Spanish Diary 2010

2010-01-08T01:53:00.001-08:00

16th Jan: First concert of the year was Gli Incogniti playing some rare but beautiful old German music by Buxtehude, Tuder and Bruhms. They had an Argentinian bass with them, Lisandro Abadie, who had excellent diction. Concert was held in the Iglesia de la Caridad which has paintings by the Cuban artist, Wsell Guimbardia.

I am doing many hill walks in the Sierra Minera. I went to see the guns on Monte de las Cenizas - spectacular views. This is quite a popular tourist walk. A different route where I encountered no-one took me to the interesting remains of the El Lirio mine on the Cabezo de Ponce.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142517&id=683331917

29th January: Took my brown belt exam in Kyokushin karate - the most difficult exam so far.

February 5th: we joined in the demonstration against building on Monte Sacro.

Think this will be a regular Friday meeting until the developers stop. I have written a blog on it for the London Review of Books.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/11/fiona-pitt-kethley/five-hills/

11th February: Concert of satirical Carnival music by ArteFactum in the Paraninfo of the University. Some lovely authentic instruments including hurdy-gurdies, cornamuse, etc.

12th February: Demonstrating again...
Across 3 weeks in March I have been taking a course on the influence of Barcelona on Cartagena in Modernist Architecture and design. The lectures have been in MURAM. It has been fascinating. I particularly liked the talk given by the great grandson of Victor Beltri.

In March I took a course in Modernist Architecture at the local modern art museum. I shall be updating my architecture of Cartagena blog now I know a little more.

On 13th March I went to a talk on the culinary uses of wild plants. It was given in Huerto Pio and we ate a wonderful spread of all the dishes made - bladder campion tortilla, mallows with couscous, morcilla de pobre, etc. I was given a bladder campion, an Iberian Savory and some sage. The plants are doing very well.

In the evening of 13th we went to a Haydn concert given by L´Incontro Fortunato in one of the newly-converted University buildings in the former Marineria. Wonderful views of the port.

Ist, 2nd, 3rd April: As usual we ran the swaps stall at the Mineral Fair in La Unión

17th April: Son ran 15 km for the Ruta de la Fortalezas and I walked 50. A gruelling trial past some wonderful scenery and fortifications. I just about managed to finish but took 12 hours 13 minutes.