The Great Dane

I was going to follow with a post entitled Orgiva, but felt that I couldn’t talk about Orgiva without first mentioning Ole Frederiksen who was known as “The Great Dane” or sometimes “The King of La Alpujarra”.He often joked saying that his Spanish friends said of him: “El Danés loco que habla mucho y dice poco"

Without Ole, we certainly wouldn't have found the hillside named La Panorámica. Indeed it is him that changed the course of my life.

He was introduced to us by Ingrid, a Swedish artist we met in Almuñecar where Michael and I spent a year's sabbatical in 1991. By May of that year we had almost decided that, sadly, a move to Spain wasn't going to be feasible when Ingrid proposed we met this Dane she knew who had lived up in the mountains for some twenty years and who, she thought, would be the best person to help us. How right she was!

Within a few days, we had clambered on all fours to the top of The Hill, fallen in love with the views and bought La Panorámica. In Ole's house, and with his invaluable knowledge of building restrictions, we designed a cortijo with a large studio for Michael right at the top.

To our pleasant surprise, we found that there were several artists living in Orgiva, most known, was Liba Clark who happened to be Ole's neighbour and friend. Liba, like Michael, had been an art teacher both in the UK and in Kuwait and she had a group of artists coming from Almuñecar and La Herradura to paint with her, (some still do). She and Michael hit if off like a house on fire and they decided to set up a residential art school. With my love for cooking, I visualised myself preparing meals and even writing a book of my recipes! We began to look for a suitable place to rent or buy when disaster struck: Michael was diagnosed with motor neuron disease and died within the year.

I was still gathering my thoughts, trying to make sense of life without Michael, when Ole came to visit me in Windsor. He asked me if I wanted to sell La Panorámica, the only thing left of my dream. He said it was a pity that such a beautiful spot lies neglected.

Overnight, my life took a whole new meaning: the dream will not fade, La Panorámica will come alive. I announced to Ole that it was going to become a Snail Production Farm!

The next day, I called my niece who lived near La Rochelle to find me a centre that ran a snail breeding course and for the next nine months, I was working on short contracts at Heathrow airport, training and working in Charentes on a snail farm and travelling to Spain to chase up permits, find an architect and look for a builder. During that time I was a welcome guest at Ole's house without whose help my moving to Spain would have been impossible.

For reasons beyond my control, the snail farm didn't happen, but in 2002 I found myself involved in real estate instead.


Photos on this post by myself