KARETHE LINAAE
Last week I had the opportunity to play a fly on the wall on a film shoot who shall remain nameless in a small Andalucian mountain village that also shall not be named. Having spent most of my work life in the North American film industry, I found it very interesting to observe this European…
The last year we resided in Vancouver, in 2012, I was living vicariously through the sumptuous blogs of two Andalucia-based friends – writer Arpi Shively and French pastry chef and artist Lala Ema de Haro. When the heavy grey BC skies got me down, I escaped into their sinfully delightful epistles from the Spanish South,…
There are few things that bring out peoples nationalism like the World Cup. Soccer is to the Spanish what hockey is to Canadians and cross-country skiing is to Norwegians. Simply BIG! ‘Futbol’ is Spain’s national passion. Furthermore, Spain won the last cup, so expectations are running high and vulnerable victorious egos are at stake… Personally,…
Let me be completely clear, my husband abhors dressing up. In all the years I have known him, I have never seen him as much as paint on a fake moustache. To him, Halloween and carnivals are a waste of time, costumes are plain foolish, and the people within them even more so. But when…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Though it is debated whether it was the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead who first spoke these much-quoted words, it cannot be disputed that they indeed are very true. Little did I…
Artist and non-artists alike are invited to take part in a recycled art competition on May 17th, El día Ronda Limpia in the Palacio de Congresos de Ronda – Convento de Santo Domingo by the world famous Puente Nuevo in Ronda, Andalucía, Spain. Ronda Limpia is a public engagement initiative and volunteer community movement to encourage good environmental…
My mother, bless her heart, has always looked at apartment living with distain. Dad and her enjoyed separate floors in their house, which possibly can account for their long life together. When I would mention that they ought to consider moving into a smaller abode, my mom would look at me in horror and tell…
Spring is here! Well not really, as we have had some rather cold and rainy days lately. But when we went for a hike in the Sierra de Lijar region this Sunday, we witnessed our very first almond blossoms, as well as wild-growing daffodils and a very rare pink orchid, whose Latin name has escaped…
Ronda is spectacular by nature, surrounded by mountains and devoid of big-city smog and pollution. Seen from afar, it is truly pristine. Yet like many Spanish towns, we have a problem with garbage and dog ‘droppings’. Clearly not something a major tourist town would like to be known for, nor wish to admit to, but…
Virgins are a vanishing lot, especially if one is to judge by the lack of native sisters entering the hundreds of convents still in operation on the Iberian continent. (To fill this gap, Spain now actually needs to ‘import’ virgins from Africa, Asia and South America, but that is another story…) Historically and culturally, however,…