Up the camino again!

There's often a nice surprise when we walk up the camino. This time there were a lot of them although they were quite small. 
 

Can you see it yet?

They do tend to blend in when they are at rest on the surface of the camino, yet when these small butterflies are flying around the top surface of their wings, which you can't see when they have them folded up, is a lovely bright blue. Extraordinary!

Having just looked on the internet to see what I could find, it is probably the Common Blue, not the most exotic of names, and is widespread throughout Europe. The pity is that they only live as butterflies for 3 weeks. Today, they were really enjoying fluttering around.

Elsewhere, the weeds are doing their best and continue to look splendid with a beautiful range of colour...

...which looks great against the sky.

Thistles take off!

Now it is the turn of the thistles along with the poppies and other wild flowers to do their thing...
 

...and they are really entering into it this year.

Spring may have faltered in it's arrival but the wait has been worthwhile.

Summer is just around the corner.

Potro!

In the supermarket earlier today, I was looking for a nice piece of beefsteak when my eye was caught by a very delicious looking piece of meat, shown in the photo below, called "Solomillo de Potro".

Solomillo is a very good cut of meat, called "sirloin" in the UK, but potro is "colt"!
Supermarkets in the UK have had problems with horsemeat being found in their "beef" dishes. Here it isn't disguised as anything - you can buy it for what it is.
I gave it a miss this time however - it was too expensive!

Along the camino...

After 4 days of continuous rain we finally have the blue sky with a few clouds and sun back.

However, the trees and land covered in grasses and wild flowers have never been so prolific.

They have really benefited from the bad weather.

And thistles are abundant too!

The XIII Marcha por Caminos

You can't expect good weather every year for this event. It often rains in April; it's good for the trees and other plants and helps them through the long, hot, dry summer months. However, when I looked out of the window this morning at 8.00am it wasn't raining, it was snowing! And the people who did the walk today said that they were walking through snow as well as lots of mud. 

Just walking to the Polideportivo, the new village Sports Hall, we got covered in mud. The Polideportivo is just as unfinished as it was last year by the way.

However, today was not just about the walk. It was also about the meal at the end of the walk even if you didn't do it.

Margaret provided a delicious mozzarella, ham, tomato and cucumber salad which went allong with the...

...fiduea which was provided by the same company who cook for hundreds of people at these occasions every year...

...and which was followed by a trifle from Joy.

Although there weren't actually hundreds of people, there must have been at least one hundred. And everyone enjoyed it despite the weather!

Up the camino.

In the last 2 weeks the fields, once full of the very pretty white flowering weed, have turned into fields full of grasses and poppies.

The main problem with a poppy with its very thin stalk, is that it blows around while you are trying to photograph it.

On the other hand, old doorways stay still.

But the grasses and the poppies make for a good photo.

Friends from the U.K. and the U.S.A.

We have friends from the U.K. and the U.S.A. and the "meal" today is tapas.
 

From patatas bravas through to pulpo en tinto and more, finished off with tarta de almendra, it all went down well.