Jersey Cow

Massive creative block at the moment.
The villagers are starting to crack with the number of tourists blocking the streets, shops, pavements. But if you go ten minutes up the road there are miles of empty mountain paths.
Practising rasgueos which is sort of flicking the backs of the nails on the right hand across the strings in eami order. e being the pinkie finger.It is not easy to make it sound fluid. Pinkie nail is just the right length which means it will break this week. The Juan Martin flamenco book is terrific. I'll see if there's a link to him on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx0yZp4l0nM&mode=related&search=
There you go.

Sleeping Dog.

Here's a link to my dog, a Tibetan Spaniel. He's asleep most of the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pw-hXZ9-nk

Will the real bacchus stand up?

The carving at the top is part of an enormous bowl in the museum in Tarragona, Spain. Someone suggested that I colour it in and give it some eyeballs. Quite spooky really.

32 degrees here in Catalonia. Here's a link to another video of photos I have taken in Catalonia. Music is performed by Paolo Sereno who was nice enough to give permission to use it as a soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h2r09DDwPU

I love his guitar playing. I am still strumming but crickey it's difficult with no teacher until October. I waste way too much time "tootling" on the guitar rather than actually learning something.

The dog ate the paella

That title just popped into my head and doesn't have anything to do with the illustration. It is so hot I dare not go outside right now. It was 32 in the shade an hour ago.

I ordered a book on how to learn flamenco and it has arrived. Hooray. Yes, I know you are supposed to learn face to face but that is not possible in a seaside resort.

I'm almost at a hundred days without smoking

Photies frae Catalonia

I've almost got the soundtrack the right length to go with the photos I've taken of Catalonia. Soundtrack courtesy of Ken Graves who you can find on ACIDplanet. He's a gifted composer. In fact I shall email him right now to get his permission to use his music. If he says "No, absolutely not. Your video stinks." Then you will have imagined hearing what you are about to hear.
It is boiling here. The tourists are crashing into each other so much the air is full of sirens and when they are not crashing at the traffic lights they are being carted off on stretchers with heatstroke. Still, they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Making Movies

Just experimenting with trying to make a very short movie of photos I have taken around here. I uploaded it to webshots but it look very blurry compared to the original version. So here's the version I uploaded to Youtube which I haven't seen yet.
The tourists are in bedlam and mayhem mode and pasting into each other at the traffic lights.

This is the path by the sea that I cycle along most mornings. It's about seven thirty in the morning and two local policemen are wondering what to do about the plane that has landed here. The one on the left is lighting up a cigarette although the photo here is too small to see it. Apparently the pilot said he had been caught in strong winds and made a forced landing but I couldn't help but notice he had a large rucksack strapped to the side. Had he maybe flown in from the other side of the Mediterreanean? It makes a change from the boat people. Anyway, I cycled on and saw him take off as I reached the campsite. The policemen waved.

Remains of the Fire

Cycled down to the beach this morning to see what was left of the scrubland on the way to the sea. Not much! Normally it is quite difficult to walk through this area as it is filled with short, thorny bushes. I couldn't believe the amount of land that has burned, right from just below the golf course to the very edge of the sand. Absolutely amazing that nobody was hurt. We had a friend driving back from France that day. It took her five hours from where she was in France and what should have been twenty five minutes from Tarragona to here took three hours because most of the roads were closed. Hats off to the firemen and pilots.

Coastal Fire

There's a massive fire going on at the edge of the town. A truck had an accident up by the golf course which then set fire to somebody's garden, which in turn set alight to the one next door and the one after that and after that. It's now spread right down to the coast road, lighting one tree after another. I thought a lot of planes were flying overhead. There was just one every ten minutes at first but now after two hours there is a chain of planes and helicopters with thick rafts of smoke billowing up into the sky. The local radio says the coast motorway is closed in both directions from Cambrils to L'Hospitalet. They have evacuated some small villages along the road from here. The winds are very fierce and hot. Actually, it's a bit scary. These things always have a habit of reigniting in the middle of the night. I'm going outside to have another look. Arthur is waiting for a walk. Well, good luck...it's 30 in the shade. I know perfectly well he would go no further than the gate right now.