Periana, Spain - Day 5 🫒
- Ellie Hubbard
- Jun 7
- 5 min read
This blog is brought to you by Ellie (and special guest Animal Correspondent, Ruth!)
Well, yesterday was pretty eventful, despite ending well. Shall we have a chilled day today? I think we shall.
We had a slow breakfast this morning on the front terrace (a choice of terraces, how hard our life has been this week). Today we had a small and perfectly formed plan. Myself, Barry and Dad were to drive into Periana to fetch two highly sought after items, then return victorious and to much applause.
We set off on the usual twisty-turny route into town, then were directed through some very narrow streets, mostly residential but dotted with small shops and vendors. Locals were ambling about on their morning errands, produce in hand, as we were soon to be. After some hairy moments with oncoming vehicles, we parked up in a pretty street near a picturesque church (noting Dad’s textbook parking), then walked around the corner to our first destination: the Periana Olive Oil Co-Op!
We entered into a factory courtyard, on the left some open buildings displaying where olives are pressed, ahead was a large mural of an olive tree with a little Jesus set into the wall (of course) and on the right some offices, a small petrol station and a little shop. The latter was where we were to find the town’s precious nectar, though it was filled with all sorts of local produce and also car parts! We purchased a couple of bottles of olive oil (and local marmalade for Barry). The process of paying for these items was quite peculiar as the man at the till typed in each product and printed us an invoice before we paid. He told me England is a “good country” and I politely agreed, thinking we could do with more sun and more olive oil co-ops.
The first treasure on our list secured, we typed “bakery” into Google maps and, sure enough, we were direct just a two minute stroll down the road to a fairly unassuming shop front. It looked a bit modern and I wasn’t convinced, but when we walked in, we saw that the whole back of the bakery was an open area where all of the bread and pastries were prepared.
The front of the shop was filled with goodies, including a small array of pastries as big as my head. A sweet little lady came through to greet us. She didn’t speak much, if any, English, but we all charmed our way through the conversation. Two large, crusty baguettes were secured quickly and myself and the lady both crouched down so that she could see which pastries we fancied. She placed them all on a gold paper plate and wrapped them lovingly in paper before handing them over, awarded by many “oohs” and “ahhs” by those of us more used to a Greggs paper bag.
Both treasures secured, we scurried joyfully back to the car and whizzed home to mum, Ruth and brother Samuel to fully relax for the rest of the day. This is when my skin did most of its pinkening, but we won’t dwell. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon, alternating between sun, pool, shade and then sun again. Brother Samuel read out crossword clues and we all got a chance to demonstrate our varying levels of genius, but also had fun crafting new words when the correct word didn’t come to us. APEMODE was a particular highlight until I eventually remembered that the word ‘awesome’ exists. Barry finished the third and final book in his series and highly recommends it, so it’s on my list to read.
Ruth and brother Samuel had popped into Periana this afternoon for more supplies (they ran into Javier the cat, who brought his friends to meet them) and were going to make a quick meal of chorizo, pepper and mascarpone pasta. They had it together relatively quickly and we devoured it as the sun set, along with our bread from the sweet bakery lady, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was absolutely delicious and we all cleaned our plates. We were joined by the smallest black cat we have ever seen, who was on the hunt for morsels. We had been asked not to engage with a black cat in the area that was a bit bedraggled as it sprays the furniture, but this one was tiny and very sleek. She was nervous but got close enough for Sam and Ruth to give it tiny morsels. She stuck around for the rest of the meal, meowing ever so softly.
We had a few raucous games of Uno after dinner, which mum, dad and brother Samuel won, then all decided we were bloody knackered and ready to get to bed. Tomorrow is to be the day that Barry and I travel home to rainy England, sadly, so it was going to be a morning of packing, a quick sunbathe/swim and big goodbyes before heading back to Malaga to fly home to our own two cat sons. Thank you to Hannah for caring for them this week and thank you for reading about our little adventures, it’s fun to write them and it helps me remember where the heck I’ve been.
See you in October for our big adventure of the year!
And now, presenting a bonus feature of the blog…
Wildlife Watching, with Ruth!
Our week in Periana has come to a close and it's been a great week for spotting the local bids, some familiar to me as we also get them in the UK, but also some rare and exciting breeds.
I'm used to holidaying with my parents and their expert knowledge (and binoculars), but it was up to me this week to try and spot and identify using my terrible eyesight! Luckily I had the Merlin app on hand to help me identify, especially birdsong which I am particularly useless at.
The villa is constantly surrounded by the chirping of House Sparrows, who seem to be nesting in the palm trees. It's been lovely to lie by the pool and watch the adult birds zoom into the tops of the trees every few minutes with some unlucky bugs for their hungry young. The parent birds have done well, defending their nests from pesky pigeons and Collared Doves, as well as the occasional lurking Sparrowhawk.
I was starting to lose hope as there was no sign on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of one of my favourite birds of the area, the Griffen Vulture. These huge birds glide high in the air, often as a pair or group of 3. How pleased I was to receive a message from Ellie on Wednesday morning (when I was having a bit of a lie in) to say there was "some kind of Eagle circling over the hills!" I rushed up to the pool area and was so pleased to see that the vultures had finally shown, and then made a daily appearance. Other birds of prey spotted include Kestrel and a Booted Eagle from the car on the way to Granada, as well as the Sparrowhawk. There have been other sightings but I'm not confident in identifying as they were slightly too far away (must bring some binoculars next time!).
The days have been filled with the cooing of a Turtle Dove, which is getting rarer and rarer in the UK so this was a real treat. Other birds of note seen from the pool include: Swift, Swallow, Hoopoe(!), Short-toed Treecreeper, Sardinian Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Goldfinch and Serin.
There have also been some nice sightings of insects in and around the villa, including a Swallowtail butterfly and Egyptian Grasshopper.
🕊️
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