Tag Archives: Trees

Flower Power

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The Fira de ses Flors in Costitx is a bit of a misnomer. More appropriately, it should rather be called a fair of flowers, plants, trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns and other gardening and horticultural paraphernalia. But then, that would not roll so nicely off the tongue, would it? Anyway, the Fira was held yesterday; I went there with my wife and we thoroughly enjoyed our outing. Of all the Firas and Festes in Mallorca, there is only a handful or so that we really enjoy, and this one is one of them. Not everybody may agree with our choice but not everyone is into flowers and plants and trees and green fingers the way we are. Suum cuique.

The Fira de ses Flors is actually a bit of a peculiarity here in Mallorca. This one is not one of the traditional fairs or markets that has been going for hundreds or at least, dozens of years. This fair was devised with a political motivation. It was conceived by none other than Maria Antònia Munar i Riutort, longstanding Batlessa (mayoress) of Costitx from 1983 to 2007 but probably better known as the erstwhile President of nearly every political office Mallorca has to offer. Her ambition was to put her pueblo on the political map. She achieved that daunting task by instigating the Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca in Costitx which was inaugurated in May 1991, and by initiating the Fira de ses Flors.

The talented lady was once Mallorca’s most popular and certainly most powerful female before she was seen as the most hated mayoress or indeed, politician amongst her compatriots. She is currently accused of a whole array of political misconduct and will stand in court any time soon, wanting to prove her innocence.

The photo was taken in Costitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: May 1st, 2012. The time was 13:43:19.

Les Fleurs du Mel

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I am not trying to quote Charles Baudelaire today. The blossoming tree photo has nothing to do with his Fleurs du Mal. Instead, the tree flowers of spring attract bees and insects by the hundreds to collect pollen for the industrious production of honey (Catalan: mel), in the case of the bees, and for instant nourishment in the case of other insects. Luckily, there is the added benefit of pollination which is done in the process to ensure that this tree will give us the plum or apricot or whatever this tree will bear. What a wonderful invention of nature, pleasing all our senses in the act: our eyes, our noses, our ears, our taste buds and our scientific eagerness to learn and to study.

The photo was taken near Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: April 6th, 2012. The time was 17:39:43.

24 Hours in the Life of an Island

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(near Felanitx, at 00:40:23)

Twenty-eight years ago today, I orchestrated an exciting photo event in Los Angeles, California, in collaboration with one Red Saunders. Together, we edited the book that covered that event: 24 Hours in the Life of Los Angeles. All those years ago, we had assembled a team of 145 people, including 103 photographers from all over the world plus 16 local school children, to capture the life in this metropolis in the run-up to the 1984 Olympic Games.

Today, I have the pleasure to invite you to sample a similar adventure, somewhat different but nonetheless exciting, albeit without its results ending up in a glossy coffee-table book. I endeavour the making of a comprehensive portrait of Mallorca, my home for the last 25 years, by taking photographs over a period of 24 hours in the life of this island. This time, there is no team and there are no other photographers involved or invited. I will upload photos every few hours, depending on broadband connection, and today’s post will grow bigger and longer as the day progresses. The first photo was taken this morning at 00h40 on top of Puig de Sant Salvador near Felanitx, and the last one will be captured just before midnight in Plaça d’Espanya in Felanitx. Let’s see how it goes and let’s witness, if I will last the Tour de Force.

(Portocolom, at 01:28:42)

(Porto Cristo, at 02:03:46)

(Son Servera, at 02:52:00)

(near Canyamel, at 03:10:01)

(Cala Rajada, at 03:32:23)

(Cala Rajada, at 03:43:12)

(Felanitx, at 04:39:18)

I made a scheduled return to Felanitx to upload the first photos of this self-set challenge. Quite unscheduled, I fell asleep and had a 45 minutes nap. I was still good on time and schedule, though.

(near Petra, at 07:41:13)

(near Petra, at 08:00:33)

(Santa Margalida, at 09:24:54)

(Muro, at 10:44:09)

(near Muro, at 11:35:52)

At this time, I was still running to schedule, more or less. But it began to dawn on me that the task I had set might be a bigger one than I had calculated. I may have underestimated the challenge and the sheer distance between places, and I may have overestimated my abilities as a one-man-band. I decided that Mallorca was, in fact, a continent.

(near Muro, at 12:11:55)

(Port de Pollença, at 13:59:13)

(Pollença, at 14:18:33)

By now, it was quite evident that I was running late, and well behind schedule. I decided to alter my route plan. Instead of returning south via Crestatx, Sineu and Sant Joan, I decided to go up into the mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana to see if I could catch up on time by eliminating some of the planned stops.

(near Pollença, at 14:58:40)

(near Sa Calobra, at 15:23:18)

(near Sa Calobra, at 15:25:40)

(near Sa Calobra, at 15:32:31)

(near Sa Calobra, at 15:33:02)

(near Fornalutx, at 15:37:35)

(near Fornalutx, at 15:43:27)

It now was clear: there was no way I could complete the whole island portrait, and comprehensive at that, within the self-elected time frame of 24 hours. For a start, there was no way that I could upload any photos during the course of my parcours. There were just too many kilometres to be driven from point to point. Mallorca is too big an island to be ticked off in one single day by one individual. I realized that I would have needed to employ the good services of a driver to allow me to concentrate on the scene selection and the location, instead of me minding the business of getting there in the first place. And it would have been wise to seek the support of an assistant to keep my back free from the logistics of the task. Me, on my own, doing the driving, route planning, rescheduling, time keeping, scene selection, setting up the tripod, shooting, editing, copy writing, Lightroom-ing, WordPress formatting and what have you, was just too much for one elderly man. And I was getting tired, sleepy, red-eyed, exhausted and anxious. I needed a hug, or a helpline, or something.

(near Sóller, at 15:51:15)

(Sóller, at 16:45:14)

(Sóller, at 17:03:36)

(Sóller, at 17:11:26)

In Sóller, I accepted the inevitability of defeat. It simply was impossible to cover all of Mallorca or at least, all 48 locations that I had scheduled, in one day and on my own. I would barely manage half that number and not even half the total distance. By now I had done some 300 kms, and I would surely need to do the same again, or more, with more than two thirds of the time already gone. I would need to be fitter (and younger), less mad, better equipped, better supported and assisted, and more realistic. I should simply have listened to my wife.

(Alfàbia, at 17:46:32)

(Alfàbia, at 17:54:46)

In Alfàbia I decided to go home. I needed to upload some of my photos and take stock. I might go out again after that to cover some of the Mallorcan hinterland, Porreres, Campos, Llucmajor, Sant Joan, Villafranca, Sineu, Llubi, and so on. For now, I certainly would not be able to cover the western parts of the island, Andratx, Estellencs, Banyalbufar, Valldemossa, Deià, Orient, Alaró, Bunyola; I might have to have another go at the region at some later stage. Palma, I was pretty sure that I would skip Palma for now.

(Felanitx, at 23:43:43)

Having aborted the project and not having gone out again once I arrived back home after 20 hours on the road and in the hot sun, I was busy photo editing, photo optimizing and uploading. I now did not need to do that final shot just before midnight that I had scheduled from earlier this morning. But I wanted to do it anyhow to have a pair of bookends, so to speak. As it happens, I met my friend John and he kindly agreed to pose as another mad hatter for mad me. No. This is not me sitting there, just in case you wondered.

Good night, and thank you for joining me on this ride and this very long day indeed. I need some sleep now.

Spring is in the Air

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The Mallorcan landscape in rural areas is just so beautiful, especially when spring is in the air as it was yesterday. We went for a walk near Son Negre, not far from Felanitx. This agricultural area is so very beautiful now with all the fields in the juiciest green, with trees preparing for growth, with almonds still blossoming, the fully ripe citrus trees, the sprouting beans, the flourishing artichokes, with happy butterflies and chirping birds everywhere. Mallorca is magical at this time of year, it truly is.

The effects of the solar unrest seem to have moved on, the moon activity is calm and composed, the weather outlook for the next few days is good with temperatures on the rise at least until Wednesday. What more does one want?

The photo was taken near Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: March 11th, 2012. The time was 16:55:04.

The International Day of the Tree

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I know it is still a few days away, but March 21st is usually celebrated as Arbor Day, something like the International Day of the Tree.

The Ajuntament de Palma calls Arbor Day the Día Internacional del Árbol, and thus, this week (March 5th – 9th) was celebrated in Palma as the Setmana de l’Arbre (Week of the Tree). You may not have noticed it, but a tree planting week has been held on the island – well, in Palma – for the last 27 years. About 3,000 specimens of trees were planted in those years in many green areas in Palma. That can’t be a bad thing.

During this current Setmana de l’Arbre, 265 students and schoolchildren from five participating schools in Palma partook in planting 50 trees (Pine trees, Oak trees, Carob trees, Poplar trees and Cape lilac trees) in various parks and green areas of Palma. Supposedly, the aim is to make children sensitive about the importance of trees in urban areas, not just in forested regions. Today, Friday, will be the last day of this year’s event.

There are some things that our politicians get right, after all. Hooray.

The photo (top) was taken in Es Molinar, Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 28th, 2012. The time was 14:44:50. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of sagratcorpalma.com.

Moltes gràcies.

Almond Trees in Full Bloom

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Often a cold spell, even with snow like we just had, belies the natural beauty which the island presents in February with the flowering of the almond trees under a blue sky, suggesting more of a Springtime.

Now, there are almond trees in full bloom all over the island. The Mediterranean climate aids the Almond tree (Prunus dulcis) even though it is not an indigenous plant like the Olive tree, the Holm oak (Quercus ilex) or the Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). The almond was rather planted here in the aftermath of the Philoxera disaster pretty much a hundred and twenty years ago which wiped out most of the Mallorcan grape plantation, to supply the affected farmers a new life-line.

The weather forecast for this weekend is good, dry and mild with temperatures around 15° C. You could venture out into the countryside and enjoy the almond blossoms whilst the bloom is still out. It won’t last long now before it’s all done and gone.

The photo was taken near Artà, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: February 22nd, 2012. The time was 13:31:17.

Mallorcan Almonds

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Almonds in Mallorca are not in full bloom quite yet but, the first signs of the imminent beginning of the almond blossom season are apparent all over the island. The mild January weather helped the crop albeit there was a severe lack of rain so far. There may be plenty of almonds this year of a smaller size than usual, unless we get some rain in February. As it happens, rain is forecast for today and tomorrow and snow is forecast in Mallorca’s higher regions above 400 m from tomorrow night.

Our daughter baked a cake last night as a birthday token. She used almond blossoms as part of the decoration (see photo below). The flowers are edible.

The kernels of the bitter almond (Amygdalus communis) are a good source of amygdaline. According to both, Oriental Medicine and alternative medicine, these kernels are anti-carcinogenic. In Chinese pharmacology, the pits are classified as a drug rather than food as they contain cyanide (hydro-cyanic acid). They are used medicinally and are said to combat cancer, stimulate respiration, improve digestion, help reduce blood pressure and arthritic pain and give a sense of well-being. Don’t take my word for it; I am a blogger, not a doctor. If you have any health problems of the kind mentioned above, please consult your doctor.

The town of Son Servera usually holds the Fira de la Flor d’Ametler at the beginning of February. I have not found any dates for this year’s event, yet. If the date and the event get confirmed, I shall let you know.

The photo (top) was taken near Lluchmajor, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 26th, 2012. The time was 15:19:01. The photo (bottom) was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 27th, 2012. The time was 19:02:20.

Thank you, Onna.

The Ageing Process

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I’m pretty old, 64 if you care to know. I feel good about my getting older even though there are the usual hints of decrepitude. Nothing serious, just the beginning of aches, pains, problems with the teeth, with the hearing ability, with the vision, the memory. I take it all as part of the parcel of a relatively longish life, as the natural wear and tear.

Here in Mallorca, I like to look at the faces of my Mallorcan neighbours. Many of them are old, older than me, some of them much older. I think I may have stated before that it is my impression that Mallorcan country folk seem to live to a ripe old age. Yesterday, a man died, age 90. Some make it to 95, even 100. I wish I could take – and publish – some of their portraits but I am too reserved, too shy really to ask their permission. And I don’t want to catch them unawares with a long tele-lense and intrude on their dignity. One day, perhaps, I’ll find the courage to ask their permission, if they are still around by then.

In the meantime, I offer you a portrait so to speak of something old that you can also find here on the island: old trees. There are not many things in the world that I would consider as beautiful as the gnarled, knobby and twisted trunks or branches of an old oak tree, an ancient fig tree (see photo) or an olive tree of yore.

I like black and white photography a lot. Sadly, with the onset of digital photography, the B&W shooting process has gone out of reach. B&W is now done in-camera and in pixellated processing, or in Photoshop. I don’t like computer manipulation or retouching but, there is always an exception to the rule. Here is my first ever digital B&W rendering of an originally colour photograph, just for the fun of it.

Don’t forget: the Kings are coming tonight in a town plaça near you, or your local parish church. Enjoy.

The photo was taken near Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 1st, 2012. The time was 14:35:58. The image was manipulated in Lightroom. The camera was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3.

Making Charcoal

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Mallorca once was an island abundantly covered in trees, mostly oak trees, and mainly of the Quercus ilex variety (holm oak) if we are to believe the experts. Homo sapiens soon saw to it that the dense forest thinned out over time. Trees were felled and trunks were used in shipbuilding, construction, heating and cooking. The ancient art of charcoal making in Mallorca was probably introduced by the Moors during the 10th century, or had the Romans already used the technique? Be that as it may, carbonating wood became a speciality here during the late 17th century when coal had not been discovered yet and when petrochemicals were unheard and unthought of for at least another two centuries.

Charcoal making took place where by then, oak trees were in abundance, in the Serra de Tramuntana. Charcoal makers and their families went into the mountains for sporadic periods to produce the treasured source of energy. There, round sitjas (pit bases) were built, wood was gathered, mounds were assembled and tightly covered with packed earth. Once the fire was lit, it would take between five and ten days before the burnt wood had carbonized and turned into charcoal.

On an excursion to the Tramuntana, we can still find remnants of such sitja sites; all one needs to do is keeping one’s eyes open. If you want me to give you a clue, here it comes. Go to the Ses Font Ufanes where you will find a number of such round charcoal pit bases together with a sitjars‘ hut. Or else, you could go to the Club Diario de Mallorca where an exhibition can be seen until November 11th of excellent colour photographs showing Mallorcan sitjas taken by German photographer, Gerd Neysters (opening hours are from 09h00 to 14h00 and from 18h00 to 20h00). Admission is free.

Luckily for us, the profession of the sitger (charcoal maker) is no longer. The Serra de Tramuntana is now protected as a Paraje Natural (Nature Reserve) and UNESCO has recently agreed to declare the mountain range a World Heritage site. Let’s all hope that the combined measures will suffice to protect the still existing oak and other trees.

The photo (top) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.es and the photographer, Gerd Neysters. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of wikipedia.org. The video was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of YouTube and orestesperez.

Muchas gracias,

vielen Dank,

thank you and

moltes gràcies.

Gínjols And Ginjolers

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One of the oldest fruits on the planet is relatively common here in Mallorca, and yet, we do not seem to know much about it. The Mallorcans call the fruit Gínjols (Castellano: Azufaifa); the tree is called Ginjoler (Castellano: Azufaifo).

In the non-Spanish speaking world, Ziziphus Zizyphus (also Ziziphus jujuba) is more commonly known as Jujube, Red Date or Chinese Date. The fruit is well-known across the Arab world, North Africa and the Middle East, in Iraq and Iran, in Southern India and Sri Lanka, where it is widely used in traditional herbal medicine, as well as eaten for food. You may have come across this strange-looking, small fruit in Mallorcan shops and local markets, especially at this time of year.

My Mallorcan friends tell me that they were given a single Gínjol fruit as a reward or a praise for a task well executed when they were children. Other than that, its main use is as a desert, for cakes and for sweet syrups or jellies. I’ve also seen the fruit in its dried version here in Mallorca, when it has a distinctly red colour; dry Gínjol is sold as a dàtil (date).

The crop ripens non-simultaneously, and fruit can be picked in Autumn for several weeks from a single tree. If picked green, Jujubes will not ripen. Ripe fruits may be stored at room temperature for about a week. The fruit may be eaten fresh, dried or candied. Fresh fruit is much prized by certain cultures and is commonly sold in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Indian markets. Tree-dried fruit stores indefinitely; it dries on the tree without the use of a sulfur preservative.

The fruits are said to cure coughs, resolve any other lung complaints, soothe the internal organs and reduce water retention. The fruit is used in Chinese and Korean traditional medicine, where they are believed to alleviate stress. The fruit apparently also has laxative properties.

A 17th century herbalist (Gerard) is quoted as saying:

The fruit of the Jujube tree eaten is of hard digestion, and nourisheth very little; but being taken in syrups, electuaries, and such like confections, it appealeth and smootheth the roughness of the throat, the breast and lungs, and is good against the cough, but exceeding good for the reines of the back, and kidneys and bladder.

Maybe we should give this little gem another try.

The wood of the Ziziphus jujuba tree is sometimes used to make wind instruments. In Mallorca, the pipes of Xeremíes (Castellano: Gaitas; bagpipes) are occasionally hand-carved from the wood of the Ginjoler tree.

The photo (top) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of herbarivirtual.uib.es. The photo (bottom) was also borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of flickr.com and Eric in SF.

Muchas gracias, and

thank you very much.