Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2013

Welcome! Although it's been very hot and dry, most of the roses are blooming well and there is a lot of colour in my Algarve garden. These shots are from the 13th because I knew it would be impossible to photograph my blooms today.

Let's begin with the roses.

The red roses are doing extremely well since I began opening an umbrella to shade them from the midday sun.

 Now for the oleanders and hibiscus...

You can just make out the red hibiscus on the left. The day before I took these photos it had several large blooms, then it went shy on me. The variegated oleander is looking just as good as in July. Only the peachy-coloured one has stopped blooming.

This hibiscus is thriving.

This lavender is flowering for the first time since I bought it and introduced it to a new bed. The one I showed you in July is still going strong.

I'm falling in love with succulents!

This is my first attempt at creating a simple arrangement with the succulents I already have.

And that's all for today. Thank you to May Dreams Gardens for hosting this international monthly tour of blooms.

A telegraphic Sunday Post

The weather is great.
The outdoors beckons.
I have visitors.
Writing blog posts and even reading other blogs cannot take priority.

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday, wherever you are in the world!

Great expectations - Silves Medieval Fair

Everyone I had talked to spoke highly of the medieval fair at Silves, so I had to see for myself. Here are some of the photos I took.

 The streets were lined with stalls.

 

There was music and dance at the main door of the cathedral. 

It's a beautiful building!

Behind the cathedral there were more stalls and more eating areas.

Hmmm? Did they have stainless steel in the Middle Ages?

I had great expectations but, having visited other fairs of this type, I was disappointed that in such a beautiful setting the atmosphere wasn't that of medieval times. It felt more like an arts and crafts fair to me. Street animation was promised in the programme, but I didn't see any. I was hoping to visit the castle but the only way to do that was to pay an extra 3 euros to see a show inside. To watch the jousting, it was another 3 euros.  The Archeology Museum was open and well worth the visit but some other exhibitions closed very early.

Having said this, I'd still recommend a visit, but be prepared to pay more than the basic entrance fee of 2 euros if you want to be entertained and wear sensible footwear because the cobbled streets are very slippery. This fair ends on the 11th of August.

Sunset over the rooftops

Last night the sunset was special. This is what my camera captured from my first floor balcony.

Now you see it, now you don't

Now you see it...

It was already only half a hill...

... now you don't!

Disappearing hill?

The hill is going, going, gone!

I imagine that originally the hill that has now almost completely disappeared might have looked like the one in the picture below (in the distance) but I can't be sure. If anyone has some old photos, I'd love to see them.

Still there: the other end of the disappearing hill - much of it had already gone into the making of bricks

When I took these photos, some vegetation was beginning to cover the ugliness of the bare ground after the extraction of clay for the brick factory across the road.

Recently there was talk of building a theme park in this area but that project was taken to Spain. Now the bulldozers have flattened the land on both sides of the road and a monster depot for a chain of supermarkets is going up next to the brick factory.

View from the Guia-Algoz road

How will it look when completed?

View from Algoz - another small hill gone

I don't think it will improve the views from the village of Algoz. It has already changed the landscape by obliterating two little hills. I'm  hoping it will make up for that by creating some jobs and helping the local economy. I'll be posting updates in the near future.