400 + views

An attractive town to the south of Madrid, overlooked by tourists, which makes it a pleasant place to visit for those in the know!

The Sentinel! Griffon vulture. La Sierra de La Cabrera with El Pico de La Miel prominent.

Accidental shot on the Madrid metro. But I was pleased that I had polished my shoes that morning! It's like your Mum making sure you always had clean underwear on 'because, you never know, you might be hit by a bus'!!!!

Geranium (and I don't mean pelargonium), my Mum's garden, Saint Day, Cornwall

There is another Trereen Dinas at Gurnard's Head on the north coast. They are both iron age clifftop fortifications. This one near Porthcurno is known as The Logan Rock due to a rocking stone on the summit which was dislodged by a young naval officer early in the 19th century. He had to put it back at his own expense; he did so, but it no longer rocked! Spot the ponies!

From my balcony one morning in 2013.

I got lost and followed this path only to find myself in a field with a bull. The next field also had a bull ... and the next. I couldn't escape them so, as nonchalantly as I could, I retraced my steps, adding over an hour to my journey!. But then it is Spain, after all!

June 2014. The last poppies of the year.

Tenacity is a requirement for all plant life here, struggling against the fierce Atlantic storms.

A well-preserved metro station, one of the first built in Madrid (1919) on Linea 1 and de-commissioned in 1966 as it was on a bend and the new longer trains couldn't handle that. Now a museum with free entry, so full marks to those responsible! The museum opened in 2008 but closed soon after as part of economy saving efforts in the recession. It re-opened in 2013. Gal was a well known cosmetics company with it's headquarters and factory in this Madrid district of Chamberi.

View from Treen, near Gurnard's Head, to Zennor Head. Zennor Hill on the horizon. Best enlarged.

Tubby's Head, Cornwall

Constructed high in the Sierra de Guadarrama and now in ruins. I like the stone shapes in these walls just as I love the same in the drystone walls of upland Britain! Best on 'z'

Tubby's Head, St Agnes. Cornwall,

Heather and gorse and this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMnbOlvx72k

The famous palace-monastery, seen from the Herreria Woods (mainly holm and Pyrenean oak), with smoke from an autumnal bonfire (appropriate for November 5!) and the slopes of Abantos behind. There is actually quite a substantial town there, more or less hidden by the bulk of this enormous edifice! When Felipe II had it constructed, it must have been the largest building in Europe at that time. He needed a big place to run his Empire from and for hundreds of monks to pray for and with him! Best viewed on max enlargement.

Cornish cliff granite can be as fun as the granite I find in La Sierra de Guadarrama, Central Spain, for scrambling around in!