Central Spain

Proof that I'm back. The weather has been horrible apparently. No rain at all for months (and no snow at all last winter so no snow melt either). If you look at my shots from last May, it was green and lush. Now it's grey and drear. It doesn't augur well for water supplies, for agriculture, for cold showers at will on a scorching hot day, and for people's state of mind. Now Summer approaches and it never rains in Spain in Summer! As my brother-in-law said, as long as they prioritise the supply of water to the beer industry he's not bothered. Watched some but not all but made sure I heard Zadok the Priest. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm_PNbQebdA

These cover a long fence by the side of the road on my way into the town centre and the fragrence is heavenly (and not too cloying which sometimes occurs).

Apricots are a few weeks behind this year but it's looking good for a bumper crop of the sweetest fruit imaginable! Go large for Spanish plain scenery.

A walk between medical appointments and I suddenly realised it was Thursday and time to think about finding an HFF shot! This walkway is sited on an old tramway, the tracks still appear here and there.

Back in my sister's garden while, a tad ironically, she is in my parent's house in St Day where I have spent the last 7.5 months.

They are looking good already but we could do with a week of much warmer weather. It's been dry but very unseasonably cold with a persistent northerly wind. These apricots are a world apart from the mass produced yellow, hairy and tart apologies for the name of apricots you often get in the shops, even in Spain!

Sadly these haven't been seen here since 2016. A change in farm ownership put paid to the proliferation of poppies at this time of year (mid May) in order to increase profitability. Poppies are picturesque but they render the grain un-harvestable. I post this now as this is what the fields around here USED to look like at this time of year! Just noticed this was taken exactly 8 years ago! How time flies when you're having fun!! Suggest on large and maybe large again.. Probably posted before, but I wanted to pay homage to these fields as they were once. Sight and sound. This touched me. David Bowie's daughter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ss2qEgU0ZQ www.youtube.com/shorts/NAMX9XQLbzQ Cute!

Not only in the fields, but by the sides of all the country lanes. Now not so much. For some reason I couldn't finish my 'note' about those three pines so I'lI complete it here. ... a successful promotional photo in the 60s was wildly popular and it gave many people the impression that Tuscany was the home of pines such as these. I took the shot in 2016, a year before my sister bought her house on that hill you see here. I show you these pines as seen from a terrace where I now live: www.ipernity.com/doc/2247598/51409990/in/album/1289082 They are somewhat taller seven years on, and in fact if you look closely in either shot, there are actually four pines! Sight and Sound. Big Mama Thornton. Janis Joplin did a passable version. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vypSOetzlQo

Apricot tree laden with ripe fruit. Better on large to see the fruit more clearly. It has a wonderful warm colour, unlike the uniformly yellow, hairy to the tongue and sharp ones we see here and in the UK in the shops (although to be fair those ones do make the most perfect of all jams, imho!).

(The needles of Cancho Gordo). La Sierra de La Cabrera granite. I don't think I've posted this on ipernity: certainly on Panoramio. I'm looking forward to getting up there again after a l o o o n g five year absence (for a whole variety of reasons).

I have to walk past this roundabout every time I go into Algete or to the bus stop and I do not know what got into them. If they'd given the re-design to a class of infants they would have done a far better job! A day of threatenning storms as has been the case for a week now but still no rain! I'm going to have to post another just to take the taste away, if you see what I mean!

Another good old granite extravaganza! Maybe on large and then on large again for the detail in the granite features. It's conceivable that I've posted this before but more likely back on Panoramio.

I've missed a lot and I don't think I like it much compared to the old iconic stadium! I'll probably post one more when completed and leave it at that!

One of today's many storm clouds that led to the flooding of large areas of Madrid but left us high and dry! (BTW, I'm pleased I didn't go to La Sierra de La Cabrera today as it would have been a total washout. Here, it is sited directly under the cloud and you don't want to be caught in the mountains in any kind of storm, especially an electrical one!) Sight and Sound, to lighten the gloom Victor Borge; www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LG9M3m5txA

I couldn't help but trample them, there were so many - but I reckoned they were tough little buggers so I soon stopped worrying about my foot placement! La Sierra de La Cabrera, granite. Better on large to see this hardy plant en masse.

An oldie and a winter shot. Bitterly cold. This shows much of the taller western end of the Sierra. I hope to return here before too long. Better on large for granite detail.

An ostrich farm. There were a dozen or so when I approached but they all, except one, ran off at very high speed. This one might have been deaf or old, I suppose, or perhaps just wanted to say hello and have its photo taken! Please see previously posted image for background. Additional info, my brother-in-law, who knows the farmer, says that there are 50 ostriches here and that this one is lame and can't run so always stays behind!

Low sun evening light, and I reckon we've had an average of two storms a day in the past 2.5 weeks. Highly unusual, especially in late Spring / early Summer. And yet they don't bring much, if any, of the prayed-for sustained heavy rain. Perhaps better on large for countryside detail, even though the mountains are obscured by cloud.