No More Bullfights In Felanitx?

It would appear that the once-a-year bullfights in Felanitx, on the occasion of the annual Sant Agustí festivities, will not be happening this year, or possibly ever again.

The Felanitx Macarena or Plaza de Toros is an archaic bullring dating from 1914. The 95-year-old installations may have been modernised once, perhaps fifty years ago, but frankly, the whole setup does not seem to be up to scratch. Whilst the ring is a photographer’s dream scenario in terms of it being like a time capsule, and an historian’s delight as an insight as to how mankind lived some fifty or a hundred years ago in this Mallorcan town, contemporary safety standards seem to be lacking in a big way in Felanitx’s coliseo, especially when the combination of blood sports with a consumption of large amounts of alcohol evokes concerns for health and safety.

It appears that the Consell de Mallorca imposed some severe safety measures upon the organizers of the corridas in Felanitx, a company called Grupo Balañà. The licence to hold this year’s event on August 28th has been withheld by the Island Council pending the implementation of the requested improvements. The proprietors have asked the Felanitx townhall for a contribution towards the hefty sum needed to implant the necessary safety means. The batle of Felanitx (the mayor) has declined any extra help, citing La Crisis. The citizens of Felanitx, according to him, have more pressing woes at these times of rising unemployment than bullfights. He does not want to be seen as wasting taxpayers’ money on an event that occurs for only one day every year, and for only two hours at that.

Seeing it this way, the financial meltdown may have some positive side effects, after all. The young bulls will rejoice, and the Plataforma Antitaurina de Felanitx must be delighted. Let’s see what the citizens of Felanitx will say. Many Felanitxers seem to be sadened by the news, in particular, the Cosos and other penyas.

The photo was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Spain. The date: August 28th, 2008. The time was 13:14:25.

An Oasis of Peace And Quiet

One of the palatial houses on Carrer Sant Miquel in Palma’s old town affords the most beautiful and peaceful little garden setting. This is an oasis of peace and quiet if ever you need a rest from stressful shopping, especially now during the Summer rebaixes.

I can’t tell you the whereabouts in any more detail because I don’t expect that the garden is really intended for public use. But the mansion comes under the name of Cal Comte de San Simón and dates from 1854. If you should be so inclined and did some research of your own and found this small garden, it would be hard to construe that I had sent you there, or would it?

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 16th, 2009. The time was 13:10:55.

Hibiscus, the Chinese Rose

One of the nicest flowers that I know has to be the Hibiscus. The plant grows as a bush or as a small evergreen tree. There are some 200 varieties known of the Hibiscus; the plant growing here in Mallorca is the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The magnificent flowers are up to 15 cm in diameter with colours ranging from pink to white, and from yellow to red.

The Spanish call this plant Rosa de China (Chinese Rose), whilst the Mallorcans call it Hibiscus de Xina. The plant is in full bloom now; flowers are out from April through to September. If you own a Mediterranean garden, the Hibiscus is a must, even though it is not native here but hails from East Asia.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 7th, 2009. The time was 12:25:41.

No More Press Kiosks In Palma

The quioscos de prensa in Mallorca’s capital city Palma have disappeared.

Actually, the press kiosks are still there, but they have been closed down. There were about fifteen newspaper stalls in Palma de Mallorca during the last fifteen or twenty years, but that number dwindled to about seven or eight over the years. At the beginning of this year, there were only five kiosks left. Two weeks ago at the end of June, these remaining press stands were closed, abandoned, shut down for good.

I used to be a regular client myself, in the early years. I bought at the kiosk in the Passeig des Born quite frequently to get my shot of international papers and news magazines that I thought I could not live without. But in recent years, probably brought on by me feeding my need for information more and more from the Internet, I found that I bought less and fewer periodicos in Palma. The quiosco de prensa opposite Bar Bosch in the Born disappeared two or three years ago. I missed it being there but I had already become a rather infrequent customer.

Now all the other kiosks have gone too. I understand that the business just was not profitable enough any longer.

The Palma city council will now decide what to do. They may try and find a new taker for the concession, or they may find a different use for the still existing kiosks. We shall have to wait and see. But it may be the end of an era.

There are newsagents in Palma in regular shops. One can still buy newspapers. But it is not the same, and not like it used to be.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 3rd, 2009. The time was 13:37:28.

The Churches Of Petra

I’m always amazed when small Mallorcan pueblos pride themselves of more than one Catholic church. Petra for instance has two very formidable churches, the església de Sant Bernardí de Sena as well as the església de Sant Pere. In addition to these two, Petra also houses the convent of Sant Francesc d’Asís and the Santuari de la Mare de Déu de Bonany, on the outskirts of the village.

The church shown here seems to be the main one really; it is the església parroquial de Sant Pere which dates back to the 16th century. The town’s hero, the venerable Fray Junípero Serra (Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer), was baptized in this very church on December 24th, 1713. Some 36 years later, the Franciscan monk Serra embarked on his journey to New Spain (today’s Mexico) and later, in 1769, from there to California, where he set up a string of missionary stations. The rest is history (you can ask Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Petra, a village of some 2,500 inhabitants, also sports the island’s smallest hotel, affording but three bedrooms (Hotel Sa Plaça).

The photo was taken in Petra, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 27th, 2009. The time was 13:50:32.

Drystone Walls

There must be hundreds of kilometers of drystone walls on the island of Mallorca. The technique of drystone building uses nothing but the stone and the tools to hammer and chisel the stones into the desired shape; mortar or cement are not used.

In Mallorca’s flat areas there are marges or parets (drystone walls) to enclose fields in the countryside whilst in the mountain areas there are marjades to support bancales (terraces). Some of the terraced banks along the slopes of the Tramuntana mountains, such as the postcard motif ones in Banyalbufar, Sóller and Fornalutx or those in nearby Caimari, were built between the 13th and the 15th century. Some experts even claim that it was in fact the Moorish population that started the practice of terracing fields on sloped mountain terrains. Who knows? One thing is for sure: some of the old drystone walls that we encounter today in Mallorca are age old, going back hundreds of years. That’s just amazing, don’t you think?

Mallorca would not be what it is and the Mallorcan landscape would not look the way it does were it not for the walls made of pedra en sec just about everywhere.

Sadly, experts in the trade of building drystone walls (margers) are now almost extinct here on the island. The Consell de Mallorca has to be applauded for providing workshops and training facilities in drystone wall building. Later this year (October 23rd – 25th) the Consell de Mallorca will organize a Trobada de Pedra en Sec in Palma. You could already start practicing your Mallorquín.

The photo was taken near Can Picafort, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: April 14th, 2009. The time was 16:57:43.

Dried Apricots From Porreres

Porreres is one of my favourite pueblos on the island. Around this time of the year Porreres is in the news because of its apricot harvest. In the past, the cultivation of apricots has brought wealth and affluence to this little market town. Nowadays apricots take a lesser role in the village’s fortunes but even today, no other community in Mallorca produces more apricots than Porreres, be that in its fresh shape or in its dried state. This year some 100 tons of the fruit are expected to be harvested, here.

The day before yesterday I went by bus from Palma to Felanitx. Just as we were about to pass through Porreres I spotted from the corner of my eye a motive for a very nice photograph of masses of bright golden apricots being dried under the Mediterranean sun.

With much anticipation for a nice photo and for an interesting story, I went back there yesterday around lunchtime. Needless to say that the moment had gone and that the photograph that I had perceived was not there any longer. I had missed my chance. In the photo (above) you see a poor substitute of what I had envisaged. Oh well.

Anyway, a Mostra d’Albercoc was celebrated in Porreres on occasion of Sant Joan a week ago. Mari Carmén Mesquida won First Prize in the category of Apricot jam, whilst Maria Miró won First Prize in the category of Apricot icecream. Enhorabuena.

I have heard that years ago Porreres was also known to distill apricots and other fruits into clear spirits. This practice seems to be outlawed now, but I wonder. I do know though that Can Parrí in Porreres sells excellent dried apricots covered in dark chocolate. Divine. You should try some.

The photo was taken near Porreres, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 4th, 2009. The time was 13:28:12. Thanks are due to Juana Maria Cerdà, the owner of the finca where I took my photo. Moltes gràcies.

The Writing on the Wall

On one of your shopping excursions in Palma’s old town you may have noticed some small graffiti doodles over the last year or so, such as in Carrer Sant Feliu, Carrer Montenegro and the whole Sa Llotja district. Some of these graffiti drawings are relating the image of an insect to the word ‘god’, or the image of a four-legged animal to the word ’spacesheep’. In case you should be interested, I can reveal the name of the artist: Albert Pinya.

It is indeed an artist who created the very precisely executed graffiti images, or so opines his gallery representative for Spain, Ferran Cano (below on the left; the artist can be seen on the right). Albert Pinya was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1985, but now lives and works in Berlin (Germany).

For those of you interested in some of Pinya’s gallery work (acrylic on canvas), here is one painting called ‘Majorca’. The artist has successfully shown his work in Milan and Turin (Italy), Chicago and New York (USA), Antwerp (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Basel (Switzerland), Barcelona and Caceres (Spain). This is an artist we may well hear more of.

The photo (top) was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: May 16th, 2009. The time was 13:49:22. The photo (centre) was taken from the Internet courtesy of Diario de Mallorca. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Gómezdelacuesta Blog. Muchas gracias.

Cool Mallorcan Persianas

Newcomers to and visitors of Mallorca are often amazed about an initial impression that Mallorcan villages seem closed off and shut down. All the houses have their window shutters closed, as if uninhabited. But first impressions often are completely off the mark; sometimes the opposite is true. All the seemingly closed off and abandoned houses are very actively lived in and are in full use. Persianas (window shutters) are closed because they provide a function. They are akin to an archaic form of air conditioning. Persianas keep the houses cool. In the current heatwave – yesterday some places in Mallorca’s interior recorded temperatures of up to 37° C – such a cooling aid is rather indispensable.

The invention of persianas must be one of the greatest ingenuities that the Spanish mind has ever created. Which of course is not quite correct. If my sense for the etymology of words is correct the word persiana suggests that these wooden blinds or shutters were first invented by the ancient Persian geniuses.

Whatever. There can be no doubt that persiana shutters are a godsend.

To understand how persianas work one has to know them. Persiana shutters not only keep the light out but they also filter the light and partially let light in. From the exterior persiana shutters appear as if impenetrable, but from the interior one realizes that vision is still possible. One can see out without being seen. With the filtering of light the heat stays out as well. Persianas are probably the best way to keep a house cool – provided one keeps them shut.

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 2nd, 2009. The time was 19:02:33.

The Chicken And The Egg Question

Which one came first – the chicken or the egg? That’s the question.

But in our day and age the real question seems to be: where do the eggs come from? Most of us would seem to buy eggs in the supermarket, along with all the other packaged food, with the eggs quite possibly all from hens reared in batteries.

How many of us can still see real eggs being laid by real chicken on a real farm in real life?

For those of you who have not searched for their own eggs on the farmyard, or who do not have a friendly neighbour who still has some hens: this is what a clutch of Mallorcan eggs looks like. A rather delightful sight.

But there is a secret. If you are not – or if your friendly neighbour isn’t – quick on the hoof, chances are that the eggs found are already being sat on and some little chicks might already be in the making. It was the case in this instance. I must have inadvertently scared the breeding hen away from her nest without realizing it. Sure enough, when I went back the next day I saw a hen brooding on top of this very clutch of eggs. Also a pleasant sight. The incubation time amounts to 21 days but with the heat of a hot Mallorcan Summer, a day or two shorter would seem plausible.

The photos were taken near Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The dates: June 30th and July 1st, 2009. The time was 13:58:32 and 18:18:57, respectively.