Blooms and beasties

10 mins spent tracking butterflies lead to one photo and one little video but I did figure out how to use the macro zoom at last.

I am not sure if this is a couple preparing to get friendly or a fight between males, there are loads of small versions of this butterfly around I thought they would be the females.

Dragonflies look pretty from a distance...

...but pretty mean from closer in - what a grumpy guts of a face.

This euphorbia flowers all summer long shame they are so tiny though.

 Aloe Vera is making banana shaped flowers now

 and the other aloe is nearly open with a very different form.

Callistemon is flowering for the second time this year.

 Gazenias are flourishing after yesterday's rain

This minibeast is rather bright I guess not too fearful of being eaten, it did not seem interested in me either thank goodness.

 This cricket popped out, made a noise then popped back under the bark.

These crickets are pretty noisy and have a weird pattern on their wings you should be able to see it if you zoom in. They dig little tunnels and sit in the entrance chirring away, they also will move into abandoned plant pots, watering cans or anything else likely to raise their noise above the others. 

 More than enough berries for jam today we picked 5kg two days ago and there is at least that much ripe again already. 

Most of the holly trees have new berries on them way earlier than in the UK. There was a red berry on one but I knocked it off by accident.

This one is a little bit behind with its last flower still open.

 Purple toadflax is popping up all over our little forest now.

Cherries progressing well for their first season, the birds and I are keeping an eye on them.

Cedeira, garden and Pantin

Cedeira is a 10 minute drive away the old town is built to the west of the river and has a lovely church and square. Most of the rest of the town is spread along the ample sea front. There are two largish supermarkets and plenty of little shops as well.

Between the houses and the sea is a green strip of tree planted dunes that hosts a range of festivals during the course of the year.

being at the head of a small Ria, the beach is safe with plenty of shallow water, few currents and is usually fairly quiet apart from at peak season, even then the end furthest from the town is always quiet. This picture was taken mid afternoon on a holiday weekend in April with the shade temperature around 26C and the sea temperature 15C. There is a lifeguard in summer and a roped off safe swimming zone.

Scented stock grows wild in the dunes and smells wonderful in the sunshine.

In the distance you can see the harbour that nestles below an ancient castle. There is a resident fleet of fishing boats of all sorts of sizes and often a scattering of leisure craft as well.

There is a tidal river at the far end of this photo that makes a good trip in a kayak within a few minutes you pass under a couple of bridges, leave the houses behind and are winding through a lush green landscape. 

Back in the garden the Aloe verde has come into full flower 

I lost a few hours doing tidying and cleaning to take photos for advertising the house for summer rentals and for sale, this is the en-suite bathroom.

And the kitchen looking like it has not looked for many years

I found some time to weed some of the strawberries, no shortage of fruit and they taste wonderful.

After a long hard day I headed off to twang my guitar to the sunset above Pantin, I went a little further along one of my favourite tracks and found a good place to park.

Floods of thrift Ahhh

Oh blimey I hope I left it in Park with the handbrake firmly on, there is no sense of edginess when you park.

Lovely sunset, by the time I had finished twanging and loving Galicia it was pitch black on a moonless night, reversing up the barely defined track to somewhere safe to turn round was less than easy.