WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT!!!

it's been very quiet around the build for a couple of days, mainly due to the national transport strike.

The builder can't get some of the materials he needs so until it's over I thought I'd tell you a little about some of the great things that are happening in our area.

FEISTA "Funeral for a Sardine"
Did someone mentions sardines??? There was I thinking that a tasty meal was about to appear?
This fiesta is a celebration of the time when the first sardines of the year were brought by cart from the coast........no one seems to know when the funeral element came in but it's a wonderful night. This is what happens:
For weeks before the fiesta the men plan their costumes and are expected to dress as women, the results are often hilarious as you can see from the photos,. People dress in all manner of clothes and at the head of the procession is a very large paper mache sardine on a metal frame. The town band plays some great tunes and then at certain stages the procession stops, the band breaks into the funeral march and everyone pretends to weep and wail!! After a few minutes the band stikes up a cheerful tune and the procession carries on and on into the small hours. There is huge merriment and all filmed by Rute TV the local station who films everything so that we can all see it again later.

Shame there were no real sardines!!!!

The view from above!

Today I decided to explore the range above my new house. It was very exciting, lots of new smells and lovely flowers. The wild flowers are stunning at this time of year, poppies and wild orchids to name just two.
It's a pity there isn't a little 'cat nip' growing on the land.
As you can see the roof is going on now and I guess it won't be long before more pets are coming to stay!

As you all know my name is Arfa. (I have half a tail and half and ear) I decided to adopt/rescue these two very kind and slightly crazy ladies quite some time ago when they moved to Spain. I wasn’t going to bother with them but I liked the particular brand of salami that was on offer and well……it would have been rude to refuse….and I was getting a little tired of lizards etc they are so bland!! So these two are my new pets….

They bought the plot of land where my ruin was and everything has started to change, I got a little bit worried to start with but all seems ok now that I have trained them (Julie and Sheelagh) a little but I do still have to keep them on their toes. Building started with this enormous yellow machine whose digging really disturbed my naps for quite a few weeks and then came the ‘pecker’ which chipped away at the bed rock for days on end, it was enough to give me a migraine and it did eventually drive me to the local bar for a little peace and quiet. Nowadays things have settled down a little and I can now see how beautiful my new pad will be. I have 5 acres of olive grove to hunt and play in, a well with fresh water and some rather tasty morsels from Sheelagh and Julie when they come to the land, which is every day now.

They have a strange habit of calling ‘puss puss’ when they want me …honestly it’s so embarrassing when my friends hear them .The new building is fine for me and there is a little space next to the back door where I have decided to leave my food dishes and a great shaded area under the walk way around the house which will be just perfect for my afternoon naps……it’s started to get hot here during the day and it’s all a cat can do to stay awake….well I’m off now to explore a bit more and I will write more tomorrow….. until then….toodles (short for toodle ooo) I think my English is coming on really well!

Why are we here??

My name is Arfa to be precise Arfa from Andalucia. Here's a little bit of info about the 'pets' I live with and then you can find me and my news later on....


From Julie : So where was I? so we moved to Iznajar renting a fab house with pool so that both our families and friends could visit....and they did... thank God for budget airlines. We then started the process to get permission to build Brazos Abiertos Casa Rural (which means Open Arms) it has take 18months hard slog through unbelievable red tape and just when we thought we were there another new law came in and if I hear the word 'pero' (BUT) once more from an official I think I'll scream!!! The local town hall have been excellent and the Mayoress Isabel Lobato ALCALDESA DE IZNAJAR (who now oficially walks on water for us) has been fantastic in her support
Pero we now have all the permissions and a licence to build etc etc....so we start next week (we hope)

So here are a few photos of our beautiful 20,000 sq metre olive grove and the ruin which will soon be transformed from the photo on the left to the one on the right....if only it was that easy!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Why are we here??

A few years ago I and a like minded friend (Sheelagh) decided to do something a little different and move to another country to set up a business (another one as we already run www.tic1.co.uk in the UK) With a background in education and working with children/adults and parents with special needs we decided to set up a fully accessible rural guest house with paying guests who would enable us to offer free holiday accommodation to a range of folks who needed time out for lots of reasons, one of which was parents/carers who had a child in a hospice.

We both firmly believe that everyone should try to give something back if they can...so this is our effort. I am not going to tell you a great deal about our journey to get here as that's for a book I want to write someday....I can hear you saying yada yada but you never know and when you see the book 'The Bus Stop in Las Chozas' you'll say Oh My God she wrote it!!

In January 2005 we went to Southern France and spent a week looking for a place to buy. Easy you would think!! We found a few properties in really pretty villages but unfortunately most of the other houses were owned by foreigners and shut up for most of the year. In addition it was mighty cold, so after numerous hot chocolates with Amaretto we both looked at each other and said "South, we need to go South" ...our search continued.

In April 2005 we visited southern Spain. Our criteria was specific, we wanted to be near water and no more than 1 hour from an airport so that cut things down quite a bit.

After driving around for a few days we decide to visit Iznajar about an hour inland from Malaga. We were driving along the A333 into Iznajar and about a mile from the village we turned the corner and there was a view that left us both breathless...a beautiful village clinging onto a rock face above the lake and we both said "this is it".

Posted by Julie at Brazos Abiertos at 10:37 PM 0 comments