Monday, 4 December - today we should be closed but as this is a big holiday week here in Spain, we are opened. There are two national holidays this week, Constitution Day and something else to do with the Immaculate Conception, which falls on Wednesday and Friday of this week. We had four rooms booked for today but two cancelled this afternoon due to illness; we have rooms booked all week now and the hotel is full for the weekend.
We had to take our road signs down last week because of the possibility of a fine. The local tourist office manager is trying to get rid of the fine for the hotel in the next village and to prevent them from fining us... he was going to speak with the provincial government as they are the ones who would issue the fine. Good luck to him!!
The last weekend was fairly quiet as the one booking we had didn't turn up. There was lots of rain on Saturday so not much trade and yesterday we had only three tables for lunch.
This morning, I came out of the house late as this was supposed to be our day off so we had a lie in instead. I was walking the dogs when a car went by and of course stopped at the hotel. Two Belgian couples wanted some food and it was not even 12.00 yet. So they some jamon (ham) and wine and then Ivan made them some tapas. They were very happy.
One of our cleaning women stopped working for us a few weeks back because she and her husband were taking over the lease on the bar in their village, the next one over from Juzcar, Farajan (pronounced "fa-ra-HAN"). We went over there for some tapas ourselves today.
I've been doing some accounting today and a bit of website work in addition to some marketing. Our artist friend, Maggie Price, sent me an email a couple of days ago with information on possible artists that may be interested in having painting workshops here. I revised my invitation letter asking for their business.... all Americans, amd sent a few out. Hopefully something will come of that. We already have one more workshop booked in September 2007 thanks to Maggie. She sent us one of her friends who also does painting workshops and he booked a week with us. It's late to be getting any more of these in the first half of 2007 but I will continue to try to build more of that kind of business.
The weather has cooled more so lately. That said, this afternoon felt like an early summer day with a mild breeze and bright sunshine all day. The leaves on the chestnuts are turning a burnt color now and falling more rapidly. Around the valley, one can see that the burning has already started; this is an annual event, cleaning up the fincas of leaves and trimming the trees for next season. I was told that this year was not a good season for the chestnuts because there was not enough rain. I guess when there is a significant drought, it takes a couple of years to get things back on track. I thought there was lots of rain this year but because the rain was late and not enough, the chestnut yield was slim. Next year I suppose things should be better.
Anyway, at this time of year and until the spring now, one can see plumes of smoke rising in various locations around the valley on any given day. There are strict rules in place from the Junta de Andalucia on how one can burn, who and when. There must be water not far, one can only start burning from sun rise until about 13.00 hrs and one must obtain permission from your local ayuntamiento (village hall) who will tell you on what dates you can burn and for how long that permission is valid. So everyone awaits their turn and in the meantime, cleans the finca preparing piles of rubbish (leaves mainly) for burning. I suppose the branches are taken for firewood as the houses here do not have central heating(!!)... everyone uses stoves or fireplaces for warmth.
I also finally sent out that invitation to those possible participants for the Jazz Festival I proposed. Yes, a Jazz Festival in Juzcar!! Alfredo, from the local Serrania de Ronda tourist office, is very interested on the idea. I proposed this idea about six months ago and circulated a discussion paper with the various things to be considered. It met with a lot of interest then but I never got around to sending out an invite for the initial meeting to discuss what's actually possible and who would be willing to undertake what. I finally sent out the invite on Friday and am waiting for all to respond.... so far only two have. My idea is a music event here in Juzcar and a couple of other villages, the idea being to raise the profile of the valley. I receivedsome comments back from those that saw the paper and it was already suggested that the event should only be in Juzcar initially as it would be easier to organise. I think it is a good idea if it comes together..... let's see where this gets to in the coming months.
So, this blog format for creating new entries has changed... they eliminated the possiblity for me to preview my new entries and the spell check as well. What are they thinking? I'm not sure how this will look now but I'm going to go ahead and publish it.
