Almond Trees in Bloom!

For some, February's only redeeming values may be Valentine's Day and it's fewer days but for us it means an explosion in pink - seemingly overnight.

Everywhere one looks and sometimes as far as the eye can see the almond trees are in bloom. Pale rosé almost white with magenta centers, pink to almost fuscia almond tree's are 'doing their spring thing'.

I love living where the year is marked by what's in blossom, what is in season...oh ja, and fiestas in between.

Here, nature pays no attention to calenders. Spring has long sprung, various clovers and even wild snap-dragons are showing their lovely faces and the almond trees in full glory are the loudest to say so.

Have a look at this link for many almond tree photos but also breathtaking sunsets/sunrises et al. They are from Mallorca, but any of the photos could be from here or nearby. Right, Donna? The rustic beauty of those photos are the answer to why I live and love it here.

http://webserv.chatsystems.com/~doswell/mallorca/images_03-04.html

The foto above is one I took last year. Today I wanted to drive up to the castle and take a photo of the scenery but it was a little overcast. It must be breathtaking. Yesterday when Reggie and I went to my osteopath in Calig, driving along the way was just one wonder after another. Seems as if the landscape is dusted with pink. This year is the most impressive.

I didn't know that almonds don't self pollinate. A spanish friend of mine told me that that is why there must be different almonds together in the same area. That explains the pale, almost white tree now and again amongst the pink (the pale ones produce the flatter, broader almonds) and that often beekeepers place hives amongst the orchards.

The beekeeper in Cap-i-Corb a mostly rural area just on the other side of town where I get my REAL unheated, hand-spun-out-of-the-comb honey, moves his bees around depending on time of year. In summer they get moved up to the mountains where they are busy with the rosemary et al. Besides, it is cooler for them, he says. Nice beekeeper. So we get three different types of honey from him, orange when the oranges here are going (wow, what a scent!) and soon the mil-flor or the mixed flower honey - but you and I both know it will be mostly almond flowers.

Does that honey taste like almonds? No. The blossoms smell faintly sweet and nothing at all to suggest almond. It is the nuts that have that famous scent and taste.

Ain't life grand?

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Here's nutritional trivia:

30g (1/4 cup) provides:• 7 grams of protein• an excellent source of magnesium• an excellent source of antioxidant vitamin E• riboflavin• phosphorus and copper• no sodium• no cholesterol Almonds contain fat, but their fat is mostly unsaturated - including 60% monounsaturated fat, the “heart healthy” variety. (Have no idea where I got that info....found it amongst my notes.)