Cortijada Los Gazquez - Vida en 1000m. Parque Natural Sierra Maria Los Velez. Andalucia.

What else would one do on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon out in the campo in mid October? Out in the vega?

The answer, go and find a stretch of the newest asphalt you can find, put on your Rollerblades and learn to do stunts over daddy while he lies in the road trying to take photos of his children.

This is one of the best times of year here. It’s around 24˚C / 75˚F, sunny, as you can see in the photo, with cool nights. At my age looking at that new asphalt I’m thinking ’should I dig out the old skateboard?’…

Ok, so it’s proud Dad time again. Sollie (how he likes it spelt) with his good friends Marlow and Alfie (over from London for a summer holiday) have made this rather good (if I say so myself) ’stop motion’ film. There are hints of Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’ as well as the classic ‘Blade Runner’ but more significant is the degree of violence. We could have three new Peckinpah’s in the making. And this is the home of the spaghetti western…

Once again it’s ‘proud dad’ time. Solomon and Sesamé have just performed in their end of term summer concert at the music school in Vélez Rubio…

I think we have the makings of a new Anglosaxon Paco Peña.

It makes the extra four hours a week all worthwhile…

As a rule it’s best advised to avoid eulogising one’s own children, especially in a blog. But in this one instance forgive me, I am a proud father (there I’ve said it!).

Solomon and Sesamé attend the music school of Leopoldo Torrecillas Iglesias in Vélez Rubio and last Monday they had their first concert. Solomon plays guitar with Juan Ramón Navarro Sánchez which he enjoys very much. Here he is playing a ‘Pequeña Marcha’.

And Sesamé plays the clarinet, here with her tutor José Antonio Millán Garcia. If you were wondering, she is playing Frere Jaquets una popular Francesca.

Little one’s!!!!

p.s. My post title is quoting Willy Wonka (just in case you were also wondering).

I guess I’m quite happy to admit to being a proud father but sometimes I wish I could make time stand still. If I could it would be now, at eight. It’s such a good age in so many ways. Grown up but still little.

Happy birthday Sol and Sesamé.

Running south and west and marking the perimeter of our land here is ‘La Barranca’. It’s a normally dry river gorge, however it can run with water as a consequence of a weather event or the run off from spring rains.

The end of another exploration.

Las adventuras de ‘Zookiezooet’ y ‘Zoobutterfly’.

There are some great geological formations at the Cabo de Gata, great rivers of antideluvian lava flows now burnished and eroded into formations like the breaking waves of the Mediterranean. And these formations make lots of little sitting areas for little girls still occupied by Christmas’ fairy culture.

And lots of precipitous ridges for rather large seven year old boys to dice with death upon.