Over the coming weeks we're going to profile NativeSpain.com users with interesting stories, diaries, photographs and businesses in our regular emails.

So, if you'd like to use this opportunity to get the word out to our members about your business, good cause or simply like the limelight then here are the steps to take:

1. Add your photo to your profile - http://www.nativespain.com/user
2. Include extra information about you, your business and your interests to your profile - http://www.nativespain.com/user
3. Introduce yourself in this forum... http://www.nativespain.com/forum/641
   You can use Joe Gregory's Intro as an example to get things started
4. Write at least 3 diary entries - http://www.nativespain.com/node/add/blog
5. Finally, when you've done the simple steps above, contact me via my profile and tell me what you'd like me to share with our readers - http://www.nativespain.com/user/2/contact

Warm Wishes
Debs x

Hi Everyone

Please add your posts to this thread to introduce yourself. feel free to plug your businesses and link to them along with sharing some interesting facts about your interests and your reason for joining this community.

I'll start things off...

I'm Joe Gregory, I work with Debbie Jenkins to create and maintain the NativeSpain.com site and run our publishing business - www.BookShaker.com.

I'm also Debbie's younger brother and we've been in business together for just over 12 years. Our first business was providing ebusiness and marketing support to expert (consulting/coaching/training) businesses and at one point we had a team of 10 designers, marketers and techies with big offices in the centre of Birmingham (here in the UK).

We had heard a great deal about La Semana Santa in Lorca and have read up some on the significance of Azul y Blanco. I know that Lorca was the last of the moorish towns of Andalucia and that the parades symbolise much of their history. We decide to go on the Friday of Sorrows, the Friday before Palm Sunday this year and intend to buy proper tickets for next Easter. Good decision!

As well as running the NativeSpain website we publish many other books on living and buying houses overseas with our goal to focus exclusively on this area in the coming years. So I thought you might also be interested in the following news...

On 4th May, Jo Parfitt's "Expat Entrepreneur" which you can
currently get for just £7.99 is going back up to £12.99.

We're also offering free p&p when you buy two or more of Jo's
recent books before May 4th too. All you need to do to qualify is
choose 2 or more of the following titles (you can have 2 of the same
book if you like) and enter 'JP2FREE' in the redeem box at checkout.

1. 'Expat Entrepreneur'
   http://www.bookshaker.com/product_info.php?products_id=147

2. 'Find Your Passion'
   http://www.bookshaker.com/product_info.php?products_id=187

3. 'Expat Writer'
   http://www.bookshaker.com/product_info.php?products_id=186

Remember, Expat Entrepreneur will be going back up to £12.99
on May 4th so grab yourself a copy now if you're interested.

Hasta Luego

This is the largest protected area in Spain, and probably the longest title – Parque Natural de Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas. Covering the whole eastern side of Jaén province the Sierras are more than 600metres above sea level with its hghest peak, Pico Empanada at over 2,000 m, it contains the greatest forest mass in Spain, and is an extraordinary  wilderness of beauty and diversity.

The Sierra is also one of Europes most important  National Hunting Reserves and a Special Protection zone for the 140 species of birds that nest in the park. Here you can see the protected imperial eagle, golden eagle, griffon vulture, and peregrine falcon nesting in the rocky crags and the re-introduced lammergeier.

Night times start to get noisy around here. The dogs start barking, we rush outside - nothing until you start to listen above the ruckus - wild boar are snuffling down through the almond trees. The next day especially if it has been raining we will find the evidence of their passing through. Footprints small plants pushed over and in the gully behind us wallowing holes.  It is funny to have a relationship with creatures we never see....

I am now having occasional sallies out to the local car boot at Velez Rubio poligono industrial   - sell a few books, buy some great pasties, swap a few yarns with folk.  Generally it is not our intention to seek out expats but the people up here seem to be like minded people  and so it is a pleasurable experience.

El Vallès Occidental is just over the hill from the city of Barcelona. In fact, the majority of the Collserola massif is not part of Barcelona but belongs to El Vallès Occidental – if you’ve got a decent pair of walking shoes, hiking there from Plaça Catalunya is not a bad way to get a picture of Barcelona and its immediate surrounds.

It is now that the wild flowers really start coming with a vengeance- wave after wave of different species. The rock rose (little white cistus) has been prolific  - rosemary, thyme, euphorbia, poppies, salvia, coltsfoot, the indigenous grasses and something I dont know the name of yet which turns the bare ground into a lush red carpet below the almond trees. All set among an infinite variety of yellow daisies and coltsfoot. The higher you go into the mountains the later these flowers come.

Some flowers are so small they are set like jewels in the earth. The birds are starting to push the boundaries and the race is on to see the first swallow, the first bee eater and so on.  Coming up the rambla one night after a visit to our pizzeria in in P. Lumbreras we see a large badger sloping up the side of the camino. First live one I have ever seen in the wild.

The severe hot winds that came at the end of February early March took out the bottlebrush and a couple of the other trees we had put in. We have now planted over 30 trees around our land.

But a visit to the Sierra de Espuna showed enormous damage inflicted by snow and winds, with the park workers working overtime logging and reopening roads and walks. Nevetheless we were all stunned by the beauty of it all. While we saw little animal life that day we did spot the indigenous reddy brown squirrel and promised ourselves another visit very soon.

If you haven't done so already then feel free to begin your own Native's Diary. This will be your personal weblog (blog) where you can share your thoughts, news and experiences with other members and the world at large. Here are a few of my favourite diaries at the moment to help inspire you...

• Barbara Price: http://www.nativespain.com/blog/10
• Vernon Grant: http://www.nativespain.com/blog/161
• Simon Harris: http://www.nativespain.com/blog/162
• Susan Bearder: http://www.nativespain.com/blog/455

Plus there's my diary which includes fiesta news, recipes and more...
http://www.nativespain.com/blog/2

Reservoir and rock roses in April.

Reservoir Fernandina near Linares.

Iglesia de Linares

Jaén is the 3rd largest of the eight provinces that make up Andalucia. It borders with Ciudad Real  to the north, Albacete to the east, Granada to the south and Córdoba to the west. Its  population  is around 660,000, spread throughout  its 13,000 square kilometres, and  97 municipalities.Olive groves near Martos

Jaén has four natural parks within its borders, one of them, the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas is the largest protected area in Spain, and covers nearly one-fifth of Jaén province. The rest of the province is olive groves, running as far as the eye can see.