Oh, how hot..? *

Slow, slow, slow - that just about sums up how today is going, since our return from Spain late on Saturday. Despite having mental plans of things to do in the garden (while the rain holds off) and/or the flat (I have had some more pictures framed, so there's some rearranging to do to accommodate them before we run out of wall!), all I've really managed is to get some washing done.

Hey ho. I haven't forgotten, however, despite still being on holiday all this week, that it is a Tacky Music Monday - and with that in mind...

...why have just one Spanish diva to cheer us up, when you can have three?!

Lola Flores, Carmen Sevilla, Paquita Rico - Ay que Calor

¡Olé!

Have a good week, dear reader.

[* Ay que Calor = "Oh, how hot" in Spanish]

Her name was Lola

Just two weeks to go, and we will be in Spain...

How opportune it is that today marks the centenary of the birth of one of Andalusia's greatest purveyors of the Flamenco tradition, "La Faraona" Señorita Lola Flores!

Here, by way of a tribute, is a mere sample of the great lady's repertoire...

Lola Flores - Ojalá que te vaya bonito

Lola Flores y Familia Flores - Pan y Chocolate

Lola Flores - La Zarzamora

Lola Flores - Mi Alegre Sombrero

¡Ella es maravillosa!

María Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz (21st January 1923 – 16th May 1995)

[click any pic to embiggen]

We want a balcón de la sol!

After the complete madness of Saturday's Eurovision party, I was hoping for a sunny Sunday to relax and potter in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, but no - the weather changed to showery, humid greyness, and it's the same today.

How appropriate. "Greyness" is generally my Monday mood, anyhow. At least I have only one more week of toil in work to go, as we jet off again to Spain on Saturday. Whoo-hoo!

On this Tacky Music Monday, what better way to start the countdown to a much-needed holiday than with a touch of vintage Spanish campery, courtesy of Señorita Lola Flores?!

Lola Flores - Tu abuela Carlota [El Balcón de la Luna, 1962]

¡Que tengas una buena semana, querida lectora!

Desde el fondo de mi alma

Me, Madam Arcati and Baby Steve on one of our previous sojourns to Andalusia.

Ah, Flamenco - one of the most distinctive, yet undefinable in origin, folk music forms in the world. Its roots are said to be in a meld of the myriad musical types prevalent under the long reign of the Ummayyads and other rulers of Arabic al-Andalus, including Moorish, Jewish, native Iberian and Romany influences. It managed to survive the fanaticism of the Reconquista, the Inquisition, the economic decline of the Spanish Empire, Napoleon and Franco, and en route developed its musical accompaniment from Gypsy violins and Arab oud-style instruments such as the bandurria, to the more recognisable Spanish guitar in the modern era. With its unmistakeable cante gitano vocal style, Flamenco became wildly popular in the 19th century with the rise of cafés cantante, with their fare of music, dancing and tapas - many of which survive today.

Facts:

• The oldest written record of the word "Flamenco" to describe the musical genre dates to 1774, but it is probably much older than that.
• There are possibly hundreds of regional and stylistic variations, including Fandango, Seguiriyas, Malagueñas, Zapateado, Farruca and Rondeña.
• The recognisable frilly spotted dresses associated with Flamenco today are derived from a style of dress worn for the annual Feria in Seville.
• Such is its international appeal, in Japan there are more Flamenco academies today than there are in Spain.

And, after that little potted history lesson, and continuing our countdown to our own trip to al-Andalus on Saturday, we really need to hand over to one of the unavowed mistresses of the art - put your hands together and do that rhythmic handclap for Señorita Lola Flores!!

Lola Flores - Ojalá que te vaya bonito

I've been trying for years to do "that thing" with a tasselled scarf.

Bread and chocolate

It's bloody freezing out there - winter has arrived, it seems, just in time for us to return to the office. Groan.

Never mind, eh? It's only three weeks on Saturday till we jet off for our annual pilgrimage to Spain - and in keeping with that thought on this Tacky Music Monday, who better than today's birthday girl Señorita Lola Flores to warm us up a bit?

And she's brought her whole family along, too!

Lola Flores y Familia Flores - Pan y Chocolate

Have a good week, folks.

Fuchsias and Flamenco, RIP

MUD! He offered to help, but then he discovered the booze stash.

It's been pissing with rain all weekend, yet, this being the last weekend before our move, we were out there all day yesterday and I will be out there again today - digging out the (swamp-like, muddy) extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, potting-up the plants we are going to take and throwing out those we are not. The entire Fuchsia collection is binned already [sniff, sniff]; however just about every one of our specimens was eventually ravaged by the dreaded gall mite and would likely still be carrying the bugs, so we decided that replacing them all would be a better option. Our favourite specialist nursery has thousands of cuttings at only about 80p each, and most of them came from there originally so it will be easy to re-stock (and Fuchsias are remarkably quick-growing, so we should be swathed in blooms by August)...

The garden at Dolores Delargo Towers #4 is mainly paved, so container gardening is once again our future. Hence the reason why we cannot accommodate much of our current stock of herbaceous plants, and many (such as Red-Hot Pokers, Delphiniums, Knautia, the poppy, some Dahlias, Centaurea, Fennel, some Montbretia and Geums) are either going to the boys in Essex or straight into bin bags. Sad, but the only practical solution.



However, through the gloom, the mud, the aching muscles - and the continued process of bagging, boxing and cleaning indoors too - we have the prospect of our regular week in the sunshine of Andalusia to look forward to. And it would have been the 95th birthday today of the magnificent "La Faraona" Lola Flores, which is a perfect pretext to play one of her melodramatic Flamenco numbers to cheer ourselves up (as if we ever needed an excuse)!

Lola Flores - La Zarzamora

We fully intend to go out of an evening dressed like that when we're there.

---

Stop Press: [12.30pm] Now, to add insult to injury, it is SNOWING! I've had to stop digging because it's getting too slippery, and take a tea break...

Hats off!

Gratuitous photo of a shirtless Tom Daley; I doubt we'll see him on our holiday.

It's the start of another week, dear friends, but a foreshortened one for us - for this Thursday we jet off to Spain (again), this time to the previously unexplored delights of Sitges, near Barcelona, for a celebration of our friend Joe's 50th. By repute this resort is the gayest-of-the-gay resorts, so we are looking forward to it immensely, as one would...

None of this takes away from the fact that it is still a Tacky Music Monday - when we all need something vivacious to wake us up and get our arses in gear for the delights of the office. There are few quite as vivacious [nay, shouty] as Señorita Lola Flores - here singing a song to her hat(!), Mi Alegre Sombrero...

Lola Flores - Mi Alegre Sombrero

Have a great week, peeps!