Night in the Gardens of the Alcazar of Sevilla

In the glow of twilight the lavender flowers of the jacaranda form a pearly lace against the ink blue sky, like a Sevillana dressed in her mantilla for Semana Santa processions.

A sacrificial cypress has given its trunk in support of a soaring bougainvillea whose wispy branches cascade magnificently to the ground in sprays of magenta.

The kissing branches of the colonial palms and native eucalyptus form a portal to the stars. The moon slowly nudges into it, hesitating in a golden mist. Then, more confident, she moves into her full glory, shimmering white and bold as she fills the whole portal. Her diamond light becomes a fleeting canvas for the lace of the flowering jacaranda.
I watch her continuing climb in awe of the performance I am sure she has orchestrated just for me. A moment of intimate admiration passes between us before her non-relenting ascent allows the stars to re-appear through the portal, seemingly fainter and more distant under her brilliant light.

The palms, cypresses and eucalyptus dance homage to this rising moon in all her fullness, carrying the heady scent of jasmine and lavender on the breeze.

The golden lights of the Giralda – majestic and powerful in the distant night sky – convert hungry bats into magical bronzed creatures, seemingly protecting the sacred tower from evil invaders as if in a fairytale.

I am enchanted and under the spell of these Moorish gardens that connect me with a place in a past I somehow know but cannot remember. Another life, another palace, I cannot quite describe, but these gardens and these scents, I know they have been in my soul forever.