Looking around our valley, you’d never guess that Christmas was less than three weeks away. No inflatable Santas climb plastic-rope ladders up the side of house chimneys. No country properties around us are adorned with twinkly-lit reindeer or other festive characters. All looks peaceful, normal, and…rural. Of course, it could be a different story behind closed doors!
We knew from visits to Mallorca before moving here that we were unlikely to find a Christmas tree for sale – real or fake. I had always had a real tree in the UK and the annual visit to the side entrance of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, to select one of the numerous trees for sale, was guaranteed to make me feel more festive.
Faking it
Before we left the UK, we bought a high-quality artificial one from an Oxfordshire garden centre, ensuring that we wouldn’t be without a Christmas tree once here. In a week or so’s time, it’ll be released from its cardboard prison at the back of a little-used cupboard to be pressed into decorative service for its 14th Mallorcan Christmas. Fingers crossed it will still look perky – and won’t have lost all its artificial pine needles!
More than a decade later, Papá Noel’s sleigh GPS has located Mallorca: many lucky children now receive presents from the red-suited one as well as those traditionally brought by The Three Kings in early January. Must be an expensive business, being a parent on this island…
Baking it?!
And, you guessed it, you can now find Christmas trees – even real ones – just about everywhere in Mallorca. I thought the one below – made from the traditional Mallorcan pastries known as ensaïmadas (and spotted in a bakery window in the town of Artà) – was just a little bit different!
An edible tree (but don’t count the calories!).
©Jan Edwards 2017
LOVE the ensaimada tree…..
Bet you couldn’t eat a whole one though!
Jan, you summed it up so well in Spain and bringing out the UK Christmas tree! Love love love the cake!!! Feliz Navidad.
Thank you, Carole! (By the way, my middle name is Carole – and also ends with an ‘e). Feliz Navidad to you both too!
Hi Jan, I really enjoy your upbeat blogs about life here on the Island, and it was remembering one from last year about your missing cat that brought you to mind. A close friend, and my husband’s business partner, Maggie Mclelland, passed away very unexpectedly on 21st December. She had no husband or children, and indeed, no family on the island. Her 4 brothers, are Canadian ( as was she) and are all in Canada. She was a great cat lover and she had 5 much loved ‘domestic’ cats and numerous feral cats that she used to feed. The 4 older cats have all had quite miraculous lives. We have managed to find a home for the ‘orphaned’ Kitten, leaving 4 grown cats – all neutered/spayed needing homes. Friend’s of Maggies are visiting her property daily to feed the domestic cats. She died without leaving a will, so there is no provision for the cats long-term welfare. I was wondering if we could chat about the possibility of you posting a blog about the Cats lives/history to see if we can find new ‘forever’ homes for the 4 older cats – the oldest being around 11. Face to face would be great as I feel it would be easier to give details/tell you their stories. I too am a cat lover and have 2 cats of my own and feed a feral visitor daily. I would have loved to take the orphans onboard ( 2 of them even lived in an adjoining property when we were in Italy) but there is a problem here with the neighbouring cats. Our Majorcian neighbour has 9 cats, including one very dominant ( very human-friendly) male and a very ‘nasty’, constantly pregnant female. In brief, introducing more cats here would not be a viable option. If you do not feel you can help in this way, please can you point me in the direction of someone who might be able to assist me in my plight.. I do not have many contacts on the island and am at a loss as to what to do next. I look forward to hearing from you Kind RegardsJo Dando
From: Living in rural Mallorca To: j.l.baker@talk21.com Sent: Thursday, 7 December 2017, 14:14 Subject: [New post] Find your festive in Mallorca #yiv3453563736 a:hover {color:red;} #yiv3453563736 a { text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;} #yiv3453563736 a.yiv3453563736primaryactionlink:link, #yiv3453563736 a.yiv3453563736primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;} #yiv3453563736 a.yiv3453563736primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv3453563736 a.yiv3453563736primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;} #yiv3453563736 WordPress.com | Jan Edwards posted: “Looking around our valley, you’d never guess that Christmas was less than three weeks away. No inflatable Santas climb plastic-rope ladders up the side of house chimneys. No country properties around us are adorned with twinkly-lit reindeer or other festi” | |
Hi Jo. Thank you for your comment and I’m pleased you like the blogs. What a sad story about your friend Maggie and the cats she was looking after. I’m going to email you privately tomorrow about this (I’ve been out all day and have an online-course lesson shortly). Best wishes, Jan