The table cloth on the stairs La Palma has a long tradition of gorgeous embroidery. As I mentioned in my previous post, the embroidery museum is upstairs in the Red House, in Mazo. This gorgeous tablecloth in broderie anglaise is halfway up the stairs. Assisi embroidery, a form of cross stitch. About the only thing in the museum I could see myself making. Now I’m fairly good at cross stitch,…
The Red House, Mazo La Palma’s embroidery museum is upstairs in the Red House in Mazo. (I’ll write about that in my next post.) Downstairs is a museum about the fiesta of Corpus Christi in Mazo. If you’re on La Palma for June 4th next year, for goodness’ sake go and see the archways. If not, I strongly recommend the museum. Some of the things used to make the Corpus…
While most of Europe celebrates Remembrance Day, here it’s St. Martin’s Day – San Martin. (Spain was officially neutral in both world wars, so they don’t have a Remembrance Day). San Martin is traditionally when the chestnuts are ready to pick, and the new wine from the summer’s grape harvest is ready to drink. (Although with global warming, the chestnuts have been in the shops for weeks.) So most families…
A collection of old weights As well as the workshop making replica ceramics, the windmill at Mazo houses a small museum. Entry is free, but there are a couple of places you can make a donation. Upstairs is mostly a collection of old tools: an old Singer sewing machine, combs for flax, knife grinders, braziers… Oil lamps … the millers glasses, shepherd’s poles, long handled pallets for putting bread in…
Inside the workshop at El Molino The Benahoaritas (or Auaritas or Awaras) were the people who lived on La Palma before the Spanish invasion. They lived in caves and wore animal skins, but they farmed, and they had ceramics. The older ceramics are simpler, and the newer ones usually more decorated. At El Molino, in Mazo, they make replicas of these ceramics. The business was started by Ramon and Vina,…
Catholics all over the world celebrate Corpus Christi, but in Mazo each district of the municipality makes an wonderful archway with a carpet and a little altar decorated with petals, leaves and seeds. The archways go up overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, and stay up until Sunday. You can read more about this and see archways from previous years here.