Maribel
PEOPLE
Nicholas Tresilian rebuilt Casa Uno - Plaza Andalucía -1, in the village of Las Pinedas outside Córdoba- in 2006/7 on the site of a smaller farmhouse some 200 years old but by then in a dilapidated state. The original outside appearance of the house was faithfully conserved, but the rest of the site was transformed into a modern Roman villa with a colonnaded private swimming pool in the central atrium, and with roses and bougainvillea glimpsed between the columns as in ancient Pompeii.
Fay Tresilian (1943-2009) was Nicholas’s wife for 40 years. A brilliant photographer, her hugely successful exhibition An English Eye in Andalucía captured images of local personalities from the Lady Mayor in the Town Hall to the street-sweeper on our own street. Fay came from an ancient Anglo-Chilean family, spoke Andaluz like a native, led the Tresilian family move to Spain, and was the inspiration for the building of Casa Uno. Much-loved in the village, a memorial plaque commemorating Fay’s own love of local life was unveiled by the Lady Mayor herself at a celebration for the whole village in 2014 (See Nicholas’s blog: A Village which Knows how to Live.)
In early 2016 Nicholas married his childhood friend Joanna Foster CBE, former chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the UK Crafts Council. Joanna has played a central part in the current redesign of Casa Uno’s interior and exterior spaces. Nicholas & Joanna nowadays live in Oxford. Casa Uno is their cherished holiday home.
The new Casa Uno still contains Nicholas’s extensive collection of Spain-related books; amongst them many of the Spanish travel classics and Fay’s photographs of local Spanish life are in many of the rooms. Nicholas has now sold his own second hose in the same village, and many of his private treasures are now in Casa Uno, for the enjoyment of guests – works of art, ceramics, bronzes, textiles, antique furniture and a unique collection of small Bulgarian sculptures all adding up to a living environment of much eclectic charm. Joanna’s creative take on new colour schemes and the big upgrade of the kitchen/dining room has added a new warmth and user-friendliness to the downstairs rooms. There is a reading-gallery upstairs, with a richly variegated library and comfortable armchairs.
As part of these changes and because Nicholas’s eyesight is not as good as it was, especially for reading print, our wonderful bilingual friend Jo Crowson, who lives in Andalucía, has agreed to take over the day-to-day management of this site and bookings. She is always in contact with the owners, but will essentially be speaking for them whenever you are in contact with her.
Your first point of contact on arriving in Las Pinedas is likely to be with our lovely friend Maribel Carmona (see Gastronomy page for photo) - our trusty keyholder and caretaker for Casa Uno. She and her husband Lolo live in the house immediately at the back of Casa Uno. Lolo looks after the pool and the plants. Maribel – trained in housekeeping skills at a 4-star hotel - looks after the house and its guests. She understands English considerably better than she speaks it. However, should there be any difficulties in communication, a phone call to Jo Crowson, who deals with bookings, will sort everything out.
Lolo and Maribel are also members of a well-known local flamenco group Los Makis del Duende (literally: ‘The Maquis – underground resistance group – of poetic melancholy), which recently recorded its first CD - (autographed copies are available). Lolo and Maribel have a second musical string to their bow as a professional Flamenco Duo with a special musical intimacy all their own. When their busy lives allow they will be very happy to perform a set of songs after supper for our guests at CASA UNO. To spare their blushes, we suggest a fee of EUR 50 would be appropriate.
Maribel will also, should you wish, cook you delicious meals based on the traditional Spanish dishes: salmorejo, gazpacho, paella, rabo de toro etc. See our 'Maribel's Kitchen' pages for an extensive range of Hispanic dishes and some typically glowing testimonials from our guests.Maria-Angeles is a university educated physiotherapist and trained chiropractor who works the long Spanish mornings in a local old peoples’ home and lives here in Las Pinedas, where she also holds her own private practice in the afternoons in a well-equipped therapy room. A number of visitors to Casa Uno can testify to Maria-Angeles’ angel-of-mercy skills when it comes to unknotting tangled muscles and getting stiff joints moving again. She is also currently studying to become a chiropractor.
José-Manuel is owner of the Bar Gran Parada, the social heart of the village, noisy with Andalusian chatter and exuberant games of dominoes, with its big TV screen for soccer in the winter and bull-fighting on summer evenings, its terrace shaded against the fierce high-season sunlight.
Jose-Manuel’s, wife Paqui runs the village self-service store next-door to the bar, closing the shop and moving over to the bar’s kitchen at 2pm and 9pm every day, where she maintains a magnificent Andalusian cuisine, specializing in fresh fish, and well-hung meat and game.
