Autumn snow

Yesterday we drove home from Zaragoza. The views on the way through the mountain pass of Monrepos were striking; the peaks of the Pyrenees had their first snow. My photos are all speckly because they are taken through a dirty windscreen.

It's amazing how small the mountains look in photos when they seem so enormous from the car!

Clouds

Yesterday afternoon the sky looked spectacular from my house.

Looking south-west

Peg-legged angel

An old photo of my favourite Romanesque capitel, the peg-legged angel. Nobody knows why an angel has an artificial leg. Maybe he's not an angel but a man halfway transformed into an eagle....just an idea-I keep thinking about it!

October

It's mid-October and still quite warm. The leaves are changing colours but we don't have any spectacular views of autumn changes yet. There's a mushroom growing on my front grass; I've no idea if it's edible or not.
I gave up on the poinsettia; I couldn't keep up the discipline of  putting it in the dark and taking it out at the right times.
It's got to rain. There's a drought and the reservoirs are low. They've said for Thursday.
Last week I took a group of Japanese tourists on a little guided tour in Jaca-mostly the cathedral. They were very apreciative, and knew about Romanesque architecture, but there's an interesting cultural gap; although they could do the architectural bit, they (naturally) had little or no knowledge of the Biblical characters and stories which for most westerners form part of their background-at least that was the case in the past.

Project Poinsettia

I'm doing an experiment to see if I can get my last Christmas' poinsettia to turn red for this Christmas. Apparently you have to make sure it's in complete darkness for twelve out of twenty-four hours every day for three months. I've put it in the dark for three or four nights now; strictly 20.30 to 08.30. We'll see what happens.

Where is this?

These surprising images (for those who don't live here) are of the Aljaferia in Zaragoza. It was built more than a thousand years ago as a Moorish palace, and has gone through various transformations and restorations. For example, there is a deep dry moat which was added to the defences in the late 16th century and later filled in, to be restored in the 1980s. As well as a tourist attraction, the Aljafreia contains the  very modern Aragonese parliament.

Jupiter tree

It's all gone now, but last month the jupiter tree was in bloom; at least I think that's what it's called....at least it is or might be in Spanish. Anyway, it's a lovely little tree planted on a roundabout down the road from us.

By the time I took the photo it was past its best. The figure on the right is the statue of a dancer. There are four of them in the garden on the roundabout. 

Footnote: in English it's crape myrtle or  crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, belonging to the 

loosestrife Family. Pity. Jupiter tree is such an evocative name!

Here's one I found in Cambrils, called plumbago. It's a beautiful colour.

Also called leadwort in English, the alternative names in Spanish are celestina, jazmín del Cabo (Cape jazmine) or jazmín del cielo (heavenly jazmine). Prettier names for such a pretty flower.  

2014 Here's this year's tree.

Home crop

After several years just growing, our vine has produced a crop this year. It's not much, but we're really pleased with the grapes.

Mountains

I spent July working in Scotland. Most of the time I was indoors, walking along long corridors to get from one campus building to another. Every now and then I took the bus to the centre of Edinburgh, either sightseeing or to the shops, most of which sell tartan for tourists. To go from the Georgian part of the city to the old city you can cross the North Bridge. The view of Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat is startling; it's amazing that you can see wild-looking "mountain" from the centre of a city. One Sunday afternoon I joined the line of people walking along the rough tracks to the peak of Arthur's Seat. For a mountain peak it's very little; only 251 metres above sea-level, but the views on the way, as well as at the top are spectacular.

There were quite a lot of days in July when the sun shone more in Edinburgh than in Jaca, from what I heard! We were certainly lucky the day we climbed to Arthur's Seat, and saw the city and the Firth of Forth spread out below us.

June

Last year all my blackcurrants ripened in July, when I was in England. This year I have been picking a good handful every day for a week. It may not sound like much, but it's only one little bush in a very small garden!

Soon there will also be a dozen or so gooseberries. 

At the moment the fruit for sale in the shops is wonderful; cherries, peaches and apricots.  We are privileged here in the fruit we can eat.

Ordesa

It takes about an hour to get from Jaca to the car park of Ordesa National Park. the road is narrow and winding; it's not really very far, but you can't go very fast-at least I can't.  All the way there the scenery is spectacular, but it's put in the shade by the views in the park.

Tozal del Mallo

Mountains

Beech woods

We were lucky with the weather-rain had been forecast, but it didn't start till we were on the way back to the car. As we drove away we saw a young deer on the road. 

1st May

It's the first of May and it's pouring with rain!
Out of interest, I've just had a book review published by Awesome Books! You can find it at
 http://blog.awesomebooks.com/2011/05/ancient-rome-through-the-eyes-of-sam-spade-nemesis-by-lindsey-davis-9780099536772/

Wildlife

Aspe valley

Yesterday we went across the border to Somport cross-country ski resort. There's hardly any snow and the resort is closed, but it's a pleasant place to go for a walk on what are ski tracks in winter. The views of the Aspe valley in France are spectacular. 
At an altitude of 1,600 metres or so spring comes later than in Jaca. The leaves of the many beech trees haven't even begun to open yet: most of the buds are still tightly closed. The only green is next to streams. Everything is very dry.
All over the place the turf had been turned over, presumably by wild boars looking for food. This is a phenomenon I've seen before but not to that extent: a lot of the mountainside looked as if it had been ploughed.

I was glad to see the evidence without seeing the animals themselves!

Already summer?

The last few days have been hot; sandal hot! Images on TV of people on beaches are one thing, but here at 850 metres above sea level, Friday and Saturday I wore sandals and short-sleeved t-shirt!

Proof!

My garden's full of blue flowers!

Little rockery with muscaria, scilla and a pink

Flowers in my garden: rosemary, muscaria and scilla.

Forget-me-not

Violets

It's spring, but the only daffodils I've seen are in my garden. However, I've got wild violets (purple ones), and until they cut the grass there were white ones all over a park near us!

They were so tiny it was hard to take a photo of them.

Spring

I looked out of my bedroom window this morning and saw a robin. Then I saw another one! We haven't seen any for ages!
The fruit trees are all in flower. My daffodils are beginning to open.

Rome

We had a great trip to Rome last week. The weather was cold and windy, the hotel was basic, but....

there are some really spectacular buildings and ruins, like the Coliseum,

Trajan's column,

Piazza Navona,

I liked the market in Campo di Fiori, with stalls selling vegetables I'd never seen before. 

My first Roman capuccino.

River Ebro

I flew from Zaragoza to Stansted last week. This was the view from the plane just after takeoff.

You can see the Pyrenees

The river snaking across the photo is the Ebro.

Later we crossed the corner between Spain and France and flew alongside the beach of les Landes, just one long, straight beach all the way to the estuary of la Garonne. After that, clouds all the way. 

El Salto de Roldán

Yesterday we drove to Huesca, to visit some friends. It was a beautiful sunny morning; until we approached Huesca, where it was like driving into a grey blanket. Nasty thick, wet fog. Typical of Huesca and Zaragoza. People often say to me: "Like in London, isn't it?" and I have to reply that I've never seen fog in England like we get here, London fog being a thing of the past.

Anyway, it cleared up during the day. In the afternoon we went with our friends to the "Salto de Roldán", a rock formation a short drive from the city. (short but very winding and narrow).I's the Sierra de Guara in the pre-Pyrenees, vertical columns of red-gold rock towering above the planes of the Hoya de Huesca. As in Cataluña a few weeks back, we could look out over the fog in the valley. On some distant ridges you could see windmills standing just clear of the fog. Geat crowds of raucus black birds which I think were jackdaws on the cliffs above us.
Spectacular.

No smoking!

As of 2nd January, smoking has been banned in Spain in all public places....bars, restaurants, hospital doorways, children's playgrounds etc. Poor smokers! Poor bar owners! Good for non-smokers, at last!
It's lovely going into bars and nobody's smoking; being able to eat a meal in a restaurant without smoke drifting over from another table.