too many veg!

14 Thursday Aug 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, homecooking, markets, sevilla

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Coming home from the Bellas Artes Museum yesterday I was hobbling up Calle Baños and spotted Frutas Faustino. Which has been there as long as I can remember. Just up the street there is also a butcher, an abacería and a fishmonger. Totally old school family-run shops that have somehow managed to survive in the centre of the city’s gentrification horror.  Faustino’s isn’t that far from my house, but the markets are closer (Encarnación and Arenal) so I normally go to those for fresh produce. Anyhow, stopped in for a couple of tomatoes and ended up leaving with close to 20€ worth of veg (!!!). And if you know anything about fruit and veg prices here, you know that was a LOT.

What can I say? There was a guy ahead of us pretty much buying up the whole place to be home delivered (yes, you can still do that here and it doesn’t cost extra) so while waiting I kept spotting this and that and the other… by the time it was our turn omg. There was just so much. But that’s fine. Went home and made a late lunch that included mar azul tomato with a side of avocado mashed with lots of lime and cilantro. And all I’ve been thinking about since is what I’m going to do with all the rest of the veg. What a happy dilemma.

art & mercy

13 Wednesday Aug 2025

Posted by in art, culture, sevilla, spain

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The Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) Museum is a 4 minute walk from my house, according to google maps. These days it’s more like a 15 minute painful hobble, but still. IT’S NOT FAR. And I don’t go there nearly often enough. Especially considering that residents get in for free. It’s housed in a stunning ex-convent and is worth going just to see the building. But the collections are also spectacular, and this new one caught my interest.

The Hospital de la Caridad (Charity Hospital), founded in 1663 by Miguel de Mañara, is undergoing quite extensive renovations and so they have moved their art collection over to the museum until work is finished. This means works that were previously hung at various levels, behind the altar, etc inside the church can now be seen in a gallery setting at eye level. These include paintings by Murillo and Valdés Leal and sculptures by Roldán. Wow.

I mean, pretty special just to see these pieces up close, but for me it was the whole theme that moved me as well. Charity and mercy… taking care of those around you. Okay, this was mostly so that you’d end up going to heaven, but still, it’s not a bad message. Look at DEATH down there standing on now totally useless wordly possessions, reminding us that you can’t take it with you.

There were 17 works in all and by the end I could only think of how far we have strayed from caring about our fellow humans. Though maybe it’s always been that way, otherwise why create this whole heaven/hell myth to scare people into behaving with compassion and basic decency? I dunno… getting very tired of the world these days. And am pretty much fed up with people. Not ALL people, obviously (not you guys!) but you know what I mean. Thank god for cats.

I don’t care…

11 Monday Aug 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla, spain

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That’s what I’ve been saying all summer. As in… I don’t care what it costs, I’m not skimping on the AC. So I haven’t been. It goes on around 8am, then there’s a midday 2-3 hour break, either when I go out or if I’m cooking, when it gets shut down. And then back on again late afternoon until bedtime. I have it set at 24-25º but it never gets cooler than about 26.5º (single-pane windows, no insulation) but with the fans on it’s perfectly comfortable. And then just the fans overnight.

Used to be I wouldn’t dream of turning on the AC until after lunch but this year I realised several things. The heat waves started way earlier than usual (every year they start earlier), I can’t do my morning chair workouts when it’s 30º in the apartment, and I’m just too old (and cranky) to keep putting myself through this self-inflicted uncomfortable austerity thang… so fuck it.

Then today I received the electricity bill for July and 😱 😱 😱. Holy fuck, about 50% more than last year. This comes hot on the heels of splurging on a new mattress which I also couldn’t afford but I justified it because I wasn’t forced to move this summer so what I would have spent on movers (which I also couldn’t have afforded) I would spend on a mattress instead. Well it made sense to me!

And now I am justifying having my home at a comfortable temperature because, hey, I’m not going on holiday, not travelling, so all that money I never would have spent anyhow because there’s no fucking way I can afford to go on holiday, I am spending on air conditioning. Reader… I don’t have any extra money for any of this! I just have this imaginary money that I don’t spend that I move around here and there in my mind to justify not living like a fucking pauper. What can I say? It’s complicated. But so far it almost works. Sometimes.