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.
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.
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!
This August we have been in Spain, Portugal, and then the UK and in various counties, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Yorkshire. Holiday time for the grandchildren has been busy and also catching up with friends, family and a wedding after those two quiet years.
And so this is a quick post to catch up with myself and with the blog on the last day of August.
Water still flowing at the 12 spring fountains in Fuenteheridos
Finally family can visit but now has to be August because of school holidays. Water is becoming problematic even in our ‘wet’ Sierra. Some villages now have water shortages. The water levels are low and there is no way to pipe water from the reservoir. So Seville gets plenty and no restrictions but many here do not. Fuenteheridos springs still flowing but down in the important wetlands of Doñana so many lagoons are completely dry which is devastating for birdlife there.
Climbing the olive trees
Exploring Navasola and the local villages where each have a municipal pool with good showers and a bar. ‘Encanto’ the film was a bit of a theme. Did this link us to ‘building a house with the help of the village’!
We were also lucky in Portugal to see wild dolphins ‘playing’ off the Algarve coast along the Ria Formosa. A first for me. They stayed awhile and it was as if the whole beach were given a spectacular show. Sorry no pics just in the ‘inner eye’.
There are real dolphins out there
And we loved the gecko in our bathroom.
And it was also so good to have so much open air music; in the local village squares, in Tavira and back in the UK at Cropredy with Fairport Convention. I finally get to use my ticket after a two year wait.
Bee eaters visit Norfolk, build a nest in a sandhole and at least two babes have now fledged.
Courtesy of RSPB webcam
In London German Shepherds ‘parent’ a rescued kitten.
Time for a snooze
I hope August has brought some happiness and holiday time in spite of all the news and for us the problems with drought and wildfires in Europe. It is time for governments to act on climate change issues. Our grandchildren deserve to inherit and enjoy a nature rich world where extremes of climate do not destroy lives.
I began my house martin survey in 2015 and each year try to look around the once welcoming fishing village for signs of their nests. Of course now Cabanas is more of a tourist village by the Ria Formosa and the buildings are less kind for the ledges needed. Once there were more house martins on the ‘frontline’ but now most nests have been deterred or destroyed. In one place above various shops and entrances to the small indoor shopping area there were 35. This year there are about 5.
However behind the Spa shop there is a good stretch and the birds can build their mud nests there and avoid the complaints of a mess as a long platform was put up to protect the ground from the delicacies of house martin poo.
Building nest March 2015 Close up, building nest, March 2015
The art of building a nest must somehow be passed on between the generations. Proximity to water and mud is important. Each beakful is carefully positioned ready to stick to the next.
House martins seem to like to choose the same spots and just refurbishing a nest site will mean that they can get on with the business of mating and laying the eggs from March.
High winds can delay their arrival and the parents to be will be pretty exhausted by the thousands of miles they have flown across Africa. So having to rebuild from scratch or search for another site delays their ability to breed. However many of the parents will try again for a second brood. If these can fledge and build up reserves before the end of September they might make the long journey back.
From the RSPB and SEO in Spain there are requests to help these birds by keeping nest sites in situ over the winter. Of course it is illegal to destroy any nest that is in use or being built.
This year in Cabanas I found 100 nest sites in the Spring. The school still provides for many under the eaves and also in the older part of town there are more. The town council appears to have an interesting extra wall front behind which there were quite a few.
But all the new builds seem very unfriendly to these Spring visitors. In our ‘beco’ there have always been a small community and the trad design of our flats does provide the ledging. But many are prevented from returning by netting and plastic hanging down. More unsightly than the nests.
Song of a small golondrina or andorinha ( spanish/ portuguese)
Dear humans, please leave our nests alone,
And like you
We do like to be beside this seaside.
The sand and tides turning help us out
With just the right consistency of mud
We build our homes close to the sea
Where we can almost have food for free
So many insects to shout out about
Making us and our young strong
And ready for the long flight back.
High above the many folk below
May sometimes stand and stare
In a kind of wonder at our flight
But know too little of who we are
And why we have to come so far.
From June through July and August the first broods gather on the phone wires as if at school all in a line and getting ready for the flight of their life.
From past reading there is little known about where these birds go back to in Africa and house martins might still be too small for satellite tracking.
We believe they flock together to fly together across the Sahara but we do not know if the parent birds lead the way.
Here’s to the wonderful house martins of Cabanas de Tavira and the joy they bring some of us. I only wish more people would notice these incredible birds and make a stand for their presence here among the tourists.
* We think here in Spain and Portugal that golondrina or andorinha are used for both swallows and house martins. But in Latin – Delichon urbicum
Young house martins gathering in Cabanas de Tavira 2020.
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Thanks too to Katharine Otto for making the first move to try and post by phone. This is my first attempt too. So apologies for not many photos but some recent ones from the phone! And oh, some more added from my library!
More on the survey later in the year. At present we await family for a holiday and have been enjoying nights out in Tavira with the free concerts. The band last night called SAL formed in the pandemic and this is their first year of playing live concerts. It is with great relief to find some of the normality and conviviality back again in our lives.
Thankfully there is still water in the well and the pond. The birds love the pond and all the trees, wild flowers and other plants love that there is water deep within the ground. We have had the highest temperatures on record for June in Spain and also in our area but there are now cooler nights. Seville has faced temperature in the 40s much earlier than normal. Young swifts have been falling out of nests in the heat.
phlomis Down by he wellwild scabiousRed rump swallow recovering from being stunned and ready to fly off.
Among the Navasola summer visitors are red-rumped swallows. Can you just detect the red in this strong little bird that survived striking fast onto our window? There are plenty of swifts around the monument of Castano De Robledo and here the temperatures have not reached 40 plus yet. This should have given these young a chance to fly out of an overheated nest. In order to keep these amazing migratory birds off the threatened lists their young must not just survive the early heatwaves here which have forced them out of their nests before they are ready but they must fly thousands of miles within weeks of leaving the nest. Lots of insect food is needed to help grow muscle strength too. And yet again there has been some glyphosate spraying of verges poisoning not just the wild flowers but all the surrounding insects and those that fly into the area.
Bee in CistusYoung House Martins
For the young wolves in the north of Spain there have been raging wildfires in one of the highly populated but endangered wild Iberian wolf regions in the Sierra Culebra. Just the wrong time as the young wolves might not have the ability to move far from their dens to get away from fire and smoke.
Iberian Wolf courtesy of Blackpool ZooSwifts flying over the old monument at Castano de Robledo
And the good news. The European Union has just agreed a robust plan for the restoration of Nature. Biodiversity strategy for 2030 – Environment – environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_en
The European Commission’s proposal for a Nature Restoration Law is the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind. It is a key element of the EU Biodiversity Strategy which calls for binding targetstorestore degraded ecosystems, in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and to prevent and reduce the impact of natural disasters.
And I have finished War and Peace. An epic and an insight into Tolstoy’s mind and Russian issues in the 19th Century. But has helped me understand a little more about the awful war raging in the Ukraine.
And for the first time in years I have read a book I could not put down. I read Bewilderment by Richard Powers within a day. And was star and earth struck. The book beautifully describes how a scientist searches for life way out in the stars while his son struggles to deal with the knowledge that life on our planet is threatened with extinction. The boy feels the loss of many species that have already gone forever. He draws them and wants to save what we have left. His father creates stories of possible life on faraway planets.
And recovered from Covid. So far no long term effects but was really tired and wiped out.
So the glass is still half full. There is still time to act and save our wonderful world.
An attempt at drawing water with light and shade with wild scabious.
We need lots more swallows to make a summer and a planet full of different life forms to make a better future.
( From a Spanish placard at a young person’s climate demonstration in Spain)
As many of you know my blog has been about my own individual nature journey at Navasola, a mixed woodland valley in the Sierra Aracena in southern Spain. This led me to wish to be involved in more action to protect this amazing world of nature and so, sitting in a bar in Spain in 2016, I joined the UK Green Party. I became interested in the way members create policy and later decided to join the Wildlife and Habitats Policy Working Group. This has been another good learning curve on collaboration with others, research and constant evolving of policy framework in line with the philosophical basis of the Green Party and to do our best to create ways forward to protect and regenerate the Natural World. https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/philosophical-basis.html
I decided to begin this ABC summary of what I consider as the main principles that have driven the thinking behind the policy to share with you and I welcome discussion.
A for Abundance. Let’s have a world where there is an abundance of wildlife for its own sake but which we know can delight and lift our own spirits.
With such decline in natural spaces for wildlife we must address this with a desire to have an abundance of habitats to support the regeneration of the natural world. Wouldn’t it be a joy to see more green spaces, more birds and even more insects as so much depends on these tiny creatures. Rivers full of newts, fish, otters and beavers. All places to be 100% nature friendly is the key to solving many aspects of the climate/ecological crisis, inequalities and our own increasing mental health challenges.
B for Biodiversity. Let’s have a world where there remains an incredible variety of plants, insects, and all animals.
Well-functioning ecosystems support a variety of species. Regeneration of ecosystems including more wetlands, woodlands, moorlands, clean rivers and oceans with farming and gardening that supports wildlife will help all species, including homo sapiens, adapt and be more resilient to the effects of climate changes. From increasing the vast variety of native wild plants and trees to our coast and ocean beds being full of the variety of life that is possible when not over exploited or polluted. Regenerative farming and fishing are key to preventing more nature depletion.
C for Connectivity. Let’s have a world where wildlife can expand into more and more places and we can connect with nature.
Recognising that nature knows no borders and needs more space we must ensure good connectivity through a Nature Regeneration Network. This should help the need for wild species to expand. Where do all the young birds go when new territories and resources are needed? Nature needs space and knows no borders. We all need access to nature and to understand more about our interdependence.
D for Dedication. Let’s show the willingness to achieve a world rich in nature for all future generations human and otherwise.
To achieve nature rich environments our species must now dedicate all of our actions to this aim. All land use must consider how to improve outcomes for nature on that land. Not elsewhere. All business and public institutions must address the effect of their activities not only on carbon emissions but also on nature depletion. Not just local but all supply chains throughout the world.
Our dedication to regeneration of nature will be to accept a legal framework for the Rights of Nature to exist, persist and evolve. And nationally and internationally support the introduction of Ecocide as a crime against humanity and nature. How much longer can we accept the polluter just pays as in the recent vote in parliament re the constant over flow of sewage into our rivers? We need a better legal framework to truly protect the natural world into the future.
E for Enjoy a world abundant in diverse Ecosystems with Equality of access and opportunities.
The full policy and background research paper will be available on the Green Party website in the near future. In the magazine Green World- Jonathan Elmer, Green Party spokesperson for the Natural World wrote about the significance of the policy.
‘It represents a fundamental shift in emphasis, a movement away from traditional site-based conservation to systematic regeneration of nature.
A recent report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee concluded that since 1970, there has been a 68 per cent decrease in the population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish across the globe, and in the UK, 15 per cent of species are threatened with extinction. It also noted that of the G7 countries, the UK has the lowest level of biodiversity remaining.’
It is time to act to ensure enough is done to regenerate nature not just in the UK but all over the world. We now need to find practical ways to bring these policy principles into action.
Let’s also hope that COP 26 will be a turning point for global co-operation although constant vigilance and action will continue to be needed for the protection of our living Earth and all species on it.
Reforestation needed, old chestnut trees in abandoned woods
Storks by the wetlands. More water needed and frogs.
crag martins find a ledge to rest on at Castaño Del Robledo Black cap in Castaño Del Robledo Large peacock, full wings
February in Fuenteheridos
Breathe in, Breathe deep, its Imbolc* time
Bright skies beyond the blue bring warmth
To Southern earths where sap will rise
No snowdrops here brave bitter blasts
Wild hoops of rarest daffodils defy a different death
A peacock butterfly with wounded wing
Spread out to bathe upon a post
Did it feel the bite upon its wing?
Which hungry bird has lost its meal?
Burnished buzz of black on florets of pink.
Black cap birds peck at rotting fruit
Crag martins search for homes in holy walls.
All push back Winters’ cold short days
As Spring begins its hot embrace
And rain falls further and further away.
In that other place.
I have written this poem and chosen some of our February sightings around Fuenteheridos in the Sierra Aracena, Southern Spain. The mountains are around 500 to 600m above sea level and winters can be cold. The area has reasonable biodiversity and I hope it will add to the spirit of Earthweal’s aims to help us all connect more with nature.
Earthweal is a poetry forum dedicated to global witness of the Earth’s changing climate and its effect on daily life. Here is a place to report that news in the language of the dream, that we may more deeply appreciate the magnitude of those events. It is intended as a place for all related emotions—love and rage, grief and hope, myth and magic, laughter and ghost whistles—and belongs to the entire community of Earth as mediated by its human advocates.
Sarah Conner invites us to write seasonal poems and the first is inspired by Imbolc in February.
‘*Today, I want to think about * Imbolc. Traditionally celebrated at the start of February, Imbolc is a festival of new life and new beginnings. The name derives from “in the belly” — the first stirrings of life, seeds starting to sprout.’
I am also linking this to Dverse who as a bunch of great poets and their Mr Linky inspired me to play around and write poems publicly! And to Lillian who is hosting the OLN. I hope she and all of you can meet up soon with your families. A big Spanish Abrazos Fuerte to all.
My first photo on first post. I know now what it is! (This close up could be useful for the course on botanical illustration but as yet we cannot name the beauty that is that berry!)
It is 7 years from when I first started this blog, January 2014 and as it is the last day of January I am looking back and wondering how to go forward.
7 years ago I gave the blog the catch line ‘nature needs nurture’. I was both amazed by my new experiences of living in the Sierra Aracena in Southern Spain and dismayed by how much was being lost. My wonderful discoveries of the vast biodiversity of Mediterranean regions kept me busy with key wild flower books and local bird books. My eyes and mind felt opened with a sense of wonder at this incredible range of life.
Before the final building work.A view of the house November 2013
I have tried to record my experiences with photography and words. I found being ‘just botanical’ didn’t seem to attract a readership. I hope I have managed to add in the personal as it has been a personal journey for me but I have not always added in the nitty gritty of daily life and relationships and the strain when you live at a distance from family. These Covid times certainly emphasised that and the dilemma of no easy and quick return to be with family.
January 2014
Pollination
January 2015
Mirbeck oaks
Half a daisy Jan 2015
January 2014
Viburnum Tinus January 2015
The growing understanding of how our natural world is at such a dangerous point has made me think and read more about climate and economic factors. One of my interests because of living in a rural community has been the delicate balance between how we farm and the possibility to be environmentally kind. There is much more discussion and action for those who own land to become stewards for nature. However, at our farm or finca we do not have to worry about finances in the same way as younger people and those without a supplementary income. There is no money in really farming our chestnuts, although we try and collect them each year. It is a back breaking task and not possible for just me. With paid help and about 200 chestnut trees we have never earnt more than 300 or so euros. It is true we could diversify and also be more self sufficient and would be so if younger. How do we go forward with our woodland home while under the shadow of no longer being European citizens, health and virus issues and climate changes.
January 2016
Saving a bumblebee January 2016
Higuera Procession of the Three Kings. First comes the Star
In 2020 Borrassca Barbara arrived as one of the strongest storms in years. The ancient chestnuts had branches torn from them all over the area. This also affected the chestnut harvest and many did not get any income from their chestnuts in a year where it would have been so welcome. There is a lot of ‘healing’ work to be done with the trees but also the longer and hotter droughts affect the size of the chestnuts too. My plan is to have a mosaic of different areas to help with the biodiversity of plants and pollinators and in the hope this will help the birds too. Our pond has also kept enough water in it over the long summer months but we have at times topped it up from our underground water.
Iberian Frog
Our enjoyment of our woodland finca and the area is in the wild flora and fauna and I hope to go forward with more writing about this and being involved in more local conservation issues. The wildfires nearby brought this home to many people in our area. Eucalyptus and other pine plantations spread fires more quickly than native cork and holm oak forests.
January 2017
Red Admiral on footpath to Galaroza, Vanessa Atlanta
The village cross
Los Reyes procession in village in Sierra Aracena.
Looking abroad now there is so much more scope for hope especially if the Biden administration can manage the climate crisis well. Unfortunately I hope that they will also handle all the ‘denial’ and misinformation with careful skill. I think I wrote when Trump came into power that the way we look after our planet should be a cross political party effort. I have closely followed American sites like Eco Watch and seen the many environmental protections for both wildlife and human societies stripped away . Well, with shamans entering the heart of democracy and ‘using’ the antlers of a dead beast I hope that many more may see into the heart of our existential crisis; a disconnect with nature and a disconnect with how we perceive what is right action in the 21st century.
January 2018
Portugese Christmas crib scenes
The stranded sperm whale
Attempts at drawing salamanders
Fireworks for New Year
We love Tavira and Portugal for New Year celebrations
0 to 99
7 years on and there seems to be a growing movement to protect the world we live in. I hope that we will be able to put the restoration of nature, wild and biodiverse places at the centre of all our actions. We have to hold our democratic governments to account as they are the best we have and they must act in the interests of future planet worth living on for all.
January 2019
Fire Salamander
Large peacock, full wings
View of Castano church and orchard which many birds love from the monument and
In David Attenborough’s recent book ‘ A Life on Our Planet’ he presents his witness statement to the importance of biodiversity as the heart of maintaining stable climactic conditions. Restoring nature and conserving biodiversity to create optimum conditions can help mitigate effects of climate change.
He uses some facts at the beginning of each year he remembers
1960 World population 3 billion, Carbon in atmosphere 315 parts per million, Remaining wilderness 62 per cent
2020 World population 7.8 billion, Carbon 415 parts per million, Remaining wilderness 35 per cent
One point about biodiversity importance Attenborough noted was how whales create the conditions for an abundance of sea life. There is a delicate balance that we started destroying very early on in our economies of free enterprise. His book is full of the warning signs which were apparent from the 1960s and the repeated failures to act. But Attenborough has a two visions for the future, one where there will be a poor outcome for all species, including ourselves and another where we may just turn the tide and will be able to maintain a planet with a more stable climate conducive to all life. Restoring nature is at the heart of this.
January 2020 ( I celebrated biodiversity with my photos so not all taken in January!)
Ladderback snake
Skink
Crag martins at Almonaster
Buff tailed bumblebee
Grey wagtail
Stork flying at Almonaster
And for 2021
Snow arrives as a first in all of our 8 years of living at Navasola
Below is about the importance of woodland in Spain for both economic activity and biodiversity.
Summary – In Spain the woodland coverage is the third largest in Europe with 18 million of hectares and sheltering over 6oo different species.
En España, la superficie forestal (es decir, lo que estrictamente no es agrícola ni urbano) ocupa 26,28 millones de hectáreas, lo que supone el 52 % del territorio nacional. Su superficie arbolada aumenta con una tasa anual de 2,19 %. Después de Suecia y Finlandia, España es el tercer país de Europa con mayor superficie forestal arbolada (en torno a 18 millones de hectáreas).
Cork trees
Chestnut trees in Autumn
Castano del Robledo
Reforestation needed, old chestnut trees in abandoned woods
View from era to house, through olive grove of 21 trees
Old chestnut trees in the Sierra Aracena
Según el avance del Informe de la situación de los bosques y el sector forestal en España (ISFE 2017), en nuestro país apenas existen bosques primarios (no intervenidos) debido a actividad humana sobre el territorio durante siglos.
En cuanto a las especies que nos encontramos, el 55,5 % de la superficie forestal arbolada está ocupada por especies de frondosas, el 37 % por especies de coníferas y el 7,5 % restante está ocupado por masas mixtas.
Los bosques y otras formaciones vegetales en España constituyen un importante hábitat para la biodiversidad, ocupando el 68 % de la superficie terrestre protegida y albergando 615 especies silvestres bajo el régimen de protección especial (40,2 % de ellas son aves y 27,6 % son especies de flora).
I hope everyone is coping with our current surge of infections and very bleak January weather. And a big thank you to all who have followed me so loyally and with so many comments and interactions over the years. I think I will continue in some form and we still hope to have good enough health to live at Navasola for a few more years.
NavasolaNature 