Wildflowers are not Weeds!

I haven’t been able to get out much this past 10 days due to back pain so I am digging through some old shots of those most colourful wildflowers, or weeds as some people call them, poppies. Found in wasteland, amongst crops, roadsides all around they add a huge splash of colour to the scene and give the sense that Spring really has arrived.

Well some of you I am sure, the Spaniards in particular, are aware that we are having the worst drought in about 50 years here in Spain. Farmers of all types are facing huge losses; of crops, of money spent on animal feed and irrigation – it’s pretty bad. Recently we have had some rain, but hardly enough as the clouds seem to be spent of their precious water by the time they reach la Mancha. However in the past few weeks the barley has grown up a bit and the country has lovely large swathes of green which when mixed with the red soil of la Mancha and its wildflowers can provide some of the most stunning spring scenes; especially when the wildflowers come out as they are doing now. Take the previous photo for instance. A typical Manchegan structure in the midst of a field of cereal and poppies. Or the top photo, taken near Porzuna, where the poppies, marigolds and daisys are just an explosion of colour.

Looking at poppies up close they really look so fragile and I often wonder how they manage to stay in bloom so long when the winds on the Manchegan plain can be quite strong.

They look great when mixed with other wildflowers, as a bunch or individually. Sometimes you can even get artistic when taking shots of them. This next shot was taken using a 70-300mm zoom lens with a slow enough shutter speed, 0.25 second at f32, that I could zoom out quickly during the shot.

Or how about all those photos out of focus? Not a problem with poppies, it can look quite impressionist.