When the sun stretches around the valley and rests on the rosemary bushes, their earthy scent fills the air. The luscious new leaves are thick with juice, the drier more pungent yellow leaves are ideal for roasting in the oven, the stems gnarled and ancient-looking add flavour too.
We grow a lot of rosemary. P always teases us whenever we discuss which plants we need. “Romero?” he asks. We must have planted hundreds, because it grows wild here and because it grows despite us. “Más romero,” he nods sagely.
We have learned to share our rosemary bushes with the local wildlife. Loved by bees and butterflies, home to lizards and goodness knows what small rodents, the bushes are at their most artistic when they are home to spiders. 
Their web creations at times look like something from Tate Modern: sinister cradles awaiting a passing fly, an unsuspecting moth, dried leaves dropping to the earth. 
5 to remember
delicioso/a – luscious
acre – pungent
ideal – ideal
antiguo/a – ancient
nos toma el pelo – he teases us
Notes on a Spanish Valley
Award-winning blog – Living in rural Andalucia
Hmmm, I think the spiders are most artistic when they are at home in the rosemary…
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I think the webs are beautiful too, architectural somehow! SD
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What creative little web weavers you have 🙂
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Yes, but I my husband hates spiders so he is not amused by these photos! SD
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Too funny 🙂 we have a similar scenario. I’m quite fond of spiders, will tolerate huntsmen in the house, and love webs. The G.O. is unenthusiastic but at least no longer kills them. I have similar photos of a shrub near-ish our bedroom door full of tiny webs, evidence of the multitude of inhabitants.
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I keep telling him that spiders eat other bugs, but that doesn’t seem to help. SD
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