Central Spain

Calima:- Saharan dust storm. What should have been a glorious, if hot, day totally ruined by what has become a far too frequent occurance! The temperature was 39ºC so not even any let up from the heat! Miserable indeed! For the complete gloomy effect, best on full screen!

A local park. I've taken similar shots before as the railings and trees seem to go well together!

Granite everywhere in the Sierra de La Cabrera! Best on full screen. I`ve never been the greatest Eagles fan but have always liked this one from Joe Walsh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fz-mHGXgzs

My brother-in-law's pride and joy - part of his fruit and veg garden. The mountains could be seen on the horizon for the first time in a week as the Saharan dust cloud (calima) began to disperse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtHalPgCE2s I don't think Percy Grainger quite had this sort of garden in mind, but you never know! I've been told that the ripening corn in the fields is wheat and barley. These were the poppy fields of years past (a few photos scattered through my album), but the modern farmer needs to maximise yield and poppies play no part in his thinking. Full screen please.

These beehives were stolen too often and so the villagers move them to a different location every few years. Here it is not on any path and when I chatted with the bar owner later he was a bit put out that I had found them! (The next time I came this way, maybe a couple of months later, they had been moved once more!).

Difficult to see but the harvest was taking place and the distant hum of the combine harvesters kept going until well past 11 pm every day this past week. My niece (whose home this is of course, although she has been a doctor on Lanzarote these past 5 years) says this view reminds her of Tuscany (she studied medicine on an Erasmus couse a decade or so ago in Florence, so she should know!). Except that ... the world famous impression that Tuscany is full of poplars is quite wrong! This only came about because of a famous photo of an aristocratic estate where the owner had decided to have poplars planted on his lane leading uphill to his palacio. The photo became popular, the rest is history .. and a misconception! Please, best on large and then on large again!

I try to do these steps at least twice a day as part of my rehabillitation programme, and today I can proudly relate that I didn't have to stop for a breather once, for the first time! It may look easy but there are 98 steps and try doing it in the height of a Spanish summer! And only 2 months ago I was reliant on my walker / zimmer frame! So Isabel, bring on those mountains! :o) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fayL1WTR1Go Just because I like it!

The previous shot of the steps was about 20 feet away from this shot, There are three tiers to the house at the back and only one at the front as it is situated on this steep slope.

Another shot of the view from the garden. I reckon the figs will be ripe in about a month ("sooner than that" says my brother-in-law and he will probably be right; I was thinking of my 4 fig trees in my London garden years ago!).

Just a few yards down our street where can be found better views of the Sierra de Guadarrama. My sister's shot.

Another of my sister's shots. I think I can now gracefully retire! Best on full screen.

A strange situation; over the mountains and into Segovia Province, they had a succession of storms all day while we had unrelenting blue skies. Only late evening, as I relaxed with a glass of something alright, did I see the storm clouds and the edges caught by the rapidly sinking sun.

Sierra de La Cabrera granite forms. This was in May 2019, the last time I walked in these mountains. Best on large.

In among other wildflowers can be seen dwarf daffodils, Spanish harebells (bluebells) and wild tulips.

Algete's parish church and Constitution Square on a blisteringly hot afternoon. The centre of the town where I live (about 40 minutes walk all uphill from here!) I thought I may have inadverdantly caught myself in the mirror opposite, but it seems not! www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkEd3WgR8qw

This local park is full of them and is called Olive Tree Park (I wonder why!). www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsTf3gZn27k for those that might have wondered what happened to Eric Burdon and his fabulous blues voice after the Animals and House of the Rising Son and, no, it has nothing to do with the photo, I just like it!

Sierra de La Cabrera with the town of La Cabrera below and an interested Griffon vulture or three hovering centre stage! (As a side note, directly below where the central vulture hovers, and on the horizon, is Algete, where I currently live). Maybe best on full screen, if only to emphasis the vastness of the Castillian Plain.

Far too hot for children to play out of doors! (41ºC in the shade). In the far distance, on the right is the Sierra de La Cabrera which looks minuscule from here! (See previous upload for note on Algete's position from there!) Another shot from my twice-weekly walk to the shops! www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYy716zmXcM no reason, I just like it!