Stout Cortez

Why do British people (of a certain age) always refer to the Conquistador Hernán Cortez as "Stout"? It's because of a poem by Keats:

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Holidays in Spain part 2

Leaving Ávila, we drove to Cáceres. Once again, the GPS helped us get quite near to the hotel on the outskirts of the city. After checking in we caught a bus to the city centre.

A romantic statue of Hernán Cortés

Rafa and a modern statue of a news seller

Monumental Cáceres

We got to the museum at two o'clock, just as it was closing.....until the next day. The old city is magnificent, but not very..tourist friendly. Hot! The highest temperature we encountered was 39°C, on the road the next day.

Maybe the best bit was the views from the "Concatedral"; not a cathedral in its own right but with a village called Coria.

The next day we drove to Mérida. It's a modern city with the biggest collection of Roman stuff outside of Rome.

amphitheatre

working theatre

aqueduct

House of Diana

A Roman temple used to form a Rennaissance house; you can see both in the ruins. I took this photo from the terrace of a bar in a side street.

The biggest surprise was the circus. There's more here than any other in Europe. It was so hot, though!

Holidays in Spain part 1

We set off from Zaragoza on Monday morning. First destination, Ávila, via the minor national roads to the north of Madrid.

Past fields of sunflowers, province of Soria.

Romanesque church in San Esteban de Gormaz

To the walled city of Ávila. I used the GPS on my Smartphone to find the hotel I'd booked in the outskirts of the city. Reading maps is great, but the GPS was really useful to find the way found the ringroad of an   unfamiliar city, although a mis-callibration meant it led us to a block away from the hotel and insisted we were at our destination!  

Ávila

Is an amazing city; at least, the old walled part is a World Heritage Site

inside

outside

from the top

After spending Monday afternoon walking in Ávila, on Tuesday  we set off for the village of Tiemblo, past the big Burguillo reservoir.
                                                                                               

People were bathing from dry mud beaches here.

Our destination was just a little drive from the village, the bulls of Guisando.

four stone bulls

from 200 BC

the site of the "swearing in" of Isabel la católica

The bulls are made of granite like the great boulders in the fields all around. When you know, you see stone bulls and boars all over the place!

Ávila Parador grounds, stone boar

           

I found this on the Downs above Great Ballard, Eartham. My brother says, after having great difficulty in looking it up, that it's called Phacelia tanacetifolium and is an annual garden flower used as agreen maure or to attract insects. It's sometimes called scorpionweed. Of course its not in the wild flower books. It isn't pretty, but rather striking. 

By Michael

This is Halnaker mill, as in the poem by Hilaire Belloc

Ha'nacker Mill

Hilaire Belloc

Sally is gone that was so kindly,
Sally is gone from Ha'nacker Hill
And the Briar grows ever since then so blindly;
And ever since then the clapper is still...
And the sweeps have fallen from Ha'nacker Mill.

Ha'nacker Hill is in Desolation:
Ruin a-top and a field unploughed.
And Spirits that call on a fallen nation,
Spirits that loved her calling aloud,
Spirits abroad in a windy cloud.

Spirits that call and no one answers --
Ha'nacker's down and England's done.
Wind and Thistle for pipe and dancers,
And never a ploughman under the Sun:
Never a ploughman. Never a one

. 

UK, Opium poppies

Years ago, in Andalucía, I saw a field of what I could only think were opium poppies. I had no idea! I thought they were all grown illegally in Afghanistan. Apparently not. Yesterday, walking on the chalky downs at Eartham, West Sussex, we saw clumps and fields of big pink poppies and fat green seed heads. Very pretty. Apparently they're all over the place, quite legal.
This is what the Kew Gardens website says:

Opium poppy

Opium poppies yield valuable alkaloids used as medicines. Medicines produced from opium poppies include morphine and codeine. Its cultivation and production is strictly controlled because opium poppies are also used to make illegal and highly addictive drugs such as heroin.

British opium poppies

In the nineteenth century opium poppies used to be grown in Surrey, Britain as a source of medicine.

Grow opium poppies

Opium poppies grow well in the British climate - why not try it? Most seed companies in Britain stock opium poppy seed, and the poppies should even grow from poppy seeds sold for cooking, though they may not have such attractive coloured flowers.

Legal cultivation

India is the only country that alows the legal production of raw opium on a large scale for export. Cultivation in India is confined to a few regions. Opium is harvested by making a cut in fruit capsules and collecting the milky sap that oozes from it.

Over-the-counter medicine

The pain-relief medicinecodeine is derived from opium poppies.

Anyway, here is my photo of the poppies.

Orchids and other wildflowers

Today is a holiday in Jaca, Santa Orosia. After getting some bread dough ready, I went for a short walk from my house and round the hospital, past the new hotel and the old people's home. The wild flowers in that area were amazing!
I only took these photos as I hadn't brought my camera, just had the phone, but there were also chicory, common tansy, poppies, vetch, buttercups and dandelions, thistles and so on.

Borage

Borage

Borage flowers

Pyramidal orchids

The one at the back was enormous!

Panticosa Spa

Peña Telera from Bubal reservoir

Bubal reservoir, very full!

Some years back, the spa resort of Panticosa, in the Tena valley was rundown and pretty. It was sold to a consortium from Zaragoza. New buildings were put up, and basically the resort has been ruined. The buildings are hideous and I think the spa is closed. There are still some pretty places there, but the complex is dreadful!