Consider the lilies of the field ...

This is such a beautiful time of year in Spain. I know it is in many other places as well, but out here, for so much of the year everywhere is parched and brown, so we really appreciate all the lovely colours we can see right now. Every day when we walk on the campo, we see new flowers opening. They are mostly pink/purple or yellow. many are quite familiar but there are also lots I haven't seen before. I just love all the grasses and plantains with their wide variety of flower heads, from tiny catkin-like tassels, to the loose ferny ones. Many of the flowers grow very close to the ground and are almost insignificant, but on closer inspection they are exquisite. I have been taking photos of them to make a little book. (Jean will smile when she reads that. She knows how many 'little books' I have waiting to be made!!). But in the meantime I have made a set of three collages. One of yellow and white flowers, one of pinks and purples with a couple of reds, and one of grasses and plantains. I have printed them out in A4 size to stick on my wall, so when we are baking in the summer I can look at them and remember what we have to look forward to again next year. So although some of the individual elements will be too small for you to see clearly, I am putting them on here, but I will also make a gallery folder of the separate pictures and if you like flowers, do take a look. These humble 'weeds' are worthy rivals for any cultivated flower if you take a closer look. And now I am adding two pictures of my little cats. When I was at the garden centre buying things for our window boxes, I picked up a few large saucers for our patio tubs. A couple are still out in the front garden and today Paco found a much better use for them. Doesn't he look comfortable? There is a beautiful pink pelagonium in the tub behind him, and some matching osteospermens that I took from my friend Sylvia's garden before she moves house this weekend. The second picture is of Destino. I thought she would be a real house cat but she loves to be outside. The other week she got caught in the garden when we had a heavy downpour, and although I opened the door and called her in straight away, she looked like a little drowned rat. She is all fluff with very little inside it, and she objects to being dried with a towel so she just had to stay one very soggy moggy!