Twenty five minutes from Nerja and eight minutes from the white washed village of Frigiliana, lies El Ranchito de los Suenos (little ranch of dreams), a country house, built on the hillside around a flower scented courtyard.

Extensive use of old materials, tile and wood floors, rambling and rustic, this relatively new house has the air of hundreds of years of comfortable living. The gardens and land, originally an olive grove, are planted with lemons, pomegranate, almonds, figs, fragrant shrubs of buddleia and mock orange. There are bamboos and lemon grass and the drive which weaves through the olive grove, is bordered with lavender. The land, the trees, the plants and the shrubs are all left to nature, organically cared for using natural manures and composts.

There are two totally separate apartments with separate entrances, distanced from each other by being at opposite ends and added in a natural way, alongside the pool in the gardens of the main property as the land falls away on the gentle hillside.

One apartment overlooks the pool and is like an extension of the main house. This apartment contains a large airy twin-bedded room, an ensuite full bathroom, a kitchen and a large terrace.

The second apartment is alongside the pool below the house and consists of a large, double-bedded room, a small sitting room with an open fire, a kitchen and a shower room. A very private terrace lies outside the entrance, under an ancient olive tree, and gets bathed in the morning sun - perfect for breakfast outside.

The pool is very user-friendly with steps, not ladders, into the shallow end which is approximately 60cm deep.

On clear days the Atlas mountains of Morocco in northern Africa can be seen across the Mediterranean.

The house is situated in the countryside just bordering the National Park of the Sierra Almijara & Tejeda, in a valley below the El Fuerte mountain, criss-crossed by mule tracks, one of which leads through the abandoned village of Acebuchal - a resting place for the men and mules who carried fish in olden times on overnight journeys from the coast to Granada through the mountains.

The National Park of the Sierra Almijara & Tejeda is the most wonderful walking country, wildlife in abundance - deer, mountain goats, wild boar, fox, lizards, snakes, badgers and genets. There is abundant birdlife including eagles, vultures, hoopoes, shrikes, hawks, and many varieties of songbirds can be observed, together with flocks of bee-eaters, swallows and swifts.

At Ranchito de los Suenos we have eggs from free-range hens together with fresh fruit, vegetables and salad crops, which are used to provide meals on request - vegetarian cuisine a speciality.