Mother's Day Walk

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in Spain, and as usual my dad sent my sisters and me an e-mail reminding us of the date a few days before. Why the reminder? Well, as I'm sure you will have noticed when I said yesterday, it's probably not the same day you guys celebrate Mother's Day! I think it's on a different day in every single country I've lived in!!! When we were in Mexico it was May 10th (always), in the U.S. the 2nd Sunday in May... and I needed a reminder of that because my last year of high school and first two years of college I was in a different country (Mexico then Spain)! In Spain it's the 1st Sunday in May. Then when I moved to Belgium it was back to the 2nd Sunday... but my mom was in Spain so for her it was a week earlier! Plus I got confused with publicity on French TV channels (which we got in Belgium) because in France it's the last Sunday in May! My parents visited my sister in England the 2nd weekend of March... lucky coincidence turned out that Sunday was Mother's Day there! And I have absolutely no idea when Mother's Day is in New Zealand where my other sister lives! :p  All this is very confusing!

Anyhow I showed up at my parents' place with a new trio of orchids (one for each daughter).

Then we hopped in the car to go do a bit of exploring in the back country (i.e. my hiking haunts!). I chose I place I'd been curious about for a while now, only 1/2h from Alicante: an artificial reservoir with a damn built in the early 17th century! I'd been told the Pantano de Tibi is a beautiful place and the walking is easy (my mom has several frustrating health problems which don't let her do all the crazy hiking she used to love, has to take it easier now).

Here are my parents, my dad happy to show off his new belt (with a Texas longhorn buckle) my sister sent him for a birthday present from her recent trip Stateside:

My mom was excited to try out her new hiking stool which she got in preparation for a trip to Greece next month (after a bit of walking she needs to sit down for a few minutes then can walk again):

Here's the stool in use... perfect to just sit and admire the view! ;o)

Speaking of which... want a better view of the lake? I hiked down to the water's edge... 

Gorgeous! But turns out the dam is at the opposite end we were! Towards that mountain (the Maigmó) in the bottom pic... too far to explore for today (we had lunch reservations nearby!). So I'll have to just go back and spend a few hours hiking around there looking for it another day! :p

We were only out walking for about an hour, but my mom really enjoyed it, so mission accomplished! :o)

Plus I got to play with her camera (DSLR) since I forgot MY camera at a friend's house in Luxembourg last weekend! snif!!! But the DSLR has an advantage over my compact camera when it comes to the macro setting... so I enjoyed "playing" with it! ;o)

dragging a "heavy" load

Then my mom took over the camera and told us to "Don't Move!", so we froze... end result? Zombies! :p

I liked this shot... stool in action!

The path back to the car took us alongside a field of almond trees. Two months ago these would have been in full bloom:

Now they're loaded with almonds!

We made it to our lunch reservation right on time, an absolutely exquisite lunch in a little 4-star hotel nearby with views of the valley... but we forgot to take pictures so I can't share! Was a lovely day! And since I think it should always be Mother's Day, I'd like to send a big hug and a bouquet of kissed out into cyberspace to all my bloggy friends who are Moms! You guys rock! :o)