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The Wild Asparagus Hunters are Out and About

It´s that time of year. Cars parked in odd places, the solitary person - usually a man, popping up above a bank or from behind an olive tree. The hunters of the wild aparagus are here. The plentiful rain scattered with a day or two of sunshine has brought them out in droves. Some have their route, others instinctively know where to go. They appear, walking back to their cars, with a huge bundle of foot long green spears of asparagus. And off they go, probably not to be seen for another year - or another week if the rain continues. No matter how hard the shoots try and hide the older men hunt them down with stick in hand, to fob off the spiky old growth, and uncover the tender new stems of wild asparagus. Everyone has their favourite way of cooking them but the most common seems to be in a Tortilla - the thick Spanish potato omelette to which you can add anything that comes to hand - or is hunted down. My one or two shorter stem finds don´t come close to the experienced hunters catch. I...

Guadix Renaissance Cathedral

Catedral Santa Maria de la Encarnación is the large Renaissance cathedral in the heart of Guadix, which was considered the beginning of Christianity in Spain after many people became converts after a miracle performed by St. Torcuato.


You could easily think this is two different cathedrals with the front being quite plain, take a walk around the side and it´s over the top.



Begun in 1510 on the site of a mosque it wasn´t completed until 1796, but the majority of the work was done in 1549 by Diego de Siloë who used the cathedrals in Malaga and Granada for inspiration.


The hugely monumental facade, in complete contrast to the front contains some baroque and earlly classical elements remodelled by Vicente de Acero in the 18th century who was the architect of Cadiz Cathedral.






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