Rockery plants.

Thursday was an odd day weather-wise,  warm but cloudy,  sometimes we had a view then realised that the clouds were right down low.  A bit like today really!

But ideal weather for a longer than normal walk with the dogs,  they really don't like going too far when it's hot and sunny,  up to the fuente so they can paddle and drink but not to Yegen.  So after lunch on Thursday afternoon we set off to Yegen in the warm cloud with an umbrella just in case,  and sunglasses just in case,  and of course my camera.

The hillsides are very rocky and craggy - I'm amazed at the amount of plants that grow and thrive -  growing in tiny nooks and crannies now are....

Common White Rockrose..

I think that is correct,  it looks very much like rosemary without it's flowers.  White cistus has very similar flowers but fat leaves.  But they are both Rockrose and Sunrose family,  according to my book.

French lavender

Curry plant.

We had a curry plant in UK,  this looks so similar and does grow here:  Pepétuas silvestre but this, although the leaves have a smell,  I don't think it's like our old curry plant.  Maybe a different variety.  Ours was a garden plant,  not a wild plant,  maybe that's the difference.

Our sage plants in the garden are just starting to flower,  this Jerusalem sage grows amongst the rocks, not much if any flavour to the leaves but it has pretty flowers.

Snapdragon plants grow in the most unlikely of places,  out of cracks in rocks,  where there wouldn't seem to be any water or soil but they are there every year

White snapdragon

Snapdragon and rockrose in these rocks.

There are some  lush patches by the side of the pista on the way up to Yegen,  from the stream where the weeping willow grows,  for about 400 metres or so,  the side of the road is a carpet of wild rocket,  now all in bloom.

Also growing are lots of clumps of wild thyme,  clambering through this one are sweet peas.  There are at least 3 different sorts here,  from these tiny pink and lavender coloured ones,  to one that is dark pinky-purple, with a much larger flower.

A constant splash of colour on the hillsides in the Spring are bushes and bushes of broom

yet another plant that seems to be able to grow anywhere.

I did say at the start that it was a cloudy afternoon when we walked,  when we set off the clouds were really high up but as we approached Yegen,  the clouds came lower to the point where this was our view of the cemetery...

 it's up there somewhere, 


and on the way home,  not much better.  It did lift again though.  It never got cold, there is  just a damp feeling walking in the cloud.