Self catering holiday rental accommodation in the Alpujarras, Andalucia, southern Spain

I live here at Cortijo Opazo, a self catering and guided walking holiday destination in the region of the Alpujarras, Granada, Spain. I sometimes take the guests for a walk but generally I just see they are all OK and give them random bits of advice. I have to maintain the high standards of the business.

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Blog from 2010

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Blogs from 2009

Friday August 27th 2010

El Jardín Musical

My co-writer of this blog has been absent for awhile, checking out the walking and general weather in Cumbria, England, where apparently he 'Went Ape'. He is back now so we can make report of the rather splendid concert that took place in the garden of Cortijo Opazo on August 12th 2010.

We had four musicians, as follows:

Jean-Pierre Delens, pianist from Belgium, Chris Zeul, (saxophone) local resident originally from Germany, Mariann Rosenbusch, (pianist) also local resident but originally from Switzerland and Michael Tracy, (pianist) English but residing in Spain and Belgium.

The progaramme was delightful and of a very high quality, including pieces by Mozart, Schumann, Fauré, Villa-Lobos, Piazolla and Albeniz. The evening was fabulous, pleasantly warm but with no wind, and the music just enchanting. Have a look at the video extract below:

Flushed with the success of this event, the two companions that I live with, William and Robert, are already planning their next 'espactácula'. This is to be an evening of wining and dining, of tasting good food and meeting interesting people. They are planning a 'Pop-Up' Supper Club in the garden on the evening of September 24th, aslo as a fund raiser for 'Jardín de la Alpujarra'. If you would like more information please get in touch with me and I will tell you more.

Now on to other matters. When I first heard the expression 'Orange Alert' I thought there was some form of disaster threatening the well being of the orange harvest in Spain but I was wrong. We are currently on 'Orange Alert' today, an official indication of extreme weather - there being a yellow, orange and red alert. The concern is for high temperatures. The forecast says that in Granada the thermometer will reach 40 degrees or more, whilst in Murcia - and area of 'red alert' - it is expected to reach 44 degrees. With us, in the mid afternoon, we have gone as far as 35 degrees, which is as high as we can remember. There are not many visitors to the garden so far, but who can blame them. Tomorrow the alert will be reduced to 'yellow' status and by Sunday we should be expecting normal conditions of about 25 degrees.

It seems my dinner is ready, so I will leave you with these mouth watering pictures of what is to come.

Yours, preparing my best bib and tucker,

Fergus

Tuesday August 10th 2010

If you build it, they will come

The last entry of July presented the notion of the local 'Semana Cultural' or cultural week of Pórtugos, and the fact that we at Cortijo Opazo had decided to put our money where our muzzle is and invite the village to visit what we have created here in terms of the garden and the association 'Jardín de la Alpujarra'. Our concern was that, having put up our stall and opened out doors, would anyone come? The weather was hot and it's a bit of a walk from the village. The Spanish are not so accustomed to the idea of 'Open Gardens' as we English, would they be bothered to find out what it is all about on a sticky evening in August.

Doors opened at 7.30pm. At 7.15 we gathered on our terrace with some light refreshment to muse over the fact that, after so much hard work, nobody would come, for sure. Then, at 7.25pm, Ella offered up a few barks and we looked up the hill. A Spanish family appeared around the corner, were they bound for Cortijo Opazo? Sadly, it seemed they were not as they chattered their way past the house. But then they paused and I called out: 'Are you looking for the garden to visit'. 'Sí, claro,' came the positive reply and we welcomed them around to the side of the house on which the garden is to be found - many passers by comment that from the road there is no indication that we have such a large and well put together plot. As I was starting to show these visitors the corners of the garden where a dachshund might find the most interesting smells, my two human companions exclaimed that a procession had just rounded the corner. Sure enough, lead by Mari Carmen from the town hall, a long line of walkers were heading down hill to our garden, in a scene reminiscent of the exploration of Never Never Island in Peter Pan.

From then the evening went splendidly, some of our visitors were Spanish neighbors who we knew, but the majority were people we had never seen before, staying in Pórtugos to meet their families and join in with the 'Semana Cultural'. In all about 80 people came to our garden during the event and were very positive indeed., many declaring that they had never seen anything like it - for the tradition of planting mixed perennial borders is not very common in Andalucia.

It would seem that the plan, hatched on top of a Cumbrian mountain some nine years ago, has turned out not so bad after all. have a look at some pictures below that show our visitors enjoying themselves.

Yours, looking for my next project,

Fergus

NB - Fergus needs to be reminded that before he can launch himself into any new projects his attention will be required on Thursday 12th August for the garden concert - more information can be found here.

Village Open Day, Tuesday August 3rd 2010