Andy Rodker's photos

Our 'posh' neighbours like to think they are living in, or more likely, ruling over some Near-or-Middle-East potentate! Streets of Algete No. 22. 2nd of three tonight. Maggie suggests 'excellent on large' and, as usual, Maggie is right!

Algete is fairly hilly so there are plenty of alternative steps where I can take my exercise. This one boasts only 45 fairly gentle steps but when I add it to some of the other more serious flights, it all counts! Streets of Algete no. 21.

The house is indicated here (top right). It sits on the top of a ridge and commands extensive views over the countryside of the Jarama Valley and the distant Sierra de Guadarrama. It also affords views of some spectacular weather!

OK, it's 40 km away but you can see Adolfo Suarez Barajas Airport (yes we're on the flight path and the noise can be mindblowing from about 5 every morning!) and the Cuatro Torres (Four Towers) - although they are now Four-and-a-half Towers as strangely a half size additional tower was recently added and it looks a bit stupid, imho! Obviously you need to go on large here! Another Algete Street scene - from the street so it counts! No. 20.

This is the sort of scene I was hoping to see this Spring but the weather was against me and I'm not yet 100% sure I've got quite enough stamina back yet. Oh well ... This is a previously unshown shot from the last time I walked in this granite wonderland; 25/05/2019. Four whole years ago. It doesn't seem real somehow! Sight and Sound. Eric Burdon and War. Tobacco Road. An all time favourite. Long but worth it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF87aqqmf4Q

They were out in force this dusk just gone and they are hard to capture at the best of times but this is their time when they feast on the plenty of mosquitos we unfortuntely get here, especially at the start of a heat wave (coming now). I sometimes try to capture them in honour of the sterling job they do (I react badly to mosquito bites!). I can only find two and I thought I had got a dozen or so in shot!

Situated on a minor side road between St Day and Chacewater, I only re-discovered them when sent on a detour due to a road closure. I don't know their names. Perhaps worth viewing on large for detail of the stonework. Sight and Sound: I heard this aged 9 at the same time as Penny Lane and fell in love with them both and it was the first time I listened to popular music - I was having a classical musical training. Have ever since loved the 'best' of both! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDgqIyprGLM

Well you can't enter the castle due to it's delapidated state but it makes for a reasonable HFF shot! The 11th century Christian castle at Buitrago del Lozoya, built by Moorish architects. They probably didn't envisage a plethora of metal fences a thousand years thenceforward!

Apart from 3 sunny days , the weather has been atrocious these past 6 weeks since I returned from Cornwall! The oleander seems to thrive in it though!

I was amazed when I saw the outline of a map of Spain through this rock window! OK, it's not a perfect outline but you couldn't get much better! La Sierra de La Cabrera and the Bustarviejo Valley.

Once the tallest building in Spain (between 1988 and 2007, when the four towers were nearing completion). I'm fond of it. I probably took more classes here than in any one other building in my teaching career in Madrid.

You can't enter the castle and judging by the state those walls are in, that's a good call by the authorities!

The same one as two shots back and earlier in the day. It just seemed to sit there getting bigger and bigger until it was directly overhead and emptied its load. Fortunately the only (mild) damage was a flooded garage - a regular occurence - and a neightbour's tree blasted to smithereens! It could have been far worse!

My sister's shot and taken from exactly the same spot as the previous upload of this evening's storm! (totally by co-incidence!) Sight and sound. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm9UadB7XvE&list=RDGMEMSXVAzroJmjGomFuKt8TQEAVMJm9UadB7XvE&start_radio=1

Another humdinger of a storm this evening with huge hailstones. And predictions for more of the same this coming week. ( - As if we haven't had enough already!). Sight and Sound: Well, it just had to be this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2-FPlvY58

It was a large town by medieval standards and the battlements go a long way round! In the distance the Sierra de Guadarrama marking the borders of Madrid and Segovia provinces, although for many centuries this area was claimed by Segovia and they even went to war over it. (Madrid won in the end)..

I like the warm tones of these walls. And taken from the exact same spot as my previous upload. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm9UadB7XvE Sixto Rodriguez. Worth a listen,

Buitrago is surrounded on three sides by a fairly recent reservoir but it has the feeling more of a grandiose moat as it laps the town walls! This is a twin shot with my next upload as both were taken from exactly the same spot.