The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (The Lemons Trilogy) by Chris Stewart (4-Jun-2009) Paperback

Driving Over Lemons Trilogy #3

by Chris Stewart

THE ALMOND BLOSSOM APPRECIATION SOCIETY finds Chris and his family still living o their farm, El Valero, and with its easy ‘Sun-Lit’ charm and funny, evocative anecdotes, it will draw in new and old readers alike.You will find yourself laughing out loud as Chris is instructed by his daughter on local teenage mores; bluffs his way in art history to millionaire Bostonians; is rescued off a snowy peak by the Guardia Civil; and joins an Almond Blossom Appreciation Society.You’ll cringe with Chris as he stries his hand at office work in an immigrants’ advice centre in Granada, spurred into action by the arrival of four destitute young Moroccans at El Valero. And you’ll never see olive oil in quite the same way again…In this sequel to ‘Lemons’ and ‘Parrot’, Chris Stewart’s optimism and zest for life is as infectious as ever. Chris Stewart prepared for life on a mountain farm in Spain with jobs of doubtful relevance. After leaving Genesis (he drummed on the first album), he joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, crewed a yacht in Greece, went to China for the Rough Guides, gained a pilot’s license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cooking.Despite the extraordinary success of his books, Chris, Ana and their daughter Chloë continue to live on their farm, with their numerous dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and misanthropic parrot.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Spain, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published May 26, 2006

About the author

Christopher 'Chris' Stewart (born 1951), was the original drummer and a founding member of Genesis. He is now a farmer and an author. A classmate of Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel at Charterhouse School, Stewart joined them in a school band called The Garden Wall, and they later formed another band with schoolmates Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, called Anon. This band eventually became Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on the band's first two singles, "The Silent Sun"/"That's Me" and "A Winter's Tale"/"One-Eyed Hound." Although several demos from Stewart's time with Genesis appear on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them. (Peter Gabriel seems to have played drums on a couple, and the rest do not feature drums.)

At the recommendation of Jonathan King, Stewart was asked to leave the band in the summer of 1968 due to poor technique. He was replaced by John Silver. After travelling and working throughout Europe, Stewart settled and bought a farm named "El Valero" in the Alpujarras region of Andalucia, Spain where he lives and works with his wife Ana Exton and daughter Chloë. He came in last place for the position of local councillor in the 27 May 2007 local elections in Órgiva representing the Green Party, where he received 201 votes (roughly 8%).

He is now better known for his autobiographical books, Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999, ISBN 0-9535227-0-9) and the sequels, A Parrot In The Pepper Tree (ISBN 0-9535227-5-X) and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2006, ISBN 0-9548995-0-4), about his work farming in Spain. All three are also available as audiobooks (Lemons ISBN 0-14-180143-3; Parrot ISBN 0-14-180402-5), and Almond ISBN 0-7528-8597-9, narrated by Stewart.

Stewart's publisher, Sort of Books, announced plans to release yet another Stewart memoir in 2009, this one focused on sailing, entitled Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat.

Stewart has also contributed to two books in the Rough Guides series: the Rough Guide to Andalucia and the Rough Guide to China.

Reviews

[Jessaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dung Fever

I saw that Chris and Chloe , we're kneeling on the ground looking at something so I decided to find out what was so interesting. When I reach them I heard chloe say, Dad, don't do that! Chris was getting ready to take away the dung from a dung beetle. He was also claiming that it was not dung but was a rubber ball. I spoke up, Chris, listen to your daughter. Leave the poor beetle alone. It is dung even a dung beetle nose dung from rubber. Chris looked up. Oh, it is you explanation mark chloe said, dad who is she? She is just some crazy lady. Ignore her. Then Chris grabbed up the dung and held it up. He squeezed it andb the soft center squirted on his face. I said matter of factly, Oh, now you have dung it. I hope you don't get dung fever. Chris stood up and looked at me with crossed eyes. Those are the eyes of a bull just before he charges.
Ignore her, said Chloe.

I don't know what compels me to keep walking into Chris's stories. It must just be something about him. He is charming, funny,, a kind person, and I don't know what else. It began in his 1st novel when He found he had a lot of scorpions on his land, and I was afraid that chloe would get bitten. So I jumped in and helped him, but he wasn't great full. Well that is 1 thing we can take away from his list of good qualities, Gratefulness.

This is the 3rd book in the series. Chris, his wife, and his daughter buy a farm in Spain and decide to enjoy life. Chris shears sheep for a living, and now he has become a writer, allowing us into his enjoyable life.

If you read this book, you will learn a lot of things that you may not have known. Is a tick an insect? Do you need to know how to teach your child how to drive a car? Do you know how to draw a 7 pointed star? Then last of all, well, maybe not last of all, you will get to go with him to Morocco and watch somebody put a cobra around his neck. This was really cool.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly pleasant read, especially sitting by a pool on a hot day. But didn't think it was anywhere near as good as the first two in the series.
This had a definite feel of 'leftovers' as if Stewart was digging back into his memory to recount 'amusing' incidences that he hadn't bothered to put in the first two books. One or two amusing chapters, but quite a few dull ones too. I felt a bit disappointed - but at least it was a quick read.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this quite as well as his first book, Driving Over Lemons, which tells of his arrival in Spain and purchase and rehabilitation of a farm in Andalucia, but it's still a fun book to read. It's just that this is more a series of loosely related chapters instead of a narrative of a particular time in his life. Still, there are a lot of entertaining stories here, like the time he went to Morocco to harvest seeds of a particular plant to sell to a business in Britain, and the time he decided to try to recreate the trek of refugees from Africa through Spain, but chose as his companion a friend who kept wanting to make sure they were well fueled before each day's walk instead of subsisting on the sort of rations a refugee might have available. I discovered while reading this one that there was another book in between, so I'll be looking for that one too.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing I love about reading Chris Stewart’s books is that his portrayal of life in the Alpujarras rings so many bells with our life here. We do not shear sheep, and we are not ex-musicians, but his stories of interactions with his neighbours and daily challenges could happen here. Best in this book for me is the society of the title. The Spanish around here love to walk, early morning or evening in summer, mid-morning in winter, they walk along the country roads in groups or singly. An elderly man, his shirt and trousers neatly pressed, going for an afternoon walk. Two girls, dressed in brightly-coloured Lycra, power-walking briskly. A gaggle of village matrons, sauntering three and four abreast. Depending on the season, most are likely to carry a bag of some sort ready to forage what the countryside has to offer. So the idea of a group of men walking up the hillside to look at the almond blossom sounds perfectly feasible to me. The only difference is that they would not drink wine from the bota but probably Zocco, a firey reddish aguadiente that is the favoured breakfast accompaniment to café solo in the ventas here.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of the same from Chris Stewart. If you liked Lemons, you'll like this. Self effacing, gentle and thoroughly enjoyable anecdotes from someone who by this stage is now more author than farmer. He's fine with that, and we're fine with that. So now he can enjoy being an author and guiding an unexpectedly posh group of Americans in Granada on an art tour... But the success of Lemons doesn't go to his head - he genuinely seems to love his lifestyle so the majority of the book is at El Valero. We'd never forgive him otherwise would we?

There's something warm and very easygoing in all his writing, so it's easy to blast through and enjoy. His descriptions of life on the farm - including a (surprisingly?) interesting section on olive harvesting and making olive oil - are absorbing.

He's a very good author that I suspect could make his laundry list enjoyable - but luckily he has much more that han.

[Brigid Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the third in Chris Stewart's series. The young Moroccan men in his "guests without papers" inspire him to volunteer at "Granada Welcomes," where he becomes a telephonist, and his quest to makes ends meet takes him to Morocco in search of Moroccan Broom or Cystus battandieri... where he will earn a princely sum.
I did not want these and other stories to end.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very enjoyable sequel to the previously read driving over lemons. I like the way that Chris tells tales of his life, I especially enjoyed The description of the almond blossom aroma.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it’s been several months since I read the first two novels in Stewart’s Driving Over Lemons series, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society provides a pleasant return to El Valero. Though not as comical as its predecessors, the novel is easy to read and offers brilliant descriptions of the landscape. Stewart’s wider travels are also a refreshing addition to his family’s experiences on the farm.

Rating: 4.2/5

[Julie Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book 3/4. I absolutely love these books.

[Lynne - The Book Squirrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read!

[Deity World · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the trilogy highly recommend shows how much has happened in 17 years

[Brendan Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is right up my alley

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, a funny and entrancing decampment into Spain’s Alpujarras, with Stewart’s nostalgia ironically raising my desire to herald a new era of self-sufficiency at home.

[Barbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third part of the Chris Stewart triology of his life in Spain. Love his travel books on Spain - a lovely personal account of his life there.

Back Cover Blurb:
The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society finds Chris and his family still living on their farm, El Valero - but life there never stands still. You will find yourself laughing out loud as Chris is instructed by his daughter on local teenage mores; bluffs his way as an art history guide to millionaire Bostonians; is rescued off a snowy peak by the Guardia Civil; and joins an Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. You'll cringe as he tries his hand at office work in an immigrants' advice centre in Granada. And you'll never see olive oil in quite the same way again.....

[Maggi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely memoir by Chris Stewart, a sequel to Driving over Lemons and A Parrot in The Pepper Tree, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society continues where the last book left off chronicling his life with his family in the Las Alpujarras region of Spain as a small (very small) farmer and sheep herder. These books are not earth-shattering or deep, but they are satisfying and enjoyable, and Stewart's writing is amusing, insightful, and warm.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book in the series, this book leaves you wanting more from the author, in a good way. After the first two you really feel like you have been living this life along with the Author. At the end you feel like there is more to come, but also a feeling of completion at the same time.

[Cheris Lifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical trilogy was a nice way to learn more about the Andalusian culture from an English perspective.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quote from one of the reviews on the back cover describes Chris Stewart as "possibly the one travel writer who is genuinely funnier than Bill Bryson". He isn't but what he does have is a beautiful way with words used to full effect when describing his life in the region of Las Alpujarras in southern Spain, on their ramshackle farm where he and his family scratch a living aided by his writing and sheep-shearing skills.

This book, unlike the previous two, is more of a collection of anecdotes than a continuous progression, but what anecdotes! The chapters on his excursion to Morocco to collect rare seeds for selling back in Europe are both fascinating and enlightening, as he becomes firm friends with the locals, sharing their homes and learning what motivates their desire to enter "Fortress Europe".

He observes and admires local farmers whose experience has taught them what works best in their sometimes harsh environment, despite easier solutions that don't enhance their way of life. I particularly enjoyed this passage where a local farmer continues to grow maize at great effort and cost when it would be easier to buy it in: "That's true, [says the farmer] but you never know what you're getting in those sacks. It probably comes from America and therefore it's probably genetically modified, and I don't think we're ready for that yet. I keep my own seed from year to year. Also there's more to a crop of maize than the grain: there's the leaf for forage for the mule, and the stalks for bedding, and once we've taken the grain from the cobs, the panochas make a good fuel for the fire. And besides ... I like my field of maize, it's green and cool in the summer ..."

Chris Stewart is someone who loves the land and the place where he lives and has great affection for the people of Andalucia and this shines through every sentence he writes. Yes, he is funny too, but there's so much more to him than that.

[Linda Hawkswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finale to a brilliant trilogy

A lovely end to a brilliant trilogy set in the Alpujarras. As in the previous books everything is brought to life with the author´s description of the areas visited and the people met.

The Good Life in Spain is had by Chris, Ana and Chloe and them continuing to mainly live off their land. Ana and her home grown vegetables and the slaughter of their lambs for a special birthday bash.

Chloe learning to drive brought back memories of me teaching two of my sons to drive, at least they did not have the uneven terrain of the Alpujarras to contend with but we did loose a wing mirror or two (one with each son, but they never made that mistake again).

Chris with his many attempts at DIY kept me chuckling especially his attempt to weld together to rods tobe able to spit barbecue his lambs.

I found it an uplifting, good humored read. Thank you Chris

[Becky Turpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read parts 1 and 2 of this lemons trilogy some years ago I thought it was time I read the final part. I'm not sure whether the time between affected my opinion but I did not enjoy this nearly as much. In hindsight reading them closer together would have been better because the background story would have been fresh in my mind, and having established a character for both Chris and indeed his family/neighbours and the place itself I would not have needed to reacquaint myself with them. I have no doubt that reading this as part of the trilogy in the after glow of the first two parts would have scored higher. As it was I missed that opportunity and as a result was disappointed.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have read this book many years ago but in the intervening period I have visited Spain many time including one holiday to Olvera where the Chris Stewart lives. So, on a second reading I had a far better understanding of where the author is coming from what his motivations are. This is a funny, interesting and enjoyable book, it doesn’t matter if you have never been to Spain, it is still well worth reading. I do find myself wondering how they will get on in their remote cortijo as the move into ‘older’ age. Maybe another book?

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in Chris Stewart's series about relocating to the Alpujarras in Andalucia, the overall mood is light but with a fair amount of serious issues dealt with as well. And Chris Stewart really relocated, to become a sheep farmer in one of the most impoverished areas of Spain. He became fluent in Spanish and he, his wife and daughter are to all intents and purposes Spanish, especially Chloë, the daughter, who was born and raised there. Having a house in Andalucia myself, though further north, added to my interest.

[sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as much as the previous two. As a farmer in Somerset and growing up in the sixties when farming was just like Chris explains (only wetter and colder) I love the way the book is full of little snippets about life in rural spain with fun and historically interesting facts but in this book he experiences life in Morocco. Great read. Thanks Chris, maybe I'll get to pootle down your way one day.

[MARIJE FERRERO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Al igual que los dos anteriores, me ha gustado mucho.
Nuevamente Chris Stewart nos va contando anécdotas de su vida en la Alpujarra granadina, situaciones complicadas a veces, definiendo con gracia personajes del lugar, costumbres, descripción del paisaje, pero con un sentido del humor y un optimismo que te hace disfrutar desde la primera página.
Se pueden leer por separado, pero recomiendo leerse los tres.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As well as living in southern Spain and maintaining a working farm, Chris Stewart also enjoys taking trips on foot or by car with his friends. They climb up into the Alpujarro mountains, only to need rescuing. His fame as a best-selling author brings a variety of people to see El Valero since he makes it sound so interesting and inviting. Hi daughter is entering her teen years, so there are sections of fatherly advice. The almond blossoms are found high up into the hills above his property.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first of these memoirs years ago and really enjoyed it, so was delighted to discover the third tucked into the well-stocked bookshelf of our holiday rental cottage set right in the mountains that Stewart writes about. The immediacy adds extra charm, but I'd recommend his writing no matter where you are!

[Kristin]

I enjoyed this book as much as the first two. It is pleasant to read about life in the mountains of Spain on a small farm. It is really the perfect place to live for someone who wanted to get away from the urban/suburban lifestyle of England. Some difficult topics were addressed like the immigrant problem with destitute Moroccans coming to Spain illegally to try to earn some money.

[Clarissa Brincat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, easy and fun read made up of a series of anecdotes from Chris Stewart’s life in rural Spain. Some stories are farcical, like the time he mistook dung for a squash ball, and a misguided plan to help a friend be in two places at the same time. Other stories focus on more serious topics, like poverty and lack of freedom in Morocco, illegal immigration, and drought.

[Joana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started hilariously and it does have some more funny moments throughout but overall it's a number of chronicles about a british man living in the spanish countryside (many years before this was fashionable, btw). It has possibly the best description I've read of what happens in our brains when we're falling asleep. I wasn't very gripped but the style is very readable and engaging.

[Zareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written account of his experiences in the Alpjurras district in Spain. This is the third volume of Chris Stewart’s memoir written with humour. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the other two volumes of these memoirs. As I began with volume 3 I shall read volume 2, ‘The Parrot in the Pepper Tree’ next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.