Casa Rural Cortijo Roman

January in Jimena

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What's on locally?

January in Andalucia is often a glorious month; the days are mostly warm, the evenings are beginning to draw out and, although there can be heavy rains, when the sky is clear it is a particularly vivid blue which brings into relief the white houses of Jimena and the verdant green of the countryside.

January 6th, the day of Los Reyes Magos (The Three Wise Kings), takes the place of Christmas day here and is when the children receive their presents. In the village of Jimena, on the morning of January 5, all the children tie tin cans onto pieces of string and join a procession from the bottom of the village to the top with the children dragging their strings of cans along the ground. The idea is to get the attention of the Reyes Magos to ensure that they come to the village that night to deliver presents.

In the evening there is a procession through the village led by the village band and followed by three floats; one for each of the Wise men and their assistants. The Wise Men throw sweets out into the crowd which results in a glorious scramble - by the end of the procession most children have managed to pick up enough sweets to half-fill a shopping bag. All in all, a day with a wonderful atmosphere and many happy excited children!!

What's happening on the Farm?

This month we have bought 50 beautiful point-of-lay Castellano chickens. Free-range eggs are not often available in the shops so, as well as supplying our guests with fresh eggs, we anticipate a growing market amongst locals.
We have pollarded 14 eucalyptus trees for their long straight poles. They are truly amazing trees; some of the poles have grown to 7 metres long in 2 years during a period of drought. We use the wood for fence-posts, garden architecture and firewood for the wood-burning stoves in the accommodation.

While moving some wood, we found a wonderful spotted Salamander, ambystoma maculatum, about 12cm in length. It looks perfectly smooth but actually feels quite rough, almost like a cats tongue.
The local population of griffon vultures have been much in evidence this month, we have counted flocks of 80 to 90 birds on some days.