Someone has turned up the heating here in the Sierra de Grazalema with the rain and cool of the spring seemingly a distant memory... Temperatures are up in the high thirties and the forecast is for more intense heat yet to come which will certainly take us into the forties! The green fields and colourful meadows have changed to dusty soil as the summer does its work to dry seed heads and farmers do their work cutting for straw bales. Fields of coriander have run to seed and strolling amongst them gives a very pleasant aroma... (if you like a good curry that is :) )....

Nothing surely can compare to walking through a pine forest in Andalucia with cones cracking in the heat and cicadas "whirring" in the branches. The temperature hits the melt point releasing the essential oils from cistus, rosemary and lavender that fill the air with that unmistakeable Mediterranean hot summer scent... Maybe you can guess from my words... I love Andalucia in the summer.

The bright pink Nerium oleander is in full bloom right now and if you look closer you will see that this plant generally follows watercourses and dry (sometimes wet) gullies... Oleander hedges always provide great rewards for insect expeditions over the hot months of July and August...

Especially look out for dragonflies and damselflies, shining jewels of the summer flying alongside  the butterflies that appear in a myriad of colours and sizes feeding on blue sea holly and other plants of the thistle family...

Many people find it too hot during the months of July and August but for those with a special interest in insects the area is litterally a "hotspot" for many normally hard to find species. See a more in-depth page for more information about dragonfly holidays in the Sierra de Grazalema.

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