The last week of September is the first week of autumn. The signs are varied: perhaps the first rain comes after a bone-dry summer; my son returns to his university in England; the pace of work at the office ramps up, but on a more pleasant note, the monthly wine tastings also re-start.
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Wednesday night, our son offered to cook for us. After living on his own for four years, and especially during the past year when he has watched what he eats because of his bodybuillding, he has become quite good at cooking. Here he is serving risotto and tuna steaks:
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Risotto and tuna steak:
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All week we have been watching a big autumn storm that had been lashing the northwest of Spain with rain and wind. By Thursday, skies were cloudy over Alicante as well, but no rain yet:
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On Thursday at lunchtime we had a small celebration to mark a reorganization in our department. We do such things in our VIP room if it is available. The company that runs our cafeteria puts on wine, tapas and so on, and we stand around, chat and nibble:
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Bea, Pilar and Estefania:
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I do have male colleagues, I just don’t photograph them very often…:
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My son was going back to university Friday morning, so Thursday evening was his last at home this summer. Conveniently, we had the first monthly wine tasting at the office:
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The wines came from a small winery called Carabibas. As indicated by the plates in the background, after the tasting we eat dinner:
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Cristina is one of the volunteers of the wine club, here at work serving the next wine to be tasted to an expectant Robert:
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My son sniffs:
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Friday morning I drove my son to the airport and went to work. By now, the clouds over the Mediterranean showed serious intent, and indeed later in the day we got the first serious downpour of the season. Further south, in Murcia and Andalucía, there was flooding, deaths and widespread destruction; but here in Alicante it was just rain, nothing serious:
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By Saturday morning things had cleared up and I could do my usual 4-5 hours of cycling. I went south, and on the way stopped in the centre of Alicante to photograph this impromptu memorial to an accident victim along one of the main roads:
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In the countryside near Elche. I am fascinated by the tacky stuff people buy for their gardens:
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Playa del Pinet, La Marina south of Santa Pola:
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And the beach in Santa Pola itself. This is in many ways the nicest time of the year. The sea is still warm, the weather is still nice most of the time, but the crowds have disappeared:
Hi Nathan, Great, as always, to see something ogf your family life and life in Spain.
I hope to have some local flower shots on the web soon.
This one on FB is of a nine-year0old with the birthday cake she made for me.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4374111024098&l=dcb19979e1
Cheers, Brian
Comment by Brian Swale — 3 October 2012 @ 12:08