Andalucia calling Earth ...

Can you hear me over the cicadas ?
They are even louder than my tinnitus, which is a mixed blessing.
At least the frogs have given up waiting for a princess and shut up for a while.

I don´t expect to see Ibex on my side of the canyon, but through a telescope I photographed one on the far side.




The river is about 200 feet directly below ...

There´s the occasional snake, few are venomous though some large constrictors are rumoured to exist. This one was quite happy for me to handle it, but when the cat appeared it was a different story. BAM! Diva went into low-earth orbit, and I nearly fell over backwards.



Wild boar are rather shy, but they play a big part in my life. After their visits it looks like a JCB derby has ended acrimoniously, and with those tusks I would not attempt a photo for love nor money.

A Golden Oriole darts across the garden frequently, bright yellow and black, and a Hoopoe visits occasionally. Buzzards and various raptors are often overhead, and I notice that the smaller birds keep to the cover of the tree tops as much as possible.

Tics can be a nuisance, since they carry Lyme´s disease. A friend who is noted for his electronic skills and much relied on by ignorami like me, suffers from brain fog after being bitten, I think he would not consider "life-changing" an exaggeration.

The hazelnuts are coming on, so the black squirrels will be making a furry appearance.
They obviously figure importantly in the hazelnut´s evolutionary urge to fly.

There are one or two inhabitants of the garden it really is best not to tangle with.
The Scolopendra centipede will defend its nest, it will chase you at incredible speed, hunt you down, and give you a right sorting out. You may need an injection of cortisone. I found one in the house a while back, and I have honestly never come across something so difficult to kill.

The Processional Caterpillars make their nests in my pine tree.
There´s nothing I can do.
Every spring, they abandon their nests and process down to the ground where they pupate. If you are reckless enough to annoy them in any way whatsoever, they fire their poisonous hairs at you, they can kill your pets and put you in hospital -- respect !

Ninety nine percent of the body is made of water molecules, and ninety nine percent of the Iberian peninsular is made of ants.
Holes appear here and there, with relatively massive spoil-heaps surrounding them, testimony to the huge mining operations progressing beneath my feet. I feel I should try and ingratiate myself with them, but somehow I feel to be at a considerable numerical disadvantage ...

Time to drive down to the well and stock up with H3O2, (which is another story altogether).

Saludos desde España.

 

It all sounds remarkably familiar, apart from the killer centipedes If/when something migrates here that I can't outrun, I'm off to Finland or somewhere Wasps, @Giri....do you get paper wasps and hornets disputing your territory?
A tip for dissuading wild boar:- sprinkle a muck-heap liberally with chilli powder and black pepper. They don't come back for seconds!

 

That was interesting

 

Wasps were everywhere last summer, though not aggressive unless they got trapped in my sandals - we fed three cats outside which became an oasis for insects. Down to one cat now, but wasps seem very few, as do ordinary house-flies. I plug the handlebars on both motorbikes, as wasps seem to view them as prospective des-res material.
When the grapevines which shade the patio drop their fruit, we usually have inebriated hornets and wasps lurching around like teenagers in Ibiza, and having been nuked by a hornet, I avoid incurring their wrath. Oh yes ...
I know where the wild boar enter the garden, so I will take your advice and sprinkle chilli powder liberally around the area.
Failing that, I will try Great Uncle Percy´s method of catching crocodiles on the Nile, his equipment comprising a tobacco tin, a stout pair of tweezers and a pair of binoculars.
His method was to view the beast through reversed binoculars, pick them up with the tweezers and put them quickly in the tin. Oddly enough, he never returned from Egypt.
His methods may require some refinement.

 

When's your book coming out?