spain – Page 76 – don't confuse the narrator

like a lamb

Well, we’ve reached the end of the month and the expression “February fill dyke” has never seemed more appropriate.

How March is to come in remains to be seen: last night, I thought it was going to come roaring like a lion, but today has been as mild a day as you could wish for. On a walk back from the village at lunch time I saw:

swallows: I don’t know how many it takes to make a summer in Spain, but there were several.
lizards: not the first of the season, but the first time this year that I have seen more than just the one.
a stork circling the church tower.
a bat: I thought for a moment it was another swallow, but there’s no doubt it was a bat, even though it was broad daylight.
a red admiral butterfly: who must have managed to weather the storms and was now enjoying the sunshine

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fire and rain

Some readers will remember the fraught few days last summer when I wondered if the house was to be burned to a frazzle by the Gredos fire. It’s hard to believe that with all the rain that’s fallen recently.

Anyway, I still have a “Google alert” set up that tells me when any relevant news appears on the web. Which is why I’ve just seen this headline from the catástrofes y accidentes section of ABC online:

Yes, the re-forestation has been put off because of the weather.
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break in the clouds

We all turn out to watch
the river churn and the bridges
froth at the mouth while
above us, angry mountains clench
white teeth, briefly holding back
the storm.

In a brief lull in the torrential rain yesterday, I ventured as far as the village.
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mardi garden

The cats are twitterpated: lords and ladies
of misrule, they squeal like St Martin’s pigs
in their carnal carnival. Birds’ nests burgeon
in the hedges and, on the early apricot,
a choir of ruby buds swells, ready to burst
into scented song.

More “notes for a poem” than a finished poem, I think. And they were notes taken several years ago.
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sunshine

People have this unrealistic idea of Spain being semi-desert and sunny the whole time. It isn’t. Where I am, the weather’s turned cold and grey again, and it looks as if the rain will be around for a few days, so I think something is needed to brighten things up.

The only thing in flower in the garden at the moment, other than a few weeds – mostly groundsel and wild marigolds – are violets and crocuses. I took this picture last week.