Georgina, now mainly living in Andalucia, Spain. My current journey is to discover more and more about the natural world and to find ways to help protect the amazing biodiversity this planet has. I am also interested in writing novels, poetry and reading about others lives.
The serialisation of Part 1 of The Call of the Wild Valley continues. There will be an episode every Sunday until the end of June.
This week the story focusses on the journey of the bee- eater and buff-tailed bumble bee to the north to find a cooler climate.
Please follow the link below for episode 4. A google search for Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley should also get you to the Blogger site. All the episodes so far are available to read.
Bee- eater numbers in our area seem to be lower now. It is hard to find out information and whether their journeys are changing but there are more sightings in the UK than ever before. Some bee- eaters like the character Abe Mero are trail blazers seeking out new places. Certainly their food sources may too be in decline and water sources along with changeable weather which can all impact on breeding success and survival.
The inspiration or information background for these characters in the novel came when I read an article about how difficult it is for bumble bees to adapt to rising temperatures and their range for moving is very short. But a bee- eater that needs bees can cover the distances needed to find more suitable places. The idea for this unlikely pairing grew.
We think a buff-tailed bumble bee but we get lots of white tailed bumble bees in the Sierra Aracena and it can be difficult to identify these similar looking types.
Bridge House publishing and myself would welcome more comments on the actual blogger blog site for Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley. Please let us know on this site if you are having difficulties subscribing or commenting.
We will be halfway through next week. Please feel free to comment as this will help with our final revisions and marketing. Adults and young adults are the target audience.
What parts are you enjoying, been surprised by or have found difficult?
In what ways can this novel enhance ecological awareness and empathy for wild species?
Can fiction do this or does knowledge about nature have to be factual?
Here are some of the Navasola butterflies for Denzil’s nature challenge this week. https://denzilnature.com/nature-photo-challenge/ I am also going to take the opportunity to link with Part 1 of my novel which is being serialised week by week by Bridge House publishers on Blogger.
Some of the following photos are of butterflies described in my novel ‘The Call of the Wild Valley.’ Below are extracts about the Two Tail Pasha
Clouded yellowTwo tailed pasha from 2018 on some scatSpanish Festoon butterfly on path up to Castano de RobledoButterfly on thistle.swallowtail at NavasolaTortoiseshellMay time white butterflyCardinal butterfly – Family Nymphalidae – Argynnis pandoraA fritillary we struggled to fully identify. Visited at same time as the Cardinal.
About the Two-tailed pasha, Charaxes jasius
The Two-tailed pasha features in the opening chapters of the Call of the Wild Valley. Its life cycle centres around the madroño tree or Arbutus unedo. The large butterfly lays its eggs there. Its caterpillar is very green and with quite a head and tail. Its cocoon must hang safely in this evergreen tree to hatch out into this astoundingly large and beautiful butterfly from May time. But watch out for it settled on the ground rather than on flowers as it loves the nutrients from fox poo and urine. Some photos are mine and some courtesy of stock photos.
Caterpillar of two tail pashaMadroño – Arbutus unedo
Extract from Call of the Wild Valley – Jay Ro’s point of view.
Her favourite rock was smooth to sit on and she lowered herself quietly. This was her special place to think, reflect, remember or sometimes just to cry, like when Grandad Joseph, her father’s father died.
A large butterfly flew by her, making a breeze on her arm and making her think it was a small bird coming very close. It was the magnificent and regal Two-tailed pasha. It settled on a nearby madroño tree which did look like the English name, strawberry tree because of its bright red berries. Perhaps the butterfly was laying its eggs there?
Perhaps, again. Perhaps if she had not got involved with Tracy’s group at school. Jay folded her legs up onto the rock. She breathed in the freshness of the air. All was calm around her but her mind kept wandering back to the past.
Two-tailed pasha, Family Nymphalids, Charaxes jasius
Extract Call of the Wild Valley – from Comadrito the weasel’s point of view
One butterfly was different. She was called Pasha, the two-tailed pasha. There were never the right flowers for her. She knew her beauty as a butterfly, her large size, her flightiness. She was just too full of herself. Comadrito and the young genet could not stop chasing her. Now they knew what she was really full of. They had seen her drinking the fresh pee of the rather exalted El Zorro, the fox. And another time Pasha was on the fox poo which for a weasel had the worst of smells. Why did such a high-minded butterfly need to do this? Comadrito was too young then to understand all the intricate and indelicate ways of the wild.
Here are the links to Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley. I would love you to have a go at reading and any comments may help us improve before final publication of whole novel in November this year. Also subscribing and following the blogger posts will give you notifications to when the next episode is online and comments on this blog will be read by the publisher. Although there are butterflies the focus of Episode Two is on the turtle dove’s story. Just scroll down if you wish to read Episode 1 as it is at the bottom.
The first episode of my novel is ‘live’ today and ready to read with a chapter each week of Part One every Sunday afternoon. A taster before final book publication in November.
Please follow the link and read and I hope enjoy. The publisher, Bridge House uses blogger and has presented the text in easy to read format. We welcome comments and support as we move forward with final editing and revision.
Below are a few photos of some of the flora mentioned in the first chapter.
Viburnum tinuspeoni broteri and below the life above ground of this wild peony that the pollinators love.Wild peony forest
January/FebruaryPart of peony forest in full bloom – April to MayMs Peony chatterboxArbutus unedo, madroño or strawberry treeTwo Tail Pasha Charaxes jasius, likes to lay eggs in Arbutus unedo.
A trip to Mexico for a very special wedding also gave me a chance to travel and explore again. And I loved it! I took my bridge Lumix instead of binoculars to try and capture some birds. With some frustration with the zoom I at least have some of the birds. My friends would spot and call me over to focus in.
And so we met this one first and he or she followed us around the Yucatan peninsular and into our imaginations. Judy has sown the seed of a story about this bird and other animals defending the coast from the first arrival of the Spanish ships. We trust this is the grackle!
Just after visiting the Tulum ruins with all the iguanas we saw frigate birds and pelicans on the beach nearby.
As we came off the beach Judy spotted this one flying into the trees. A Yucatan jay. This area is very biodiverse and has variations on the blue jay.
From our hotel balcony we overlooked what seemed to be a wild and jungly garden. Again Judy and Jane spotted this fellah or lass. This is one where I struggled to get the zoom to focus in and so was very frustrating. But with a little editing we have a hooded oriole.
In contrast to this bird on a wire which came out very sharp but perhaps the blue sky helped the focus whereas the oriole was well camouflaged in the setting sun and mix of branches and leaves.
And this one. I will need to ‘name’ later as this was different from the kiskadee. The one below was the first time seen. These two on this wire were near the Akamal beach.
We saw lots of kiskadee in the hotel garden at Cancun and from the hotel roof in Tulum.
We would be up very early and swim at sunrise. There were lots of birds but the light was not always bright enough until the sun hit the water of the pool on the roof at Tulum and there were a variety of visitors like this collared dove, grackle, kiskadee and others.
This hotel and the Marriot Courtyard garden were great places for us to spot birds of the New World. Some familiar and some very different. It is amazing the diversity that evolves. I hope the development that seems to be going mad along the Quintana Roo beaches will allow space for all this precious biodiversity. On our visit to the Monkey Sanctuary at Akamal where they look after animals that have been captive there was a wide, wide passage of destruction of trees. This was for a new train line to connect Tulum and Cancun. More on this for next post. I have so many photos!
At the Courtyard Marriot garden in Cancun
There were a lot of different kinds of black/ brown birds. So possibly grackle, melodious blackbird, females being more rusty coloured and this more short tailed one above! Any help in identifying welcome
I was not sure whether I had any photos for this but realised that the eyes of the wild were central to a discussion I had with my friend and artist Ruth Koenigsberger. We were talking about illustrations for some of the animal characters in my novel. So I looked back and there were lots of eyes looking out at me!
For one of Ruth’s first local exhibitions I wrote a poem which was about when we see wild animals and they look back at us. Her painting of the owl and her drawing for my character Milvana, the black kite, show how eyes are the ways we can make connections. We can also think there are eyes when perhaps there are not such as the tree and the butterfly wing markings.
Above – a chameleon seen in the Olhaö nature reserve on the Algarve. (Iphone and then cropped.) Ancient one eyed tree and butterfly in the Sierra Aracena.
House Martin babies, of only one pair, near Congleton, UK. ( Lumix camera zoom and cropped) I hope now in March, the house martins are back from Africa and building up their nests in the Algarve. 1000 more miles to go if nesting in the UK. Incredible flyers.
Below Iberian frog in Sierra Aracena by source of the River Odiel. (Lumix Camera and cropped.)
You can never beat a dog’s eyes and gaze.
These were the ‘eye’ studies that inspired my poem that was read out in Spanish at the opening of the exhibition. We both thought how important the eyes would be in illustrating the characters in my book.
Quotes from La Vida en la Huerta and I guess it’s all about eyes and seeing one another. ( Translation by Margaret Van Epp)
I see you on my terrace You see me see you Your eyes hold onto mine
Te veo en mi terraza Me observas Me sostienes la mirada
•••
I do not want you to see me. But when you stare, I freeze. I know your eyes are on me I can be rock or leaf.
No quiero que me veas Cuando fijas la mirada Me congelo. Sé que estoy ante tus ojos Me disfrazo de roca u hoja.
••• But you do not know me Till you see me. I may never reappear. You may not even notice, I have gone forever.
Sin haberme visto No me conoces. Puede ser que nunca reaparezca. Tal vez ni te darás cuenta Me haya ido para siempre.
Thanks to Denzil again for inspiring and helping me remember these poems and the illustration ideas for representing the wild animals in my novel. https://denzilnature.com/
I venture to put forward the possibility of publication of my first novel this year! This will be discussed with the publisher more this March.
This is a great idea from Denzil based in Belgium and venturing forth on his new nature blog.
So have searched for patterns from in or around Navasola, Sierra Aracena, Spain.
Below are some of the images from my photo library of patterns shown in different species and rocks. Flower symmetry is amazing and quite diverse.
It is a slow start to Spring here so it is mainly the viburnum which is beginning to flower. All the chestnut leaves are still browning the ground but with hints of green appearing.
We are on a northern slope of the mountain range and there is quite a difference in the lower warmer valleys nearby where the celandines and daisies are flowering profusely.
We await the tassel hyacinth with its candelabra shape, palmate anemone, and cistus in April and May. Thapsia often really tall comes later in June.
But the timings are a changing.
wild viburnum tinusRock patterns by river source of the Odiel, looking like flowing water.Halimium trifoliumPink Crispus cistusThapsiaPalmate anemoneTassel hyacinthChestnut leavesDrawing the old trees and finding the patterns by Ruth Koenigsberger, friend and local artist.
Hope many can join Denzil’s photo nature challenge each week with a photo or two or just to enjoy.
My story recently published in the anthology Evergreen is partly from within the consciousness of a fir tree grown only for Christmas. But it survives beyond the festive season and connects and inspires a variety of local children until …..The story is called Until We are Ever Green. It contains quite a few ‘untils’!
A variety of christmassy trees in the Fir and Spruce section in Kew Gardens. We were in search of Abies alba but found so many other different kinds of fir.
It is late January and we are finally back at Navasola after dull but changeable temperatures for the UK in the winter. It was a rather frustrating time with so much illness from bad coughs/ colds/ sinus and the worst I have had since leaving the classroom. Here at Navasola it is very cold but the sun is high and bright with andalucian blue skies. We also have our supply of wood from when so many branches of trees came down in the bad storm of 2020.
So thanks to the trees we can keep warm at night when at present the temperatures are falling below zero.
There is also so much green thanks to our own evergreen trees in stark contrast to the denuded old chestnuts. However without the leaves there is much sunshine on the woodland floor. Their leaves will come back later than most in May.
Pollarded old chestnuts supply lots of fallen branches.View walking down the hill from the gate. Chestnuts and pines on other side of the valley.Many branches fell from these millennial chestnuts in ‘tormenta Barbara’.
Navasola’s Ever Greens
Olea europaea, Olive Olivo.
The olive trees’ grey green leaves keep dancing in the chilly skies. All the olives need to be picked by end of December but any left will make good food for birds or other animals when fallen to the ground.
Black olives high in tree against Andalusian blue skyThere should be some olives later
Quercus suber, alcornoques, cork oak
The cork oak leaves show different shades of pale grey green. The tree trunks are well insulated and fire resistent. Cork trees can only have their cork cut every 8 years or more.
Cork trees still green in Autumn near Castaño.Newly corked cork tree on Galaroza pathTwo cork trees growing by our house. The bigger one was like the thin one 15 years ago. Both self seeded!
The Holm oak, encina, Quercus ilex or known as the evergreen oak.
encinas or holm oaks are stretching higher to the sky in their self seeded grove. These are the trees of pasture land or dehesa and can be found across vast swathes of Spain evenly spaced out to provide shade for grazing animals. These trees are also excellent for wood burning too.
The common ivy or Hedera helix dresses up many a trunk and keeps its green even when the frost bites. The Mirbeck oak also hangs onto its glorious display of red orange leaves until the new arrive.
Winter trees by the ivy perimeter wall. Quercus canariensis, mirbeck oakPyrenean oak now fully covered in ivy so green in winter and a haven for birds and other insects.
Arbutus unedo, madroño, strawberry tree.
The madroño tree or strawberry tree is very hardy in the frost or heat. And home to the caterpillar of the Two tailed Pasha.
Madrono flowers and fruitBullfinch on madrono through kitchen windowArbutus unedo, madroño, strawberry tree.Two tailed pasha hatches in July or August
Wild viburnum tinus does not grow into a tree but can grow very tall around the trees. It is usually in flower by the end of January as the bees wake up. But at the moment it is rather frost bitten with the colder icier winter we are having here.
There are many wild pines too. Mainly Pinus nigra or black pine. These grow very tall very quickly and thrive here on sandy soils. These are different to the cultivated umbrella pines found a bit further south towards Huelva. Stone pine, Pinus pinea.
wild viburnum tinusBlue skies and tall pine for blue sky thinking!
I think many readers of my blog will enjoy the stories under the theme of Evergreen in this Bridge House Publishing anthology. Apologies that it is only easily available on Amazon but we would love you to read, review and share the stories.
Bridge House Publishing’s launch of Evergreen and other Cafe Lit short stories. I finally meet my writing mentor too, author Debz Hobbs Wyatt.
At last I have a published short story titled Until We Are Ever Green and it is in a wonderful anthology of short stories titled Evergreen. This is the yearly anthology from Bridge House Publishing and the theme we were given was evergreen. From that point we were free within the word limit to write. There are quite a collection of different stories under this evergreen tree. In the UK you can buy a paperback copy but it is available on Kindle too. I think it will fall into the category ‘UPLIT’ which is uplifting literature.
Evergreen signals on the cover – Life Goes On. There is Renewal. Nature Endures. And some of the titles of the stories are ‘ Adonis Against the Odds’ ‘Watching Cormorants’ ‘Anecdote for the Pine Mother’ ‘Flower Girls’ and many more.
Last year the theme and title was Resolutions and this anthology can be found on Amazon too. Bridge House is an Independent publisher that encourages good quality writing on a variety of issues. For 2023 the theme is ‘Gifted’ and submissions for this can be sent through Submittable on the Bridge House website, usually by the end of February
Book Launch of Short Story Anthology published by Bridge House
Here I am at the launch of Evergreen in London and able to meet up with the publisher Gill James, my mentor for my novel Debz Hobbs Wyatt and other writers like Alison Symes. All are involved in writing different kinds of stories and Café Lit which is a great place to visit for a good short read and worth donating the cost of a coffee and maybe cake for the writers.
As it is time for my monthly blog I am taking inspiration from Margaret21 who has been to the Pyrenees and is now back in the Pennines. We have similar journeys and she loves to read. We began 2022 on a reading challenge together to complete War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy before there was ever an invasion of the Ukraine. We did both finish reading War and Peace but the tragedy of war still unfolds in the Ukraine. On the personal front it has also been a tough year with losing two good family friends.
I do not think by Saturday night I will finish my other challenge Crime and Punishment by Doestoyosky. I have only just got to the crime and being inside the murderer’s head is quite heavy going. ( Possibly worse as I am listening on Audible)
With Debz Hobbs Wyatt, author of While No One Was Watching. My mentor for Call of the Wild Valley. We finally meet
Below are some of my books of 2022 and thanks to these other sites for these ideas too.
My 2022 in Books
I began 2022 ‘ While No One Was Watching’ by Debz Hobbs Wyatt. We think the big events are all we need to know and we can miss the many stories of those caught up in events beyond our control.
My favourite food for the year was one I could not put down ‘ Sugar and Snails’ by Anne Goodwin and reminded me of the struggles of being young and growing up.
I got lost on google maps trying to find ‘ The House on Schellberg Street’ by Gill James. I needed to go back in time and understand more about those who fled and those who stayed in Nazi Germany and Austria
.
Another journey to navigate when locked in with Covid in May was to travel with ‘The Wandering Jews’ by Philip Roth who was a journalist in the 1920s and whose homeland was close to all the refugee upheavals of the 2020s.
I wish sometimes I could just stay in one place and be a ‘ Villager’ by Tom Cox. The place somewhere in Dartmoor is given its own voice and century full memories..
We spent many months in our own village or ‘hamlet/ Hamnet by Maggie O Farrell but unlike poor Agnes Hathaway whose knowledge of herbs cannot save her son we get well treated in the Spanish NHS.
There have been some ‘Serious Concerns’ this year by Wendy Cope. With thoughts of those we have lost this year, struggles with the care system while coming to the last page of lifelong stories together.
I would like to raise a toast to The Years by Annie Ernaux for all that we share together in our closely related cultures.
My aim for 2023 will be to consider more deeply ‘ How to be Anti Racist by Ibram X Kendi.
And maybe we will all have the strength to jump ‘ The Hurdles’ by M Thayalan. An old Sri Lankan friend from our teaching days as now he has a go at publishing in his second tongue, English. So maybe I need to try a bit harder with my Spanish.
Resolutions ? Time to take up a poetic challenge again perhaps for 2023 and return to the ‘Ode Less Travelled’ by Stephen Fry or take up ‘ Guerilla Writing’ by Carl Tighe
A walk through the lights of London via my favourite bookshop and the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree sent by the people of Norway and now a yearly poem too.
If you are interested in other book blogs and having fun with titles there is Margaret’s at https://margaret21.com/
I agree with Margaret about the discovery of my local Marple and Stockport Library. I love to borrow the poetry books and the borrow book gives me kindle and audible. Bookish Beck also has title challenges, book reviews and love of library posts. https://bookishbeck.wordpress.com/2022/12/19/love-your-library-december-2022/
Festive Greetings from the lights, books and traditions in London. With love to all. Keep Safe. Keep Healthy and Enjoy Life’s Offerings.
November has been a hard month. It is becoming a mix of dates of friends passing and friend’s birthdays, including my own. Like the seasons the end of the year is approaching and the years go by. But while we are here lets do our best to enjoy and sow seeds for the future.
Butterflies in November in SevilleThe Alcazar
I am in Seville for two nights. Our favourite and local city. It is just over an hour away from the Sierra Aracena. Somos turistxs hoy! I am also reading an incredible novel called Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin.
Autumn in the Sierra Aracena about an hour from Sevilla but much higher up and colder. Our home.
We are staying in the Hotel Simon, once a casa grande of a rich Seville family, probably shipping or merchant wealth. But from the 1930s became a hotel. Today for a reasonable price you can enjoy its tiled splendours. And just walk out into the centre of Seville and come face to face with the giant Cathedral frontage.
The cathedral and GiraldaPatio of Hotel Simon
Our walk today!
First past the market selling all kinds of figures for the nativity story of Bethlehem or Belen. This is quite a collection that builds up for people here. Some villages do a ‘living Belen’ as in a village near us called Linares.
Artisan figures and models for the Nativity
We walk up to the university which was the old tobacco factory of the Carmen opera fame. Now you can walk in and possibly through and feel student life all around you.
University life and lectures. Resistance, repression and survival in Seville in the 40s and 50s
From the University we cross the road by the main theatre where renovation walk is ongoing and then into the Plaza de Espana park. There is fun with the rowing of boats and serious commitment to women’s rights with the poster display for International Woman’s day.
Plaza de Espana and Recognition of Women’s Rights
We watch an attempt at a wedding photo shoot and am glad we asked. We thought she was an Indian bride dressed in the traditional red with all the bead work. No, it was for a Gitano wedding. And of course the romany and Spanish gypsy links are from long ago in the north of India and Pakistan. And listen in to the stamping footwork of flamenco.
Wedding Scenes
From here we walk through the park and have tapas away from the central tourist part. Rested and full of garbanzos, cerveza and ensaladilla we walk through the Plaza de Americas. The archeology museum is closed but the Museo de arte y costumbres is open. We rest with the butterflies and orange lanterna. Painted Ladies. It could be summer. Pigeons abound in one place for food and parakeets squawk about in the trees. Eucalyptus and parakeets and sunshine warmth. We really could be in the southern hemisphere. But the plane trees are changing colour and there is a chill on the shade and at night
We walk back by the river where Seville is ready with an ice rink and fairground for Christmas fun. And a strange glass container for eating churros and chocolate with the Torre de Oro in the background
Along the Rio Guadalquivir
Saludos from Sevilla with all its history, art, culture and natural beauty built up around the grand river Guadalquivir. From the Moorish power base of the Alcazar and Islamic rule, through the colonial Spanish architecture and build to impress, to the more nuanced post Franco Spain, a modern democracy with rights, values and standards at its heart. Ready hopefully to tackle the next global problem of climate change. Drought is not new to Andalucia and water is a blessing. However, the drought and high temperatures are longer and the water levels lower.
The rivers flowing by Seville and into the Atlantic and the Donana wetlands
There is such beauty on this planet created by human hand and by nature. Let’s enjoy while we can and leave this world safer for those who come next. Lets watch our water consumption and keep the rivers flowing for wildlife too.
Notice in our hotel bathroom. But in the Sierra where the water comes from many village water supplies ran dry this summer.
Time to celebrate too. I am attending the book launch of an anthology of short stories this Saturday in London. Evergreen is the title. ‘Until we are Ever Green’ is my story about a neglected silver fir Christmas tree.
The fir tree section of Kew Gardens
Lets hope The Call of the Wild Valley gets published soon too. It’s on the list!
NavasolaNature 