Category Archives: Nature

Of Birds and Beasts in Mallorca’s Spring

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Filed under Animals/Wildlife, Cats, Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature, Writing

Living in rural Mallorca and no longer having to commute into a city for work has given us more time and appreciation for the nature that surrounds us. We’re more aware of seasonal changes – and have become just a teeny bit obsessed about noting the ‘firsts’ of each season.

It’s been a good week for ‘firsts’. We went for a walk on Sunday and retraced some of our earlier steps on the Via Verde (or Via Verda as it’s known locally). This ‘green way’ is one of Spain’s network of eco-paths – conversions of disused railway line routes – and connects Manacor with the small town of Artà, in the northeast of Mallorca.

These Feet were Made for Walking

The path opened without a great deal of fanfare in October 2014 and we began 2015 by resolving to walk the full length of some 29 km – in stages – during January. A spell of bad weather meant we didn’t finish until mid-February. But, hey ho, we did it.

Spring wildflowers on Via Verde, Mallorca

Wildflowers in abundance on the Via Verde, near Son Carrio


Poppies on the Via Verde

Poppies on the Via Verde

The path looked very different on Sunday, with so much greenery around and swathes of wildflowers lining the route. Our latest walk gave us some ornithological sightings that were our ‘firsts’ of the season: a swallow (yes, this early) and a bee-eater.

In the past couple of days we have also seen our first tortoise of the spring, ambling through the undergrowth in an untamed part (one of many) of our land. It was Pip – the newest addition to our family of adopted felines – who discovered the creature, alerted by the rustling sounds from the foliage it was navigating its way through. A tortoise was clearly ‘the very first’ for this relentlessly inquisitive little cat, and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it!

Tortie kitten in window

Inquisitive Pip seems to have heard something interesting . . .


Mediterranean tortoise, Mallorca

An early outing for this Mediterranean tortoise

The sighting was good news. Our area is a natural habitat for the Mediterranean tortoise and we’re always pleased to see them surviving. No doubt there will be coin-sized babies soon, which means we have to tread carefully when we’re out on the land.

A Cyclist’s Surprise

First-time visitors are always surprised to see tortoises roaming freely around. Last autumn we heard a shout from the other side of our gates and opened them to find an English Lycra-clad cyclist with a concerned expression on his face.

“Have you lost a pet tortoise?” he asked, in a broad Mancunian accent, pointing back up the lane. “Only I’ve just seen one up there.”

We explained that the creature he’d seen was a wild Mediterranean tortoise and that sightings were quite common; he beamed in surprise. It reminded us – for the zillionth time – how much we enjoy living  in the Mallorcan countryside, in the midst of nature.

Our next seasonal ‘first’? Who knows? But you can be sure we’ll be as thrilled as we are every season . . .

Read more about the ‘Via Verde’ here in my article recently published in abcMallorca magazine’s spring edition, and online:

http://www.abc-mallorca.com/via-verde/

Jan Edwards Copyright 2015

New Year, new oak trees, on rural Mallorca

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature, Weather/Climate

In November, we came home clutching two very young oak trees from our day at Dijous Bo (which means ‘good Thursday’ in mallorquín). A stall at the annual fair – Mallorca’s largest traditional event of its kind – was handing out small tree plants to anyone who wanted them. Although our rural Mallorcan finca has plenty of land, it doesn’t have a lot of soil, but we figured it had to be worth at least giving these young trees a shot at growing into something for future generations to enjoy.

Because I had a large amount of writing work to do, we stuck the well-rooted plants into a bucket of water and put them aside. Planting things here is a bit of a logistical operation that we didn’t have time or the energy for then.

The New Year on Mallorca started with glorious sunshine and blue skies. We’re in a period known as ‘la calma’, when we enjoy clear skies and warm sunshine, and usually kid ourselves that winter is going to be mild this time. Reality is sure to hit soon, but the conditions were perfect for a spot of gardening. And what could be better than planting two young trees on the first day of a new year?

A pickaxe (an essential piece of kit for planting anything on our land), shovel, gardening fork, and watering can were deployed and we now have two baby oak trees at the end of our field.

We’re never likely to be able to shelter from the sun beneath them but, one day in the distant future, somebody will be able to enjoy these trees. And that’s a good feeling at the start of a New Year.

Great oaks from little acorns . . .

Great oaks from little acorns . . .

 

September storms on Mallorca

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Filed under Countryside, Nature, Weather/Climate

It’s the last day of September and, although we expect storms on Mallorca this month – after the long hot summer – we seem to have had more of them than usual. And along with high temperatures, the high humidity has made things uncomfortable at times.

We’ve also had three lots of visitors staying with us during September. The first visit was from our friends Duncan and Kristina, who were surprised to find it so hot and humid – having stayed at the finca with us before at around this time. During their stay, we spent the best part of one day with them in the lovely coastal village of Banyalbufar (enjoying an excellent lunch at 1661 Cuina de Banyalbufar – a most-visit restaurant if you’re ever in that part of the Mallorca). The sun had shone all day and was still shining as we approached home. One thing was evident though: puddles were everywhere.  Clearly it had rained, but stopped in time to give us a warm and sunny end to the day.

A trail of destruction

The weather, in our absence, turned out to have been more than a heavy shower.  As we drove through the gates onto our drive, we noticed that the dishes under all the flowerpots were full of water. That was the only sign there that there’d been a storm. But when we opened the shutters at the back of the house, all was revealed: two teak dining chairs blown over; a parasol (on a stand) lying on the ground, and another parasol broken and blown some distance from its original position. And down in our field, two almond trees had suffered severe damage. We now have a couple of almond tree trunks standing forlorn and without branches and leaves.

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One broken almond tree

One broken almond tree

Flying chairs

Flying chairs

Another broken tree

Another broken tree

We found out later that there had been an intense hailstorm, with severe winds. It seemed that a mini-tornado had whipped its way through our garden, leaving its calling card in its wake. We checked out our Swiss neighbours’ garden (in their absence) as it appeared to be on the trajectory of whatever had passed through our garden, but the only damage suffered there was a potted plant that had been blown over.

Mallorca’s green and pleasant land

This was a very localized storm, and there have been quite a few of those on Mallorca over the past few weeks. Every day we’ve checked various weather apps, finding the forecast of more storms. Our visitors this September have not had quite the weather they’d expected. We’ve now had enough rain (hopefully) to top up the reservoirs depleted during the summer months. Mallorca is looking green again, with an enthusiastic showing of early weeds in our garden. But the most unexpected sight in our garden – due no doubt to the continuing warmth and all the rainfall – has been almond blossom on one of our several trees (undamaged by the storm). We don’t usually see that until January/February. It’s been a strange September . . .

 

 All photos courtesy of Duncan Matthews.

 

 

Flowering agave is the bee’s needs

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature

Back in June I wrote about the agave that was beginning to flower in the garden of some friends here in the valley. Initially a huge stalk – looking rather like a giant asparagus spear – grew from the centre of the spiky leaves. As the agave dies once it has flowered, it’s probably as well that the stalk’s growth and subsequent appearance of the flowers takes place over the course of several weeks.

Yesterday morning The Boss and I went to check out the progress of this Mediterranean plant. The Boss took his iPod to capture some images to send to our friends (currently back in the UK) and I used my Nikon’s zoom lens to focus on the detail of the lofty yellow flowers.

The once-sturdy leaves at the base of the plant are now beginning to droop, as all the energy has gone into producing the spectacular flower. What struck us most was the huge number of bees swarming around the blooms. The property has some old hives and the bees often fly over to visit our finca’s bird baths, but we haven’t seen many for a few days.  We know little about bees (except that The Boss doesn’t react too well to being stung) but, from what we’ve observed, they love anything that’s yellow. They’re certainly loving the agave flower, but for how much longer? Only time will tell . . .

 

A daylight glimpse of the moon as well.

A daylight
glimpse of the moon as well.

 

High in the sky.

High in the sky.

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Mallorca lashed by storms

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Filed under Nature, Weather/Climate

We have old friends holidaying on the island in a finca down in the southeast. Like many sun-starved Brits, they were longing for some Mediterranean warmth and sunshine during their two weeks’ holiday on Mallorca. How disappointing for them that the weather changed on Sunday (the day after their arrival), with thunderstorms and rain replacing the fine spring weather we’d been enjoying over the past few weeks.

If Sunday’s storm wasn’t enough, we had more yesterday and last night. Yes, another night when The Boss had to get up, get out and switch off our solar power electricity system.  It was all quite dramatic – with some incredibly loud claps of thunder that rattled every pane of glass in our little casa – but, here in our valley, there wasn’t anything like the quantity of rain that fell elsewhere on the island.

Deluge day

Just five minutes’ drive from our home is a winery and, last night, we saw on the local IB3 TV news that their cellar had been flooded. Today, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports rainfall yesterday in Campos (in the south of Mallorca), of some 69 litres per square metre and, in Palma, 47 litres/sq.m. TV news footage and social media photos show that Palma took quite a hit too, with flooding on some major roads and trees brought down in the city centre. The Bulletin also reports that 360 bolts of lightning struck the island in less than three hours.

Having been the victims of bad weather (and a dodgy roof) in the past, we feel for those people across Mallorca who are mopping up the mess and assessing damage this morning. As I look out of the window at a benign spring day with sun shining from a blue sky, I can’t help wondering: who counts the bolts of lightning?

The storm approaches. Meanwhile, we were sipping coffee in the sunshine.

The storm approaches. Meanwhile, we were sipping coffee in the sunshine.

 

 

 

Mallorca’s most impressive plant?

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature

Our Mediterranean-style garden on Mallorca began simply enough, with just a few baby plants of the Agave americana variety – given to us by a kind neighbour. We duly planted them, fairly close together, not appreciating quite how large they would become in due course. Later, we transplanted the ‘babies’ the original plants produced, increasing our garden stock.

They’re majestic-looking architectural plants, but can be painful if you get too close: the needle-like spike on the end of each ‘leaf’ is devilishly sharp and can cause bruising if the skin is penetrated deeply enough. Both The Boss and I have experienced weeder’s bottom – in other words, been ‘got’ by one of these leaves, while clearing the earth that surrounds the plants of unwanted greenery.

One day our agaves will probably flower – it can take a dozen years or more before they do so – and, after the magnificent effort of producing their only bloom in life, they die. We’re hoping ours don’t all keel over at once – the garden would look devastated.

Agave . . . or asparagus?

Meanwhile, our English part-time neighbours and friends are facing the demise of a massive specimen of Agave americana. They think it’s probably been on their property for around 20 years. Once the central spike that heralded the start of the flower became visible, they started to monitor progress, keeping measurements and marvelling at the rapid pace of growth. There’s something almost alien about their appearance – the flower stalk of the Agave americana, not our neighbours. It soon resembled the world’s largest piece of asparagus. We were tempted to send a photo to Sainsbury’s vegetable buyer, but didn’t think the gesture would be appreciated . . .

Our friends have returned to the UK for a while, so we are monitoring progress, which seems now to have slowed somewhat. We don’t want them to miss that moment when the flower is in its full glory.  As you can see, there’s still have a little way to go . . .

It's the start of an agave flower, not a tree. Photo by The Boss.

It’s the start of an agave flower, not a tree. Photo by The Boss.

 

Our New Neighbour in Rural Mallorca

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Filed under Animals/Wildlife, Countryside, Nature

We have a new neighbour – and a noisy one at that. We first met him while taking a bottle of wine down to our German neighbour Hans, who had recently brought us a large bag of oranges from his land. He often brings us produce but, as we have little in the way of fruit and veg to give him in return – because our soil is so poor – we return the favour by giving him and his wife Inga a bottle of wine. It seems to be a good arrangement.

On the day we took this latest bottle of wine down the lane, we could see Hans walking his dogs down to the field at the bottom where two donkeys are kept. The donkeys’ owner no longer lives in the valley – although he visits frequently – and Hans has taken on the duties of donkey-feeder and carer. He turned around and waved to us to follow him down. And there we met the valley’s newest resident: a gorgeous five-day old donkey foal.

Camera-shy

I didn’t have my camera with me at the time so couldn’t take a photo, but resolved to return soon to do so. And, it’s just typical, but every time we went near the large field, the foal was out of sight, close to the trees or sheltering amid the bamboo that grows alongside the stream running through the valley.

However, the youngster obliged us with a sighting a few days ago – and this time I had my camera at the ready. We had our best friends staying from the UK and we all walked down the lane, bearing a few carrot snacks for the proud parents, in the hope that we’d see the youngster. And this time we were lucky: I present to you Salami (yes, I’m afraid that is his name, but thankfully it’s not his destiny), at the tender age of 46 days old.

Salami, sticking close to his mum. And with a name like that, can you blame him?

Salami, sticking close to his mum. And with a name like that, can you blame him?

Cute, eh?

©Jan Edwards 2014

Mediterranean Menace Preparing to March

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Filed under Animals/Wildlife, Countryside, Health and safety, Nature

Not the underside of a bird, but the home of a Mediterranean menace!

Not the underside of a bird, but the home of a Mediterranean menace

If you go down to the woods today, it’s not a teddy bears’ picnic you’re like to find, but the nest of the processionary caterpillar – at least, if the woods are mainly pine trees. These are the habitat of this crawling Mediterranean menace and these strange almost candyfloss-like nests are where they plot their manoeuvres. At around this time of year, they’re preparing to leave the nest to pupate in the soil and when they do, watch out!

We first saw these on the appropriately named Pine Walk in Puerto Pollensa. We hadn’t a clue what they were then (it was our first spring on the island) but watched in fascination as these hairy striped beasties marched across our path, nose-to-tail (do caterpillars have noses?), like a well-disciplined army corps.

Processionary caterpillars Mallorca

On the march on Puerto Pollensa’s Pine Walk

Keep your Pets Away

They look like the sort of thing that a small boy would want to collect and keep in a shoebox under his bed. But processionary caterpillars are definitely to be avoided, as their hairs are irritant to humans and potentially dangerous to dogs and other animals. And you don’t even need to come into physical contact with a caterpillar: when under threat, they shed hairs which can be unknowingly ingested.

If you have a dog that has come into contact with these wee beasties, be sure to get it to the vet’s as quickly as possible.

For the time being, dog or no dog, we’ll be giving pine trees a wide berth . . . and joining the teddy bears’ picnic on the beach instead.

©Jan Edwards 2014

Awaiting a cart-astrophe

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature

One of the first things we noticed when we first saw our finca in rural Mallorca – during a four-day property-hunting visit to the island – was an exuberant bougainvillea growing over an old iron and wooden cart. Breathtakingly pretty, it was one of several things we fell in love with about the property we’ve called home for nearly 10 years.

In better days . . .

In better days . . .

On closer inspection we discovered the cart was also home to climbing geraniums. The finca had been a holiday home for the previous owners, who used to buy pots of geraniums when they arrived and, at the end of their holiday, would plant the geraniums in the soil around the bottom of the cart, and leave the rest to Mother Nature. The geraniums are admittedly a bit straggly now, but they still flower each year.

Wheely unsteady

For the past few years we’ve wondered whether the cart is supporting the bougainvillea or vice versa. This relic from a gentler agricultural past is showing its age and looking decidedly unsteady. It’s shored up with rocks – and has been since we bought the place – but I don’t do any weeding anywhere near it now; I even decided not to prune the bougainvillea when it was last due to be done.

One day it will collapse and with it will go the plants that have given us so much pleasure. As much as we’d like to find another old cart to replace it, such items are now eagerly sought by people like us who want some authentic rustic touches for our much-loved rural homes on Mallorca. That means mucho dinero.

There’s still a metal plate on the cart that once bore the maker’s name, but the lettering has worn away. We’ll never know how long ago it was made, or how long it was used for the purpose for which it was intended, but it’s done almost ten years as a delightful garden ornament. You can’t say that about your average garden gnome . . .

‘Snowing’ on Mallorca

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Filed under Countryside, Nature, Weather/Climate

We were talking earlier on the phone to The Boss’s elderly aunt in Birmingham (UK), who told us it had been snowing there this morning. Two years ago this month, Mallorca also saw a lot of snow – the most since the ’50s, we were told. The Boss’s cousin and wife had come over at that time for a walking holiday, staying in Camp de Mar. They were somewhat shocked to wake up one morning to find quite a lot of snow outside the door – and the wrong kind of walking gear in their wardrobe.

Although snow does usually fall on the Tramuntana mountains a few times over the winter, it doesn’t often make it to our part of the island; not that we’re complaining. We do, however, have a very special ‘snowfall’ on the island, which usually happens this month.

In the past few days, we’ve had some strong winds and quite a lot of rain. As a result, the almond blossom – a notable feature of the Mallorcan countryside at this time of the year – is coming to an end. A ‘snowfall’ of the delicate petals arrives with every strong gust of wind, and soon the ground will be littered with drifts of them. Goodbye almond blossom, hello new green leaves.

'Snow' drift on the terrace

‘Snow’ drift on the terrace