An Evening at the Alcázar in Cordoba

Thank goodness the only evening we planned to have a late night, little Kaci decided she would allow herself to have a siesta.  She slept for a good two hours and was as bright as a button as we drove into Cordoba about 8pm, normally her bed time!  We had an excellent meal in the Jewish Quarters near the Mezquita then made our way to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Spanish for "Castle of the Christian Monarchs")  for the 10pm show.  The castle is pretty interesting, personally I don't think it's the prettiest around though.  It was the music sound and light show we had planned to see.  Alan and I have seen it before and enjoyed immensely.  We knew my daughter Frankie would enjoy it, and hoped it would keep Kaci interested.  It's difficult to know if a 3 year old will be kept entertained!   

The good news was that it certainly did!  The first part is a bit of a history lesson, however with a projector screening it makes it more fun than just being lectured to. 

From there we walked through the little courtyard gardens down to the beautiful fountains and fabulous gardens.  The fountains dance to the music, and the colours are pretty spectacular.  Kaci being a dancer, like her mummy and nanny of course, loves to dance at any opportunity and she had a little dance alongside the fountains..... she even gained a small audience at one point.  Sadly I could get the camera on video quick enough to video her dancing.

My beautiful girls

Me with my gorgeous girls

She was an absolute star that night!  Let's hope we can do it again, sometime soon!

A little snippet of one of the fountains

My little dancer, but she needed some prompting this time!

The Zooooo!

Imagine during a spell of temperatures in the mid to high 30's, that for some strange reason it dropped for one day to around the mid twenties.  A tad strange for August, and we were extremely grateful!  What a perfect day to go to the zoo.  Kaci at 3 1/2 loves the zoo, and Cordoba being small,  and usually fairly quiet means she can run around, and also not get too bored.   Alan and I pay regular visits to Cordoba zoo and there are always new babies something's being born, and we have seen the facilities improve during the time we have been visiting.  Which is always good to see.  The weather being cooler meant great opportunies to see the animals out and about, as they also enjoyed a cooler day.  Enjoy the photos!

Flavia the elephant, in the background!

He's behind you!

I just love this photo!

A lolly before home time!

Frankie and Kaci and the baby bump, come on Holiday!

Well I must start with a grovelling apology.  It's been a hectic few weeks since my last blog post.  I was all ready to tidy this one up and post it, and the beeping thing had vanished.  I have no ideas where it is.  It was typed, photos in place, but the grr@y% 7 8*£&""!....ing thing has gone.  So there was a slight delay, whilst I rewound my sun drenched brain back a few weeks, to when my gorgeous daughter and scrummy granddaughter Kaci were here on their little holiday.

They arrived on time, and thanks to skype and me not being a stranger, little Kaci ran into my arms for a big cuddle.  At 20 weeks pregnant Frankie had a suprisingly big bump, although it was indeed all bump, lucky girl!  The hormones were well and truly hovering near the surface as Frankie burst into tears as she hugged me. Naturally I joined in, it would have been rude not to!

Now I'm sure Kaci's mummy and daddy won't mind me saying, but she is a real Jekyll and Hyde character. The most adorable sweet little girl one minute, floating around showing off her ballet dancing and singing one minute, and then something clicks and she turns into a right little monkey.  Like all proud grandparents I of course claim to have the most beautiful and clever grandgirlies in the world, however I do think this is possibly part of the frustration with Kaci.  We therefore decided to plan our days, and fill them with plenty to keep her occupied.  

Sometimes it worked perfectly, especially with a trip to the zoo, and the fabulous Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos in Cordoba, so more on that in later posts.  Frankie and Kaci really enjoyed spending time in the swimming pool, although possibly the most fun Kaci had was helping us with the animals.  The highlight of her holiday, I do believe was collecting the chickens eggs every night.  Needless to say, scrambled eggs were her breakfast every morning, along with some beautiful Spanish fruit, that she would eat until it almost came out of her ears.  

At the beginning of the holiday Kaci was understandably a little nervous of Blue

Awww and especially Big Arf

Doing her night time chores

                                     

Tomorrows breakfast.  One for mummy too!

Fun in the pool

"Granddad Alan" was one of her best friends

At the Nearby Lake

Flowers for Nanny Lorna!

As the week continued Kaci got so much braver with all the animals.  Especially Blue and Arthur.  What a really lovely time we spent together.  Especially with my Frankie.  Real quality time.  I love and miss them very much!

Barb has Disappeared!

Barb the cat has lived here at the olive mill longer than we have.  She came with the house, along with Marybelle the huge potbellied pig.  Every spring without fail, Barb has delivered a beautiful litter of kittens.  At first we were worried we would be over run by cats, but Barb seems to call some sort of meeting to order and eventually they all move on to pastures new.  We never know where they go, or even exactly when. They gradually become more independant and will miss the occasional meal.  This happens for a period, and then we realise we haven't seen one for a week or so.  Sometimes they return and but often we never see them again.  It's sad at the time, but I guess it's nature.  Barb is the only female allowed to stay, so they others will make their own lives, and hopefully have their own litters too.

It's amazing to watch Barb educate her kittens.  She will give birth to them in the strangest of places, where of course she feels the safest.  The last 3 years, after having them, she has come and actually shown us where they are.  If we get close to them though, she will growl at us.  That's fine, she want's to keep them as safe as possible.  We have watched her move them, if either the alpacas are getting too close, or the weather changes for the worse.  What is obvious is that we are watching Mother nature at her best!

This year for the first time she had had 4 kittens.  Eeny Meeny Miny and little Mo. They were born at the beginning of April, and all thankfully doing well.  They were only about 8 weeks old when we realised we hadn't seen Barb for a couple of days.  I feed the cats to keep them healthy, although they still hunt.  We have never seen a rat on, or near our land, and very rarely even a little mouse.  We need to keep that instinct in them.  Barb, feeding 4 kittens needed her energy, and the kittens had started enjoyed dried cat food too. When we hadn't seen her for a couple of days Alan suggested that maybe she had gone away for a few days to allow her milk to dry up.  I must admit I had never noticed her do that before, although as she was feeding 4, possibly it was getting too much for her.

That was the beginning to the middle of July, and we still haven't seen our beautiful Barb.  She was looking a little thin, although she seemed fit and well.  Possibly she did disappear to allow her milk to dry up, and maybe she has found a new home.  Of course maybe she was ill and took herself away, bless her.  

Who knows what the outcome of this years kittens will be.  At the moment they are dependant on us for food and water.  They have not been taught to hunt.  Barb would normally take them out with her.  She would also gradually teach them where they should and shouldn't go.  They are used to the chickens as they met them when they were very young.  They just met the alpacas whilst following me just a couple of nights ago.  They are also very inquisitive about the dogs.  Our dogs have never been great cat lovers, although, touch wood, none have ever been hurt by a dog.  When it is dinner time 8.30 give or take 5 minutes they start scrambling up the door to look for me, or should I say food, and they run in as soon as the door is opened.  Thank goodness it takes Blue and Arthur a while to go from horizontal to standing, on a slippery floor.  Alan and I have usually managed to round up the kittens and launch them back outside again.  

Hopefully they will in time learn what is and what isnt such a good idea.  I guess next year we will have another dominant female, and let's hope Barb is having a lovely time whereever she may be!

Barb, feeding her little family.  

Nervous Mo is making a run for it!

Eeny

Meeny

 Miny

  

And little Mo, hiding as usual!

La Noche Blanca del Cordoba

Many the major cities in Spain celebrate a night of fabulous flamenco called La Noche Blanca del Flamenco (The White Night of Flamenco).  It is a stunning extravaganza with stages set up all over the city, where you can watching flamenco dancing and singing.  We are lucky enough to have this fantastic night in Cordoba. Last year we also went and seemed to arrive half way through everything, whilst trying to watch as much as possible, then running onto the next plaza.  This time we went just with our Spanish friends Pat and Pedro.  Pedro, the name gives it away, is Spanish, so he was able to understand exactly what was going on, when and where, which enabled us to go for the quality as opposed to the quantity.  

There was still a fair amount of walking involved so P and P came to us early as siestas were certainly on the cards.  It was going to be a fun all nighter!

We left home about 11 pm, as is quite usual for a night out in Spain. The first show we came to were flamenco dancing groups, all ladies, plus a group of men also.  It was wonderful!  The ladies danced with fans, and also with the beautiful shawls.  I had never seen that before!  Pedro loved it.  He's a very emotional man, he had tears in his eyes as he became totally absorbed in it!

The men were extremely macho, and danced beautifully.  Unfortunately the photographs I took of the men were all blurry.  It was my raised temperature, I think!  Luckily I did manage to video a part.  Maybe my mind was too much on that!

We moved onto watch some singing.  Personally not my favourite although the fact that many of it is made up on the spot astounds me.  I find it a tad depressing though.  The crowds however loved it, and it is still a great entertainment!

The hightlight for me, I think, although I loved the group dancing was the four ladies photographed below.  I have never seen such passion or soul put into a performance. Pedro explained to me their dance was called a "Duende".  Lorca the famous Spanish poet wrote 'The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guitar say, the duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.'  Yep I can understand that! It was so powerful one of the dancers was crying at the end of the performance.  All I could say was 'WOW!'

At 5.30 we were going to watch the last show, but there were still so many people around and our feet and backs were aching badly so we decided to call it a night!

The setting for the last show

                            

Our lovely friends, still wide awake!

Me and him!  Alan is trying out a new photo look... it's not working!

We arrived back home just as the sun was coming up!  What a great night!

Ten minutes from home!

For you flamenco lovers, some videos I put together.  Enjoy!