Auntie Ann!!!

Forgive my blogging absence. I have a very good excuse: she's 5'4", green eyes, blond hair, weighs 5 kilos more after her Rick Steve's tour around Spain (that number is going up in La Roda)... That's right-- my dearest Auntie Ann!

She arrived at lunchtime Sunday and will be with me here through Saturday. Needless to say that the prep. (studying, etc. in order to enjoy her properly) prior to her visit wasn't conducive to blogging, and I'm afraid that her visit is proving to be more of the same. That is to say we are enjoying ourselves immensely and I haven't a min. to spare in which I can sit down at the computer to write.

(With the exception of right now. She is on Angelines's computer and has just forcefully told me, "We are both going to write!" Read: "Shut up, already, Viola!")

Our adventures thus far include a visit to the Laguna de Fuente de Piedra, a natural wetlands area very near La Roda and one of the only breeding grounds for flamingos in Europe. Usually this time of year there aren't any flamingos, but since we've had several good water years there's still food for them and about 200 are still around. Auntie Ann was thrilled since this year she's decided to learn about birds and joined the Portland Audubon Society. In British, this means she's a "twitcher". ;)

We hooked up with a woman that I coincidentally met the night before over drinks with Angelines. She was a guide for years at the Laguna and met us there with several pairs of binoculars and even a birding telescope! I've never seen the birds so close since we don't have a pair of binoculars ourselves. She was full of little tidbits of information. Did you know that Egyptians refer to the flamingo as phoenix? When they're chicks they're ash grey and then grow to be flame pink--re-born from its own ashes. :)

Yesterday was a trip to Córdoba. We saw Madinat al-Zahara, the archaeological site outside town and then had lunch and toured the Mezquita in the city center. I love going places with her because she is even more curious than I am (can you imagine?) and therefore asks all kinds of great questions. If I don't have the answer ready for her, I love speculating over possible answers and/or later looking them up. Such fun!

The week's going to fly by, I can already tell. Well, it's already Wendnesday, for cryin' out loud!

Off for tapas with my Auntie. :)