Walking around Navasola this morning as the heat rises from 21 degrees to 28 by 11.am I am struck more by the incredible greenness of so much around me. Thankfully this year there has been rain in the spring and a last late shower in June.
For Denzil’s nature challenge I look for the black berries of viburnum tinus but these are still grey. The brambles may provide blackberries by early Autumn. I try and check the wild peony seeds but these are mainly still encased in their moist green seed pods.
I overlook the wild carrot because it is everywhere and gleaming white lace like flowers. I marvel at its ability to be the main flowering plant of the drought times and heat of July and August. And then I notice the tiny blackness in the middle. So for Denzil’s black nature challenge I give you Ms Daucus Carota the wild carrot.
This black centre has made us ponder but I can not find a labelled botanical drawing. From the Kew website there is a lot of information. Daucus carota comes from the middle lands of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq. And is referred to in the gardens of Babylon. Brought over to Spain in the 12 th century and finally developed into the cultivated orange carrots we know in the Netherlands. And so it seems nowadays the world produces megatons of carrots.
This flower also supports the life cycle of the swallowtail butterfly who indeed has black markings. But have not seen one today.
But what about this colour concept of blackness? Kew references the centre as a purple flower. We think this one here looks quite black.
What else is black or shows some black at Navasola. There is the black carpenter bee but not seen today. It maybe too hot for them and for the bumble bees with their black stripes. So many birds here have black markings, eye strikes or caps. There should also be black kites around and rare black vultures near Aroche. But maybe the blackest are the male blackbirds and the ravens that fly overhead to a big roosting place near Cortegana castle.
This all leads me back to my novel The Call of the Wild Valley whose key female non human protagonists are the black kite, Milvana and Buff the buff tailed bumble bee.
I also have the links to Africa as all the messenger birds have homes there too. Nana G used to work in Africa and I think we should honour Africa as our first motherland. In some of my research the Congo basin in the heart of Africa contains incredible diversity of species. And even though homo sapiens is one species there is the richest genetic diversity there among all the different human groups. This and other evidence shows how we and maybe most species we know today emerged and migrated out of Africa.
We have just about finished the serialisation of Part 0ne and it will stay on the google blogger website for a while. The whole novel is due to be published in November.
This has the last two episodes showing. But you can get back to the beginning or where you left off.
http://www.navaselvathecallofthewildvalley.com/?m=1
For the beginning of all the episodes
Do take a peek preview and Bridge House Publishing welcomes reviews so far and comments. I too would love to hear from you and do comment on my blog too. Or email.
Bridge House Publishing
https://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/
* Ruth Koenigsberger, artist who has drawn some of the characters and places in Call of the Wild Valley, and I have shown her work in various blog posts.
Denzil’s Nature Challenge
NavasolaNature 