During summers I wake up earlier. That's a good thing. Some days it gets too hot to go out after mid day, the sun can get strong. Then hang out in the arm chairs in shady corners of the house instead, with all the windows to the north wide open, and the wooden shades pulled down to the south. One can still see out through them.

I read. News, blogs, books, bits and pieces. And I look at pictures. Some I save for later. Some I use in my work. Blogs often irritate me. I seldom follow any. Except my old student Hilla's. Her's was special. She was dying if cancer and reported very honestly about what was happening to her. One day she wrote about how unfair life is, and asked herself why she hadn't taught her sons more about how to deal with that.

We recently had a young woman, succesful, staying here. I checked her blog out. She wrote about what make-up to pack for trips, how yoga makes you healthier, about being proud over taking the bus to Malaga on her own, about the lunches she cooked... Her blog has so many followers that a publishing house had asked her to write a cook book, and actually published it. "They knew it would sell since I have a big audience", she remarked insightfully. 24 years old. She makes a living this way. Good for her.

I just made my own cook book. I don't really cook, but my daughter had asked me to write down some of my 'fast' recipes for her (when I cook I want it to go fast). I made her a book for her birthday. These days one can just put one together sitting in an armchair in a cool corner of the house. If one does it digitally it's easy to just upload it to a site like vistaprint or blurb, and they will print it and sent it out. One copy.

Till sist var det nog ändå dags att tvätta den där marockanska mattan... den ullvävda, som vi köpte för många år sen i Tanger... Jag dammsög den och släpande sen upp  den på terassen. En hink med ljummet vatten, olivtvål, och en mjuk borste. Och upptäckte att det var hur lätt som helst! Blöta, gnida in med tvålen, borsta, igen och igen, bit efter bit, på knä i morgonsolen. Och sen hänga upp över muren och skölja av. Det var i flera timmar sedan. Den är redan nästan snustorr. I morgon ska jag borsta och dammsuga den. Ibland drar man sig alldeles för länge Ofta drar JAG mig alldeles för länge! 

Semana Santa is coming up. Every city in Andalucía is getting ready. In the north it might be quite solemn, but here in Andalucia it is a fiesta. You dress up, you stay up, you eat well and you hang out on the streets with family and friends. It goes on all night long, all next week. One of the most striking, and perhaps most eerie, spectacles of the festival are the Nazarenos in their tall, pointy hats and matching robes with their faces completely covered, apart from their eyes. The sight of hundreds of slow-moving unidentifiable figures in these ghostly, alarming costumes can be a little unsettling, and they are frequently compared to the Ku Klux Klan. One can be forgiven for believing the Ku Klux Klan and the Semana Santa parades were borne of the same idea, since the costumes of both are practically identical. Despite this, there appears to be no connection whatsoever between the two, although the Nazarenos came first. The Ku Klux Klan used their costumes for disguise, for the Christian connotations and perhaps the fact they were usually white had a racial significance. As for why the costumes are used in Semana Santa celebrations, the origins remain a mystery but the purpose is simple – their faces are covered in mourning, and also as a sign of shame for the sins they have committed throughout the year. Somehow, though, they manage to soften the blow for spectators not in the know by the sneakers they wear visible with their costumes and the can of beer and half-smoked Ducado they are often seen carrying – a reminder that Semana Santa is, essentially, simply a fun festival in Andalusía. (I've quoted Think Spain in some of this)

HOW DOES IT SOUND?  a selection (click on the photo)

FOR YEARS, CONTEMPORAY PHOTOGRAPHY have played a substantial role in Spain's avant-garde culture. The sociocultural movement La Movida released a wave of suppressed creativity and tested the boundaries of freedom. Spanish photography is still outstanding.  Today one is truck by the innovative and intense expression of contemporary Spanish photography which reflects the radical development that has taken place in Spain. In just a few decade, a closed society has been transformed into a multifacetted country in which contemporary culture enjoys a strong position (source: Estelle af Malmberg),The photo above is by Cristina Lucas. Below is a small selection of some of Spain's currently active and interesting photographers.

Montserrat Soto, b. 1961, since the beginning of her career Montserrat Soto has focused on the use of photography as a starting point for the exploration of space as a receiver and transmitter of emotions. She is an artist whose work is intimately related to human experience through absence, traces and vestiges.

Javier Vallhonrat: "I think the world holds many secrets, we are very mysterious creatures in a mysterious world, though some endeavors to dream that everything is in wikipedia and in the end we will believe that the reality is that it fits in google.So I like that all the photos that interest me look bad on the internet".

Knowledge, people and culture have always been transported over the sea, enriching & developing.
Once it was the sea that united, not divided, countries and people. From the 8th century BCE the Phoenicians, antiquity’s most accomplished seaman, from what is today’s Lebanon, built settlements and trade posts from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. It made it possible to trade and communicate with different lands and peoples. Monte Testaccio, an ancient dump in Rome, is basically made of amphora, terracotta container that were used to transport olive oil from the Iberian peninsula during the first 250 years of the common era. Andalucian folk music from the mountains of Malaga, Los Verdiales, is said to have originally come from Anatolia by way of ancient Greece and  Rome taken with them or by the Phoencians. Just to give a few examples.
     It has been about 5.3 million years since the Straight of Gibraltar opened up allowing water to flow in. This apparently went rather quickly. It took between a couple months to a couple years to flood the basin. In a few more million years it’s said that the Mediterranean will once again disappear like all other bodies of water on earth.

What is in the Mediterranean?
Bluefin tuna and some 700 other species of fishes, whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles; shipwreck treasures from millennia of trade; coral reefs, wide meadows of seagrasses. However, overfishing and pollution are a constant threat. All 21 bordering countries share the responsibility, but only Spain, up to now, has adopted an IUU-plan to prevent the overexploitation and depletion of Mediterranean fish stocks to unacceptable levels. Read more about what Greenpeace suggests for the future of the sea >

Cutar. photo Micke Berg