Mostly flowers . . . 
[UPDATED FRIDAY 7 JULY 2017]
This will (eventually) be a proper Roundup of our recent holiday in Spain, at the marvellous "alternative" centre of Cortijo Romero. And No! It's nothing to do with Cowboys and cattle: that's yet another of your bizarre, human, often somewhat misleading figures of speech. Sigh.

Those of you who know Alice personally, may have already seen all her photos - edited, at last, despite some illness and other commitments. Whew.

This first one shows us on the sign at the beginning of the driveway. The next is at the impressive gates to the lovely grounds. [ Click on any of the images to see bigger versions. ]

We had a really nice room, with a screen door as you can see here, to keep out the nasty insects. Luckily they weren't around yet in May.

Being in the "quiet area" was a bit more expensive, but worth it, as Alice didn't want to be woken from her sleep by noisy revellers or midnight splashing and diving in the pool. Mind you, the birdsong alone was quite abundant most of the time, but relatively pleasant and almost soothing.

Ba just loved all the flowers, as you'll see below. We both enjoyed the fun of setting up our photoshoots, even falling off from time to time. We're pretty resilient, of course, not like you humans with your breakable bones and all that. [ This link is fun! ]

Alice also took a video of the delightful garden, to include the birdsong: but it's too big to look good embedded here (she tried) so she'll edit it for YouTube and put a link IN HERE later on.

[ Do click on this one, won't you. ] 

We did a bit of exploring on the first night. Ba was rather nervous clambering about, even though there were plenty of strategic lights around the place.

Just round the corner we came upon this delightful window box in the side wall of the laundry.

Even though a few were fading, the pink geraniums look even more dramatic in the flash, I think.

But it was good to get back to bed with a favourite book and a cup of tea before settling down. Poor old Alice has had some awfully bad insomnia lately, so she also did some catching up in the afternoons.

The next day she bought me a present from Cortijo Romero's own little souvenir shop. It's a real obsidian pendant. You'll have to guess what it's for. Clue: what's our favourite TV series? [ You'll find the answer at the end of this post - when we finally get to it. ]

Alice was here for a week of doing those Five Rhythms she's so keen on. She said the teacher, Jo Hardy, was really good, especially as some people in the group had never done it before, while some others were familiar with the practice but to varying degrees.

There's a great video, A Conscious Dance Practice, about the classes Jo used to teach in Devon, which shows you a lot of the actual dancing: it might even inspire you to have a go too.

We don't have the right sort of feet to join in, so we sat and stared at Alice's slippers (no footwear allowed in the Group Room) and looked over towards the enticing bright blue of the pool.

There was a much better view from the top of the roof, with sight of some really bright red geraniums by the stairway.

And down in the courtyard itself, we found this cheeky cockerel in a little niche. Someone had even given him a couple of corn cobs to peck at.

The pool looks very inviting indeed in the hot afternoon sun.

Alice did get in a couple of times after dancing, with a number of Ooo's and Aaah's. She said it was "most refreshing."

What she really meant was cold. But we reckoned that since our constitutions aren't made for water sports, we'd just enjoy lazing and looking.

Alice is somehat of a perfectionist (you must have already grasped that!) and doesn't like leaving odd-shaped spaces in this blog. So she's amalgamated some of her remaining photos to include as many as she can, but still avoid "filling in" gaps with unnecessary text. That process, of course, took longer than she anticpated, or you would have got this completed post much sooner.
I hope it's worth the wait.

Above is such a one, showing the Honeysuckle we sniffed on the way to the drying area. A shame we can't include the wonderful scent. But use your imagination! It's been put together with one which includes the mountains you would have seen in the background on the left, had you been with us.

And here we are, overseeing the hanging up. With the hot weather and the bright sunshine, everything dried really fast.

There are some beautiful knarled old trees in the gardens. This one is just outside the little room where the lovely Brenda gives massage to those who want to take advantage of this optional extra to their course.

Alice had booked her place as soon as possible: Brenda is very popular indeed. We waited at the tree for her to emerge glowing with pleasure and new relaxation.

One day during our stay, we made the walk to the neighbouring little town of Orgiva, where there's a market once a week.

There are some very pretty houses next to the road, with flowers beside them, or on the roof in pots. Looking back along our route, you can see more mountains, and pointed cedars against the sky.

The second is a shot of us looking at one of the many orchard gardens along the way. [ You'll need to click on it to see the details in both of them. ]

Further on, Ba just had to get up close with these bright yellow cactus flowers! It was quite a tricky job removing all the little spines afterwards.

Alice composed a jingle of a haiku for the occasion:

Though Ba finds it tickles 

She loves the bright cactus flowers

And even the prickles.

Not one of her best poetic creations, I'm afraid. . .

 .

The market itself was very busy indeed, so we didn't get out of Alice's little orange rucksack to explore, in case someone took a fancy to us and we were kidnapped.

When we got back to Cortijo Romero, and cooled down a bit, Alice tried on the amazing gament she'd bought at one of the shops in the town itself. 

And we took a proper look at a real, "live" orange growing on one of the trees in the orchard. Ba was suitably impressed.

Other items of interest in the grounds included this unusual statue, en route to the group room. It's in memoriam to one Alastair Macmillan. We don't know who he actually was, but the plaque at his feet adds Thanks for some serious fun! so we guess he was well liked.

Someome had left a little bird's nest on the figure's hands: we were very careful not to disturb it.

On our last day, Ba said a tender farewell to one of her favourite flowers outside our room: she loves even the very smallest. Aaah.

Above are the only two photos Alice managed to take of the resident cat: she nearly always looked away or ran off as soon as she sensed there was a camera around. The last one was sneaked when she was apparently asleep. We're terribly sorry we've forgotten her name.

Ah yes, you may have been waiting to find out about that obsidian pendant! Well, here's the answer.

Alice spent some time hunting for just the right background online, then editing the original photo. . . . so that I can valiantly ward off the White Walkers with my very own dragonglass dagger! If this is a mystery to you, have a look at the Game of Thrones Wiki.

If you've never seen Game of Thrones, or even heard of it, and haven't yet read any of the books, then all we can say is that we're sorry for you.

This has been a long blog post for us to create, so please be patient waiting for our next one.

Election June 2017: See also 9th June below **

You can't have missed what's happening today in the UK. [*That had become yesterday by the time we wrote the 9th June update. Confusing? Sorry.]

I wish I could vote for Jeremy Corbyn. He says everything that I've always believed in. Did you see his wonderful final speech in Islington? There's a great report in the Guardian. And if you want the whole rousing rally, with stirring audience reactions, it's now on YouTube.

Ba, of course wants to vote for the Greens, because they care about the environment: her beloved trees and flowers and the rest of Nature.

BUT we're living in Scotland! So Alice had to pour a bit of cold water on our enthusiasm. She totally agrees with Corbyn too, but told us that Scottish Labour are a different kettle of fish, and won't support Independence if we end up getting another five years of being bossed around by the Tories in Westminster. She voted Green No.1 at the Council elections, beause we have Proportional Representation for local elections in our more progressive country. We tried to explain this system to Ba, but she just got confused and upset. She doesn't understand why she can't even cast her own vote.

Alice will be voting tactically. She wants to be sure that even if Theresa May's party end up with the most MPs, there will nevertheless be a strong opposition. And if they still get a big majority, and look like getting their own way with continuing austerity - she would rather have Scottish Independence to run things our own way. [Then she could vote Green again.] So just for today she's voting SNP.

We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the final results. But we won't be staying up all night to be bored by Swingometers and all that. Early to bed, and get up around 5:00 am to see what's what.

** Well, now we've got a wonderfully interesting situation, with a Hung Parliament. Ba is asking if that means Theresa May will be hanged - she's not a favourite in this household.

Alice explained it means the parliament is "hung up" with no one having a big enough majority to be sure of passing any legislation. The BBC has an excellent informative page explaining it all.

The photo above, by the way, is one Alice took from the London Eye when she was "Down South" way back in 2005, newly jazzed up a bit of course. [ I know: it's not down at all. ]

Odds and ends [plus a trailer]

Trailer. We've just got back home after a holiday at this amazing place in Spain. Alice has always been into the "alternative" culture, what with Psychotherapy, and the Five Rhythms Dance - not to mention Astrology of course. Silly expression that, isn't it? Because we have just mentioned it! Human figures of speech are a wonder to me, make me wonder, I mean - and figures of speech is another (self-referential) one too. It's endles . . .

Anyway, Cortijo Romero is a super place for a different sort of holiday. Take a look. We'll be saying  more about it when Alice has finally edited her zillions of photos. There's lots of us two there, and Ba features especially among all the wonderful flowers.

Meanwhile.
We have various "odds and ends" to catch up with. Yet another bizarre turn of phrase used by you humans.

Our friend down the road (who incidentally is a great Game of Thrones fan, looking forward to Season 7 as much as ourselves) also has a monkey, who was gven this jumper by a friend of hers. As you can see, it's a bit over-large for him, so she wondered if our Monkey here would like it.

It does fit just a bit better. Is Ba applauding and jumping with excitement - or is she horrifed by the gaudy colours?

I actually rather like the garment, but I'm afraid I have to admit it might be best to save it until the next Festive Season. [Click if you're sure you want to see it bigger.]

Alice concurs, much to Ba's relief.

When we next visited the grandchildren, we found them busy making these hedgehogs from a bread recipe, including yeast, so they had to wait for the dough to rise before the creatures could be shaped with their prickles and given some eyes. This is the final product out of the oven. The children took them to school, one each a day. The later report was that they were jolly good to eat too.

What is this plant, and where are we? You haven't seen us precisely here before. And no, it's not a Triffid. The label it came with told us it's a Begonia, moreover,  a "hanging" one.

Alice had planted two corms (a bit different from bulbs) and this one is in the bathroom, by the window, so we're curious to see how well (or not?) it will thrive there.

Here's the other one, in the usual kitchen indoor windowsill space. It's bigger, and the leaves are a bit more tattered. We can't wait to see the flowers when, we hope, they eventually come out.

Back to a favourite spot
Where are we now? And why does she always photograph us looking at food! I suppose it's because we're all sitting still for a while during a meal. And she does so like the look of tasty dishes.

We've been here oodles of times: it's the extra nice cafe in the Gallery of Modern Art One.

She came here to catch up with an old friend who moved away from Scotland ages ago. And they didn't half talk. They never moved from the spot to go and look at any of the art!

I was glad we received a mention when they got onto the usual topic of matters psychological. Alice said that we each present "an excellent mouthpiece for different facets of her personality." A bit pompous, if you ask me, but then nobody ever does [ Sigh ] even though my life-long study of human beings has led me to draw my own conclusions on such matters.

We came back the following week, and sat for a while in the lovely warm sunshine, looking across the lake towards the distant swans and the front of the Gallery itself.

Later on we walked around and Alice got a better shot of them. That's more like it! Aren't they beautiful birds indeed. This photo is one well worth clicking on to enjoy at full size.

We all had a little picnic on the edge of the Land Art beside the lake.

Ba couldn't wait to dig in, as they say.

These M&S "popped chips" are very tasty with a lump of cheese. And apparently they have fewer calories than the usual sort, so Alice doesn't feel so guilty for enjoying them.

We went through the gallery itself (no looking at art on such a sunny day) and down the steps to the Water of Leith.

There were still some bluebells blooming in the shade of the trees. It was very peaceful, and Ba could happily have stayed for hours.

But I was glad we carried on - as we got to see this magnificent heron.

It was standing very still, looking out for tasty fish in the running water. Barking, splashing dogs didn't seem to make any difference to the concentration.

Further on, there were some beautiful trees and flowers, plus lovely rippled reflections in the water. [ Do click! ]

Where on earth has Ba got to now! Well, you know how she loves to be "In Nature," and she couldn't resist one last time.

She had begged to be hoisted up into the hollow of this tree, though it was quite a stretch for Alice. She would have stayed there for hours too, but we persuaded her that it would eventually get cold, and we were heading home, anyway . . . Still, what a splendid afternoon we'd had.

I like being in nature too, despite teasing Ba, and so does Alice.

Spring along the canal
[ PHOTO UPDATE 21 APRIL 2017 ]

It was a beautiful sunny day last week, so we went for a walk in Harrison Park. The afternoon sun was so bright, the daffodils at first looked somewhat faded, though they weren't at all so. Ba just loves being well and truely "In Nature."

In the second, closer shot, you can see the daffodils in something more like their true colours. [ Click or tap any photos here to see them even larger. ]

Then we walked along the canal towpath, where we could see the boats and barges, and the bridge ahead.

A little further along, we admired the view from the boarding platform beside a houseboat. The family on it told us it is really lived in.




Ba thought that would be terribly romantic, but Alice soon put her right by talking about the cold, the lack of space, and maybe even, the possibility of rats. So she changed her opinion. Here we are in the next photo, looking back at it and towards the park again.

Pausing en route, we saw this lovely brightly-coloured duck. Alice says it's a Mallard. See the RSPB website for more information - and hear how they quack, too.

Jut a minute later, along came Mrs Mallard as well, not as brightly dressed as her mate. I wished we'd brought some bread, to scatter and try to persuade them to come even closer.

Ba was glad we hadn't brought bread, as that's not their normal, natural diet.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds say they eat seeds, acorns and berries, plants, insects and shellfish.

Alice could remember feeding them stale bread when her sons were still tiny, and they seemed to enjoy eating it, all the same.

If you go for full-size on this image, you can see them in even more detail.

We paused here under this old tree for a bit of a breather.

Then heading up towards the bridge, we looked back again.

Lots of people had come out to enjoy the sunshine and take a walk, or ride, or run even, along this super pathway.

What a perfect reflection in the canal of these two matching rowing boats. Alice spent ages getting into just the right position to take this one: but, I have to admit, after she'd got it into her computer and edited, it was worth having waited around for her.

Update with the photo here!

This 90° version was suggested by Alice's grand-daughter Angelina, who recently turned 11 (see the previous post below this one.) Just a little editing has produced a wonderful trompe l'oeil effect.

Under it is the view from the bridge itself, looking back.

Looking over in the other direction, we could see the next part of our walk.

Ba really likes this photo, as the tender green buds fill the foreground. Click!

You can now explore all the way to Falkirk! If you want to go the whole hog, take a look at the walkhighands website, where it explains how to get to (or rather from) Glasgow.

We turned off the route well before that as Alice was getting a bit tired, and anyway we had to divert from the towpath to get to our planned destination, traipsing through the uninspiring Meggetland modern estate.

We needed to do some shopping at the supermarket here. A totally different sort of pleasure, after which we were glad to take the bus back home and get a cup of tea. [ This photo was actually taken in July 2015, but it looked just the same in April 2017. ]