We went to Mombeltrán for lunch the other day and I stopped to snap a picture of the “autumn colours” on the local mountains.
We hadn’t been that way for a few months, and it was shocking to think that the fire this summer had come that close to the town and destroyed so many of the pines.
The picture was taken at what would have been the very edge of the blaze; I hate to think what it’s like farther up the mountain.
In theory, there are some wonderful places to admire los colores del otoño in Spain. I hope a few of them are still intact.
As I was writing this, I got a Google alert for a news story announcing that three million euros are to be allocated from the 2010 budget to be invested in the area affected by the fire. At this stage, I don’t think they’ve said what they intend doing with the money.
When we were all speculating about possible motives behind starting wildfires, a number of people pointed out that there was a lot of money to be made from la repoblación del monte. Three million seems enough to buy a fair number of seedlings.
