Cold.

Yesterday, having delivered Malcolm's mother and her friend to the airport for their holiday, we spent a rainy day visiting my mother in King's Lynn. After all that rain, we woke this morning to a very frosty scene. This meant we were able to take a longer walk around the country park as the otherwise muddy terrain was frozen solid. We were joined this morning by Kay - a friend of ours, who had seen us walking past her house on our way out and came along for the walk.

The frost was thick on the bare bushes, highlighting their outline and looking very severe.

Some of the plants which retain their leaves through the winter look beautiful as they too are edged with the frost and are made to stand out against the dark soil and dead, dry grasses.

The Blackberry bushes also have some leaves still clinging to the stems and the frost which clings to them is every bit a 'sharp' as the thorns which adorn them, making them appear all the more unwelcoming. Al a far cry from the warmth and sunshine of Benidorm!

Benidorm

Just a quick post today with a short slide-show video of some of my pictures of Benidorm. I recently downloaded a new piece of software called Photo Story 3 to create these films/slide-shows, having always used Microsoft's Moviemaker in the past, so this my first attempt at using it. The music is Recuerdos de la Alhambra, written by Spanish guitarist, Francisco Tárrega in 1896 and involves the very challenging technique of 'tremolo' where a single melody note is plucked repeatedly by the ring, middle and index fingers in rapid succession, while the thumb plays the counter melody on the bass strings. Very difficult!

More Plants

A few more plant pictures today from our walks around Benidorm and the Sierra Gelada. The first was to be found growing on the cliffs of the Placa del Castell and is called White Henbane (Hyoscyamus albus). A highly poisonous plant as are all of the Henbane family, it has been used in antiquity as a psycho-stimulant in 'magic brews' to bring on hallucinations.

Secondly, a member of the pea family (there are so many of them). This one is called Rush-like Scorpion Vetch (Coronilla juncea) and is widely and commonly seen around the Mediterranean coasts. It makes a good show with it's golden flowers.

Thirdly, a plant well known to British gardeners as a summer bedding plant, but which grows in great abundance in the the Mediterranean area, Sweet Alison (Lobularia maritima). A diminutive member of the cabbage family, it almost carpets some places along the coast.

A new plant to me next and quite a little beauty. Small flowered and not easy to spot as it was growing among other plants, this is a blue-flowered Violet called Viola arborescens and is simply gorgeous close-up.

Lastly, a White Rock-rose (Helianthemum apenninum) which, again grows, seemingly everywhere around the dry, rocky slopes in these parts.

Plaça

There are two 'Plaças', in the old part of the town of Benidorm, standing next to each other and very popular with the locals and tourists alike. The Plaça de la Señoría is a wonderful, shady place to sit and enjoy the views out to sea while listening to the bells of the Church of St. James, surrounded by palms and Bird-of-Paradise plants and a statue dedicated to those souls lost at sea.

The larger of the two Plaças is the Plaças del Castell, which as the name suggests, is built on the remains of the old castle. Covered in gleaming, white tiles and dotted with trees and white doves, it is also a very popular place to sit and enjoy the sunshine.

The maritime tradition of Spain and Benidorm in particular, is picked up on with the placing of a very anchor on the square.

The church of St. James overlooks the whole scene with its famous blue-tiled domes and the need for a little 'touching up' on the white-washed walls. The inside of the church is superbly elaborate, colourful and typically Spanish catholic!

Almost nothing remains of the old castle - a few foundation stones are still there, propping up the modern square, but they are not at all obvious to the casual passer-by.

Vertiginous

There are many tall buildings in Benidorm as I have mentioned before. The tallest of them all is the Gran Hotel Bali which stands some 610ft tall and was the tallest building in mainland Europe until the Hotel Ukraine was built in Moscow. It remains the tallest building in Spain. It has 52 floors above ground.

At the the other end of the resort, there stand two more tall buildings. The first of which is the Edificio Don Jorge. Standing some 407ft and 36 floors it is a residential block containing 165 apartments.

The building was completed in 2008 and stands next to another very tall building, the Torre Lugano.

The Lugano was also completed in 2008 and is the second tallest building in Benidorm at 518ft and 43 floors above ground and 5 underground for car parking. Although it is the second tallest building, it is actually the highest building in the town reaching 778ft above sea level, it's top at about the same height as the cross on the Sierra Gelada which overlooks the scene.

Sadly, a builder working on the construction, fell to his death from the 36th floor in 2006!

Watch the birdy

The Sierra Gelada is a grand place to see wildlife of all kinds. Over the last few years we have seen all sorts, from Dandelions to Dolphins from our walks along the cliffs. Today, some wonderful birds from this year. Starting with a small and very wary bird called a Black Wheatear (Oenanthe leucura). Not found in Britain, this is a rather shy bird and so often difficult to photograph. Here, a pair of Black Wheatears are seen perched on a rock and showing their overall dark plumage, except for a bright, white flash on their rumps. They used to be classified as a member of the thrush family, but thinking has changed on this subject recently and they are now thought to belong to the family of Old World Flycatchers.

An extremely bad photo next and I make no apologies for that, for the bird I was trying to 'capture' is an exciting and very elusive little devil. The Blue Rock-Thrush (Monticola solitarius) is a member of the thrush family and as such, is related closely to our well-known Blackbirds and thrushes. Here, a male bird was doing it's best to avoid being photographed, but I managed to 'snap' him on full optical and digital zoom - which is why the picture is so grainy and bad. Despite this, you can still see the wonderful steely-blue colour, best seen in good light.

A better picture now, this time of a bird we have in Britain and an impressive bird it is too. The Raven (Corvus corax). The largest of the crow family, they make a spectacular sight as they display to each other as these two were doing. As part of the display, one of the Ravens could be seen flipping over onto it's back to fly upside down for a few moments while calling constantly with it's deep, guttural, throaty sounds.

The largest bird to finish with and another gorgeous specimen seen close to. The Yellow-Legged Gull (Larus michahellis) is like the Mediterranean version of the more familiar Herring Gull. Large and very noisy, they are well known for their 'laughing' calls which seem to echo all around the seaside. They always seem to be alert for food and their red-rimmed yellow eye is always searching for an opportunity.

Flower

Even though it is the middle of the winter, there are still some plants in flower around the Sierra Gelada. Here are just a few. Firstly a prickly little number known as Grey Asparagus (Asparagus horridus - also known as Asparagus stipularis). A close relative of the well-known and delicious vegetable, you wouldn't want to eat this spiky thing!

A medicinal plant next and one which you will have heard of. The Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus communis). Castor seed is the source of Castor Oil. The seeds contain up to 60% oil, rich in triglycerides, mainly ricinolein. The seed contains ricin, a toxin, which is also present in lower concentrations throughout the plant.

A member of the pea family now. A small-flowered and rather gorgeous plant called Coronilla minima. The name Coronilla means 'little crown' and refers to the crown-shaped arrangement of flowers on the ends of the stems.

A very common Mediterranean plant next, the Friar's Cowl (Arisarum vulgare). At just a few inches tall, these members of the Arum family of plants produce large patches of leaves and flowers during the winter months all over the place.

Lastly for today, an everlasting flower. We are all familiar with the papery, everlasting flowers found for sale in florists, well this is a smaller flowered relative of those. Helichrysum stoechas has small yellow flowers and grey, hairy leaves which hep conserve water in the hot summer weather. It also has a strong aroma of curry when the leaves are crushed, particularly when dried out.