Excursions
Friday, May 6, 2011 @ 2:35 PM
At last a decent day! So much water fell out of the sky over the weekend and so much debris washed onto our little road...But we got out on the VFR today and went round the valley to remind ourselves how beautiful it is here. The broom is coming out, perfuming the air, and the verges are full of wild lavender, pink cistus, poppies, rock roses and grasses. We saw a nobbly green and yellow lizard on the road, a good 9 inches long, and a swallow darting off a ledge in Torviscon, and we only met 6 vehicles in a 10 mile run. Bliss.
Over the wet weekend we managed a visit to some olive and flour mills in the Lecrin Valley and the Nazrid gardens in Velez de Benaudalla (don't even try to pronounce this unless your Spanish is very good...Beleth de Benaudaya is about right!). The Ayuntamiento is encouraging votes in the forthcoming local election by subsidising excursiones, but it was excellent value - 12 euros including a 3-course lunch and wine. The guide spoke in Spanish so we had to work quite hard to get the general gist of things, but I recommend the mill in Niguelas and the gardens.
Last night our friends José and Andrea celebrated his 50th birthday in our local pizza bar with about 16 mates. I made my infamous chocolate and chestnut truffle cake, which Steve adorned with José's name in white icing and it was served up as pudding. Full of calories and all very piggy! A flamenco guitarist, also José, turned up and the two men played some really lovely duets. A stringed conversation about friendship and love. The waitress began a slow flamenco, wearing her apron and jeans, and Andrea produced some champagne. It turned into one of those special Alpujarran evenings which one cannot plan, they just evolve.
This weekend looks interesting...a fiesta in Busquistar with horses (Saturday at 5pm) and a paella...weather permitting (the forecast is not good). And our friend Cherie is celebrating a birthday on Monday too. Maybe another cake...it will have to have a kangeroo iced onto it! We thought this would be a quiet life. Not a bit of it, there's something going on all the time!
XXX