It was one of those glorious late winter days that felt like spring, so when one of Peter’s classes was cancelled this morning I thought it might be a good time to check out the new park I’d heard about near the old Expo site. Well, it’s new-ish. Called the Jardines del Guadalquivir. I actually don’t know what was there before, but they either transplanted a whole whack of trees or else just turned some of the land along the riverbank into a park. Probably late winter isn’t the best time to visit a park, but it had that strange “unfinished” feeling that new parks have, like the neighbouring Alamillo Park. And the Jardín del Agua (water garden) and see-through maze (see photos) were a bit of a disappointment…
So we didn’t linger. And once home it became clear that it was much warmer outside than inside, so I opened up all the balcony doors to let the air in and the cats out. Oh man, did they love it. Of course, now that Luna has become a ninja kitten escape artist I became worried that she might scale the plastic mesh on the sides of the balconies that go right to the top of the railings and so I cut them down. In fact, I may take off all the plastic mesh now as there is little risk of her falling or jumping off the balconies now, but there was a real risk of her climbing up to the top of the railings just because that’s what she does.
Later I added more mesh to the upstairs door so that Luna can’t climb up and over anymore, and it was just so lovely being up there in the warm breeze. Got me thinking of all the improvements I’d like to make to the terraza this year, and also about making the upstairs room more “liveable”. It’s still mostly a semi-storage area and study, where Peter teaches his classes at home. But neither of us hang out up there much. So that’s another project in mind.
Have you started making plans for spring?
I went out this evening and cleaned about a third of the east garden, where bulbs are already sending up shoots through last year’s dried leaves and clutter.
Now I have death dealing allergies and my brain is paralyzed, but it was nice anyway.
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I actually rather liked the little lookout tower in the middle of the maze. The water garden could have used some water, though. And with being a garden. Just a suggestion…
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In fact the J del G were built for the Expo 92, like the botanical Jardin Americano next door. There are various sculptures dotted about, including one of the 8 of NO8DO, which you can climb. I really like these gardens for taking my kids to have a runabout, as they are very shady and have lots of different areas, like the maze you mention (tower’s a bit wobbly), pools (when they had water in) and the NO8DO, which they love climbing up and running down, and is set on lush green lawn. It’s a shame there’s no info point in these gardens, as you have to get a map explaining all the different areas and sculptures from the Jardin Americano next door.
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You can see the NO8DO sculpture at the end of each of these posts, and the water garden with water in! http://wp.me/pWrXw-9k and http://blog.andalucia.com/?p=3217
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Gardening commenced at the weekend – Spring feels like it’s here. And a very pleasant 4 mile or so walk through the countryside newar here.
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