON NEW QUINTET FEATURING: MAGNUS ÖSTRÖM, GRÉGORY PRIVAT, JOHN PARRICELLI Y SEBASTIAN STUDNITZKY KEN HENSLEY & OUR PROPAGANDA 2 JULY

KIRK LIGHTSEY – ANTONIO SERRANO NIK WEST 8 JULY

IGNASI TERRAZA CUARTETO + RONALD BAKER KEB' MO' 9 JULY

LUDOVIC BEIER TRIO & COSTEL NITESCU MYLES SANKO 13 JULY

KING SOLOMON HICKS 15 JULY

JOSHUA REDMAN QUARTET FEATURING: JORGE ROSSY, KEVIN HAYS & JOE SANDERS 16 JULY

TONI ZENET SPYRO GYRA 17 JULY

STEVE VAI: aormi@icloud.com

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“PASSION AND WARFARE 25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR” 19 JULY

PIKE CAVALERO 20 JULY

JON CLEARY AND THE ABSOLUTE MONSTER GENTLEMEN MIKE STERN & BILL EVANS BAND FEATURING: DARRYL JONES Y DENNIS CHAMBERS 21 JULY

TROUPER’S SWING BAND 22 JULY

JAUME VILASECA TRIO Y MAR VILASECA INVITADO ESPECIAL: RAVI CHARI

THE JB’S, JAMES BROWN ORIGINAL BAND FEATURING: MARTHA HIGH 23 JULY

DORANTES - RENAUD GARCÍA FONS: “PASEO A DOS” INVITADA ESPECIAL: ESPERANZA FERNÁNDEZ MELODY GARDOT 24 JULY

RAY GELATO’S ENFORCERS 29 JULY

SARAH MCKENZIE THE LONDON COMMUNITY GOSPEL CHOIR 30 JULY

ELLIS MARSALIS QUARTET KEVIN MAHOGANY, DADO MORONI & ULF WAKENIUS

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Once again the annual Torrevieja competition, now in its 62 year, the Internacional Certamen de Habaneras, will take place in the open-air theatre of the Eras de la Sal featuring 600 choristers. Torrevieja holds this year’s competitions and concerts from 18th to 24th July featuring 15 choirs from around the world.

There is a free open-air habaneras concert held on the Playa del Cura. This is a big hit as thousands invade the beach with their tables and chairs, drinks and food, including the refreshing watermelon – sandia. The Habaneras musical competitions started in a small way in 1955 and now are of international fame, broadcast by Spanish Television, compered by Marta Ventura.

‘A mi Añoranza’ is the title of the habanera that is obligatory on all the choirs this year. There will be no soloists events this year and the choirs performing in the

Eras de la Sal open-air theatre

Marta Ventura

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Habaneras on beach of el Cura

streets has also been dropped out. One recent offshoot of the Habaneras is that a few choirs sing at some of the Masses in the la Inmaculada Church, adding a new dimension to these Eucharistic celebrations; often bringing a flavour of their own country.

Open all year is a museum dedicated to Ricardo Lafuente who was largely responsible for the organisation and inspiration of the early habaneras competitions.

His museum is in one of the the RENFE station buildings in the Acequiรณn area.

He died in March 2008 and at the concerts a seat is left e m p t y decorated with a red rose in his memory and to underline that he is always with us.

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Music everywhere Cartagena

Music is an essential part of vacations. How many of us have memories conjured up by some particular song, which reminds us of holiday encounters. Summer seems tone time when a funny song catches the crowd and ends up a hit of the season. This month is a packed month for music. Mar de MĂşsica, Cartagena, offers a wide range of music by some of the top international names and this year the invited country is Sweden Jazz, Rhythm and Blues important elements of the annual festival of music in San Javier held during this month.

Some of the best Andalucian music can be heard and enjoyed in the former mining town of La Union close to Cartagena. This is a hangover of when people travelled from the south of Spain to work in the mines and brought their own flamenco style music with them. If you enjoy guitar music then some of these concerts are a must for you. It is not a particularly attractive town thanks to the mounds of soil brought up from the mines but there is a wonderful industrial and mining heritage that is worth a visit.

In fact there is a volunteer group who are fans of the mines and can supply useful information about visiting one of them. FLUMS 985 773 005.

In San Pedro del Pinatar a flamenco festival is also held.

Lorca has rocked from a couple of earthquakes but in summer Rock music is a main attraction in Lorca, but there is month long festival of nearly every one of the seven arts that will likely hold an attraction for someone, somewhere. Lorca itself is a great historical place to visit. aormi@icloud.com

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Barcelona museum

Joan Miró i Ferrà

Palma museum

Catalan artist, Joan Miró i Ferrà was born on 20 April 1893 and died on Christmas day in December 1983. A Surrealist style artist as a painter, sculptor, and ceramicist he was born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma de Mallorca in 1981. The Fundació Joan Miró, is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia, close to the Olympics village. The building was designed by Josep Lluís Sert to ensure that this work could also be made available to the public and exhibited.

He designed the building with courtyards and terraces and to create a natural path for visitors to move through the building.

Abstract art is described as ‘art in which there is no attempt to represent anything existing in the world’, particularly used of the 20th century onwards. aormi@icloud.com

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Barcelona Museum on Montjuich

‘Abstraction’ refers to the process of making images that may in part derive from the visible World, but which are reduced to basic formal elements.

Due to considerable financial hardship, his life in Paris was difficult at first.

When discussing his life during those first lean, early years in Paris, the artist quipped, "How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well, I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't had any supper." It seems that physical deprivation enlivened the young Miró's imagination. "I saw things," he explained, "and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..." For some inspiration has been religion or drugs, for Miro it was hunger.

Early in his career, Miró primarily painted still-lifes, landscapes, and genre scenes. Influences ranging from the folk art and Romanesque church frescoes of his native Catalan region in Spain to 17th-century Dutch realism were eventually superseded by more contemporary ones: Fauvism, Cubism, and Surrealism captivated the young artist, who had relocated to Paris in 1921. The Surrealists were most active in Paris during the 1920s, having formally joined forces in 1924 with the publication of their Surrealist Manifesto. To his utter disappointment, Miró's first solo show in Paris in 1921 was a complete disaster; he did not sell a single work. Rather, his artistic career may be characterized as one of persistent experimentation and a lifelong flirtation with non-objectivity.

Joan Miró was born in Spain in 1893 to a family of craftsmen in the Barri Gòtic neighborhood of Barcelona. His father, Miguel, was a watchmaker and goldsmith, while his grandfathers were cabinetmakers and blacksmiths. Perhaps in keeping with his family's artistic trade, Miró exhibited a strong love of drawing at an early age; according to biographers, he was not particularly inclined toward academics. Rather, Miró pursued art-making and studied landscape and decorative art at the School of Industrial and Fine Arts (the Llotja) aormi@icloud.com

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La casa de la palmera (House with Palm tree in thee Museo de Reina Sofia Room 209

in Barcelona. He began attending drawing classes at the age of seven at a private school at Carrer del Regomir 13, a medieval mansion. In 1907 he enrolled at the fine art academy at La Llotja, to the dismay of his father. He studied at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc and he had his first solo show in 1918 at the Dalmau Gallery, where his work was ridiculed and defaced.

Despite his professed desire to forge a career in the arts, at the behest of his parents, Miró attended the School of Commerce from 1907-10. His relatively brief foray into the business world, characterized by constant study, instilled a strong sense of order and a robust work ethic in Miró but at a very high cost. Following what has been characterized as a nervous breakdown, Miró abandoned his business career and subsequently devoted himself fully to making art.

Miró often worked with a limited palette, yet the colors he used were bold and expressive. His chromatic explorations, which emphasized the potential of fields of unblended color to respond to one another, provided inspiration for a generation of Color Field painters. Much has been made of his influence on the aormi@icloud.com

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Color Field painters - Robert Motherwell, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, among others; and on Alexander Calder, who was a close friend of Miró; and, more recently, on designers Paul Rand, Lucienne Day, and Julian Hatton.

Miro and his wife Dolores

Miró married Mallorca born Pilar Juncosa in 1929, and their only child, Dolores, was born in 1931.

His career flourished during this time. In 1934, Miró's art began to be exhibited in both France and the United States. He was still residing in Paris when war broke out in Europe, and by 1941 Miró was forced to flee to Mallorca with his family. By the late ’70s, following the death a few years earlier of his great friend and rival, Pablo Picasso, Miró was arguably Spain’s most important living artist. Perhaps not surprisingly, warfare and political tension were prominent themes in his art during this period; his canvases became increasingly grotesque and brutal. Concurrently, Miró's first retrospective was held at the MoMA in New York City to great acclaim. U.S.A. was his breakthrough as there was developing a new American generation of abstract artist.

As Miró aged, he continued to receive many public commissions. In 1974, he was commissioned to create a tapestry for New York's World Trade Center, demonstrating his achievements as an internationally renowned artist as well as his place in popular culture. The work was an abstract design, with bright blocks of colour, red, green, blue and yellow, with black elements and a light brown background. Made of wool and hemp, it measured 20 × 35 feet (6.1 × 10.7 m) and weighed 4 tonnes. It was completed in 1973, and displayed at a retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris before being installed in New York in 1974. It was destroyed on September 11, 2001, in the collapse of the World Trade Center, following the September 11 attacks. The attack also destroyed works by artists such as Alexander Calder, aormi@icloud.com

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Louise Nevelson, Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Paul Klee, Le Corbusier and Auguste Rodin.Joan Miró received an honorary degree from the University of Barcelona in 1979. Miró died at his home in 1983, a year after completing Woman and Bird, a grand public sculpture for the city of Barcelona; the work was, in a sense, the culmination of a prolific career so profoundly integral to the development of Modern art.

His grandson, Joan Punyet Miró, a poet and performance artist, has recalled how grandpa let him into his studio in Mallorca when he was 10 years of age on the 85th birthday of the artist.

“It was 20 April 1978: my grandfather’s 85th birthday. I was 10 years old. He clapped his hands and said, ‘Joan, today we will walk down to my studio.’” This was the first time that he had been allowed inside the eye-catching atelier (studio) designed by Miró’s friend, the Spanish architect Josep Lluis Sert.

Few people were invited into this fantastical building overlooking the Mediterranean, with its distinctive, undulating white roof like a pair of seagull wings, and shutters of bright blue, yellow and red, recalling paintings by the artist.

“To me, as a boy, he was not the great Miró: he was grandpa – Joan Punyet Miró” This was a sanctuary where the artist could summon his phantasmagorical art in peace. Although Miró was a fan of music, he insisted on silence while he worked – and he certainly did not encourage his grandchildren to play in his vicinity when he was painting. “He settled down here,” his grandson explains, “because he wanted to be in peace, left alone from museum directors, collectors, dealers and journalists.”

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The Tilled Field (1923) Populated with complex, often inscrutable forms, The Tilled Field, with its puzzling iconography, is an abstract depiction of the landscape of Miró's Catalan homeland.

The picture may be viewed as both an homage to Spain's past and a statement on the contemporary political upheaval in Europe as the artist had seen the effects of WW1 and experienced the second one.

Miro frequently expressed his own political sentiments and this one emphasizes how extremely radical Miró's departure was from his previous, naturalist style once he arrived in Paris and was exposed to the avant-garde art of the French capital where innovation thrived.

Oil on canvas - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Maternity (1924) The female body is always an imaginative source for artists and this composition of Maternity is very schematic: reduced to its simplest forms, the female figure is scarcely recognizable in this painting. The symbols in this picture are suspended precariously above an area consisting of delicate shades of grey, and although the wriggly little creatures are struggling to get away from the menacing sway of a pair of breasts, they are inextricably linked to them.

With one breast in profile and the other frontally depicted, almost moon-like, Maternity nurses two stick-figure children as they hover in mid-air. Miró's interest in abstraction and the bizarre is evident as he takes the traditional motif of Mother and Child and eliminates any element of realism. The title, Maternity, suggests that what remains after stripping away excess representation are the instinctual and emotional aspects of the relationship between mother and child that may not be evident in more naturalistic depictions.

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Oil on canvas - Purchased with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund (William Leng Bequest ) and members of the public, 1991National Gallery of Art, Scotland Lunar Bird (1946-49) Miró's experimentation with multiple media led him into the third dimension, where one of his most favored materials became bronze.

With this Mediterranean work, the sun and the moon, male and female, and night and day are both contradictory and complementary forces. The work resembles ancient votive statues and is highly polished so that despite its dark, solid appearance, it becomes paradoxically reflective. Lighter, curving elements lift the ensemble of shapes upward. Bereft of color, unlike the artist's later sculptures, Lunar Bird relies on alternating, contrasting shapes to bring the object to life.

Bronze - Fundació Joan Miró

Woman and Bird (1982) This sculpture, standing 66 feet tall, was part of Barcelona's public art initiative and is considered Miró's last great work. Assisted by a team of craftsmen, Woman and Bird was built of concrete and colorful, broken ceramic tile; its irregular contours and tile mosaic were in part an homage to the great BARCELONA architect Antonio Gaudi, whom Miró admired and studied with. The sculpture is situated at the corner of a large reflecting pool in the Parc de Joan Miró, which has 30 other sculptures by the artist.

The massive figure of a woman on whose head perches a bright yellow bird is evocative of the colossal sculptures that guarded the ports of ancient Greek cities and presided over their most hallowed sites. Rather like the Columns of Torrevieja.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONSULT THE ART STORY MODERN ART INSIGHT aormi@icloud.com

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One of the most photographed things in Spain is the humble carnation or clavel, which has been around for at least 2,000 years. It is always used to decorate women’s hair and is found in plant pots, gardens and even has its own meaning in Spain. Just as the rose has different colours, each with a message of love, so has the carnation.

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Spanish Flowery Talk Pat Hynd

A red carnation means “yes”, but if its yellow it’s a no-go and definite “No”.

A Pink carnation signifies “I’ll never forget you”. Should it be striped then it’s a “Maybe” a sign of indecision.

Blue carnations don't share the long history of meaning with other carnations because they don't occur naturally. The first appeared in the 1970s, when people dipped white carnations in food coloring. In 1997, 12 Australian scientists genetically engineered the first blue carnation. It was actually violet-blue, and was commercialized under the name "Moondust." Blue has long been used symbolically in art and writing, and blue flowers of any kind are often used to symbolize peace, tranquility, truth and spirituality. Blue's association with truth makes blue carnations popular at weddings, where they serve as a reminder of the devotion and true love the bride and groom have for each other.

Essentially the carnation is associated with Spanish folklore, especially in southern Spain, or Andalusia. Nearly

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every flower has multiple associations, listed in the hundreds of floral dictionaries. In Spain and Hispanic America the carnation symbolizes passion, and it is a very common gesture to hold the clavel between one's teeth. In the Spanish language of flowers it represents caprice, passion and desire. At present there is a surge of all things Spanish in Japan and China.

Spain also has the double advantage of the fan language where women, wafting their fan to ward off the heat, can also ward off suitors or beckon them on.

Quite often, definitions about flowers derive from the appearance or behavior of the plant itself. For example, the mimosa represents chastity. This is because the leaves of the mimosa close at night, or when touched. Likewise, the deep red rose and its thorns have been used to symbolize both the blood of Christ and the intensity of romantic love, while the rose's five petals are thought to illustrate the five crucifixion wounds of Christ. Pink roses imply a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity, and yellow roses stand for friendship or devotion.

The black rose (actually a very dark shade of red, purple, or maroon) has a long association with death and dark magic

The Victorians liked to make up bouquets. Tussie-Mussies were generally very well liked gifts. These were small bouquets of flowers wrapped in a lace-doily and tied with satin, sometimes known as a nosegay. The intrigue of secret messages sent this way, became a popular pastime.

Some scholars suggest that their name comes from the word "corone" (flower garlands) or "coronation" because of its use in Greek ceremonial crowns, others propose that it's derived from the Latin "carnis" (flesh) referring to the flower's original pinkish-hued colour or "incarnacyon" (incarnation), referring to the incarnation of God-made flesh.

Today, carnations can be found in a wide range of colors, and while in general they express love, fascination and distinction, virtually every color carries a unique and rich association.

It is also possible to dye carnations. The first time I saw this was inBarcelona over 30 years ago. Buy WHITE carnations as they will change colour easily. Trim off

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the ends of the carnations at an angle as this permits the flower to soak up the dye more easily.

Add food coloring to a jug of water. You can use as much dye as you like.

Leave the Carnations in the water for a couple of hours. You want the Carnations to absorb as much of the dye as they can so that you have brilliantly, bright, colors.

But Western civilizations are not the only ones to have flower language. The Japanese are very poetic people and use a system known as Hanakotoba.

Hanakotoba (花言葉?) is the Japanese form of the language of flowers. In this practice plants were given codes and passwords.

Physiological effects and action under the colour of the flowers put into words the impressions of nature and the presence of thorns with the height of tall plants, flowers and garlands of flowers through the various types. Meant to convey emotion and communicate directly to each other without needing the use of words.

Hanakotoba

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Nighthawks in Torrevieja

by David Stewart

Thanks to Crónicas Naturales de Torrevieja and biologist Juan Antonio Pujol, for this information. Crónicas Naturales de Torrevieja has a Facebook page that keeps a close eye on local nature and wildlife, documenting the ever increasing amount of new species attracted to the two lakes and their environs.

One of the rare birds recently seen is the nighthawk, and I’m not talking about those late night drinkers. As the bird flies at night be careful and not run over them!

It’s a bird with mysterious nocturnal habits and twilight flight, silent and spooky, it's probably the least known species in our city.

They come back from Africa every year to breed in our mountains, fields and vacant areas. But because they come so close to the city (or better said, the city has grown so much), they can now be found flying very low over the roads with heavy traffic. Every year many die by collisions with vehicles.

This is why the need for precautions, especially at night and in the back roads or on housing estates.

The bird population is concentrated around the Salinas of Torrevieja.

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occurring in Europe. It breeds in Iberia and North Africa, and winters in tropical west Africa.

There are two subspecies: nominate ruficollis, breeding in Iberia, and desertorum breeding in North Africa. The North African form desertorum is paler than the Iberian one, and has different patterning on the base of its primary feathers: dark and orange bands of approximately equal width, compared to the narrower orange bands and greater extent of black of ruficollis.

Open sandy heaths with trees or bushes are the haunts of this crepuscular nightjar. It flies at dusk, most often at sundown, with an easy, silent mothlike flight; its strong and deliberate wingbeats alternate with graceful sweeps and wheels with motionless wings. Crepuscular insects, such as moths, are its food.

Its call is a repetitive mechanical kyok-kyok-kyok..., which rises and falls as the bird turns its head from side to side. When it churrs, the bird lies or crouches along a branch or rail, but it will sing from a post. During courtship, and occasionally at other times, it uses a mechanical signal, a sharp cracking sound, caused by clapping the wings together over the back.

So please be careful if you see these nighthawks. aormi@icloud.com

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TripAdviser awards Torrevieja businesses.

by Dave Stewart

TripAdviser is now established as the leader in its field for people going on Holiday and searching out local information about Hotels and places to wine and dine. Its USA head office claims to be the largest travel site in the World with over 60 million members and 170 million reviews and opinions of Hotels, restaurants, attractions and other travel associated businesses.

In February 2000, TripAdvisor was founded by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, and several others. Kaufer says the original idea wasn't a user generated social media site to swap reviews. Rather, "We started as a site where we were focused more on those official words from guidebooks or newspapers or magazines. We also had a button in the very beginning that said, "Visitors add your own review", and boy, did that just take off. Pretty soon the number of average consumer reviews far surpassed the number of 'professional reviews'. That is when the site really turned into this collection of what the normal traveller was saying wherever they were going.

It is this interface with clients that has turned TripAdvisor into the world’s largest travel site, with nearly 280 million unique monthly visitors that includes a Facebook connection.

TripAdvisor has been the subject of controversy for allowing unsubstantiated anonymous reviews to be posted about any hotel, B&B, inn, or restaurant.

Approximately 30 hotels have been blacklisted by TripAdvisor for suspicious reviews, including a Cornwall hotel that bribed guests to leave positive reviews of the hotel. Tripdviser has also been taken to court by businesses that received bad comments, claiming that it has affected their business and in various countries have won their claims.

The Certificate of Excellence honours hospitality businesses that deliver consistently great service. This designation is given to establishments that have consistently achieved great traveller reviews on TripAdvisor over the past year. Establishments earning the Certificate of Excellence are located all over the world and have continually delivered superior customer experience. aormi@icloud.com

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Two recent awards have been to the Vitis Wine Bar and the El Muelle Restaurant in Torrevieja. The Vitis Wine Bar already has an award from the D.O Alicante organisation for two years. The bar offers a wide range of wines from all over Spain - Alicante, Valencia, Jumilla, Utiel-Requena, Priorat, Bierzo, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Rueda, PenedĂŠs, RĂ­as Bajas, Navarra, Jerez and more. There is a nice selection of tapas and other drinks. There is also different wine-tastings held at different times of the year, as well as a Gala of Wine promoting selected wines.

The other establishment of Torrevieja to receive a TripAdvisr certificate is El Muelle restaurant, right on the promenade with the palm trees garlanded with lights. It is very popular and most certainly in summertime it is advisable to reserve a table as long queues show how popular it is, not only for its sea-view position but its large menu. The restaurant has been on the receiving end of other certificates of quality notably the Q certificate for the quality of food, the ambiance, and Management. It is one of the few restaurants along the prom that has tried to make its appearance even more attractive as staff plant flowers around the Palms. aormi@icloud.com

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Pamplona - More than Bulls

by Dave Stewart

This month has many bull orientated fiestas, including those on the Costa Blanca next to the sea. The most famous has to be those of Pamplona.

San Fermin bull runs are world famous fiestas that gained international popularity after the American author Ernest Hemingway used the celebration as a backdrop for the characters of his 1926 masterpiece The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta in Spanish). The Los Sanfermines continues to be world famous and attract many youngsters who see Pamplona as a place where the brave take the challenge in the encierro (running of the bulls). San Fermin is not only about running in front of bulls.

There is another side to the bull runs as it is a fiesta of several coastal towns, so there are many other things going on. The streets of Pamplona also come alive with music, fireworks, folkloric events, dancing, singing and religious ceremonies. So the actual time of the encierro doesn’t take up much time.

It attracts thousands of young people from other countries, many of whom unfortunately, can’t hold their drink and give their country a bad name.

Drunken tourists and their misbehavior is becoming a real problem for popular tourist places as people seem to think they have the right to do whatever they like regardless of other people and their quality of life.

Many towns are bringing in stringent regulations and putting the onus on hotels to control their clients.

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Pamplona has a lot more to offer the visitor than bulls as it is surrounded by mountains, as the plain of the basin of Pamplona has always favoured human settlement. Stone tools have been found on the terraces of the River Arga dating from some 75,000 years ago. In approximately the first millennium BC, there already existed a Vascon settlement beneath the modern-day city. This settlement gave rise to the name Iruña, Basque for "the city".

The Roman General Gnaeus Pompey Magnus arrived in 75 BC and founded a Roman-model city. He gave it its name, Pompaelo, and enhanced its function as a strategic link between the peninsula and Europe.

Noble clans gained sufficient autonomy to form the Kingdom of Pamplona, the name of which was a tribute to the symbolic importance of the city, then considered the “soul of the land of the Vascons”, in political and religious terms. For more than three hundred years, the head of the capital was not the king, but rather the bishop. This was the result of a donation by Sancho Garcés II Abarca as a sign of his gratitude to God for the help received against the Moors and was then ratified by successive monarchs. This was a system that led to bishops becoming clerical princes in charge of land.

The 20th century was one of expansion. Cultural, social, economic, technological and urban growth. Today, Pamplona is a city with effective social services, good education and health systems, areas given over to leisure, high industrial activity and a consolidated communications network.

Pamplona can be reached by train, bus, cars and there is a small airport six kilometers outside the town with links to Madrid, Malaga, Valencia, Barcelona, Leon and Palma of Mallorca. The train has connections with Alicante, Alsasua, Barcelona, Burgos, Coruña, Irún, Hendaya, León, Lugo, Madrid, Orense, Oviedo, Palencia, San Sebastián, Valencia, Vigo, Vitoria y Zaragoza.

The town is well served with daily buses linking Alicante, Andalucía, Barcelona, Bilbao, Salou, Peñíscola, Gijón, Oviedo, Irún, Jaca, Jaén, Logroño, Madrid, San Sebastián, Santander, Soria, Vigo, Vitoria, y Zaragoza. There is a service from Mar Menor, Torrevieja to Pampòna with Bilman Bus and information at Torrevieja Bus Station.

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There’s plenty to do in Pamplona as there are guided tours, its central for exploring the Basque region, Cathedrals and churches, Buildings and fortifications lovely Parks and gardens. Among informative guided tours are - the Citadel and Walls - Arga River Park a section of The Pilgrims way to Santiago - so many monuments.

Of course there are great shopping opportunities with modern shops and little streets with hidden gems among them. There are three markets - Mercado de Santo Domingo has 45 stalls with veg and fruits, fish, meats and flowers in the old part of the town and dates back to 1876. The Mercado del Ensanche was built in 1949 with 65 shops and kiosks and also sells a wide range of food, herbs wine etc. There is a third much smaller one the Mercado de ErmitagaĂąa.

All Year Fiestas There are other fiestas throughout the year The Three Kings on 6th January - 4th February Saint Agatha, followed by Carnival and then Semana Santa.

The main act in the Carnival of Pamplona is the burning of the doll Mari Trapu, which takes place at the source of Navarreria. This doll represents a chief of the Franks who razed the village in the XII century and died later, burned in his tower.

The Privilege of the Union is celebrated on the 8th of September.

The Privilege was the treaty, signed

by King Carlos III in 1423, by which

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the city, until then divided into three parts, was united under a single Council, each burgh losing its walls, mayors and particular income systems. A Solemn Mass with floral offering and prayer in the memory of King Carlos III the Noble and Queen Leonor of Trastámara is held in Pamplona Cathedral, where their remains lie at rest, to commemorate the union of the three burghs. The festival to commemorate the martyrdom of San Fermin is celebrated on the 25th of September.

The 29th of November is a bank holiday in Pamplona in honour of the city’s patron saint, Saint Saturnine, who baptised Pamplona’s first Christians, including its first Bishop, San Fermin, The day is celebrated with several institutional events, including a procession and a mass in the church bearing the saint"s name, attended by the Council, together with “giants”, a music band and a gala procession.

Christmas eve - The parade accompanying the Olentzero is on the afternoon of the 24th of December.

This figure represents a charcoal-burner who, as tradition has it, comes down from the mountains on Christmas Eve to walk through the towns and villages, leaving presents for the children. This mythical figure is accompanied by children in traditional Basque costume, choirs, pipeplayers, a living Nativity, d i ff e re n t fl o a t s and “zanpantzares”. aormi@icloud.com

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Viva San Fermin The origin of the fiesta of San Fermín goes back long before Hemingway to the Middle Ages and is related to three types of celebrations: religious ceremonies in honour of San Fermín, which intensified from the 12th century onwards, included trade fairs and bullfights, which were first documented in the 14th century. It used to be held on October 10th, but in 1591 the people of Pamplona, fed up with the bad weather at that time of year, decided to transfer the fiesta to July so it would coincide with the Fair – which doesn’t mean it won’t rain!. It initially lasted two days and had a pregón (opening speech), musicians, a tournament, theatre and bullfights. Other events were added later, such as fireworks and dances, and the fiesta lasted until July 10th.

By the 19th Century there was more of a carnival atmosphere with the parade of the Giants. Sometimes bulls escaped from the bull run and ran around the nearby streets. This is no longer possible as there is a double fence security system and there is more control and support.

The fiestas reached their peak of popularity in the 20th Century thanks to Hemingway. The Encierro is the event at the heart of aormi@icloud.com

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the Sanfermines and makes the fiesta a spectacle that would be unimaginable in any other place in the world. It was born from necessity, namely getting the bulls from outside the city into the bullring. The encierro takes place from July 7th to 14th and starts at the corral in Calle Santo Domingo when the church clock on strikes eight o'clock in the morning. After the launching of two rockets, the bulls charge behind the runners for 825 Top photo: the town hall balcony where the first rocket is fired from.

San Fermin image in the wall before the encierro Pamplona town hall

metres, the distance between the corral and the bullring. The run usually lasts between three and four minutes although it has sometimes taken over ten minutes, especially if one of the bulls has been isolated from his companions.

Television cameras record the event live every morning from balconies that now cost a tidy sum to rent, as they offer great views of the run.

The runners begin just a few metres up the slope from the corral where the bulls are waiting. A mass of white clad figures with red neckerchiefs , raise their rolled newspapers and chant in the ancient Basque language in front of an image of San Fermín placed in a small recess in the wall in the Cuesta de Santo Domingo. "A San Fermín pedimos, por ser nuestro patrón, nos guíe en el encierro dándonos su bendición. Entzun arren San Fermin zu zaitugu patroi zuzendu gure oinak entzierro hontan otoi." (We ask San Fermín, being our patron saint, to guide us in the bull

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run and give us his blessing).

When they finish they shout "¡Viva San Fermín! ¡Gora San Fermín!." This chant is sung three times before 8 a.m - five minutes before 8 o'clock, then three minutes and one minute before the gate of the corral is opened and the run starts.

There is a third rocket, fired from the bullring, signaling that all the bulls have entered the bullring. A fourth and final rocket indicates that all the bulls are safely in the corral located inside the bullring, and that the bull run has ended.

There are various figures that play important part in the daily Encierro. There are police, Red Cross and first aid personnel and other security measures. Pastores are important people in the bull run as they are experienced and can be recognized by the long stick they wield to control the bulls. Their main role is to stop the odd idiot from inciting the bulls from behind, to avoid the bulls turning round and running backwards, and to help any bulls that have stopped or have been separated from their companions to continue running towards the bullring.

Then once the bulls are in the ring there are the dobladores, people with good bullfighting knowledge (sometimes ex-bullfighters) who are already in the ring before the bulls and using capes help the runners 'fan out' (in other words, run to the sides after they enter the bullring) and 'drag' the bulls towards the corral as quickly as possible.

Every day there are six fighting bulls that take part in the evening bullfight. They start the run accompanied by an initial group of mansos, which act as 'guides' to help the bulls cover the route. Two minutes after leaving the corral in Santo Domingo, a second group of bullocks (the so-called 'sweep-up" group), which are

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stopped or been left behind in the bull run towards the bullring.

The encierro is a spectacle that is defined by the level of risk and the physical ability of the runners. A Spanish friend I knew wanted to run as it had been a bit of a family tradition with his grandfather and father and many other family members doing the run. I and other friends persuaded him it was too dangerous for other runners as he had a bad limp, the result of a motor bike accident.

Not everyone can run the encierro. It requires cool nerves, quick reflexes and a good level of physical fitness. Anyone who does not have these three should not take part; it is a highly risky enterprise. People under 18 years of age are not permitted to run. People under the influence of alcohol or drugs are not permitted nor is crossing police barriers placed to ensure that the run goes off smoothly. Inciting the bulls or attracting their attention in any manner, and for whatever reason, along the route of the run or in the bullring is liable for a fine.

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Holding, harassing or maltreating the bulls and stopping them from moving or being led to the pens in the bullring is another offense. Runners are not allowed to have cameras or take photos without authorisation.

The Pamplona Running of the Bulls is a part of the San Fermin Festival, which runs in Pamplona from July 6 to July 14 in 2016 and every year.

The events of Pamplona's San Fermin Festival are as follows: July 6 The opening day is a bit different from the other days of the festival. * 12noon - the opening ceremony, known as the chupinazo when a rocket is fired from the town hall balcony. * 11pm - fireworks and general partying. This continues throughout the festival!

July 7-14 * *

Each day of the festival is the same.

8am - the running of the bulls takes place.

6.30pm - bullfighting in the city's bullring, with the bulls that ran that morning.

Despite being a very dangerous event with injuries each year, since 1910 there have been only 15 deaths recorded. Each year many people are injured or die in these type of bull runs in other towns, with around 10 in 2015; so Pamplona has a very high security profile.

"Pobre de mí, pobre de mí, que se han acabado las fiestas de San Fermín” (“Poor me, poor me, the San Fermin festivities have ended”).

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Torrevieja summertime

by Dave Stewart

Once again Torrevieja is almost full up with visitors despite a year of some very bad (and exaggerated) press articles. And once again the beaches are full of sun worshippers despite the fact that last year a bather was fined 150 euros for planting his umbrella and seat near the sea and accused of staking a claim to his piece of sand. Another article in national press, accompanied by professional photographs (taken on a blustery winter’s day after a storm) said the town was the pits.

So this photo report is to show that there are some great beaches and other things that people use throughout the whole year. Some photos have appeared on Spanish national television weather reports and picked as winning photos of the week by the viewers.

In addition there are marinas that have various regattas and nautical events throughout the year including fishing competitions. The harbour has three marinas with around 3,200 berths for leisure yachting as well as a fishing fleet and salt quay for container ships.

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From Alicante by the N332 we reach Torrrelamata district of Torrevieja, a village in its own right. A canal runs under the N332 road linking the sea with the salt lake, which is a protected natural park and good alternative to the beach. Here you can see at the moment the buds of new grapes which will be harvested and turned into specialized wines. Beyond the canal is a lot of pines and dunes, but southwards is the village centre with the tower and beach stretching towards the town of Torrevieja.

Its the longest beach. TripAdviser puts it Nยบ. 1 among 50 top things to do or see in Torrevieja with its golden sands, crystalline water and plenty of bars and restaurants. There are various nautical things to do including surfing.

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Before moving on the visitor should check out the park nearby that has a cascade running towards the sea and nice picnic areas.

Cabo Cervera is next with a couple of very small beaches and coves. There is an aparthotel with its own swimming pool facilities and regular dancing and musical events, as well as a good restaurant. This area has some of the best eating facilities such as Barlovento famous for its seafood dishes. A bus service links to the main town centre.

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At the top of the hill is the Torre del Moro and a small park alongside the Hotel Masa, which also has regular music and dancing as well as a nice restaurant. From here the coastline is broken by small coves with their own rugged attraction.

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The next beach going southwards is Los Locos a well protected one with all the usual services including the bus. There are plenty of bars and good restaurants in the streets behind the promenade. There are exercise services for the elderly and children’s play area. In summer a kiosk offers churros and chocolate - a great breakfast treat or snack. In the mornings you can join in aerobics or other exercises.

Los Locos is a nice sandy beach, but with some rocks. There is a small cove at the end called La Palangre. It is a nice walk from here right into the town centre along the promenade

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Los Locos beach goes on to Palangre Curve and the promenade leads to the next beach of el Cura.

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Punta Margalla features the Columns of Civilizations and fine restaurants , ice cream parlor, bar and in the tunnel a great exhibition of old photographs of Torrevieja.

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Playa del Cura is a busy central beach with sandy sand and a plethora of really good dining places of international cuisine, and typical Spanish tapas and tapeos. It is popular with families with small children.

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An important part of any holiday is to enjoy good food and little extras and along the paseo here there are plenty of opportunities.

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On this part of the promenade there is a bar sticking out off the rocks known as “El Tinteroâ€? which has been there since the beginning of the 20th Century, first as a wooden construction and as it is now. It has been a centre point of summer for visitors and residents alike in its position between the el Cura Beach and the town centre. Recently, after a study by Marco CeldrĂĄn of the Alicante University who called it of great historical interest, a request has been made to preserve it as a structure of local relevance (BRL). From here there are outdoor artificial bathing areas until the town centre and stone benches on the rocks that are also popular places for resting and enjoying the sun and views.

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Torrevieja photographers frequently have their photographs on national television weather forecasts, so here are a few, but there are others showing the different types of clouds and weather conditions. Altogether they form an interesting projection of the wonderful hues that nature offers us and the sea, harbour, salt lakes and other places viewed from a different perspective.

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The town centre is where we find a cluster of banks, restaurants and bars, shops, daily outdoor market. the main tourist office, cultural Casino, small plazas and the main plaza where the town hall is. The central fountain in plaza Waldo Calero is a popular meeting point as is the statue of Hombre del Mar. It is also where the harbour is that enfolds the fishing fleet and three leisure marinas - Real Club Nautico, Salinas and Marine International. The promenade is extended along the harbour wall. The harbour also houses the local Vela Latina school, rowing club, boat trips and other nautical opportunities

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The paseo or promenade is ideal for walking and wheelchairs. Bicycles are used, but are a silent danger for pedestrians, especially the elderly. When opened the paseo had signs banning bikes, roller-skating and dogs, but these have disappeared.

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The above Marina Salinas is the newest marina while below we see the Real Club Nautical that is celebrating its 50th year this year. The Salinas has several bars and restaurants that are sleepily attractive in the day, but a burst of activity in the evening with live music.

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The Marina International, apart from yachts, also has good restaurants and an aparthotel. From here it not far to the Acequion Canal, the gardens of DoĂąa Sinforosa and the beach that is not officially beach - Acequion. It is one of the popular beaches inside the harbor with as yet no prom, but several excellent beach bars and restaurants. At the far end is the salt conveyor belt that leads along the quay to where cargo ships are filled with salt.

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Acequion is quiet most of the year, but bursts at the seams in the main summer months of vacations. Once past the the salt conveyor belt we come to the los Naufragos beach, the Castaways - taking its name from the frequent wrecked ships cast ashore here.

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Los Naufragos most famous event was the beaching of Paris City, which was stuck for several months and became a bit of a tourist attraction. Today the beach is a popular one with palm trees in the sand, a couple of kiosks and summer volleyball competitions.

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The next step is to Mar Azul Urbanization with its nice flower and green area and views towards the town itself. The next beach is Lo Ferris which has retained its original natural look and has been used as a set for several films. There is a fence that separates it from the private palmeral of Lo Ferris company. A long natural beach leads towards the southern municipal boundary with Orihuela.

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The final beach is Lo Pitero and, like most of Torrevieja beaches has a Blue Flag. The town council promised a beach suitable of dogs and it is likely that the area between Lo Ferris and Lo Pitero is under consideration as it is already popular for dog walkers.

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Lo Pitero is the end of our journey and next is Punta Prima that falls into Orihuela Costas area. Lo Piteros has a couple of kiosks as well as the excellent Nautilus Restaurant.

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Bookshelf

by Pat Hynd

Trying to Forget..

Alzheimers

“Aging is not the cause of health problems in old age,” Dr. Snowdon wrote in 2001. “Disease is the culprit.”

Alzheimer's has been called ‘the plague of the 21st century' for its dramatic increase in numbers and the challenge it poses to health care. There are no effective treatments, merely a few drugs that promise only short-lived results.

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Like cancer, dementia is increasingly affecting and decreasing the quality at the end of many of our lives. Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for up to three-quarters of dementia cases, has been called “the plague of the 21st century,” writes Jay Ingram in his book and “its shadow lies over us all.”

Jay Ingram has become well known through 14 popular books and lengthy stints as host of CBC Radio One’s Quirks and Quarks and Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet. He became Canada’s best-known science commentator, and has set out to write what he calls a “distanced, scientific” overview of a disease that now stands at the nexus of a scientific puzzle and public health crisis. There is no escaping the personal affects of a sickness that is as emotionally draining on family and carers who, in a sense, are those watching from the outside or thinking about their own future and life’s ending.

He is writing from experience as his own mother died of it at age 94 in 2006. “For the last four years she was severely compromised cognitively, and for the final two, there was nothing there I recognized as my mother.” aormi@icloud.com

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Nor was she alone in Ingram’s life. “There was also her sister—my favourite aunt—and my father-in-law. But there’s nothing special in that.

In any group of people it doesn’t take long to discover half of them will have had some contact with dementia.”

Alzheimer’s takes a particularly vicious toll on women, both in their role as the world’s primary caregivers and in the fact that perhaps two-thirds of patients are women. That’s why the Nuns Survey is so important.

Many people will experience five stages of life: childhood, youth, adulthood, old age, and very old age, motivating scientists’ interest in the connection between very old age and memory loss.

Even if the increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes shortens life expectancy, some scientists predict that 50 percent of children born since 2000 will reach 100 years of age. That interest of this condition began in 1906, when Alois Alzheimer discovered curious plaques and tangles in the brain of a woman with early-onset memory loss. But the disease named for him doesn’t necessarily present those symptoms in all sufferers, and some people with plaques and tangles never lose their memories.

Moreover, researchers have found these structures in autopsies of young people, leading them to look for causes other than aging, such as environment and genetic mutations.

Ingram identifies some strategies that seem to help: keeping mentally active because the brain, scientists have discovered, is plastic, able to develop new connections; maintaining a low body weight; getting adequate exercise and sleep; and limiting sugar intake. This last aormi@icloud.com

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recommendation results from research that connects Alzheimer’s to “disturbed insulin function in the brain.”

In clear, concise and easily readable prose, Ingram demonstrates in his book his optimism about the possibility of aging with an agile mind, and he is hopeful about finding an effective treatment for sufferers.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing for those in their sixties and seventies to do but wait, even if the sturdier protective barriers—a good education, a mentally challenging career—are either in place already or not achievable. He writes about lifestyle in general and in particular relating to dementia. “Same old advice as for your health in general,” says Ingram: “diet, especially in regard to sugar, and exercise.” And for a physical disease, there is a strong social component. Home alone watching television correlates dangerously with developing Alzheimer’s; social watching—say, gathering for the big sporting event—points in the opposite direction. Bingo, in fact, may trump chess. And gossip—a source of social bonding and intense cerebral activity, with roots stretching back to primate days—may be the best. Among the foreign community in Spain is that fact that many foreigners live alone, isolated in a villa or a flat in an apartment block that is empty most of the year. In summer Torrevieja police are called out three or four times a week to a house where the occupant hasn't been seen for a few days or even a few weeks. Here they find the tragedy of people living alone and dying alone. All part of the mystery of human life. SO KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR ELDERLY NEIGHBOR aormi@icloud.com

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The Nun’s Study

by Pat Hynd

One of Jay Ingram’s sources for his book is The Nun Study directed by Dr. David Snowdon.

He is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in epidemiology (i.e., the study of the causes of diseases in populations).

His earliest education was strongly influenced by his primary teachers, who were Catholic sisters. He was born in Redlands, California in 1952.

The Nun Study, begun (officially) in 1986 with funding by the National Institute on Aging, focuses on a group of 678 American Roman Catholic sisters who are members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The nuns are ideal for scientific study because their stable, relatively similar lives preclude certain factors from aormi@icloud.com

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contributing to illness.

They do not smoke, hardly drink and do not experience physical changes related to pregnancy.

This research found that some nuns who lived to a great age developed the physical symptoms of Alzheimer’s, but not the mental ones. The sisters were able to find ways to remain mentally agile, despite brain deterioration. Jay Irwan calls this “cognitive reserve” ascribing it to living a disciplined life with plenty of hard work, social interaction and lifelong learning.

One of the prime collaborators in this study initiated by Dr. David Snowden is Sr. Gabriel Mary Spaeth of this congregation of Notre Dame During her 68 years as a School Sister, she taught nearly every grade level and worked as a school administrator. During a four-year term with the community’s leadership team, she worked on health care issues. That’s when she met David Snowdon; their connection launched a long-term relationship between the School Sisters and medical researchers. For more than 16 years, Sister Spaeth travelled the country, visiting convents in her order’s seven American provinces. She visited sisters, age 75 or older, about once every 18 months. She would ask the sisters: “Where are you? What’s today’s date? Who’s the president?” She would ask the women to identify an image on a card and test them on how many words they could recall from a list. She would also record how long it took the sisters to walk a certain distance and observe how well they completed simple tasks.

aormi@icloud.com

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For 15 years, elderly Catholic nuns of this order have had their genes analyzed and balance and strength measured. They have been tested on how many words they can remember minutes after reading them on flashcards, how many animals they can name in a minute and whether they can count coins correctly.

When they entered religious life they all wrote down a “Little Life� about themselves and these have been scrutinized, their words plumbed for meaning.

The research has shown that folic acid may help stave off Alzheimer's disease; that small, barely perceptible strokes may trigger some dementia; and, in an especially striking finding, that early language ability may be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer's, because nuns. who packed more ideas into the sentences of their early autobiographies, were less likely to get Alzheimer's disease six decades later. As they have died, their brains have been removed and shipped in plastic tubs to a laboratory where they are analyzed and stored in jars.

The 678 participants in the Nun Study were 75 to 103 years old when the study began, and the average age of the participants was 85 years. Over 85 percent of these participants were teachers. Participants in the Nun Study include women representing a wide range of function and health, from sisters in their 90s who are highly functional with full-time jobs to sisters in their 70s who are severely disabled, unable to communicate, and bedridden.

Overall, Dr. Snowdon says, the nuns live significantly longer than other women.

Of the 678 in the study, 295 are alive and are all 85 or older.

Dr. Snowdon, 48, has become unusually close to his subjects.

He says that when he was in Catholic school as a child, the nuns were more rigid and strict than the warm, good-humored School Sisters he sees almost as grandmothers. That relationship has made him acutely aware of sensitive ethical issues, like how forthright to be with nuns who show slight signs of Alzheimer's.

We know from the Nun Study, and others, that Alzheimer's disease takes several decades to develop, and the disease has many important effects on all aspects of a person's life.

aormi@icloud.com

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Dr. Snowdon made a condition that nuns donate their brains, which for some was a stumbling block. “People think of it as who they are – it contains their identity. It’s loaded with meaning – personal, emotional, spiritual.” Dr. Snowdon related to a colleague. ''I had a hard time with it,'' said Sister Claverine, who delayed signing up. ''I had an image of myself being buried intact.''

But Sister Rita Schwalbe, the convent's health administrator when the study began, said she had told them that as nuns they had made ''the difficult decision not to have children. This is another way of giving life.''

Many nuns now see brain donation through a liturgical lens -- or a humorous one.

Sister Nicolette said: ''After the resurrection, our bodies will be perfect.

We'll be so happy we won't care what happens to our brains.''

And, although he cannot prove it scientifically, Dr. Snowdon contends the nuns' spirituality and community living helps them too. Early findings suggested that people with strong language skills at a young age were less likely to develop dementia, and that people with positive outlooks lived longer. ''You don't necessarily have to join a church or join a convent,'' Dr. Snowdon said. ''But that love of other people, that caring, how good they are to each other and patient, that's something all of us can do.''

Most sisters enrolled in the Nun Study because they believed their participation would help other women throughout the world. Many felt that they could continue teaching and helping others in their old age, and even after their death, by participating in this study. The bottom line is that these women are altruistic.

Medical researchers had studied religious communities before. Snowdon had earlier worked on a study of the Lutheran Brotherhood that looked at the connection between cancer and heart disease with alcohol use. He had also participated in a study investigating the impact of diet on the health of Seventhday Adventists. A 1950s study of nuns found a link between breast cancer and hormones. The Religious Orders Study, started in 1993, also investigates the aging brain.

Researchers continue to monitor eight surviving sisters, who are all over 100 years old. In Aging with Grace, Snowdon described the broad lesson of the project. The sisters “have shown me that old age is not something to fear and revile,” he said. “It can be a time of promise and renewal, of watching with a knowing eye, of accepting the lessons that life has taught and, if possible, passing them on to the generations that follow.”

As Sister Miriam Thissen, 89, said: ''Que será será. After you're dead, so what?’'

aormi@icloud.com

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of Spanish Cookery Pat Hynd

There is no doubt that television has widened the scope of catering and Masterchef on RTVE1 has proved a massive hit and now they are running Junior Summer Camps. I think its great to teach kids how to cook and look after themselves when older.

One of the easiest things for them to do is cupcakes or magdalenas as these make a good base for decoration ideas and individual ones can be decorated and built up into a birthday cake, with each child having their own portion and individual decoration.

Imagination is a great part of our make-up and kids are full of ideas and these are simple as is this recipe.

110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature 110g/4oz caster sugar 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 110g/4oz self-raising flour 1-2 tbsp milk

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For the buttercream icing 140g/5oz butter, softened 280g/10oz icing sugar 1-2 tbsp milk a few drops food colouring These easy vanilla cupcakes are so simple to make. Decorate with a swirl of delicious buttercream frosting.

CHICKEN TAPAS Chicken in Ba4er with Honey & Mustard Pollo Rebozado con Miel y Mostaza.

3 Chicken breasts cut into small slices or cubes salt & black pepper 2 eggs flour aormi@icloud.com

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4 tbsp. olive oil 8 tbsp. thin honey 1 teaspn. French mustard 1 teaspn. soy sauce.

Place the chicken pieces in a bowl; season. Whip eggs up and pour o v e r t h e c h i c k e n , m i x i n g thoroughly.

Add enough flour to make a thick coating over the chicken.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the pieces of chicken until golden, turning often, cook for about 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.

Blend the honey with the mustard and soy sauce and drizzle the mixture over the chicken serving immediately.

Chicken Liver with Sherry Vinegar Higaditos de Pollo con Vinagre de Jerez.

Liver is not everybody’s delight but chicken livers can be presented in dozens of ways.

This recipe is very countryside style.

454 gr/ 1 lb. chicken livers 1 tsp. paprika 1tsp crushed garlic 1/2 tsp. of both salt and fresh ground black pepper.

55gr/ 2 oz. melted buQer 1/2 finely chopped onion 4 tbsp. sherry vinegar 1 tsp. sugar 285ml/ half a pint chicken stock.

55gr./ 2 oz. buQer. Wash and trim the chicken livers removing any gristle and green bile sacs. aormi@icloud.com

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Mix the paprika, salt, pepper and garlic together in a bowl and toss the livers in this to cover.

Heat the 57gr of melted buQer in a large frying pan. Cook the livers over a high heat, stirring all the time, until sealed and brown: reserve in a warm bowl.

Add the onion to the pan and soften over a low heat; turn up the heat again adding the vinegar and sugar, cook until the vinegar is almost evaporated then add the stock; stir and reduce to half the amount.

With the remaining 57 gr. buQer, break into small pieces and stir until it melts into a liquid. Check the seasoning and pour the sauce over the liver.

Spanish Chicken Pie Empanada de Pollo 1 packet of frozen puff pastry (hojaldre) 4 Tbsp olive oil 1 onion chopped 225 gr. chopped bacon 3 tspn crushed garlic 1 deseeded and sliced green pepper 2 deseeded and sliced chilli peppers 1 tspn paprika 125 gr. sliced buQon mushrooms

aormi@icloud.com

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100 gr. raisins 2 tspn chopped parsley 2 tspn soy sauce 155 ml dry white wine 258 ml chicken stock 30 gr. buQer 900 grms boned and cubed cooked chicken meat.

This is normally an individual pie rather like an English Cornish Pastie but in this recipe it is treated as a whole pie. For individual empanandas cut out 15cm rounds of rolled pastry. Put the filling in one half and fold over the other half sealing the edges well with egg wash.

For the filling of this larger pie: heat the oil and gently cook the onion and bacon.

Add the garlic, peppers, paprika, mushrooms and raisins. Stir and add the parsley and soy sauce. Pour on the wine and stock, stir and simmer for 5 minutes and remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, grease and line a pie dish with half the pastry. Add the filling when it is cooled. Cover with slices of tomato and a liQle salt.

Roll out the remaining pastry, sealing the edges well and glaze with egg wash. Leave to stand for ten minutes and bake at 200ºC for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut in slices.

Tomato Salad with Olives Ensalada de Tomate con Aceitunas This is a very quick dish to make using fresh ingredients which goes well with empanadas, slices of goat cheese and other dishes or just served on its own.

3 large tomatoes 1/2 medium onion sliced thinly.

Some black olives.

Dressing: 8 Tbs. olive oil 3 Tbs. red wine vinegar 1/2 tsp. finely chopped garlic 1/2 tsp sugar salt & pepper.

Combine the oil, vinegar, garlic and sugar in a jar with a screw top. Shake until the dressing is emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste and shake again. Dredge the sliced tomatoes with the dressing. Serve at once. aormi@icloud.com

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  aormi@icloud.com

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Apart from the Habaneras concerts the Torrevieja town hall has decided to make use of a cultural programme organised by ADDA, an official cultural organisation of Alicante Diputation. These will be based in the Auditorium, which indicates that the Municipal Theatre will not be opened this summer. Presumably that apart from this interesting programme local groups will also present entertainment in the Virgen del Carmen Cultural Centre or the Eras de la Sal. MÚSICA ÍNTIMA Viernes, 1 de julio 20:00h. Las Músicas Imprescindibles – Cuarteto Almus Domingo, 3 de julio 20:00h. Viaje Sonoro – Ricardo Descalzo y solistas Jueves, 7 de julio 20:00h. Trío Bacarisse Viernes, 8 de julio 20:00h. Homenaje a García Lorca – Quarteto y solistas OSCE Martes, 19 de julio 20:00h. Masterworks OTRAS MÚSICAS Sábado, 2 de julio 19:00h. Óscar Navarro – 10º Aniversario Sábado, 9 de julio 20:00h. “Aire” – Kiko Berenguer FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE JAZZ Viernes, 15 de julio 22:00h. Nicholas Pyton Trio – Jane Monheit Sábado, 16 de julio 22:00h. Manu Katché Domingo, 17 de julio 20:00h. Playing Lecuona (película) Martes, 19 de julio 22:00h. Gregory Porter Miércoles, 20 de julio 22:00h. Antonio Lizana Jueves, 21 de julio 22:00h. David Pastor Viernes, 22 de julio 22:00h. Stanley Clarke Sábado, 23 de julio 22:00h. Gonzalo Rubalcaba – Volcán Trío FLAMENCO ADDA Jueves, 28 de julio 21:00h. “La energía del soniquete” – Diego Carrasco y grupo Viernes, 29 de julio 21:00h. “El cante puro” – Rancapino Chico y grupo Sábado, 30 de julio 21:00h. “La Danza” – Manuela Carrasco y grupo JOVES SIMFÒNICS Viernes, 8 de julio 18:00h. Joven Banda FSMCV Martes, 2 de agosto 20:00h. Orquesta de Jóvenes de la Provincia de Alicante Miércoles, 3 de agosto 20:00h. Joven Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional de Turquía Jueves, 4 de agosto 20:00h. Joven Orquesta Sinfónica de San Petersburgo Viernes, 5 de agosto 20:00h. Orchestra D’Archi Giovanile della Svizzera Italiana aormi@icloud.com

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