natjtan Can you believe we’re already 2 weeks or half a month into a new year? Putting birthdays and festivos in my dairy at the weekend, October onwards seems so far away, yet when adding the dates, the year, time goes so quickly as you turn the pages. So little and so much can change in a few weeks.
Flamingo chicks grow up quicker than kittens. Spring flamingo chick.
8 months from now will be the hot days of summer. No extra layers, boots, hats, gloves, blankets. Hot air that warms your skin, hot solar powered water (where is in the winter when I want it?!), green trees, long sometimes sunny days that make you feel more productive. So of course, I’m just sharing August from last year. The second half. Most photos I took were of fish. No surprise as often as I could I was in the water. Visiting the fish world here is short even if the water was warmer than usual. 2.5-3 months to see the fish as I’m in the water as much as possible. Come the end of August I have about 2 weeks of touch and go sea visits. Around the autumn equinox the water’s too rough by the rocks or the air temp combined with the returned wind, I freeze getting out the sea. Often my fingers go yellow after swimming loosing all sensation.
Anyway, highlights from August last year! I kept kitten photos to a minimum. Koa was so tiny at 4 months.
She was slightly bigger than the tea towel wrap ice block she’s hugging to cool down. She’s grown into her legs and long back yet she’s still a small cat. Smaller than D.
Her fascination of water hasn’t stopped. Watching my underwater camera soak out salt water and the filling of the bowl. She sometimes watches me hand wash clothes when needed, oversea bathroom cleans and joins me washing my face in the evenings as there’s running water.
Tree’s provided welcoming shade and colours against the grey buildings and roads.
I saw my only octopus of the summer! A tiny one just off the beach. Lightening quick defending curious fish! You can see it in action on my reels, here!
Salemas/Sarpa salpa and white sea breams/Diplodus sargus. The more time I spent at my new snorkel location, the more different species I found. I promise the photos get better (you always say that! They did!)!
Baby saddled sea bream cloud/Olbada melanura.
The cloud formations were amazing.
A trip out the city to Cala Roca Grossa that had visited in the spring I think 2021. A weird beach in the summer with a weird vibe. Bougie, but not. The tide was also coming in which made parts of the beach inaccessible unlike last time. The area is known for cormorants which was the best thing about the trip there.
Another trip out the city to Playa de Fenals in Lloret de Mar. This place is amazing for snorkelling if you get a clear water day and the right beach. The water’s noisy with glass bottomed boats and filled with so many fish. I saw my only cuttlefish of the summer burying into the sand to camouflage itself, loads of jellyfish, damselfish, cuckoo wrasses, sleeping striped red mullets and more. Maybe by August this year I’ll share them.
Close ups to come, male ornate wrasse/Thalassoma pavo. Can you believe nature makes these colours?!
Fried egg jellyfish/Cotylorhiza tuberculata underbelly. From above it resembles a fried egg!
Sleeping striped red mullets/Mullus surmuletus.
The rock formations at Lloret de Mar are amazing. These particular rocks remind me of sponge fingers or the chairs whose backs resembling sponge fingers/scallop chairs.
I think bogues/Boops boops.
After being in the water for more than a hour, freezing when I got out, warming up with a cup of tea, it was time to explore as the afternoon felt like a holiday! You can walk to the larger beaches following the sea path or part of the old anti smugglers route running along the Costa Brava. Foo Dogs along the way.
Literally through walking around tables, the path takes you through a restaurant with signs saying cash only, no under 18’s after 20.00. I’m not joking! I wish I’d taken a photo of the yellow sign nestled in the mid bottom right corner.
Komodo dragon or a piece of wood?!
Back in the city, feeding geese and ducks bread I don’t eat in time.
Cattle crane drinking.
Last quarter Sturgeon super moon.
Thank you for making it this far! Can you believe these are only a fraction of photos taken within 2 weeks?! I take way too many photos 🤦♀️ Anyway, until next time!