volverán las oscuras golondrinas,

(i looked up how you say golondrina in english and it said: swallow, and i simply refuse. i'm telling you now so you know, for the rest of this entry if you see the word golondrina, i mean swallow)

we've had a family of golondrinas raising their baby chicks on the exact same spot of our backyard every spring for almost 10 years. 

they came one year, build a nest and stayed there. we never took it down, so they kept coming back, they didn't even have to build a new nest because there was already one. i like to believe is always the same family, different generations of course, but the still family. they're fun, great entertainment. my bathroom's window shows exactly the spot were the nest is so we can observe the eggs and then see them feed the babies, teach them how to fly. it's so cool. 

not everything is fun tho, they're quite overprotective of their babies. they act like they own the house and we are the ones invading it, and not the other way around. if you go out, they literally attack you, they fly very low, very close to your head and scream very loudly, it's actually scary. plus my kitchen door connects to the backyard so if we leave the door open while we're in the kitchen, they do come in and attack us too. we still love them ! and we always get excited when they come back.

this winter we've had some crazy weather, heavy heavy rain and super strong wind. sadly, like many other things, the nest didn't survive the storms. my mom has been very worried the golondrinas were gonna come back, see the nest wasn't there and leave us forever.

great news tho ! they did come back, saw the nest wasn't there and started building a new one ! !!! !!!! on the exact same spot. they must really like it there, or us !

 

they even attacked me this morning while i was having breakfast with the kitchen door open ! which means they do plan to have babies again ! yayy  

all this reminded me of a poem by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, which happens to be my mom's favorite poet, so it fits the occasion even better:

Volverán las oscuras golondrinas
en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar,
y otra vez con el ala a sus cristales
jugando llamarán.

it roughly translates to: the dark golondrinas will come back / they will hang their nests on your balcony /  and they will playfully call on your windows with their wings again. 

the translation takes the magic away but it's correct, so you can at least know what it says, even if doesn't convey what it makes you feel when you read it in spanish. i'm no poet, maybe you can find a translation more accurate feeling-wise somewhere. the whole poem is longer, Rima LIII, if you want to look it up.

either way, they did ! they did come back ! !!! ! !!

i'm happy,