Viladrau

Planning a new trip.....Viladrau flowers seen (from notes) Dandelions in seed and flowering; nipplewort; violets; something like coltsfoot. Some tiny white flowers. Also some beautiful scrubland with Spanish broom and what I think is gorse. Trees to revisit: Holm oak, cork oak, innumerable firs, pines, birch, hazel. 

Hoping the sunny weather holds (and pandemic restrictions permit travel).......

Storm Gloria

Very concerned at the destruction caused by the recent storm. There has been loss of life on the Iberian peninsula and in Catalonia the infrastructure of roads, railways and agriculture has been hit especially hard. I'm sure people will already know of some of this but the link below provides more information.

https://www.euronews.com/2020/01/23/storm-gloria-death-toll-and-fears-of-floods-rise

Viladrau. April 2019

Viladrau

Slowing into a rural life style—to the extent we can, as visitors—we begin the first mountain walk of our stay. Not every sign post meets our approval, in the heat of a sunny spring day. Yon tree is not the tree depicted on this brochure, a problem sure to get my coat off, my sleeves imagined rolled. The sensation then returns—smallness in relation. Viladrau is renowned for its mineral springs. And its natural beauty. In the distance the mountain grows, and an ease to pause flows more easily in the visitors’ step. Run down weathered doors return the occasional walker to the beaten path. Eyes now keener toward the lichen and the drop.

Mediterranean scrubland—

and the branch tip

through rubble walls. 

Viladrau--oak leaves, pine neeedles, moss, twigs

Viladrau, lichen and moss