Our first photo competition

As you may well know if you receive our newsletter of are a friend of the hotel facebook page we have decided to run a photo competition. The theme we have chosen is “outdoor holiday experiences” and there is a chance of winning the attractive prize of three nights’ accommodation for two people at the hotel including breakfast and evening meals.

We are looking for beautiful, evocative and uplifting photographs associated with experiences in the outdoors. The only requirement is that you are subscribed to our quarterly newsletter or that you are a friend of the Hotel facebook and the competition closes on the 30^th April.

So why have we decided to run a photo competition?

I suppose the first and obvious reason is to try and give the hotel a little more publicity and encourage people to keep in touch with what we do at the hotel either through facebook or our newsletter. Another reason is I personally enjoy photography. I am only an amateur but I am always interested in looking to see what make a “good” photo, all be it very subjective.

We have an interesting panel of judges to whom I  thank for agreeing to help, they are;

Juan Iglesias from www.photowild.es    

Lidia Fanjul from www.sense-experience.com  

Gavin Owens from www.whereisasturias.com  

John Shackleton from www.wildasturias.com

And myself; Nigel Burch from  www.posadadelvalle.com

This is a great opportunity to send your favourite outdoor photo moment and win the opportunity to photograph Asturias. Simply send your picture, (one photo per entrant) which must be at least 1Mb in size, along with a brief description, your name, address, telephone number, the date and the location of the photo to hotel@posadadelvalle.com

 More information on how to enter the competition here.

Wild daffodils

 Wild daffodils on the woodland path by the hotel.

Spring is on its way and with it, early spring flowers including daffodils are starting to bloom. In Asturias there are four different species of Narcissus, three of which I have seen recently. On the short walk starting from the Hotel to the Santa Marina chapel there are plenty of Narcissus leonensis or Narcissus pseudonarcissus growing by the stream.

Narcissus leonensis growing on the woodland path by the hotel.

In Asturias there are four species of daffodils or Narcissus. Narcissus pseudonarcissus known in this area as Narcissus leonensis is the larger species with leaves up to 35 cms long. It grows in a variety of habitats and there is quite some variation in the flowers with in the species. It’s the species growing by the stream and I also saw a few days ago on a rocky mountain side at about 100m altitude. 

Narcissus leonensis growing on a rocky mountain at an altitude of 950m.

A week ago we discovered a few plants of Narcissus bulbocodium flowering on the farm in the Castañarina meadow. (It is probably the sup species “cantabricus” an endomism of the Cordillera cantabrica, but I don’t want to get into a taxanomic minefield so want delve any deeper on names.) This leaves of this species are up to about 24 cms.

Narcissus bulbocidium growing on the farm.

For me one of the prettiest of daffodils is Narcissus asturensis with leaves rarely reaching more than 12 cms. Its starting to come into flower as the snow melts away high in the mountains and can be seen in quite large numbers.

Narcissus bulbocodium on a mountain at 600m

For me one of the prettiest of daffodils is Narcissus asturiensis with leaves rarely reaching more than 12 cms. It is just starting to come into flower as the snow melts away high in the mountains and can be seen in quite large numbers. The photos of this species were taken  at an altitude of 1,450m

Narcissus asturiensis

Narcissus asturiensis emerging just after the snow thaws.

 The fourth species of daffodil that grows in Asturias is Narcissus triandrus and is quite often found in the Ponga area.

Narcissus triandrus

The wood land footpath from the hotel, happy walking and happy botanising!

Samantha and Andres's Wedding

Samantha and Andres cutting the wedding cake.

This last weekend was a very special weekend for us as Samantha our daughter got married to Andres. The ceremony took place in the town hall in Arriondas, the reception at the Restaurant el Coral del Indiano in Arriondas and the evening party at the hotel. Here are a few photos;

Preparing the flowers outside the hotel ready for the wedding

Sebastian our son with Samantha outside the hotel before the service

Samantha about to be driven down to Arriondas

Newly married and just coming out of the registry office

Samantha with Joe, Lidia (Sebastian's partner) and Paloma a good friend of the family

Andres and Samantha walking to the recepcion with their friends Dianna and Alberto

A very special meal in the Corral del Indiano where, amongst many other dishes, they served us our Xalda lamb

Friends and family having a rest after the meal in the hotel lounge before the evening party.

The first dance of the evening

Every one having a good time as the night went on

So thanks to everyone who came to the wedding, to all those who helped in making it such a fabulous day and our very best wishes to Samantha and Andres for a wonderful future together.

Checking Our Walks

A beautiful clean path thanks to farmers and their cattle.

Asturias is a living landscape with plenty of vibrant vegetation. With the help of the sun and the rain this vegetation grows quickly, often covering paths and tracks making them difficult to follow. It’s normally the farmers with the movement of their cattle that keep these paths clear and prevent them from being “taken” as the locals say. Many of the walks in our self guided walking notes use these tracks so it’s important for us to revise the walks periodically to see what condition the paths are in, and be able to advise our guests accordingly, or adjust our notes.

A very overgrown or "taken" path

Despite the fact this last month has been much wetter than normal we’ve had a chance to get out and check the conditions of some these paths and revise our walking notes. At the same time we always keep our eyes open for any new paths; sometimes opened up by farmers or made for forestry purposes, and sometimes we come across tracks that we didn’t know existed which could be useful for new walks.

So here are a few photos showing some of the walks we’ve been checking:

The Basilica at Covadonga and the start of the walk to Cangas de Onis

The point where I got lost on the Covadonga to Cangas walk, our notes definitely needed revising here!

Trying to improve one of our coastal walks.

but “will guests want to walk this close to the edge” we ask ourselves?

A gem of a find; a new path (for us) which will soon be a part of a new walk from the hotel