Sagunto scrapbook

 

A walk on a hill near Sagunto, north of Valencia.

Saguntum, whose ruins still survive, may stir schoolroom memories of the second Punic war. There was another siege in 1811, during the Peninsular war. The composer Joaquín Rodrigo was born here. None of which I knew when, at the end of October, we escaped from the motorway services into an orange grove and up onto the wooded hillside, with its many beehives. But I did remember once going for a spring walk somewhere near here with my sister when she lived in Valencia, just to get a break from the incessant detonations of Fallas week. At that chillier time of year the almonds were all in bloom.

Beehives. The bees were busy, though it was not very apparent where they were getting their pollen from.

Though this was in flower: Globularia vulgaris. Cabezuelas in Spanish. The plant is common in most of Spain, especially the north and east. It's also in south-central France and, weirdly, two islands in the Baltic: Öland and Gotland, where it is called Bergskrabba.

Prickly Pear. A lot of it was dying, attacked by a white fungus.

Remains of dead prickly pear.

Unripe satsumas (or similar).