Sunny Sunday afternoon

11 November is taken very seriously in France, not surprisingly given the carnage in two world wars, so it feels a bit odd to be in a European country where this date has no particular significance, since Spain was a bystander in both those wars -- although the Spanish certainly suffered for other reasons in the 20th century.

Today was a gloriously sunny day. After another small glitch (I forgot to buy any butter yesterday, despite the fact that it was on my shopping list), I made two Christmas cakes according to S's mum's recipe, which is basically lots of brandy-soaked fruit stuck together with a bit of cake mixture. They spent 5 hours in the oven -- I wonder if the temperature gauge is quite accurate, since after the first hour I stuck my hand in the oven and it was barely warm, so I turned it up.

While they were baking, we went out for a walk by the sea, driving down to Sa Tuna and walking over to Aiguafreda. I'm sorry, but Sa Tuna really does look like this on a November afternoon; I didn't fiddle with any colours, just lightened the shadows a bit. Everything is closed for the season now; I'm pretty sure no-one lives here all the year round.

The sea was surprisingly rough, given that it was not windy. We saw a cormorant (I think) repeatedly diving in the bay, but since I'm not Chamaeleo, my photos of it were hopeless. We got back to the car with a bagful of pine cones, which will keep us in firelighters for a few evenings. Back at home the house was warm and beautifully scented with Christmas cake :)