...and suddenly Spring bursts in

 

Talatí de Dalt. 2022.

Continuing with my intention of revisiting all the T shaped monuments called 'Taula' on the island, this afternoon I went to Talatí de Dalt.

At the entrance to the ruins of Talatí de Dalt there is a talayot. The structure of the settlement is divided into the public area, with a sanctuary and central taula, and the private area, with houses and hypostyle chambers (storage rooms). This taula is unusual in that it is balanced against a column which must have fallen against it accidentally, but which is still in equilibrium today.

Taula Sanctuary

The finds located during the excavations shed light on the trype of diet people had by then. The study of the bones that were found gives us informations about what the inhabitants of this settlement had.

Storage chambers

Goats. For meat and milk.

Sheep. Their wool was posibly used to produce textiles.

Pigs. Their fat was very important since olive oil was not produced in Menorca yet in this period.

Oxen. Possibly used as draught animals for transportation and plowing.

Cows. For meat and milk to make cheese. 

Camí de Cavalls. Els Alocs to Benimel.lá

The "Cami de Cavalls" is a hiking route that borders Menorca in its entirety. Sometimes it runs a few meters from the shore and other times it goes into the interior of the island.

Years ago, the young people used to go around the island in stages. Today it is a tourist attraction and in summer many people go hiking, although the hardest stages are not usually done in summer due to the heat.

The geological wealth of this area is remarkable. On the other hand, the vegetation is scarce and in general there is little natural life. At least we didn't find much on this cold February morning.

This is one of the least easy stages since, although the distance to be covered is not very long - about twelve kilometers - it crosses some quite inhospitable landscapes and some impressive cliffs over the sea.

Na Beltrana

 

Another of the prehistoric religious sites called Taulas. This one in Ferreries. In a farm called Na Beltrana

Son Rotger.

Experts believe that there are 33 of these monuments from the Neolithic Era. It might be there were more but they were either destroyed or just they have not survived to this day.

In any case, I was determined to find this winter some of those that are not easily accessible and this is one of them.

Just before entering the town of Cala en Porter, by road with a gate entitled 'Sant Vicent' which leads to the farm of San Rotger can be seen. In the bush on the right side  lies a talayot (block piled tower). And on the eastern rocky foot of the talayot, a headless taula with scratches stands. Curiously, this taula does not stand on the rocky foot level but in a pit like a bathtub with other pillar stones.

Es Caparrot de Forma

On the cape of Caparrot de Forma near the Es Canutells development is a necropolis consisting of 23 artificial caves or hypogeums.

Of particular interest on the site is a large wall running across the coastal headland along the isthmus. Inside, two circular constructions can be distinguished, and under a pile of stones, a fresh water well. The wall is included as part of the Talayotic Minorca World Heritage bid.

Torrellafuda

The Torrellafuda settlement dates from the Talayotic era and was inhabited until Islamic times, as indicated by the archaeological remains found. 

The settlement, set in a holm oak wood, consists of a single large talayot, a taula enclosure, several houses and a necropolis of four hypogeums or artificial caves. There are other structures including a cistern from the Roman or Mediaeval era and sections of a cyclopean-type wall.

In one of the hypogeums a batch of lead sling balls from the Roman era was found.

Ophrys Speculum

Just found a long time looking for orchid. Ophrys Speculum.

A terrestrial orchid up to 25 cm tall and each inflorescence carries between 2 and 8 large flowers. The plants often grow in groups. In bright sunshine the flowers are highly visible as the light reflects off the speculum in the centre of the lip – it is a bright iridescent purple/blue in colour and very glossy.

Sant Joan d'es Vergers.

According to the Menorcan Chronicle, King Alfonso III, after a bloody battle against the Muslims, let his army to rest in a place called Pla des Vergers, only a few miles from the Hotel, and ordered two masses to be sung: one in honor of the Virgin Mary as symbol of the new era begins for the island within the Christianity and the other one for the souls of the killed in battle. Over time, a chapel to San Juan Bautista would be built in this place. This was built in the 14th or 15th centuries, since the construction system corresponds to the Levantine Gothic. 

 

 In the middle of the 16th century there was a brotherhood of San Juan in Mahón that annually organized a parade to the chapel to celebrate the Baptist festival. This was held until well into the 19th century.

The little church has undergone many reforms throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. According to Archduke Lluís Salvador, the current church is the result of a restoration in 1712. It is a small building, with a single nave covered with a simple ribbed vault and divided into two sections by an ogival arch. It does not have side chapels and the vault discharges on two exterior buttresses. The interior decoration is very sober. The 19th century façade is a body added to the nave with a slightly pointed arch that gives access to a small portico covered with a pointed vault. This is topped with a belfry. On the access portal there is a small window with the openwork Maltese cross.

I hope this could also be the beginning of something new and the end of this pandemic that would be left behind.

Favaritx, the Light in the Darkness

 

 

 

 

I hope this finds you, your family and friends, safe and well.

May the Joy of Christmas give you Light to dispel any darkness.

Picture: Favaritx, by José Orfila.

Cala d'es Pou d'en Caldes

 

 

One of the sections of Cami de Cavalls that best define the rich and varied environments that make up the island’s north coast. The itinerary starts at Cap de Favàritx, a space that is well known for its dark rocks and the scarcity of vegetation.

The course passes through typical Minorcan agricultural surroundings, formed of ploughed fields, fields for livestock to graze in and areas with Mediterranean bushes. As the path approaches the coast again, it reaches Pou d’en Caldes, a space with dense concentration of endemic plants.

 

 Arenal de Mongofre

Pou d'en Caldes

Mongofre Vell
 

Cavalleria

 

Undoubtedly, the times we are living are uncertain, but that gives us the opportunity to revisit some places that I wanted to see after some time.

The initial idea was to walk from Cala Pregonda to Cala Viola, in the Cavalleria area, trying to find in the rocks of the coast a deposit of cephalopod fossils that I had heard of.

But the area well worth a visit. 

 

 The beach at Cavalleria, also known as Cala Viola de Llevant.  A beautiful and lonely beach in these first days of November.

Although it was not what I was looking I found this set of fossils of plant appearance.

In practically the entire coastal contour of the island there are military structures that were built before the Spanish Civil War. Most of them belong to the state because they are located within the maritime-terrestrial domain zone.

 
However, in many of them, some locals have turned them into fishing warehouses or even places to spend the weekend .It's not the right thing to do, but at least they take care of the buildings and prevent their deterioration.

The stone cross at Barranc d'Algendar

When Dr Camps wrote this story in 1910, he commented that it had already happened many years ago.

 
The fact is that in an undetermined time in the middle of 1800 there was a man in the town of Ferreries who was said to be able to talk to the birds and who use to make remedies with herbs that he collected from the wild fields that wade through the ravine.

 
On one occasion in the middle of a winter, he left town. Some said that to catch a nest of real hawks, others that to collect a plant called "Jew's beard", the fact is that he did not return to town that night, and it became a stormy night

 
The next morning he was found dead at the foot of the rock from which he had clearly fallen off.

 
And even when many stories circulated through the town as a result of the people superstition at that time, their parents ordered the erection of a stone cross that even today, almost 200 years later, appears among the almost insurmountable exuberant vegetation at the bottom of the ravine.

 

 

Wryneck

 Not a common bird in Menorca, but some of them can be seen every year in the migratory pass in September.

 

 

The Eurasian wryneck or northern wryneck (Jynx torquilla) is a species of wryneck in the woodpecker family. These birds get their English name from their ability to turn their heads through almost 180 degrees.

Gloria

A storm with the disturbing name of Gloria has hit our country viciously.

And despite its destructive power, it has left precious images in the island.

Son Mercer de Baix. Naviforme settlement.

The settlement consists of a set of boat-shaped stone dwellings known as naviformes, which gave their name to a long Prehistoric period in the island’s history (1700-1400 B.C.). Seven dwellings have been identified in all, with two different types, five horseshoe-shaped and two square. Although most of them are small, the settlement is spectacular for the strategic position it ocupies overlooking the ravine of Son Fideu and for one of its buildings, the Cova des Moro. The settlers lived off the land around and in the ravine, which was also their route to the sea.

 The farm house at Son Mercer de Baix.

 The same farm house, in the 1940's

Cova d'es Moro

 Horseshoe-shaped dwelling

 The fertile land at the ravine of Son Fideu.

The Cova des Moro is the only known naviforme that still has its horizontal stone roof slabs in place, supported by three vertical pillars. The outer wall is very regular and built with very well-squared stones. The roof of this type of building would normally have been made of wood, mud and branches, which did not survive the passage of time. In this case, part of the roof has been preserved; it was restored in 2002 after collapsing in the late 1990s.
Excavation work carried out on the settlement unearthed a number of bronze items, now on display in the Museum of Menorca. They include a small ingot, fragments of slag, a chisel and a bracelet, showing that the people who lived here knew how to make bronze.

North African Hedgehog at So Na Caçana.

The North African hedgehog (Atelerix algirus) or Algerian hedgehog, is a species of mammal  in the family Erinaceidae.
It is found in Most of Northern African countries, South of France and the Balearics.
Very little is actually known about the preferred habitat of the North African hedgehog. It has been found in Mediterranean conifer and mixed forest climates as are present in southern mountainous. It is very common in the island although hundreds of them are killed every year by passing cars.

 Hedgehogs are insectivores but tend to live on an omnivorous diet. They feed on all sorts of little animals, such as earthworms, snails, beetles, caterpillars and carrion. To a lesser extent, they also eat plant matter, including fruits.

North African hedgehogs are generalist omnivores. They forage at night for arthropods, small vertebrates, carrion, fungi, and other available foods.Hedgehogs are insectivores but tend to live on an omnivorous diet. They feed on all sorts of little animals, such as earthworms, snails, beetles, caterpillars and carrion. To a lesser extent, they also eat plant matter, including fruits.

Sa Torre Vella - The Old Tower.

I have always liked the old country houses of Menorca.
 
Built hundreds of years ago using the poor resources offered by the agricultural environment on the island. Many times the main element of its architecture is limestone rudimentary extracted from the rock of the soil. They saw times of good harvest and many others of misery and suffering, as can be deduced from the defensive elements that can be seen in some of them.

Photographed "Sa Torre Vella" in Alayor in 1987. It was still active but a holding that housed the old tower had deteriorated so much over the years that could barely be intuited and during the years that followed fell, like so many other farms of Menorca in the abandonment
 
Today, the Fontanille Group has restored the old houses and turned them into a select hotel away from the mundane noise where the charm of the old rural architecture can still be appreciated. Hundreds of years later.

Merry Christmas.

Country track cycling in a glorious Christmas morning.

 

 

Starlings

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are winter visitors in Menorca. We do not see any in the rest of the year, but since October til February or March there are thousands of them who reach the island covering the sky with forming flocks that become authentic clouds dancing capriciously especially late in the afternoon.

Picture taken by Barbara Salva near Son Bou.