THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWER.


   High up on the mountain top,
   l rest to take stock.
 
   Such a peacefull timeless place.
   Wherever l look is an open space.

   A young girl appears before me,
   with her hair,
    a halo in the sunlit air.

   She sits down to talk.
   "l'm glad you came on this walk" she said.
   " There is a flower,
   it takes a hundred years to grow,
   not days.
   Shall we wait for it to flower? ".
   She asks.

   "Yes". l reply

   "We can make our home here among the stones", she said.

   So we did and waited.
   Eventually it came.
   It was her height.
   Just the same.

   A huge tall stem.
   With flowers of lilly white.

   We ran to it and said "How beautiful are you".
   We danced around it and and sang ,
   We smelled it's scent.

   The beautiful girl kissed it and hugged it,
   and pulled me in to.

   I'm glad we waited.
   We hailed it Adios,
   then walked back down.

 " CHEEP CHEEP"


   Went to lunch one fine day at my friend Julies cortijo. We were all
   seated outside around a laden table and were about to eat, when
   the lady opposite said to me "Hope you don't mind snakes, but there
   is one dangling from the roof just above your head ! "

   I was sitting with my back to the wall. I turned and looked up. Sure
   enough a snake was dangling from the eves with it's head under the
   tiles. " Oh " l said and moved away to the other side of the table, not
  wanting it to land on my head.!

   We sat back and watched. It was not a ladder snake. It had diamond
   patterns down it's body. Oh a Viperine we thought. But l must admit
   l have never seen one away from water. Julies house stands quite high
   and away from the river bed.

   We coulld hear little nestling sparrows saying " cheep cheep" All at once a
   nestling shrieked, then all was quite. Next we heard another scream .
  A deathly silence followed for sometime. The parents arrived. They protested
   and hopped about. The snake came out. The parents bombarded it. The
   snake left across the roof.

   The parents never entered that nest again. Strangely enough Julie has had
   a few chicken fatalities in the past. On one  autopsy a bird was found
   with two puncture marks on its body. Snake bite had been thought at
   the time.!

 

 

   SITTING  UNDER A FIG TREE.


      As I sit under a fig tree, l watch  a tumble bug or dung beetle
   ( Coprophagous) come tumbling along with a large ball of dung.
   l love these Latin names, my favourite has to be (Turdus Turdus.)

     The figs are not ready yet, but when they are open the fleshy fruits
   to reveal the red succulent interior. This is where the single sexed
   flowers are.. A pollinating beetle (Blastophaga grossorum), enters
   the fruit through a small opening at the apex to lay her eggs, pollinating
   as she moves from one tree to another. When the eggs hatch out the
   grublets eat the fruit. Watch out for them, or " just fignore them" ,
   as my niece would say.

     Half ripe figs are semi-poisonous. On the other hand the fig fruit
   and sap are used medicinally against, boils, skin infections, warts,
   insect bites, stings and of course syrup of figs! Never burn fig wood
  it is hugely noxious.

     The fig tree is mentioned in the Bible more times than any other
   plant. Its leaf being the first garment for mankind. This l rather
   contest. Be carefull the leaves are scratchy and can bring on a
   nasty rash.

     Indeed, as in days of old when Knights were bold and used a blade
   of grass, I was caught short  and having no blades of grass,
   I plucked the nearest green leaf !( a fig leaf ). Minutes later I
   suffered the most dreadful reaction. Luckily there was a water
   channel nearby.

    Fig wood is easily bent and can be used to make bent wood furniture,
   garlands, hoops ect: The wilder Egyptian fig was used , because of its
   light- weight  durability for making mummy coffins.

   THE ILLUMINATI


   Every bug has it's day or night. Last night l was  visited by some noisy,
   brown, half inch long beetles, crashing around the supper table.

   One flew into my glass of ale. I watched it flail and then rescued it.
   For the next twenty minutes it entertained itself running around in
   circles, and falling about. Feeling rather guilty l picked it up to steady
   it, when suddenly two little lights lit up on it's bottom! " A Glow Beetle".

   That's the male, or glow worm the female, so named because she is
   wingless and fairly long in the body. Any thing in olden days , that was
   long and crawling around was named a worm. The females also shine
   at night on the ground below, the last three segments of their body are
   strongly luminescent.

   These beetles belong to the family "Lampyridae", (Lampyris noctiluca)
   "Night Light"!,which also includes the fire flies. The buzzing males
   are the fliers. They have two very tiny light producing organs at the tip
   of the abdomen, these can be turned off and on at will. They are most
   active in June and July, when after having gone through a three year
   process, they appear as adults, " on - masse". Preferring damper
   conditions they emerge to flash their illuminations at one another.

   The  grounded females can attract many suitors, but choose only one.

   The lava feed on snails. Snails are plentiful here, especially after rain.
    l have often found empty shells occupied not by snails but by black
    crawling wingless glow worm lava. These long segmented little
    carnivores track snails down following their slime trails. When found
    they drive their hollow mandibles into the snailsl flesh, injecting  a
    dark fluid, partly paralizing, partly digestive, reducing the snails to a
    predigested soup!

    Sadly modern all night lighting attracts the fickle males away from
    the females, leaving them old maids. This is why they are seldom
    found in large numbers anymore.
.





 
.

   DRIVING OVER TORTOISES.


   After all the recent rains, it has been reported that the Parque Comercial
   was awash with tortoises.

   We also have them here in the Almanzora valley. They have been spotted
   on the hillsides, along the river  bed, down in the fields and in gardens.
   I have found several empty shells showing signs of injuries due to hoeing
   and more recently they have been found crushed by lorry's tearing up the
   Almanzora river bed.

   If found alive it is essential never to remove them from their habitat. They
   are a protected species. They have a daily rountine that is ingrained to
   travel the same path, removing leads to disorientation. Thay are active in
   the mornings and evenings, spending the hottest hours buried in the ground
   or under a stone. Tortoises are mainly vegetarian but will feed on carrion.
   They can eat the dung of others and chalk, the latter nescessary for healthy
   hard shells.

   Far from being slow the tortoise can really move. l was once  sitting in a friends
   garden, several were rampaging around the garden, the males were persuing
   a lone female at a terrific pace. They were throwing  themselves at her,
   nipping her legs and generally molesting her to try to slow her down. Then
   with much clanking of shells they all tried to pile on top. I feared for my feet.  
   Later a male was found splayed out on the lawn, fearing him dead picked him
   up and there hanging pinkly his exhausted apparatus! The females lay up to a
   dozen round white hard shelled eggs, which she buries leaving the sun to incubate
   them.

   There are three types of tortoises in Europe. Hermanns tortoise, found mainly
   in Italy and southern Europe. The similar spur-thighed tortoise found in the
   eastern Balkans and Spain. These are the ones now banned from being sold
   in pet shops. Lastly the marginated tortoises found only in Greece and
   Sardinia. These populations were allegedly a result of them being given as
   gifts to ones fiancee!
 

  PUSSIES IN MOROCCO

   Pregnant, purring,
   petted pussies.

   Sitting in bowls,
   on chairs,
   in windows,
   waiting



     SOUK PUSSIE

      I saw a little pussy cat,
      it's fur all grey  and fluffy.
      l watched her as she played all day,
      with bits of cast off stuffy.

      l called her Souk and
      wanted her for my own.

      Purring on the rubbish pile.

      So next day,
      l passed her way,
      to see if she was there!

      But o no,
      what's that,
      a little flat,
      squished
      pussie cat!

 
 
   
     
   


     
     
 

A HALLOWEEN HAWK MOTH.


  This time last year, in southern spain, l was watering my garden,
by the little pond. Here grows a rather lovely winter jasmine,
which had been cultivated from a cutting. l had recently noticed
that several  branches had been stripped of leaves!  I carried on
spraying it from a distance, when l noticed, what l thought was a
large plastic toy hanging from a twig. l sprayed some more, trying
to knock it off. But no it hung on. l put the hose down and went in
for a closer look and to my amazement saw a spectacular
caterpillar. I took some good photos, but can't get them up on this
tablet!

  It was a vivid green, with diagonal stripes along it's sides. lt was
the length of my hand, and had a little tail. When l disturbed it, it
hung it's head down, imitating a twig branching off. l looked deeper
into the bush and saw another, but this one was brown apart from
its head, which was white, almost in the design of a skull! Ahha a
deaths head hawk moth.

  Yes, l did a bit of investigation and sure enough they were. The
brown one was ready to drop to the ground where it would bury itself
and pupate. Normally these beautiful creatures feed on members
of the solanacea family of plants. Now l understood why my plant
had been stripped of leaves!  They are also said, as adult moths, to feed
on the honey from bee hives. There are plenty of those up on the
mountains. l visited them for several days to watch them feed,  they
did day and night. Till eventually l saw them no more. First the brown
one disapeared, then the green one turned brown and did the same.