The pool is finished... now all we need are some guests to use it and a bit warmer weather. It´s still quite fresh here and in the evenings, quite cool. Last night, however was more comfortable.

We had a good Easter with many guests from Sevilla staying with us who were quite nice and really enjoying themselves. My dad was visiting from NYC as well for a week; he wanted to be here for my birthday which was on Easter this year. As Ivan´s parents were here as well, we were full in the house. My dad was very popular with all the townsfolks too. He was taken around one day by a hotel guest to all the village events which included free food by the river and then the loud festivities of the townsfolks in the village center.

The weather this year was better than last as we had less rain, although rain it did a couple of the days. Last year, Semana Santa was a wash out for the bigger celebrations such as Sevilla due to a lot of rain.

We´ve planted lots of flowers and plants in the pool area, the filter finally arrived on Wednesday and has been busy cleaning the water ever since. It´s almost there, ready for a few photos. I´ll be taking some shots in a day or so when I can set up a good scenario, poolside.

We´ve got a couple from Switzerland staying with us now; there was another Swiss couple who were here earlier in the week for a night.

We also have one French Bulldog puppy left for sale. We sold the pen-ultimate one last weekend to a Spaniard from Antequerra. Honestly, I can´t wait to be rid of the last pup.... too much work now with the other dogs. And Lolita has a rash and has been to the vet three times in the last couple of weeks so we have enough work with the dogs without having to care for a pup. Any one interested locally?

Another spectacular day in the Upper Genal Valley. Brilliant sun, blue skies, birds singing!

The pool is finished being built and so is just about ready for use. We began to fill it this passed week but we are still awaiting the arrival of our filtration system and until that is here, we cannot fill the pool completely. Here is a photo of the area early last week:

It's a bit more full than this now but not complete.... and it's not big pool.... one of my sisters said in an email, "looks small, how many people does it fit?" I thought, "not so many actually" but we are small hotel and I really doubt we will have the hotel full with everyone wanting to be in the pool at the same moment so not to worry.

We have bought a whole bunch of plants and flowers and one can see the Yucca tree we already planted in the rear between the lemon tree and the wall. We've also planted some bambu and all the plants and flowers are laid out waiting to be planted. It is taking shape. In one of the photos, one can see the fountain on the wall side edge of the pool. It now has a mosaic on it that Ivan made in blue and white tiles.

Ivan also recently installed a couple of mosaics in the lavatories of the bar. Here are a couple of photos of that work:

The Blue Dragon is in the men's while....

the warm sun is in the ladies.

Ivan has recently also painted all of the rooms. One wall in each room has been painted in primary colors. I'll put some photos in the coming days.

The wild flowers are already coming into bloom. The weather had been quite comfortable but then went cold. Yesterday it was the first warm day in a few and then today it is cold once again.

The pool is coming along nicely. The team of tile workers installing the tiles inside the pool completed the sides and steps but were unable to complete the bottom due to an eye injury of one of them. We are waiting for them come and finish the bottom tiling now to fill the pool with water.

I have photos but they are not prepared to load on-line yet. I'll do that this week.