Ronda views

Just as a reminder of Ronda, here's a link to a site which has panoramas of the new bridge etc
Cut and paste:

http://www.ronda.ws/panoramicas360/index.htm

or go to the Related Sites links below on the right...

Misty Morning

After the recent thunderstorms(or tormentas, as they are known here) the whole valley was covered in mist this morning as we drove to Ronda through drifting clouds with glimpses of the river and the mountains. The weather is cooling down now and while there is less heat and sun, it is made up for by the amazing range of effects which, because we are quite high up (540 metres) seem more pronounced.
Check out the link lower down on the right to find out what the weather is like now. It opens a window with a drop down list of villages (municipios) one of which is Jimera.

Poems by Dawn Wood

ANOTHER


Viva! those swimming pool swallows –
that one!
and that one!
and that one!
whose undersides mimic with blushes;


Viva! those webbed bats that softly –
that one –
and that one –
and that one –
spirit themselves from the mountain;


Viva! the days that we worked here –
when the wind and the sun graced our lifetimes –
that one!
and that one!
and that one.



Dawn Wood




ODE TO MALAGA BUS STATION

The girls at the bus stop
are all mascara, napes
and their own reflections.
A man whose eyes swallow
the colour of his T-shirt
is asking about a number 4 bus.
I shrug my shoulders
but he still sits beside me
in the space I made
and we agree, these girls dress
as if life was outside.
The beautiful old trees
are masked by traffic.
I am glad to see his bus arrive.
Any more of this and we
would be in each other’s arms.


Dawn Wood



SHIBBOLETH

She left them a note to walk the dog
and I shouldered her luggage
while the choir who know me best
would dart looks,
fascinated by twinhood.

They would keep it up
even after the obvious –
hairstyle: maybe hers is thinner,
and the glasses she’d worn
since we were eleven

after the German measles
when she’d come out of Belfast
humming hospital radio.
It might be the single, deep breaths
That have left me taller.

She’d never heard our Mag and Nunc
and I couldn’t make her see
till then, the pattern:
call – response –and call again,
or the way the composer

might play around in the setting
of his version or even let it stream,
ears of corn, through his fingers,
ringing true to self
and world without end.


Dawn Wood

In search of Africa...

We went looking for Africa...but it was too hazy. Only a vague outline of the rock of Gibraltar was visible and maybe a hint of the Rif mountains, but only with a poet's imagination.

Normal service resumed

After a night of thunder and lightning, and a few heavy rain showers, this morning we are back to normal. The local landmark, a hill named Martin Gil, someone of whom nobody seems to have any info, is now visible.
True to the pragmatic and sometimes obtuse nature of the Jimeranos, they have a saying regarding the weather which features Martin Gil: If Martin has his hat on, it is going to rain, or may be sunny, or somewhere in between...

CdR 2007

Last week's course was fantastic - once again everyone seemed to enjoy it and get so much out of it. Don did a great job and his efforts were much appreciated both by the participants and us. The walks were a big feature of the week and the weather was great. Of course, as soon as we get back to normal here it rains - we had a brief thunderstorm this evening which was welcome as it cleared the air.
Hopefully, we shall be able to include some more thoughts on the course and if anyone wishes to add comments they would be welcome. I shall try and be more diligent with updating, but...

Burro

There are still some things that haven't changed...

La Jara

The house where the course is being held is called La Jara, which is the name of a flower - cistus or rock rose - and at the moment it is looking good with the entry surrounded by oleanders and the palm trees waving in the breeze which helps to cool the air as it flows throught the trees - August is normally windier than July, and so not so hot.

Don's house

Don stayed in Casa Taramas, where he took the tutorials, chilled, and hopefully did some writing. There is a patio with a lemon tree and swathes of jasmine.

Gregory Awards 2007

Good news for two of our participants from last year, Rachel Curzon and Helen Mort. Both have won Eric Gregory Awards this year, and we managed to get along to see them and hear them read at the awards reading hosted by Roddy Lumsden.
There are 5 awards in total, so 2 CdR out of 5...not bad.
Helen will be joining us in Jimera again this September. Rachel, who won second prize in the 2006 Poetry London Competition, would have if she could have...
See the links for more on Helen and Rachel.

Jimera during the Feria

At the beginning of August we had the annual Feria with four days of partying, and dancing all night. The real reason is a religious one and there are various processions through the streets. The square is full and the village is buzzing. Then at the end of August all the visitors and families head of to the coast or to Madrid or Bilbao or Barcelona and the village sinks into its usual sleepiness once again.

All about our courses

Situated in the breathtaking Serrania de Ronda Mountains, near the historic city of Ronda, the week will be a mixture of group tuition and one-to-one tutorials. It will also include generous space and time for students' own writing. The participants will stay in a large villa on the edge of the village overlooking the mountains. There is a garden with a swimming pool, and inside the house there are lots of nooks and crannies to settle down to write in.

Accommodation is in shared rooms, with 2 sharing or single rooms, for which a supplement will be charged. All meals are included, with high quality food typical of the best eaten locally. Eating will be communal, with buffet breakfast and lunch and participants taking a turn to cook the evening meal for the whole group. Wine is, of course, provided. Dinner will usually be followed by informal evening sessions, including readings.

The area around the village provides the perfect backdrop for writing. A walk will be organised to guide your discovery of the many tranquil spots you may write in. You will be spoilt for choice.

The week, which runs from monday to sunday, will also include a special trip to the literary haven of Ronda. Rainer Maria Rilke fell in love with it: "Nothing in all Spain", he said, "is more surprising than this wild town". If participants wish to make their own trips (this is a simple matter) we can provide information. Nearby is the fabulous Cueva de la Pileta, containing some of the earliest cave paintings in Europe.

The village can be reached by both bus and train. Minibus places will be available on arrival and departure days to pick you up and drop you off at Malaga airport (for flights arriving around 16.00(ish) on the Monday, and checking in after 14.00 Sunday). We can supply further transport details on request for those wishing to fly to Granada, Sevilla, or Jerez.

We will indicate which flights will connect with these pick-ups.
Alternatively a direct bus can be taken from Malaga to Ronda where transport to the village can be arranged. 


Writers on Ronda

And a vulture hung in air
Below the cliffs of Ronda and below him
His hook-winged shadow wavered like despair
Across the chequered vineyards.

Louis Macneice


"... the incomparable phenomenon of this city, set above two massive stones cut with a pick and separated by the narrow and deep gorge of the river. It could be that other city, revealed in dreams. The spectacle of this city is indescribable, and, around it, a wide valley with working fields, holm oaks and olive trees. And finally, revealed in all its strength, the pure mountains rise, making the most admirable range."
"...for all these reasons it was wonderful to have arrived to Ronda, where everything I wish for can be found: a Spanish city fenced in, in a fantastic and magnificent way..."

Rainer María Rilke


He is from Ronda and his name is
Joaquín Peinado
Who else is as fine and serious a painter?
How tall and strict.
Now, if this painter were a bullfighter..!

Rafael Alberti



The art of bullfighting
was a wonder
because it was created together
by Ronda and Seville.
They put two ways into one
with Illo and with Romero,
Seville and Ronda.
From Seville came the wind
from Ronda the fire:
and they met at the bullfight.

José Bergamín




Islam was made from the swords
which desolated the west and the north
and from the loud crash of armies on the land
and one revelation and one discipline
and the destruction of the idols
and the conversion of everything
and the rose and the Sufi wine
and the rhymed prose of the Koran
and rivers that minarets recite
and the infinite language of the sand
and that other language, algebra
and that long garden, the thousand and one nights
and men talking about Aristotel
and dynasties whose names are now dust
and Tamerlane and Omar, whom they destroyed.
it is here, in Ronda
in the delicate half-light of the blind
a concave silence of courtyards
an idleness of jasmine
and a slight murmur of water,
that they conjured memories of the desert.

Jorge Luis Borges




...strolling in Ronda at dusk, the cypresses, the palaces, the wind from the courts of Cadiz; and an indescribable sky, neither pearl grey, nor silver colour; a suspicion of a very light pale blue that some fierce white light was erasing and balancing with its radiation.

Luis Cernuda



Round mountain range,
bullring of Ronda.
And the bullfight´s light
measures its ripples...
my pure Ronda,
bullring of restless light ,
everlasting rose.

Gerardo Diego



The little houses of this Ronda street, with its forged grills on the ground floor windows, seem to grow a belly.
These others have first floor grills... like foreheads leaning.
As if from one side of the street to the other they want to come near and whisper something malicious about the people passing.

Eugenio D'Ors




Health and peace, rocks, mountains, bushes,
tree groves, streams;
health, peace and joy,
nobility, friends, blood, my fatherland

Vicente Espinel



... The girls came shouting
in painted carriages
with round fans
embroidered with sequins.
And the youths of Ronda
grey wide hats,
set to the eyebrows,
on conceited ponies
The bullring, with the crowd
(all hats and high combs)
turned like a zodiac
of black and white laughs.
And when the great Cayetano
crossed the straw-colored sand
wearing a suit the colour of apples,
embroidered with silver and silk,
detaching himself gracefully
from the hard, down to earth crowd
to face the vicious bulls
which Spain raises on its land,
it seemed as if the evening
was becoming darker.

Federico García Lorca (Mariana Pineda)




We finally saw Ronda. It was set on the top of the mountain, like a natural extension of the landscape, and in the sunlight, it seemed to me the most beautiful city in the world.

Juan Goytisolo



Ronda is the place where to go, if you are planning to travel to Spain for a honeymoon or for being with a girlfriend. The whole city and its surroundings are a romantic set. Nice promenades, good wine, excellent food, nothing to do...

Ernest Hemingway



"Where is that captivation, that passion of a typical Andalusian city, the best town, that old stronghold, that stopped time?. This is it, here. It is Ronda, Serranía de Ronda."

"Ronda high and deep, round, profound, round and high..."

Juan Ramón Jiménez


... and Ronda with its old inn's windows, the eyes spying hidden after the lattices, so that the lover can kiss the iron grills of the window, and the tavern with its doors half-opened at night and the castanets and the night we lost the Algeciras ship, the guard making his patrol with his lantern and, oh, that awful deep torrent, oh, and the red sea, sometimes like the fire and the glorious sunset and the fig trees at the Tajo's tree-lined Avenue, yes, and the strange little streets ,and the rose, yellow and blue houses, and the gardens full of roses and jasmines, and geraniums and cactus.

James Joyce (Ulysses)



In Ronda there is one of the world's most incredible"Tajos" (gorges). It seems like a giant tried to do a surgical operation on the planet that he later abandoned leaving the patient open and unstitched.
In Ronda there are many streets that should carry a sign for tourists: "To the chaos". In every landscape or every city that the tourist goes, he will see a sign ordering him "to the Cathedral", "to the Museum". But in Ronda, there are many streets that come to us...The Tajo doesn't have any kind of agreement with the guides. You look to the bottom of it and you can find there in the depths fear, predictions, prayers or verses.

José María Pemán



Early moon ringing
The bullring of Ronda,
The multiple wonder,
A city, deep yet winging
A moon of round stone flinging
Down a golden flower
On the ground, the lower
Of the proud mountain range;
Wild moon, what will emerge,
From that magic brilliance of yours?

Pedro Pérez Clotet


The white path climbs
slithering from Ronda to Grazalema.
It clears the working fields, it gets lost
towards the hard stones.
Mountains break through the ridges
and with the light my heart goes far away.
As it comes back
in my eyes the hemmed-in land is a
brave little universe

Dionisio Ridruejo



Ronda, bullring
of macho bullfighters,
your balconies demand
one Carmen for each box;
one Romero for each bull,
a knight on a horse
and two bandits who ask for
the key with their pistols.
Bullring of Ronda,
And of macho bullfighters.

Fernando Villalón

Jimera

Jimera de Libar is one of the Pueblos Blancos (white villages) of western Andalusia. It has a church, a town hall, a couple of bars, a couple of shops, a municipal swimming pool which is open for two months in the summer, a hotel (kind of) and a population of 450 of which only around 200 are actually resident all year.

The village is in two parts: town and station. The pueblo is up the hill at an altitude of 540 metres, and the station on the banks of the Guadiaro some 200 metres lower, with a surrounding population of 50 or so permanent residents. The rest of the houses remaining empty for much of the year except at weekends and holidays. Like many local villages the population has been decreasing steadily over the years from a high of 1500, but the decline has been halted due to the increase in rural tourism and the arrival of people like ourselves from abroad.

Ronda

Jimera is situated not far from Ronda, Rilke's "dreamt city". There is a statue of Rilke in the grounds of the Reina Victoria Hotel in which he stayed at the end of 1912.

The New bridge is perhaps its most famous landmark. Built at the end of the eighteenth century is is the third bridge over the river, the other two being the not surprisingly named "Old Bridge" and the Arab Bridge which dates from the 15th century. The other well known edifice is the bullring which dates from the same time as the New Bridge, and is one of the oldest in Spain.

There are also the Arab Baths and the Palacio de Mondragon which was the old sultan's palace, now a museum, of which Ronda has many. But the best of all are the views looking out over the cliffs towards Jimera as the sun is setting...

On a trip to La Cueva de la Pileta

Outside La Cueva de la Pileta, near Jimera, site of some of the earliest cave paintings in Europe. La Cueva is one of a number of extensive cave systems in the area. It is quite an experience.