Giant seedhead of the century plant. July 1, 2014
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Giant seedhead of the century plant #Countryside in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-2bX
This is a new wildflower for me, I’ve never noticed it before: are the conditions this year most suitable for it? 
It is Merendera Montana, growing as a scattered carpet of white flowers. The leaves come later. Each flower is star-shaped with six petals. According to my flower book, the petals are pale lilac but ours here are white. Common throughout Iberia in rocky areas, sparse grass and mountain pastures: sounds just like our valley, then. I found these in a rocky spot beside our track where it winds through the olive grove.
5 to remember
las condiciones – the conditions
dispersado/a – scattered
una alfombra – a carpet
en forma de estrella – star-shaped
los pétalos – the petals
‘Common Wildflowers of Spain’ by Austen Colwell [UK: Santana]
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Pretty white star-shaped #wildflower: Merendera in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-1Jd
With daily temperatures in the mid-30s now [Centigrade], the valley around us is changing rapidly. Wildflowers are no more, their colourful blooms have done their job and are turning into seedheads which bob in the heavy summer breeze. 
This [above] is Wild Carrot, Daucus Carota. Its plate-sized white flowers line the roadside verges here until mid-summer when the seedheads appear [below], like goblets lifted to the sun. The umbel [flowerheads which open out rather like umbrellas] are flat or slightly concave, and similarly the seedheads also incurve conspicuously.
5 to remember
agitarse – to bob
al borde de carretera – the roadside verge
una copa – a goblet
un paraguas – an umbrella
conspicuamente – conspicuously
‘Common Wildflowers of Spain’ by Austen Colwell [UK: Santana]
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
In the heat of summer, wildflowers transform into seedheads #plants in #Spain http://wp.me/p3dYp6-1N1 via @Spanish_Valley
…yellow, this is one of the daisy-type wildflowers which cover the valley every spring. I find them impossible to distinguish. June 1, 2014.
At this time of year we look for every sign that winter is ending and spring is on its way. The nights are still cold, though we are not high enough for snow it does dust the high peaks of the Sierra de las Nieves. 
But look closely and we find new leaves and flower buds waiting for a spot of hot sunshine. 
5 to remember
un brote –a shoot [on a plant]
el final – the ending
no suficientemente alto – not high enough
la cima – the peak
un capullo – a flower bud [on a plant]
…sunflowers, fields of them, around ever corner. There is something childlike about the way their heads hang in the morning, raising their faces as the sun rises. July 25, 2011.
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
S is for… sunflowers, fields of them in #Spain #photography http://bit.ly/2goIaVC via @Spanish_Valley
…romero, of course. We are surrounded by rosemary, and never tire of its scent. August 26, 2013.
