This delicate wee beauty made itself known to me as we walking around the Jardines de Ceunta in Ronda, I wasn't quick enough to capture the wings fully open as it flew away but I'm really happy with this photo. You can see the eye, the legs, and quite a bit of detail on the underside of the wing. I didn't name this butterfly because it looks so pretty so I immediately thought it must be a girl but I didn't want to offend him if he turned out be be a boy butterfly. So we'll just keep calling it an it for now.
Now at the time I took this I was getting a bit frustrated, we'd been walking for a couple of hours, stopping every 5 meters so she could take photographs, gee I wish I'd thought to take my iPod with me that day. It isn't a lot of fun standing around waiting for someone else to take their pictures. So halfway up the steps in the garden there is a fir hedge (I think its a fir, the green stuff in the photo) and up ahead of me were a bunch of people walking down the steps, and behind me a coach load of German tourists.
Tourists who turn up in coaches are any sane person's worst nightmare. They walk in groups, three or four abreast taking up the whole footpath and they don't give an inch when other people are also on the footpath. Grrr, they make me so angry, I've even stopped being polite, I just keep walking along the footpath and if they get a sore shoulder when I push past them so be it. Ronda gets a lot of coaches stopping for the obligatory 3 hour walk around the town center before they hop back on their coach and move on to the next unfortunate destination. They don't even spend any money in town because its off the bus, quick walk with their own tour guide, then back on again and away they go.
Anyway, thats my little rant over, so I'm walking reasonably fast up these steps to try and avoid satan's minions behind me when out of the blue this wee beauty flew right in front of my face and landed right there. All my anger and frustration just melted away, as if it had never even been there, and my little friend sat there long enough for me to take half a dozen pictures before it took off and daintily fluttered over the heads of the approaching tourists. Ah, but this part was poetic, the front tourists had started getting out their cameras and were about to start trying to push me out the way when it happened. The gods in heaven were smiling on me that moment.
This one is for a dear friend who wants to know how tourists get by in Spain. Fingers crossed she wants to know because she's coming to visit, but since I can't say for certain I'll assume she wants to make fun of them just like the locals do.
So, first things first? How can you spot an American tourist in Ronda? Hah, go to McDonalds, they're the overweight people wearing baseball caps, trainers, and Hawaiian shirts, and they often talk so loud you can hear them two blocks away.
How do you spot British holiday makers? They're the ones wearing sandals or sitting with their legs crossed like they're having a pot of tea and crumpets.
How do you spot the Spaniards? Turn around, they're having tapas behind you. Actually on this particular day they weren't, they were finishing off their shopping about to go home since it was nearly siesta time.
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My other half has been a firebrand environmentalist for many years now, but it's only recently that she's taken an interest in producing eco-friendly cartoons, and without further ado, check out her
elephant cull cartoon. Its OK, it's actually funny and no elephants were harmed in the making of it.
