Join in the celebrations

Forty years has passed since the Spanish Constitution was first published and Bigastro wants to commemorate this moment.

Events are planned to take place on the 5th and 6th of December.

Another weekend of entertainment

As you will recall, the Union Musical de Bigastro is celebrating it centennial this year and so the concert on Saturday promises to be something special.

Pascual Segura has put together a 100 page book which documents the history of the Society which I hope to obtain a copy of.

The sad state of affairs

Looking at pictures of the flood waters of the Segura, there are numerous plastic bottles and other items of debris floating in the river.

Where will all this plastic end up? In the sea as it floats down to the estuary at Guardamar.

Window dressing

Location is everything

This table illustrates the differences between different locations in the Vega Baja.

There are only a few kilometres between Torrevieja and Guardamar but one is at the top of the table and the other the bottom.

NB 104,8 l/m2 is equivalent to 4.13 inches of rain and 12,4 equals 0.49 inches.

In Britain, they talk about the amount of rain in inches. It is calculated by measuring the depth of water accumulated independent of  the area. 

In Spain, we talk about the number of litres accumulated in a square metre which is of course different.

So much water, where does it come from?

 I hardly need to tell you, we are in a spell of heavy rainfall AGAIN!

When I woke at about 6am, I could hear the rain outside.

When I later got up and looked out the window, the pool was full to the brim.

In the picture below you can see the culprit, that heavy band of cloud that is passing over the southern coast

We know from past episodes that intense rain is often very localised and whilst we may be deluged, down the road it could be almost dry.

There are videos on Facebook today showing flooded roads in Torrevieja so we can assume that the coast got the brunt of the heaviest downfalls. In fact, Torrevieja is described as "in chaos" with roads and schools closed.

That is a lot of water

The Segura after the rain

Santa Cecilia

The Last Supper

Following the opening of the classroom, we were treated to an enthralling dance spectacular.

Inaugurating a lecture room for the University

Last night, representatives from the University at Alicante and the lady mayor signed an agreement to create a lecture room for the university.

In my photo there are the representatives from the University along with the lady mayor and the councillor for fiestas.

I was unlucky

The rain we were promised came in the early hours of the morning.

I woke to go to the toilet and could hear distant thunder. Then I heard the rain outside the bedroom. The thunder got closer and the rain increased in intensity. Eventually, it calmed down and I was able to get back to sleep.

In the meantime, Pam just slept through it!!

Looking at the statistics for Orihuela it seems that 25mm or rain fell between about 5:30 and 6:30am. That must have been the time I woke up. 

The map shows that the whole of the coast is on alert for rain with Valencia on red alert. 

My gotcha

Here is Fonta at the event on Sunday, snapping away at the audience.

Note to Fonta, you need to bounce that flash upwards to avoid nasty shadows - especially in portrait mode. I had a fair bit of work to remove the shadow on the wall on my left in your photo.

He got me

Often, when Fonta and I are taking pictures at an event, we capture a quick shot of each other. We try to do it without being noticed.

Fonta certainly succeeded here, I had no idea he'd taken this until I saw it in his Facebook album.

Gender violence

Complete the weekend

So, Friday we are invited to the opening of the new classroom followed by a dance spectacular, Saturday there is the showing of the DVD that has been made collecting accounts from the senior citizens of the town and now we have a choral concert on Sunday.

Speaking about the old days

The Town Hall has produced a compilation of anecdotes from some of the oldest members of the community. In the DVD, the neighbours talk about the food they prepared, the musical tradition, the games they played etc etc.

The end result of this project will be screened this Saturday at 6pm.

Part one

The first part of my video about Bigastro, made using my drone, is live on YouTube.

I now need to move on to grabbing shots of the town and video of the market garden so I can complete the second part.

You can view the first part using this link. It includes shots of La Pedrera and Villas Andrea.

Honoured for his work

In a delightful ceremony yesterday, Pascual Segura was named as the official historian to the town.

My first contact with Pascual was when he was producing a blog about the history of the town. Soon after he launched a page on Facebook with old photos that people supplied him with.

As a musician in the band, Pascual became involved in sorting out the archives of the Musical Society to ensure that they were properly preserved for generations to come.

As part of his website project, Pascual decided to interview people in the town that he considered interesting. Thus I became the second person to feature on his website.  I had already supplied Pascual with thousands of photos of the band which he described as the archive for the future.

His next project was to investigate the scientist, Thomas Villanova. After an enormous amount of research, Pascual was able to present an illustrated talk about the bigastrense. He was also able to write a book which was published with assistance from the Province.

His latest research about the Auroros led to a further pamphlet which details the history of this tradition in the town.

At the same time, Pascual has produced articles about aspects of the town's history e.g. the time when it was bombed during the Civil War.

In my photos, Pascual being presented with his certificate from the town and then being congratulated by the lady mayor on receiving a medal to mark his entry into the Royal Association of Historians.

One to watch

We'd recommend that, those of you who have UK TV, watch Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" if you haven't already done so.

As a film in its own right it is compelling but as a documentary about conditions during the 1st World War, it is a must.

Jackson used old black and white archive footage which was then colourised, retouched and stabilised before being dubbed with a soundtrack of banter, explosions and screams from the men who fought for Britain between 1914 and 1918.

BBC 2 11th November.

New Year's Eve

As you know, New Year's Eve is the more important occasion during the Festive Season in Spain.

Camping La Pedrera are putting on a special meal which you can see from this menu.

A short video about us

A few weeks ago, one of our young Spanish friends, Eva Moya Melgarejo, asked if she could come to our house and interview us in English.

Eva is studying to be a video journalist and this was to be one of her projects 

Eva came armed with her camera and a sound recorder and proceeded to ask the questions she had prepared. At first she was a little nervous but soon became confident enough to appear professional.

Her interview complete, Eva then had to edit the footage to produce a final video and here it is.

We think Eva did a fantastic job and we were delighted to help her.

14 years and counitng

Yesterday was the anniversary of our arrival in Bigastro. We'd booked flights to Spain on many occasions before but that day, fourteen years ago,  was different because our flights were one way.

Everything was set, we visited the Bureau that was handling the purchase and signed the agreement for the final payment to be transferred to the builders. Then it was just a matter of waiting a few days for all our belongings to arrive in two large vans.

Those first weeks were busy as we settled into our new house and started the process of creating a home. There was also a great deal of paperwork to sort out including NIE numbers, Spanish wills etc etc.

At first, we felt like strangers in not just a new town but a new country. There was a lot to learn. Naturally, we bonded first with our British neighbours and took part in the events that they were organising.

However we were determined not just to be "Brits living in the sun", we wanted  to learn the language as best we could and get involved in the culture of the town. My interest in photography helped a great deal as the pictures I took became noticed by the Town Hall.

Over the years we have learnt more and more about the town and its cultural history. We have attended concerts and got to know some of the musicians. We have also attended many other events and learnt of their importance. Our growing interest attracted the attention of the local council, many of the local associations and our Spanish neighbours who now refer to us as bigastrense.

Our Spanish neighbours seemed to like our willingness to become involved and have been very supportive of us. It could have been different, they could have  regarded us as intrusive but no, they have welcomed us with open arms.

2017 was made a special year for us when the lady Mayor, via the Town Hall, asked us to be Third Age King and Queen at the annual fiesta. The warm reception we received during that special week is something that we will always remember.

So after fourteen years, do we have any regrets? None whatsoever. For Pam and I, it has proved to be the perfect place to retire to. Bigastro has become  the place where we want to be.

We look forward to many more years in our happy home.

Congratulations, well deserved

When the position was first announced, we knew that there was only one person for the post. Pascual is a professional archivist and author of two books relating to the history of the town.

Bigastro under siege

Pascual Segura gives us another fascinating glimpse into the history of our town

It was in the year 1936 when the military uprising took place that unleashed one of the greatest misfortunes in the recent history of our country: the Spanish Civil War.

Battle after battle, the nationalist rebellion was taking territories resulting in a Spain divided into two camps: the national and the republican. Our region was surrounded inside the republican side, so in our province, and therefore in Bigastro, the events that took place between 1936 and 1939 were subject to the Republican regime.

Although Bigastro was not directly involved in the conflict, it did effect the town and made for some dramatic changes.

One of the most striking changes was the mayor's decision to convert the parish church of Our Lady of Bethlehem into a supply warehouse, the parish house into a hospital and refugee house, and the old asylum became a house-barracks for the security and assault guards.

One of the most notable events took place in April 1938, when the town of Bigastro was bombed by the national side. On May 25 of the same year, Alicante was bombed by an Italian squadron based in Mallorca, causing 300 deaths. Three months later, 19 people died when Torrevieja was also bombed by an Italian squadron. 1938 became a year of war, tragedy and bombing in our province, but what about Bigastro? Alicante was a primordial city for the republican resistance, and Torrevieja could be considered an enemy port, but why bomb Bigastro? What was special about Bigastro that drew the attention of the national side?

It happened in April 1938, between two and three in the morning, when a squadron of the aviation of the national side dropped one of its bombs on the old yesera located in Bigastro on the right side of the entrance to the municipality from Orihuela . The yesera was a factory in which gypsum was produced in  a kiln of gigantic dimensions. The kiln was partially buried to take advantage of the unevenness of the terrain. It was built with walls more than half a metre thick and around 3 metres high. The furnace was loaded with aljez  which was cooked for periods of 24 hours.  The kiln therefore had to be constantly supplied with fuel.

During the early morning, the national squadron flew over our region when one of the pilots observed the whitish cloud that rose from the yesera. Confusing this one with a great factory of arms or supplies of the republican side, he dropped a bomb with the purpose of destroying it and disabling the enemy forces. The bomb descended in the direction of the yesera and landed in a well belonging to a bigastrense family known locally as "the sardines".  The explosion was of such magnitude that it woke up the neighbours of the town, spreading panic amongst them.

Mariano López, a nonagenarian bigastrense who still lives a few metres from the old yesera, remembers it well. Hearing the explosion, he jumped out of bed and ran towards the place where the disaster had occurred.

When he arrived, Mariano saw a considerable crater in the place that  the well occupied, which was totally destroyed. Rocks and debris were scattered several metres from the site.
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The reaction from the City Council was rapid. The secretary, Juan Galvez, wrote in the municipal records that the mayor, Mr. José Aureliano Díaz, ordered that "not a single electric lamp should be lit in the town, to avoid serving as a guide to factional aviation. "
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On Sunday, April 4, 1937, the Bigastrense mayor ordered the painting of the glass in the street lighting, so that the lights were dimmer and thus prevent the lamps from guiding the airplanes of the national side and that bombed Bigastro. First the lamps were painted, then they were turned off. 

These were not the only decisions taken in favour of the dominant side in our region. D. José Aureliano Díaz also  allocated a percentage of the municipal budget to help the Republican army, in addition to printing brochures in support of the republican aviation battalions. These were later distributed by the people to encourage young bigastrenses to enlist in these companies.

On Sunday May 22, 1938 he made a speech to the neighbors, gathered in the then-named Plaza de la República -current plaza of the Constitution- saying: "All united with our faith, enthusiasm and antifascist spirit fight for Spain to crush national and foreign fascism with the triumph of our glorious weapons, which are supported by an insurmountable wall of anti-fascist breasts. "

Horror strikes the town

The parade for Halloween last night clearly fuelled the imagination of the townsfolk who came out in some very imaginative costumes. 

The bottom picture is of our new neighbours.

You may recognise the father as a member of the local police force.