… ahhhh, total bliss! 😊
After completely forgetting about a planned FaceTime call to Mum last week, I actually remembered the rescheduled one this week and spent a few minutes with her online last Monday.
It was nice to see her but always leaves me feeling a bit melancholic… it’s difficult enough to have a conversation with her when you are face to face, let alone online, especially as there are many distractions going on in the care home that you cannot see or manage when you are 100s of miles away!
She looked OK – seems to have lost or misplaced her denture though (or perhaps hidden it again which has been her way for some time… can’t believe it’s 10 years since her dementia diagnosis now 🥺) – we used to joke at how she became a toothless crone without it but now, she mostly sits humming to herself whilst sticking her bottom jaw out over her bottom lip – it’s strange what habits one starts in older age…
Brother Steve finally made his long-attempted trip to Yorkshire this week which made me really happy & I am sure Mum too!. He thought this habit made Mum look like Ted the dog from Mortimer & Whitehouse’s Gone Fishing, which made me laugh! You gotta laugh else it would be way too sad…
We have had some amazing sunsets this week – the photos don’t quite take in the vast amount of sky we have above us and our uninterrupted views from the balcony, but it is beautiful…
On Wednesday (3rd June) we took a drive down to the village – Villanueva del Rey – to have a good look around. There is a house we have passed in the car several times which we wanted to take a closer look at which we call the “Bird House” – I think this video (if it works) explains why…
I didn’t realise until I watched this back that, if you turn the volume up, you can hear the old Spanish chap who was talking to us whilst I was filming… and his words are translated – saying that the people in the house cannot touch the nests! ❤️
The “Bird House” in Villanueva del Rey
We have never seen so many House Martin nests on one house – it’s the same front and back. Folklore suggests these birds bring protection and blessing to the household they choose to build their nests on… If having house martins is considered good luck & fortune, then the people who live here must be the luckiest people in the whole of Spain… although their window cleaning costs must be horrendous! 🤣
Here’s something I never knew before… The collective name for a group of house martins is a richness, gulp or flight!
On the side of the Bird House there is a mural (the Spanish love these huge murals and we have spotted several in the different towns and cities we have visited over the years – see previous blogs from our last visit to Spain September/October 2024 for pics!)… we didn’t really think much about this, but our friend Kev asked about it’s significance… trust a bunch of grapes and a glass of red wine to catch his eye! 🤣
I made enquiries of our host…
… who told us it was painted to commemorate a party they have in the village each year called La Trasiga. The man on the mural with the grapes on his head(!) is the guy who’s idea the party was and the reason for it is that in the village, many houses had their own vineyards and used to make their own wine. The village had the nickname of Villanueva de las Viñas – New Village of the Vines… The village also has a monument to commemorate this too which is where they have the party each year! Any excuse aye?!
All in all, it was a nice way to spend an hour or so…
Top L/R = Pomegranate/ Glossy Privet
Bottom = Clouded Yellow Butterfly
Yesterday (5th June) we headed back to Córdoba to visit the Centro de Conservación Zoo Córdoba.
Learning from our previous visit, we aimed for underground parking a little closer to where we wanted to be so we wouldn’t have so far to walk back in the expected sweltering heat of the afternoon! That said, the weather was not quite as hot as the other day with the roadside digital sign only reading 30 degrees rather than last week’s 36!!
We like a nice zoo and this one was not too bad… we only expected to be there for a short time & possibly fit in a stroll around the botanical gardens opposite the zoo too, but there was more to see than we thought…
Whilst it’s nice to see animals you rarely see outside a David Attenborough series, it also makes us both a bit sad when we see birds or mammals in enclosures that seem too small when you consider the range they might have in the wild… that said, this zoo which originally opened in the 1960s, had an extensive upgrade in the early 2000s so it could become a conservation centre. Therefore, it seems it is doing its bit for animal welfare & conservation as well as conserving wild flora and fauna too.
Top L to R = Black Kite, Scary Ostrich head, Black Vultures.
Bottom – at least this Ostrich seemed pleased to see us!
Left T / B = Turtles / Black Rhinoceros;
Right T / B = Barbary Sheep / Brown Bear
Top & Left = Tigers; Bottom – A Lion’s feet… all we saw of it!
Top = Giraffe / Ostrich; Bottom = Ring-Tailed Lemurs
Top = Blue Jacaranda; Bottom = Oleander & Lantana
We enjoyed our visit which was well worth the €8.50 entrance fee for both of us!
Compared with the entrance fees in the UK (£60 to £75 for the two of us if we went to Edinburgh or Chester Zoos), some things in Spain are definitely a lot cheaper!
There were a few school groups in but apart from them and a few family groups, it felt strange having some of the areas mostly to ourselves!
After the Zoo, we decided to grab some dinner… did we go to a small Spanish restaurant to try out the Menu del Dia? Of course not, we went for a Ruby! A nice little Indian restaurant called the Taj Mahal which Pete found online, was located mid way between the Zoo and our car park of choice and had good reviews! It was a very nice Indian meal… all this and we still managed to get back by 5pm so had an hour sitting in the sun, reading & snoozing on our return… the perfect day or what?! 🤣
That’s all for this week… this time next Saturday we will be starting our drive back to the UK. I will be sad to leave this lovely place with it’s beautiful, sunny weather & will miss our lazy days – still, we have a whole week to enjoy first and a total of 10 days left in Spain before we set sail home so much to enjoy yet!
Hasta luego ❤️ xx ❤️
All the gubbins… 
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