Seville oranges

 In early December I was in Andalusia, which is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It borders Spain's southern coast. The capital is Seville. Its best known export is probably the Seville oranges. These bitter oranges grow on trees lining the city streets. They are very common both in Seville and other towns in the region.

The oranges are ripening in December and are almost ready for harvesting. Large quantities are collected and sent to the UK for marmalade. In Spain they are used mostly for aromatherapy and herbal medicine, but not as a foodstuff.

Trees in Antequera - 

From Wikipedia : "According to legend, the Arabs brought the bitter orange to Seville from East Asia via Iraq around the 10th century to beautify and perfume their patios and gardens, as well as to provide shade. The flowers of the tree are a source of neroli oil, commonly used in perfumery and in skin lotions for massage. In 2021, the municipal water company, Emasesa, began a pilot scheme to use the methane produced as the fruit ferments to generate clean electricity. The company plans to use 35 tonnes of fruit to generate clean energy to power one of the city's water purification plants."

Wikipedia page Bitter Orange says "The bitter orange spread from Southeast Asia via India and Iran to the Islamic world as early as 700 C.E. It was introduced to Spain in the 10th century by the Moors."

Christmas lights draped around an orange tree -

The bitter orange trees are distinguishable from the sweet oranges as they have a double leaf -

There are thought to be over 40,000 orange trees in Seville. They belong to the local government body responsible for them and, as such, any tampering with the oranges or trees could leave you open to prosecution. When the oranges are ready for picking, the local governing body takes on temporary staff to harvest and bag the crop. 

And here they are in my local supermarket, on 10 Jan -

Marmalade is very popular in Britain, mostly as a spread on toast for breakfast. And of course it was made famous by Paddington bear! And even more so when Paddington had tea with Queen Elizabeth.

Some birds in Malaga city, Spain

The noisiest inhabitants of Malaga have to be the Monk parakeets. They are really loud with their constant screeching. They are not so visible as they fly fast and you just see a flash of their bright green colour. They are also known as Monk parrots, or Quaker parrot, or cotorra argentina. They are not native to Europe, they come from Argentina. The wild ones are probably descendants of escapees brought into the country. 

They are the only parakeets to build nests. They live in ornamental trees such as palms. Now they are becoming a problem in Spain, especially with a long lifespan of 20-30 years. There are a lot along the Costa del Sol coast, much to the annoyance of holidaymakers. The situation is getting so bad that marksmen may soon go out and shoot them. They are already being culled in Madrid. See more on the Monk parakeets.

I have also seen a lot of these parakeets in Barcelona - 

Also in Malaga are are the inevitable pigeons and doves. These include the Eurasian collared dove. 

Another bird seen in huge numbers are the gulls around the harbour. There are thousands. I think they are Yellow-Legged Gulls and also some Lesser Black-backed gulls. It is quite an impressive site to see so many, though I didn't manage to get any really good photos. The Yellow-Legged Gulls have slate grey upper parts with blacker wing tips and bright yellow legs.

Teide volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands

 The Mount Teide National Park on Tenerife is an area of geological formations - volcanoes, craters, vents, lava fields and interesting rock formations. The national park is dominated by Mount Teide. Its summit is the highest point in Spain, which surprised me. It is at 3715 m and is also the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic. It last erupted in 1909. 

The week before I visited, Storm Celia brought snow to Gran Canaria. There was certainly snow on Mount Teide and the roads through the park.

First view of Mount Teide -

The Canary Island Pine forests -

The Teide Observatory -

We continued along and our next stop was at Portillo Alto, where we had a different view of the volcano, 2nd photo shows a crater the other side of the road -

We continued on to the Canadas caldera. On the way we passed fields of pumice with lumps of glassy black obsidian, and lava channels -

When we reached the main viewing area, the road and parking areas were absolutely packed with vehicles and people.

The lava fields of Las Canadas caldera. The lava is the 'aa' type, meaning it is rough and knobbly and hard to walk on.

We were so lucky with the weather. In fact we were above the clouds, but had to go through them to go back down to Santa Cruz

La Palma volcanoes, Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are part of Spain and lie off the coast of northwestern Africa. They are volcanic in origin. There are 8 main islands. La Palma is one of the smallest of the Canary islands and is very mountainous. It is the most north-westerly island of the Canaries and is heart shaped.

The capital Santa Cruz de La Palma is nestled at the foot of steep hills, has cobbles and is famous for the houses in Portuguese style with wooden balconies.

The island was in the news often from September to December 2021 due to the volcanic eruption. The eruption wasn't actually from a volcano, but from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, in the southern half of the island. It lasted from 19 September to 13 December 2021 and was the first volcanic eruption on the island since the eruption of Teneguía in 1971. At 85 days, it is the longest known eruption of a volcano on La Palma.

As already mentioned, La Palma is shaped like a heart. And within this is another heart shape, the spectacular volcanic crater, Caldera de Taburiente in the north of the island. The caldera area is within a national park. I went on a tour to the park. Firstly we stopped at the Caldera de Taburiente visitor centre, mainly to see the model of the island which clearly shows the heart shapes. 

The weather was really awful, with rain and low cloud. We didn't expect to have any view from the top, but went up anyway, along very narrow and steep roads. The national park is full of Canary Island pine trees. These have been found to be fire resistant and can survive forest fires as the bark protects the inner tree.

We reached the top of the road where there should be great views of the Caldera de Taburiente, but we were right up in the clouds and it was raining so we could see nothing. There was no point in getting out of the coach to walk to the viewpoint.

So although we missed the main attraction of the tour, to fill time, our guide arranged for us to see last year's volcano. We headed for the town of Tajuya and stopped at a viewpoint outside the church. 

In front of us we could see the lava that covered houses and an industrial site. The eruption came out of the ground higher up. We couldn’t see it, but we could see the steam issuing from the lava field. The road to other villages has been buried and won’t be reopened as the lava is too deep.

The eruption started further to the left of the photo and the lava flowed down to the sea, enlarging the island -

Steam rising from the still hot lava -

The remains of an industrial estate

On this map you can see the roads that have disappeared and when clicking on the no entry symbol on the original map, it says road closed until 2031. 

Amazingly only one person died by an indirect cause of the volcano, but 3000 buildings were destroyed and the roads to the peninsula cut off. The lava flow was up to 3.5 km wide and 6.2 km long. It is the island's most damaging volcano.

See more on Wikipedia and one of many youtube videos.

The Guardian article on what to do with all the ash and lava.

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The old hydro volcano at Santa Cruz de La Palma, from the port and from the top -

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In 2011 I saw the lahar from the 2010 Gunung Merapi volcano on Java, Indonesia.