Tuesday, February 5, 2013

catch up


For obvious reasons, Ibiza has pretty calm coasts.  But of course things get stirred up every once in a while when diabolic winds blow nonstop for 24 hours.  We went to go check on the boathouse to make sure all was in order.  They are pretty shanty as it is, the boathouses you can find in nearly every cove of the island, but if the water rises too high the boats inside will move off their "grooves" and bounce around inside the house.  This is not good.  Anyway, everything was okay, but the water was really high, and to get to the boathouse we had to risk our LIVES running across the platforms in hopes a giant wave wouldn't swallow us, which it almost did.


Then we went for a walk and saw this graffiti. 


Then this happened.


These are quail eggs that a friend gave us from her quails? I guess they're really not that big of a deal but I was totally charmed.


Went running with cousin Sandra, body hurt for a week, never running again.


We went searching for fossils.  We found a few, which we broke trying to remove from the cliff. 


Lucas decided he wanted to retrofit his computer by covering it in wood.  The wood panel has glue on the back, and for the glue to activate, it needs heat.  Here is he blowdrying it..


And here he is ironing it.


I think this might be the moment right before finding out if the screen still worked...


Which it did!


And a few days later, with a touch of paint and shine..


Voila! 


We went to Santa Ines to see the almond trees in bloom.  There are hundreds of them in this part of the island, and altogether they give the impression of snowy fields..


We were a little early but they were lovely nonetheless.


This was from a while ago...the great calçot feast, which doesn't look so much like a feast in this picture.  Calçots are kind of like baby onions, and every year around January they are prepared on the grill and eaten with a tomato-garlic-almond sauce called salsa de romesco.  This is the type of sauce that you can dip a muddy boot in and still enjoy, it's that good.  So, I found you a recipe.  Literally, eat with bread, meat, fish, anything.


Here we have a beautiful spread where you can see what the romesco looks like.  I probably didn't post anything earlier about the calçutada because these pictures, taken towards the end of the meal with the iphone of the saucy 70 year old sitting next to me, did not come out very nice. In any case, a quick recap if I felt like doing one would include, among other things, nearly 20 people of all ages, enormous piles of grilled calçots, and flowing wine over the course of seven hours. 


More squid!!  After weeks of unbearable wind thus impossible fishing, a record number were caught--15.


Prepping the squid for their fate.


It's an art that requires substantial skill.  Removing the valuable sack of squid tint is quite tricky. 


And what is this!? A feather! INSIDE the squid!! Well, it's called a pen, but looks like a clear plastic feather, and holds together the body.  Also tricky to remove.


Siiiiigh.  We're in Madrid now.