Endangered species

I know virtually nothing about birds.  Growing up in New England, our garden was always riddled with robins and an odd blue jay or cardinal, but that's about it.  I never even paid attention to birds of prey until I met my husband.  He's the type of person who will stop the car in the middle of nowhere and whip out the binoculars, sticking his head out the window to gaze upwards as other vehicles speed by.  When we were dating, he took me on a trip to Spain's Monfragüe National Park to go vulture watching.  Hundreds of buitres leonados (griffon vultures) flying overhead... every girl's dream.

Since we moved to LaMancha, however, I've become increasingly interested in the local flora and fauna, and our living room balcony is often the perfect perch (the kestrel living there thinks so, too).  While I have come to appreciate these creatures, I still have a hard time identifying them.  I rely on a Spanish gardening website for identifications, and today I've had quite a surprise.

The photos are not the best quality as it was not a clear day, but here we have two endangered species!

Águila Real (left) and Águila Imperial (right)

Love this photo of the Imperial eagle.  There are some 280 pairs left on the Iberian peninsula.

Have you identified any endangered species in your neck of the woods?

Carnaval, La Mancha Style!

Yes, it has been quite a while since my last post.  If you know me, then you know I have been very busy lately.  More on that in another post... (oh, the suspense!)

The garden right now is just like a Spanish winter - dull, grey, and without a speck of snow to make it photo-worthy.  I've just started pruning roses this week, and I still have quite a way to go.  It's always a daunting task.

When February rolls around, there is always Carnaval to look forward to.  I am not a big fan of Carnaval or Mardi Gras myself, but the kids always seem to have fun.  Certain parts of Spain are quite famous for their Carnaval costume competitions, like in the Canary Islands, or the satirical chirigota song groups in Cádiz.  Here in rural LaMancha, schools have little parades around town, and the children dress in homemade costumes.  Our local school always chooses a theme, and this year it was Don Quixote de LaMancha!

The fifth and sixth-graders were windmills, and the teacher dressed as Dulcinea.

Third and fourth-graders dressed as Don Quixote.

First and second-graders were Sancho Panza.

But it was the preschool group that stole the show!

The sweetest little Miguel de Cervantes ever, complete with quill! 

 Not bad for a four-room schoolhouse in rural Spain!  

 How do you celebrate carnaval?

Christmas morn

December is always such a busy time of year with the children's plays, parties, baking to do and the end-of-year happenings for work.  Of course, the blog is hard to keep up with with the holidays.  I have been planting quite a bit in the garden, though, but nothing is photo-worthy yet.

Christmas is Christmas, however, whether in LaMancha or not.  And, to this day, I still get up at the crack of dawn, just like when I was a kid.

The morning was frosty.

There were cinnamon rolls to be baked.

The Christmas tree was guarding a few surprises.

Wish I could share the smell of these baking!  

  

Merry Christmas to all, wherever you may be!

Karen

In a Vase on Monday - Giving Thanks

Like many Americans who live abroad, we are usually not able to celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November as Abraham Lincoln would have it.  With school and work, it is hard to find the time, and here in LaMancha it is often hard to find a turkey!

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving quite late - yesterday, to be exact.  Turkey with all it's trimmings - everything homemade and nothing out of a can, box or bag.  Here, there's no corner supermarket to pick up cranberry sauce or pre-packaged stuffing mix, and I envision it as a meal that would be very similar to that of our forefathers (and mothers!).  Heck, I even had to "hunt down" the bird!

My husband had knee surgery a few days ago, so this year's meal was quite informal (I figured that crutches and fine china were not a good mix).  For the centerpiece, I threw yet more roses into yet another old coffee pot, along with the ivy from the vase of 2 weeks ago.  It would seem that my vases are stuck in a rut.

In the kitchen, with apple pie and pumpkin bread

Abraham Darby gets darker and more orangey in the fall.

The Shepherdess may look delicate, but she's one tough cookie!

Hope you also enjoyed a Happy Thanksgiving!

Once again, I'm linking with Rambling In the Garden's In a Vase on Monday meme, where garden bloggers post photos of arrangements with flowers and greenery from their gardens.  Stop by!

Sunsets, toads and kestrels

With the shorter days of December, I never seem to have time to get out in the garden when it's daylight out.  We have had some rain, though, which is a good thing.

The pond out back is full again, and the tamarix are showing a little fall color...

... although the reservoir is still quite low.

The dampness in the garage attracted this enormous toad...

...that completely freaked me out because he did not hop but walked like a turtle instead.
I think this is what they call in Spanish a "running toad" or epidalea calamita.  I still call it freaky.

The cool, wet weather also brought a cernícalo, or kestrel, who comes to our porch at dusk to spend the night.    Sometimes, he also brings dinner (a bit of which you can see to the left of the beam). 

So cool!

The best part of cloudy, overcast days is that we get these unbelievable sunsets.

In a Vase on Monday - Darling bud of... November?

This Monday's pickings are slim: a simple William Shakespeare rose with ivy in a bud vase.  This combination brought to mind the first few lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ("Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May").  Funny how the brain works.

The bud vase

 For natural lighting, the vase is in front of a window atop a WWII military trunk that has been around the world quite a few times.

Sometimes simple is better.

Once again, I'm linking with Rambling In the Garden's In a Vase on Monday meme, where garden bloggers post photos of arrangements with flowers and greenery from their gardens.  Stop by!

Fall Foliage

We planted two large trees last February, a Pyrus calleryana and a Ginkgo Biloba, and this is their first display of autumnal color.  It's not much, but here in LaMancha there isn't much in the way of fall foliage anyway.

Ginkgo and Pyrus

Parthenocissus tricuspidata is starting to cover the stone-faced retaining wall by the garage. 

The variation in color is spectacular.

Here, it's interesting to see how the overlayer is red and the underlayer is yellow. 

 On the other side of the wall, fall color is provided by Parthenocissus, nandina domestica, abelia and a little mum.

 Migrating cranes flying over my house are another sure sign that autumn is well underway.

I'm linking up with Christina at My Hesperides Garden for Garden Bloggers' Foliage Day.  

Stop by to see her wonderful Italian garden.