The valley really is greening up now, at last the leaf buds on the tips of the fig branches are opening like outstretched fingers. 
On the way to Ronda this morning, I spotted spears of cultivated asparagus poking through in the fields, and the car loads of farm labourers gathering on Mint Boy’s corner at Alcalá del Valle. We call it Mint Boy’s corner, because when we first moved here, the young boy at the garage there picked a bunch of wild mint and presented it to me as he filled the car with diesel.
![[photo: insects-morphology.blogspot.com]](https://notesonaspanishvalley.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/swallowtail-butterfly-insects-morphology.jpg?w=625)
[photo: insects-morphology.blogspot.com]
The leaves on the walnuts are breaking through too, just like the walnut they open at the very end of each branch, these like a single green arrow tip. We sat on the terrace, drinking our morning
cafelitos, and watched a swallowtail butterfly fly towards us from the plum tree and straight into the wall. It fell stunned to the floor. D picked it up and re-launched it, and it flew away fine. Beautiful markings. It lost one of its two tails but that didn’t stop it flying. Its upper wings are yellow with a network of black veins, around the edges of the wings are tiny blue spots. They are quite common here, but are so exotic-looking that they never fail to make us stop and watch them.
5 to remember
la mariposa – butterfly
el garaje – garage
el espárrago – asparagus
la hierbabuena – mint
la macaón – swallowtail butterfly
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On the way to Ronda this morning, I spotted spears of cultivated asparagus poking through in the fields, and the car loads of farm labourers gathering on Mint Boy’s corner at Alcalá del Valle. We call it Mint Boy’s corner, because when we first moved here, the young boy at the garage there picked a bunch of wild mint and presented it to me as he filled the car with diesel.![[photo: insects-morphology.blogspot.com]](https://notesonaspanishvalley.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/swallowtail-butterfly-insects-morphology.jpg)
Last weekend in Andalucía, I was amazed at how green everything was 🙂
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Amazing what sunshine and a shower of rain will do! 🙂 SD
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I suppose that there won’t be much greenery left at the end of the summer…?
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Rescuing butterflies..that’s the sort of thing I do, too 🙂
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I love the variety of butterflies in Spain, we have a book but I struggle to identify them as they disappear so quickly! SD
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¡Estás en Paraíso!
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Por cierto! SD
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My gosh, you continue to remind me. Now I have to add Ronda back on my to-do list, as I only had a few hours there. Unfortunately, the thing I remember most was some very rude, loud american 20-something woman complaining to her boyfriend and swearing quite loudly. I really would like to visit the old town at least, and possibly the old well. I remember that was the first place I saw a stadium for the bulls, as well. Now I’m thinking about Spain again. 🙂
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The secret is to get there before 11am when all the tourist buses arrive! And wander off down the side streets in the old town, each corner brings a new view. 🙂 SD
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Isn’t it exciting Sandra! Suddenly everything is bursting in to leaf here too and there is a thick blanket of green everywhere. Wild flowers, shrubs and all sorts of plants that I’ve never seen are appearing as if by magic. And birds, lots of birds. I can’t claim to have seen anything quite as splendid as your butterfly, but I have seen Hoopoe’s which seem very exotic to me!
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I love hoopoes too Lottie, they are supposed to live here all the time but are so shy we rarely see them. SD
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We had a lovely holiday some years ago staying near Ronda and spent quite a bit of time there. I still remember what a beautiful place it was, even though we were tourists ourselves 😉
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Ronda is beautiful, we do tend to rush in and out to the shops. Really we should have a spare hour to wander around and chill! SD
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Isn’t “la mariposa” a simply perfect word for butterfly? Love the Spanish language.
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Yes it is beautiful, I wish the vocab stuck in my memory better though! SD
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