

New Year Greetings from Navasola
Christmas time in Spain has been a mix of weather but mainly warm. Warm enough to sit out on Christmas Day for lunch and have sun hats as our party hats. We began the eating of food on the sunny side of the valley at another Finca. We had decided with friends on a form of pot luck Christmas dinner but kept it to Vegetarian. C created a delicious Nigel Slater recipe and roasted veggies. R made a superb eco soup with a touch of my not so favourite veg, beetroot. But I have to say it is very tasty in soups. My offering was a blue cheese and broccoli quiche and mushroom sherry sauce. Recipes later? We were then able to walk through the lovely countryside back to Navasola for the ‘postres’. This included Ts version of sherry trifle. We were very full and quite stuffed! George Monbiot has recently written about how reducing meat production could radically reduce carbon emissions. Need also to now think about waist reduction!
Being with these friends I was also shown another botanical wonder that grows wild at Navasola. I may have partly ignored it but it is a stranger plant than it looks. It can be quite festive with its red berries, a little stiff and slightly prickly. This is Butcher’s broom and N was able to show me how the leaves aren’t leaves but stalks. And on the stalks there are very small flowers. And then there are the bright red berries. This needs to go into my attempt of creating an ethnobotanical garden as it is also known for its medicinal properties. The roots have been used for over 2000 years for circulation problems. Now with current knowledge of the chemistry of plants it does contain substances which are good for improving blood flow in the arteries and veins. And yes the stiff leaf looking stalks were used by butchers to clean up their boards and floors!
As for the bumblebees. These again were a moving target which after the sherry I was unable to photo clearly. However, I am amazed to see these little creatures among the flowering Rosemary bushes at two of my friends’ fincas. At present these are white tailed bumblebees and at least half a dozen of them. I walked out to try and phot some at Navasola but could not find any. At the moment I do not have flowering Rosemary. I tried around the ivy but it’s flowering seems to be over and I could not find many pollinators about. Now and again a butterfly, possibly a peacock, and possibly some solitary bees.

We moved to the Algarve for New Year and had some superb sea views to help us enjoy a New Year’s Eve or Old night’s Eve, Noche Viejo with friends and local fireworks. In the morning along with the gulls there were possibly swallows and house martins flying. More investigation needed to find out if this is an early return of these migratory birds. I am trying to survey the house martins in Cabanas de Tavira. It is worrying that there is still a decline in the populations of migratory birds.

Butchers broom has been in use over 2000 years ago. Many of these migratory birds fly over 2000 miles and have been doing for thousands of years. We are now in the year 2000 and 16. Let’s hope we can ensure that these wonders of the natural world are well known about and in abundance for the future. Let’s hope it’s a more positive year for the planet.
Happy New Year too to all you amazing bloggers. Here’s to more sharing of our news and views.

A very Happy New Year to you too! All the reading about the food has left me very hungry indeed. So lovely to learn about the Butcher’s broom. Thank you for sharing 🙂
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Thanks for reading and hope you have a good year.
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Following the solstice festivities I am only semi-sentient. – Happy New you to you both!! Best wishes – Opher
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Semi sentient will do. I am slightly slurred!
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Sounds like you had lovely holidays – all the best to you for 2016!
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And to you. Thanks for reading.
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Happy 2016. Enjoyed your photo as well.
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Happy New Year and thank you for sharing this beautiful article with all of us. Adrian
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Gracias y espero escribir un otro en espanol.
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That looks like a beautiful celebration! I love the pictures! Happy New year!!
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And to you too. Enjoy!
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Happy new year to you and your friends…xxx
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Happy New Year too and hope to speak soon!
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Happy New Year to you too … Wonderful pics. I adore sherry trifle 😀
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I’d like the broccoli and blue cheese quiche recipe. We are trying to deal better with carbon emissions and also we read Jonathan Saffran-Foer’s Eating Animals last year. We had pigeon for Christmas dinner and it was truly easy. I’m now feeling guilty about the fact that over the first ten years living here, I went to some trouble to get rid of the Butcher’s Broom that had taken over a corner of the garden. We have bees in the UK in December… which is distinctly odd. They are on the winter honeysuckle, winter jasmine and remains of autumn crocus.
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Plenty of pigeons to eat. Think some were being shot at round here the other day! I’ll put some recipes together at some point. I generally throw stuff together! Yes, bees maybe adapting or just confused. I think solitary ones will just take advantage and I love winter flowering jasmine too! Here it is too cold at night for some flowers. We are at about 730 m here. Portugal where we often go is usually about 10 degrees warmer and the almond blossom in Jan gets surrounded by bees. But he’s broom doesn’t look that spectacular I had previously ignored it but it is fascinating botanically!
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A healthy and happy New Year 2016 as well. Love the red against the greens.
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Thank you and to you all too.
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Happy new year! I love the image of you trying to photograph bumblebees after a little sherry. 🙂
And I too hope we can love the planet enough to protect its wonders.
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Thanks for reading and hope the new year goes well for you.
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Bumblebees! We do not get many here, but when we go to the mountains in summer there are quite a few among the mountain wildflowers. Your soup makes me hungry. Think I’ll go and make some.
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Lovely, enjoy your soup or did you, time passes!
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You had a great holiday feast. I like what you brought. The recipe would be generous of you. The martins all lined up is a nice image and so is the one of the table set for lunch. Such a cottage feel it makes me wish to have a spot like that.
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Thanks, I will try a blog post on recipes soon. Have just watched Julia and Julie, foodie and blogging film!
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