We’ve had to wait two weeks longer than usual in our garden, but they’re finally here ….. the first almond blossoms of 2014.
Flowering time: Early January to end of February.
Which flower do you always look forward to seeing in the garden?
Related articles:
A Year in the Life of an Almond Tree – Andalucían Style!
Pretty in Pink: The Almond Blossom of Andalucía
Image credit: Thomas Backa (Flickr: Creative Commons)
I don’t like Halloween. Never have. Never will.
Not for of any particular religious reasons, but simply because it always seemed a pretty pointless exercise to me.
Until I moved to live in Spain.
Although the American-style “ghosts and ghouls” type of Halloween has now started to creep into the Spanish calendar each year, this time of year is celebrated here in a different form, as “El Día de los Muertos” or the “Day of the Dead”.
The festival of Todos los Santos (All Saints´ day) is a national holiday on November 1st each year, when cemeteries are packed with families paying homage to their dead and tending the gravestones of their ancestors by placing fresh flowers and candles.
This is a commemoration for loved ones with nothing ghoulish or scary involved and, thankfully, without commercialism.
Exactly as it should be.
Related articles:
Death in the Afternoon: The Round Cemetery of Sayalonga
The Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life
The heart of Cómpeta: El Paseo de las Tradiciones
We don’t see this beautiful little flower very often because it is usually hidden in the daytime and opens during the hours of darkness to release it’s beautiful perfume. I’ve written about the Dama de Noche (or night-scented jasmine) before, but it made an appearance today because we had heavy rain for most of the morning, and have had a dismal, cloudy afternoon. The poor plant must think the evening is upon us already!
Still, we have had a long hot summer and the ground desperately needed the rain. I know that the sunshine will soon be back 🙂
Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to photograph raindrops on the flowers from An Unusual POV, which just happens to be this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge!
You might also enjoy these other entries from:
As a result of this week’s WordPress system update, I couldn’t access the Dashboard of my blog for almost 24 hours.
When finally I managed to log-in, I was preparing the draft of a post which was scheduled for yesterday (Friday) in which I would offer the followers of East of Málaga the chance to WIN 6 HANDWRITTEN POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN.
I pressed the “Preview” button and …. up popped a box to say that my draft had been posted! GRRRR!
Strangely, the post didn’t appear on the blog, but that didn’t stop the message going out to followers via Notifications in the Reader, by email, on Facebook and Twitter. Of course, this meant that when anyone clicked on the link to the post – they received the Error 404 message that the post could not be found!
Sorry about that, folks.
Annoyingly, when yesterday came around and the scheduled post finally posted to the blog, NO NOTIFICATIONS were sent out by WordPress in the Reader, by email, on Facebook or Twitter!
Technology, huh ….. SHEESH!!
I don’t want anyone to miss out on the chance to WIN just because WordPress screwed up – so if you didn’t receive the notification, please head over to yesterday’s post for your chance to WIN 6 HANDWRITTEN POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN – which is my way of saying a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has supported and followed my blog.
Always assuming that when I press “Publish” – you get notified about THIS POST, of course!
Related articles:
WordPress Photo Challenge: The World Through my Eyes
CBBH Photo Challenge: Same Subject, Different Time
La Noche de San Juan: Families, fires and football!
The wild flowers are mostly at an end now, here on southern coast of Andalucía – but there are still a few of these gorgeous poppies about.
But, they only last for a few precious, fleeting hours until the petals fall to the ground and each individual flower has gone forever.
Related posts:
Wildflowers of Andalucía: Dutchman’s Pipe
Wildflowers of Andalucía: Bloomin´ lovely!
Zafarraya Pass: Walking with Neanderthal Man
East of Málaga 