I went away and stayed too long
We've been back for a week but this little chap has been a bit of an aguafiestas (wet blanket). It has literally 'gone viral' with our delicate upper respiratory tracts and drained my enthusiasm even for Álora although I did manage a bowl of callos on Mothers' Day.
I can now report some important changes that are sure to be of interest to anyone eagerly waiting for the first bulletin from Spain this year.
We arrived back in Álora on Tuesday afternoon. As we began the unloading of the car, Isabela came over to greet us. 'There's a crack in the convento'. she appeared to be saying as she embraced us. She has taken to wearing a woolly hat with a peak. I put it down to my newly diagnosed high frequency hearing loss. Then Maria José, who had just locked up the museum at the end of the street and was heading for her lunch, said roughly the same thing. It must be serious.
The Convento de los Flores (The Convent of Flowers) is up on the Ardales road about half a mile past Mercadona. It is where La Virgen de Flores (The Virgin of Flowers) lives. She is the joint patrona (patron virgin) of Álora and is a very important figure in the life of the town.
La Virgen de Flores and friends
Every year in the morning of the last Sunday in August she is taken from the convento and carried down through the town to the parish church in the Plaza Baja. Nine days of special masses (novena) are held and then on her birthday, September 8th., she is taken on a procession round the town. On the first Sunday after her birthday the Romeria (pilgrimage) takes place. This is unmissable and involves much rejoicing and drinking.
A crack in the bell tower of the convento as a big deal. It will have to be repaired and by the look of it, the sooner the better. The town is still reeling from the damage caused last year by the floods and work on putting back the bridge over the Guadalhorce River has not started yet.
Work on the Castillo of Álora seems to have cracked on and the first phase (making the walls safe) seems to be complete. I can now take Tommy for his morning walk without the fear of being buried in moorish masonry. It's looking a lot tidier up there too and a wooden walkway that goes nowhere has been put there so that you can now walk along it and look down over the Guadalhorce valley. The kestrels seem to like it too. They have returned from who knows where to breed in the bell tower. I counted 11 yesterday but there are bound to be more. They are lesser kestrels but are apparently unaware of this undeserved slur and keep coming back.
The view from the castle hasn't changed much. The river is still very full following a long period of rainy weather and at 8.30 am., viewed against the morning sun, it looks like a river of molten gold.
In the Plaza Baja we are short of a palm tree, The ayuntamiento uprooted the four old, shade giving Indian Laurels and replaced them with four palms just at the time when the red palm weevil was nibbling its way through Andalucía and had already destroyed the only tree on Calle Ancha. Just a stump remains of the first casualty. The other three are almost certain to go too.
The only other significant change has been to the puti club on the road to Málaga. (more detailed directions supplied on request). It has been painted black and renamed 'Cuorex' which almost rhymes with...well I preferred 'Laurel' (Para que te sientes bien). I should add that it is located in the Pizarra municipality so should not really be included in this Álora blog.
We had really gone up there for a coffee in La Posada del Conde and to look for the tiny daffodil which I had identified wrongly as a Hoop Petticoat Daffodil in January. They were there all right but nothing like the Petticoat chaps.
It's Narcissus cantabricus and is white, not yellow as I remembered. It's very small too and very pretty. Aren't I a big softie?
March 14th. 2013
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