Andalusia, the pomegranate & me: 1st hot holiday in 15 years!

Don't ask, yes, yes, I know well what you are thinking, 'fifteen years?!'. EXACTLY.

There are a combination of reasons why I've not found the time to go somewhere hot for some years, and the last time was with school on an Italian cookery trip, as far as I'm concerned that doesn't count!

A great friend of mine, a talented and hot-in-demand engineer and product designer Sarah Liddel ordered me to drop the pencils and join her in Andalusia. Sarah has been going to Andalusia since her early teens when her parents bought a lovely apartment in Nerja. Whats special about Nerja is that it has the mountains behind it and the sea in front, over my right shoulder (your right) is toward Morocco, the place that inspired my designs for a collection whilst studying at the London College of Fashion.

I fell in love with Southern Spain almost instantly. Nerja was idillic with a palm tree lined promendade walk into town and rustic seafood restaurants with sandy floors on the beach front. The people are happy and polite and appreciated my constant regret that my Spanish was non-existant.... I don't think I've ever apologised so much.

A group of very talented singers and guitarists dressed in 16th c Spanish dress followed us around most evenings (totes loved the breeches) and their powerful voices seranaded us along with our sizzling chorizo sausage drenched in honey, neither seemed to last long enough.

I couldn't get over how affordable and healthy everything is there, I'm totally addicted to Pomegranates now and miss slicing and bashing it over thick yummy Greek yoghurt with my straw hat on, making notes and planning creative missions.

I've enjoyed the pom in salads so far in life but became more curious about the fruit with Iranian roots whilst doing a spot of historical research at Chastleton House, Oxfordshire in August.

At Chastleton you'll find it not in Ottolenghi inspired sandwich boxes of house guides but instead high above you cast in plaster produced in the 1620/30's.

Chastleton is rare in that its a survival of a Jacobean interior and is totally untouched, it will take your breath away and half of its enormous impact on any brain that validates the crafted and unique is propelled by the extraordinary ceiling design that includes the Pomegranate.

The fruit that symbolised fertility was part of Catherine of Aragon's emblem. Upon her marriage to her brother-in-law Henry V111 following the untimely death of her husband Arthur, the pomegranate was depicted alongside the rose, the symbol for the house of Tudor, The country was, like the King and his Spanish wife, staunchly Catholic and religiously followed Rome. The use of the pomegranate decorating the home was a celebration of these two people, distant cousins, two powerful nations coming together.

This all changed when Henry no longer loved his wife, she who was incapable of delivering a male heir. The king wanted to marry his ripe mistress Anne Boleyn; the Catholic church was abolished, buildings and communities destroyed making way for Henry to create his Church of England.

Pomegranates were, like any other symbolism of Catholicism, destroyed and forbidden, and likewise the tired, infertile and rejected Queen consort was no longer welcome amongst the walls of the houses of Barons let alone at court.

So, for Chastleton to retain such a foreign symbol and one so Catholic after several centuries is rare and incredibly exciting, its survival is partly thankful to the inhabiting Catesby famiy's ill-fortune and inability to update their home throughout a 400 year ownership.

Right: Henry V111 and Catherine of Aragon:

Marriage woodcut showing the pomegranate and Tudor rose

So, that is what the Pomegranate meant to me before Andalusia where the fruit covered my yoghurt and then adorned the drainpipes in Granada, cast in metal and proudly emblazoned woodwork and stone. The beautiful Moorish influenced city that could quite easily rival Rome uses pomegranate as a charge in heraldry just as Queen Catherine did for its less formal canting arms. I love that a fruit so readily available and freely picked off trees throughout the region is appreciated so much so that it proudly speaks for its nurturing soil, Andalusia's Granada......the place where both Moors and Catholics lived happily together, two people that appreciated the slicing and bashing of a pom just as I now do.

Now, I'm slightly confused by the symbolism of our lion, what on earth was wrong with the apple?

El Slavador Church, Nerja.

El Salavador Church, Nerja: Incredible mannequins dressed in meticullously embroidered clothing stand in high alcoves. Everything is lavishly gilded.

Nerja El Salvador Church: The first of the Spanish churches I explored and it contained this fine painting.

Frigliana: My new favourite town, I especially love the name, who is Liana? Thats what I want to know. Unique metalwork adorns carved doorways, this is a detail from the entrance to Frigliana church.

Alhambra Palace: I had a day at the Alhambra Palace. Its a gloriously tranquil place with views high above Granada and toward a mountain-filled landscape. There is no furniture inside the palace but it is a fine example of an architectural space made fine with walls covered in Moorish tiles that are stylishly timeless.