Back from Spain and some garden photos from August

We’ve managed to come home with no nasty illnesses thank goodness! Two weeks having a really relaxing time in Catalonia was so nice that it didn’t feel like nearly long enough, so next September we will do something very similar and take three weeks. It helped that the weather was fantastic - a couple of nighttime thunderstorms and a day of rain, the rest of the time it was sun, sun and more sun. Most of our time when not birding was spent lazing around on our pitch, on the beach or by the pool, or wandering around the boutiques and markets. And eating of course!

Below is a picture in Lloret de Mar. About 10 years ago we drove past an attractive looking small town on a bay with a nice beach and a castle, and I kept it in my mind that it was Lloret and that I would like to visit one day. Only when we got there, I realised my error - the pretty place was actually Tossa de Mar, just up the coast! Not to worry, we had a good time anyway and caught the large market that was on in Lloret. So next year we will finally get to Tossa!

We went as far as the Ebro Delta at the southern end of Catalonia for some birding amongst the rice paddies and lagoons, stopped for a few days at l'Estartit which has a really good Indian restaurant and on the way back, had a couple of nights near Collioure, just back over the border in France. Collioure (below) is gorgeous and we caught the market there too.

We started with a couple of days at our favourite bird reserve at the Aiguamolls de l’Emporda, not far from the French border. Our campsite was right beside the reserve area and next to a lovely beach (photo further up) and we were serenaded by Bee Eaters both there and most other places we stayed at too. 

Below is my fave pic that I took (I haven't seen K's photos yet - no doubt some good ones with his big lens) but these Cattle Egret were standing in a tree beside a lagoon and their punky looks make me laugh! Make sure you click to view the photo larger as they all come up much sharper than what is shown embedded in the text.

I will do a few write ups of our birding days later on.

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Going back to August, I have some photos I took that I didn't have time to share before going away. It's occurred to me now that it's either drought, heatwave or both which causes my reluctant Lagerstroemia to flower. This was the best it's bloomed since we moved here and there are still a few flowers on the bush. Even the tiny one (which we call The Stick) had a few flowers.

The Tamarisk had a really good second flowering (you can see it better in the picture of the Lagerstroemia above). Bertie approves.

Tamarisk flowers close up - taken with my phone so not ideal with them swaying in the breeze. I don't know which species it is.

Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa). When I took this photo I didn't notice that little red bug - poor thing must have been having a heart attack!

My courgette stopped producing about early August. I don't understand what happened but the flowers just stopped opening up. The fruitlets were forming but the flowers on the end (which need pollinating) just didn't mature any further, nor did the flowers with no fruit which need to pollinate them. So that was the end of that, sadly. One tomato went weird and is half dead, but the other two are going like mad - and produced a million more side shoots whilst we were away (aaaarrrggghhh) and one of the self seeded ones is producing medium sized tomatoes which was a nice surprise and they are quite tasty too.

We often eat tomatoes just with basil and olive oil - below is my Greek Basil which has tiny leaves and is a million times better than the usual larger leaved basil. You only have to barely touch this plant for amazing wafts of basil scent to envelope you. We use tons of it but we can't keep up with its growth! It's a bit floppy now as it's got so big. If you ever have a choice when buying basil, get this one.

I saw my first for the garden Silver Washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) at the end of August, and in fact it's the first one I've seen in quite a few years now. It was enjoying the Garlic Chives and wouldn't stand still, opening and closing its wings and wandering around on the flowers.

These are my Garlic Chives in the herb bed, looking amazing at the beginning of September. I've had to water them all summer though as they have a tendency to just disappear and go dormant if it is very dry, and I wanted the display of flowers!

Southern Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii). K took this photo out of the kitchen window and it is my first known sighting of the southern version of the more common Scarce Swallowtail, which we see fairly often. However you need to see it close up or manage to take a photo to tell which one it is. It isn't an absolute way to ID it but the southern version generally have a blunt short black line (third from the body) whereas the normal version has a pointy line. So I'm counting this as a lifer!

It's still summer here in the Aude but it looks like rain is coming at the weekend and the temps are cooling down to mid/low 20s. It's been a very dry month again but it's a bit more green after the rain we had in August. The pool has cooled down too much for my liking though which is a real shame, but it is getting far less sun on it to heat it up now. So I guess it’s time to winterise it. 😢

This Friday to Sunday is the orchid festival at an abbey in the Corbieres, the one I went to a few years ago and got a couple of interesting orchids from. So we are planning to go again and I will no doubt come home with a few more orchids! Not sure where to put them as I have too many house plants and not enough space for them, but I'll sort something out! As usual my orchids are flowering their faces off.

Hope you are all well and that is is not too autumnal where you are (unless you want autumn, I don't) - or it may be spring for those of you down under in which case I hope it is nice and warm for you! xx

Croatia Trip May/Jun 2026 - Part 4 Plitvice Lakes, Lika

From Novigrad we drove for about four hours southeast and inland to Plitvice. These lakes and falls are famous in Croatia and one of the most visited tourist attractions. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest National Park in Croatia and you can walk along boardwalks along by the lakes, marvelling at the amazing tall falls and the just as spectacular lower ones. There are 16 interconnecting lakes and the water is an incredible turquoise, with a photo op at every turn!

There are two entrances to the lakes and we chose to do the lower lakes. There are several routes that can be taken, but the main one is what we did, where you walk along the boardwalks for several kilometers, then take a boat along the largest lake. A bus brings you back near to the entrance again, and you walk the rest of the way. All included in your entrance ticket. I found it absolutely fine for my dodgy knees and hips as there were few steps and the paths were mostly just sloping, which is much easier.

This is the main waterfall called Veliki Slap, which is 78 metres high and the tallest waterfall in all of Croatia. Its name means Great Waterfall in Croatian. Isn't it just glorious?

You can see how the lakes are connected with water gushing through the vegetation from one pool to another.

A wildflower in the Dianthus family, very possibly Dianthus hyssopifolius.

A very old worn butterfly which is one of the Blues - I think it is a Chequered Blue (Scolitantides orion), which is a lifer for me! I saw very few butterflies whilst away so I am excited to have found a new to me species.

Back to the lakes and you can see the paths in many of the photos. It looks busy and yes there were loads of people, but it never seemed too crowded as we were walking around, which made it a much more pleasant experience.

Honestly, the colour of the water was just incredible!

At the end of our initial walk we came to a clearing which had a cafe and some gift shops. This is where we had to queue up for the boat to take us on the next leg of the journey, along the lake. The wait was awful though, many boats came but there was a long line ahead of us. Then as we got close to the front no more boats came for ages! Just like when you wait forever for a bus then three come at once, it was a bit like that and very annoying!

Whilst waiting for the boat Keith took this pic of what I think is a Balkan Green Lizard (Lacerta trilineata). It was quite a big one and came close to our queue of people!

When we finally boarded the boat it took us to the other end of the main lake at the lower falls. We then had to wait yet again for another boat to take us across the lake to  the area which was near to entrance no. 2 and the upper lakes.

We then had to walk up a bit to a 'bus stop' where we waited for a rather strange bus like vehicle which took us back the length of the lake, and dropped us off at a point where we had to walk back to entrance no. 1, only about a kilometre I should think.

The path was a different one to the one we took earlier on and as we got higher, the views were amazing.

Looking back down over some of the small falls.

And then we got to the end of the journey! It is a truly remarkable place to visit, and left me wishing we had the time to do the upper lakes the next day, but we had plans to move on. Another time, hopefully!

P.S. This will be my last post for a little while as we are off in the Moho to Catalonia in Spain next week for a fortnight. After three long trips covering vast distances we are just staying (relatively) close to home and doing a bit of birding, a bit of walking around coastal towns and villages, and hopefully a LOT of chilling on the beach or by a pool. 😁

P.P.S. We had more rain! Three thunderstorms brought rain three times and there are even patches where the tougher grass in the lawn is starting to grow! The ground still needs tons more rain though, as the temps are still around 26-30c.

Croatia Trip May/Jun 2026 - Part 3 Hilltop villages inland and Poreč on the coast, Istria

We drove into the interior of the Istrian peninsular to visit a couple of hilltop medieval villages. The interior of Istria was very green - I noticed lots of what looked like hay meadows full of absolutely perfect grass, not a weed/flower in sight. That would make top quality hay. Not like what you see in my part of France, which is usually 50% weeds (/wildflowers depending on how you look at it). However we barely saw any livestock. It was a bit strange!

The first village was called Grožnjan. The population has fallen from between 3-4,000 people living here in the decades of 1910-1940s to its current about 656, which includes some other nearby settlements as well as Grožnjan itself. However nowadays it is known as the 'Town of Artists' and is visited by tourists and people visiting the art galleries and attending the annual jazz festival, all of which have brought life back to a declining village.

When we arrived we discovered some market stalls with antiques and bric a brac which I love mooching about in. I chose a Murano glass bead bracelet as a birthday present from K, as my birthday fell during our holiday.

This cute house below is for rent as a holiday home.

Lots of cute alleyways and totally unspoilt.

The next village was called Motovun but it wasn't as scenic as Grožnjan. We had to walk a long way up a steep hill and after a while we just gave up and called it a day! It was too hot for walking uphill any longer and the main bit of the village was right at the top of the hill!

I think it was the next day when K took this picture of a Hooded Crow. Those who live with these crows would think of them the same way we do about the all black crow that we have in our part of Europe, so that explains the photo and the interest - because they are very different to what we are used to! (I should mention that some of these photos are K's mixed in with mine. I often just took pics with my phone when I was using my alpine stick as it was easier.)

The following day we went further down the coast to Poreč. Originally we had planned to visit Rovinj, but I couldn't find anywhere that we could park a moho so we compromised and visited another smaller seaside town where parking was a lot easier. This is what I see as the only real downside to motorhoming.

Upon arrival we came across an antique market - something we were very lucky with in Croatia was the amount of markets we stumbled upon - I absolutely love looking around them - whether it's old things or modern clothes or fruit and veg and honey, I don't mind what, I find it all fascinating.

There was a lot of building work going on in the harbour area around where the market was, so I haven't included any photos of that. I'm not sure what this tower is below but it looks like it has a garden, or at least a terrace, on the top.

A lovely facade with Venetian windows.

The main street was full of little shops - a mix of tourist stuff, clothing boutiques and lots of jewellers. Jewellery seems to be popular here and there’s a lot made with red coral from the Adriatic. I didn’t see so much of the blue coral though (I bought some blue coral bracelets from a market stall later on).

A lovely green square. It’s funny looking back on that after nearly three months of drought and heat, as everything is so brown and sad. But our seasons are like that and we will soon be moaning about the rain and the cold!

More Venetian windows.

There was an island just across the bay full of 4 and 5 star accomodation.

I think this is a part of the old town walls.

Looking towards the marina in the distance, which is where the market was.

So that was what we saw during our brief time in Istria, but there was so much more to see elsewhere and it was time to move on...