Where we live

Does this work better,  Tech?

I've made all my photos to download to medium instead of large, at photobucket:

Early evening moon:


 

Okies, went through all the thread and optimized it, I took 14MB out of it... !!!

Jilly, check your moon pic now, 50kb at large size.

TechAdmin

Yesterday,  I went for a walk in the woods in the back.  There have been an unusually high amount of bear sighting in and around the village, and a few days ago I found some bear droppings right in my back yard.  Not so unusual really,  a neighbor saw a bear behind the house last year,  but I missed seeing it at the time.  We have had an access of rain this summer,  which has ruined the wild berries that the bears like to eat,  so this year they have been eating more apples then usual.  There are many apple trees in this area, and some on our acreage too.  The bears have now nearly eaten all the apples out there, only a very few remain.  The trees aren't maintained anymore,  probably once, long ago,  they were, but now they are left to grow wild.  So,  it's getting towards hibernation time, and the bears have to eat like crazy to gain the weight they need in order to hibernate for the winter.  Here are some photos I took yesterday, as I tried to track down the bears.

Firstly this is the kind of bear I am looking for, a black bear.(this on not from my collection):



The photos I took yesterday:

Bear droppings in my garden.  The previous day,  I had cleaned up three times the amount of this one, but the next day,  there it was again:



Further down the trail, more droppings,  just a fraction of the amount out there right now, (hard not to step on them):



As you can see the bear didn't step on this particular ants nest, but went around it, not sure why,  as he/she had squished down many others along the way:



The path the bear had taken,  complete with droppings along the way:



A large flattened down grass section,  here he must have had a rest.  This was about 8 feet in length:



I put some bait out.  ( of fruit and veg),  for the bears in my garden last night,  but it rained a lot and they didn't make an appearance.  Will keep you posted if I do see one and will ofcourse post the pics on here. 

Nice pictures, Jilly! I love those autumn colors, and they are some of the few things I miss here in the Med.

Where we live is also - if all goes to plan - where we die. I have always felt a strong affinity to cemetries, I like reading the toombstones, there is a world history under each of them.

Last Friday I walked the dogs outside of our cemetry which is situated at a nice distance between our San Telmo and the neighbour village S´Arraco (they obviously did not want the dead anywhere near... ) and took the opportunity to make some pictures at the cemetry, as the Mallorquine cemetries are quite unique:

As we have no earth here to bury our dead, they go into shelved stone tombs, and, another nice take (and business for the local photographer), they are most often decorated with a photo of the deceased. I often have someone of the elder gentlemen here ask me: "Do you have some time to come over and take a nice picture for my grave?"...

As you can see from the pix below, we do not have very many family names here in the two villages: Alemany, Palmer, Flexas, Pujol, Bauza, Vich and Salva, thats about it...

Enjoy!











The rich are rich also in thier graves...


...and the poor remain poor until into their grave.


This one has special memories for me, as I knew the young lady quite well: She died out of nothing during our village fiesta, at Saturday night around 3 in the morning I had taken a last GinTonic at her bar (the village youth run the bars during the fiestas) and she seemed all fine (and despite what the village rumours say she was not doing drugs), but in the morning at 8 she was found dead in her bed...



As you can see, also many foreigners like me that moved to the villages reserved their graves at the place where they spent that long part of their lives, here one of the German Badowski family that came in the ´60s:



Rattler

The sunset yesterday night, as we have a front and storm coming in it was spectecular!

NOTE: The colors are *not* photshopped (though I had to pass the pic py PS to make this 160 degrees panorama from 6 single shots), we really have those in winter!

For those interested, the picture shows Dragon Island (Isla Dragonera) right in front of my house. This island was used in the Napeolonic Wars by the English to drop of crews of capered ships: While only 2 km to the main land (Mallorca) it is only very rarely possible to swin to here because of the usually very strong currents, you would end up in Barcelona (and many British tourists that try it every year have...).

Enjoy,

Rattler

Took these pics a few minutes ago.  Winter is well and truly here:  My 'garden' -

Remember this shed that I painted in the summer?
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My favorite tree - only because it captures the seasons so well (check back on this thread to see how it's changed)


Part of my driveway,  my son cleared it for me the other day.
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Great pix!

I, personally *hate* the cold and even more the snow (but, as I am human and for us h´s never antyhing can be perfect, I also *hate* heat, got to look - I am saying this for 20 yrs now - for a different place to live in July/August).

Anyway, today (and so a week to early by date) winter has hit us, now we are down to 4 degrees, time to think about changing the short trousers for long ones, and rain... 3 days, then the sun will come again and carry us through this hard winter, expecting zero at new year and into JAN, but then end of JAN we will have the almond trees bloom and everythng will be easy again,





In the mean time, fire place

Will post some pix from last TUE tomorrow...

Rattler

Thanks, but have just realized,  the pic of the rose is already in this thread.

Sorry,  I had to modify the last post.

Some years back I lived in Western Canada.  I thought some might be interested in what it was like.

..................

Southern Okanagan  always feels like home to me and every time I return it's like going back home.  No other place has that feeling for me.  I know it so well,  I spent many years living there on and off and it's always been really hard to stay away.  It was also the first place I lived in Canada  for any length  of time when I first moved here.  My memories attached to the area could write a book.  My son was born in Penticton,  and I remember coming out of the hospital in early February and the snow had nearly all melted away already.  I don't know  any other area in Canada where  the winters are so short.

My kids spent many happy days swimming in the beautiful beaches and maybe that's why they are all such excellent swimmers.  I met so many interesting people there,  especially  in the summer months when tourists would come from all over the country to spend a week or two in the area.  I've also  observed many parties during my time there,  it can be a very fun place to be.

I remember the first time I ever saw it, the majestic mountains took my breath away.  I've lived in only two of the most Southern towns there, that being Oliver and Osoyoos.  Penticton was the place to go shopping.  But it's probably best known for it's wineries,  where you can take a wine tasting tour if you wish,  it's Orchards with many types of fruit and vineyards.  The beaches and festivals also draw the tourists in each year.  Here are some pictures of places that I know.

Osoyoos lake,  we spent countless hours on this lake.  I used to love going there in June, because it was hot enough and yet the tourists had not yet arrived:




Haynes Provincial  park, Osoyoos:  This park is full to capacity in the summer months.  Sometimes the kids and I (being locals) would join in the activities that were arranged there.  One year I won the 'Simon says' contest and was presented with a T.shirt!



Moon over Tuc-El-Nuit Lake, Oliver BC.  Not only good for swimming and relaxing,  but also fishing and finding other water creatures:

(Nine kilometres west of Osoyoos on Highway 3 is Klikuk, the Spotted Lake, containing one of the world's highest concentrations of minerals, including epsom salts, calcium, magnesium and many other trace minerals. The healing mud and waters were used to alleviate aches and pains. In the summer the water evaporates and crystallizes, making the white-ringed spots visible. The lake is on private land, and is therefore not accessible, but you can get a good view from the highway)'




The Okhanagan Observatory was always a favorite place to visit for my kids.  There was so much to discover about Space. And if you went to see at just the right time,  and they weren't too busy,  the Astronomers would   take us inside to view the stars and planets through some of the strongest telescopes in the world.  

http://www.okanaganobservatory.ca/location.html