Spain 2016 - a home day.

We went into Ayamonte today as I needed to put more time on my phone. However the Orange sytem was down so it couldn't be done. Quick market trip and we had coffee in the main square, Plaza Laguna.

I took this picture for the little dog, dutifully holding the collection basket. I couldn't resist and gave him a Euro, the accordion player was pretty good. He promptly tossed the coin in a cap on the ground so the dog didn't have any weight. I have to admit I gave the dog a little pet to. The woman behind, who doesn't look impressed, was using a paint brush to dust all the ornate wrought iron work on the banks doors.

The Town Hall (Ayuntamiento) is on the main square.

The banners outside probably get changed regularly. These are for Santa Semana.

The entrance and the lobby had beautiful tile work.

Inside the lobby there was a display of banners and robes from the different churches and a woman at a desk that had books for sale. I put a donation in the box and got a schedule of the Easter week parades, in Spanish, which should be fun to try and figure out.

Out in the square they were wiring the palm trees with lights. Most of the parades are at night, 1 or 2 ending at 2am. We spoke to an English lady who works here and she said they were ""spooky", held in candle light.

We came home and made lunch and then everyone else settled down for a relaxed day of reading on the terrace and I went for a walk.

After consultation with bird book and app it was decided this little guy is a Stonechat.

No identification on this.

Or this, though some suggestion it is a female warbler of some kind.

I wasn't actually out to get pictures of these birds. I was tromping through the undergrowth trying to get closer to the flock of flamingos that we can see from the terrace - no luck.

I noticed this rather pretty flower on a shrub

and it also had these, tomato like, fruit. I looked it up on the internet and I think it is a member of the nightshade family and the fruit are toxic, some kind of a nettle.

Walking back along the broadwalk  there were a bunch of guys coming off the beach where they had been sifting through the sand for cockles. That's what is in his bag, over his right shoulder, good haul. We see them for sale in town.

Every so often, along the broadwalk, there are maps to show where you are (aqui - here) and where the access is to the beach.  The map shows what they had planned to do with the Marina. They only completed the left hand side and the right is still marsh. From our point of view it's nice to have the marsh to watch as well as the fishing wharf and village across the marina.