That’s me, the creator of this blog

Born in Canada by mistake, I’ve been happily living in Sevilla, Spain since 8 pm September 16th, 1993, after having spent somewhat over a year in Salamanca. Previously I lived in Winnipeg, Toronto and Bristol (in that order).

When I started casa azahar on May 1st 2006, it was my first ever blog and it was created as a general interest “blogazine” type of place.  Then in May 2008 I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer (metastasis to liver and peritoneum). It’s been quite the roller coaster ride since then but so far I have been very lucky and it seems I have beat the odds. These are my cancer-related posts.

While recuperating from various operations and going through chemo twice, this blog took on another meaning for me, and became like a daily therapy session when I gave myself the challenge to post something here every day, no matter how sick or scared or lost I felt, so that at least each morning I had something to get out of bed for and to work on. Which meant it then turned it into a “daily scrapbook” (dear diary?) kind of blog, and I’ve kept it going that way ever since, mostly because if I ever stopped posting something every day I would feel pressure that the NEXT post would have to be about something interesting or important.  😉

So this is all about me and my daily life here in beautiful Sevilla, nothing more, nothing less. Love getting comments here, so please feel free to say hello on the posts. And now it’s time to introduce you to the loves of my life…

My cats over the years… Luna, Morcilla and Loki as kittens on top

below are the beautiful Lua, Azar and Sunny.

And in case you are wondering about my name, azahar is Spanish for orange blossom and is my favourite flower (pronounced ah-thaar – diphthong and stress on the last syllable). My first spring in Sevilla (1994) I found myself walking around one morning wondering why I was feeling SO DAMN HAPPY… and then I noticed the fragrance of azahar. One of the many life-changing experiences I’ve had here in my beloved Sevilla.

If you’d like to see what I get up to professionally then have a look at the other blogs and websites listed under “azahar online” in the sidebar. By far my favourite labour of love is Sevilla Tapas, which began as my “accidental food blog” in 2007 and ended up becoming my online portfolio when I started doing my fabulous food & wine tours in 2009. So what started as a hobby has become my full-time job, something I appreciate every single day.

[creator pic (circa 2005) courtesy of Mudhooks]