via Segovia

Hello Eric, When you wrote about the importance of spring yellows, the descriptions put a warm smile on my face, and when you interviewed Wonsoon Park, I was blown away, in awe of his practices and his views of horticulture. I have already added South Korea to my list of future travel destinations. Maybe if we plan in advance, we can meet and explore the landscape together. A trip from Spain sometime soon might be nice…..

Even though I have  been living in Madrid 7 months already, it still feels like I just landed, still feels new. I guess we don’t acclimate to our surroundings as quickly as plants can.  Plants-1 and Humans-0, right? It was terrible to see all of the horrid, cold and rainy weather that has been going on back home, especially when I have dahlias in bloom already on my terrace. Doesn’t seem quite right to me yet, but these are things that I can get used to. My terraces are filling up with anything I can get my hands on these days….. geraniums, mint, sedums that I find on the ground that have fallen off of other terraces, tomatoes, strawberries and bacopa too. My nasturtiums are coming up from seed too as I write this, and I am sure the hoarding won't stop there either.

I have also started collecting dahlias for cut flowers, Dahlia ‘My Love’ (white cactus flower) and Dahlia ‘Forrestal’ (bright reddish semi- cactus bloom), and two unnamed plants I picked up, which were already in bloom. Now that the sun's strength is increasing, I am finding myself out there watering more often and am in the process of upgrading to larger pots, which in turn just means more plants....

With the warmer weather here now, I am finding more and more opportunities to get out of the city and explore.   One recent trip is to Segovia which is not very far outside of Madrid, easily reached by train, my favorite form of travel. Most impressive to me was the Roman aqueduct, thought to be standing since 1st century AD, just stone laid on top of stone in the most intricate process and responsible for the transporting water from the mountains nearby. The castles, the rolling mountains in the distance and the surrounding landscape were as enchanting as you would think.

It was a lively city, heavily mixed between old and new ways of life. There were little areas of gardens but what impressed me most was the agricultural plots at the city's base, nestled in a little valley where the river used to run, obviously taking perfect advantage of the great soil left behind. I will leave you with the images and when you come to visit, it is a must on our itinerary… Until then my friend….