The Smell of Spain in the Spring

It was once described to me that the spring in Sevilla "smells just like being in love does." I'm not quite sure what that smells like, but the orange blossoms, flowers, and trees do smell wonderful. Unfortunately, they also leave me sneezing, blowing my nose, and longing for my box of allergy medicine to arrive. Alas, I must also tragically be allergic to love...

Moving on now, since I had nothing to do this Saturday, my boss and her husband invited me to go to the country with them to his family's farm. (For a review, my boss is American, but her husband is Spanish. Clarissa has her business in the back room of the office, and don José is a lawyer and the Swedish consul. I'm working on projects for both of them right now.) The hacienda is between Sevilla and Huelva, straight west of here. Saturday was a gorgeous day and I very much enjoyed exchanging the noisy and crowded city for the picturesque countryside with the only sounds coming from the wind, horses, and birds.

Theirs is a family farm, run by the 10 brothers and sisters in the family. Only a few of them actually live there; the others just come to visit some days when they can. I enjoyed meeting a few of them and enjoying a relaxing afternoon talking, eating out on the patio, and walking around the farm. It is a typical Spanish farm laid out in a square around a courtyard with the big farmhouse in one corner and smaller houses, sheds for the equipment, and stables on the other sides. Here are pictures of the main house and one of the brothers (or husbands, it was hard to keep everyone straight.)

And on that farm they have fields of sunflowers, olive groves, and pastures with cork oaks where they also raise cows. A herd of wild horses lives in the pastures with the cows; years ago they came over from the Rocio and the family has taken care of them ever since. Clarissa took me offroading on the land in a Jeep, and I saw several newborn foals and calfs.

Out back they have grape vines and rows of fruit trees: oranges, tangerines, lemons, and figs. They also have the "problem" of spices growing wild all over the place, mint, parsley, oregano, and others. I picked a bag of oranges and tangerines to take back with me, and after these, I'm not sure I'll be able to eat oranges in America ever again. I love you all! Let me know how y'all are! :^)