Colour for New Year

At this time of year, it's nice to see a bit of colour. Although there isn't much to be seen in Britain at the moment, the flowers were still looking good in Fuerteventura. Along the winding roads around Betancuria, we found many bright flowers both cultivated and growing wild including this tiny Helianthemum canariense.

Tiny flowers seemed to be the order of the day as we saw with this Lycium intricatum. The purple flowers were only about 3mm long to give you some idea of scale.Cultivated flowers were everywhere. At the impressive viewpoint overlooking the Valle de Santa Ines we found some spectacular Echiums.

Also the wonderful, bright, daisy-like, yellow flowers of the Nauplius intermedius.In the lovely Little town of Pajara, the Bougainvillea was glorious. Although a native of Brazil, this plant has become such a common sight in the Mediterranean area that it's difficult to imagine it coming from anywhere else.Many different colours were in evidence but surely the pink were the most vibrant.Another colourful tree (as yet I haven't been able to identify it - sorry!) was in full bloom in Pajara and looked beautiful.I'll get back to you when I've identified it!