Rivers in Cuenca, Spain

Rivers in Cuenca, Spain

I thought you might be interested in seeing some photos of the 2 rivers that meet in Cuenca where I lived for a great many years.

I’d already uploaded this photo & several of you have commented on how nice it looks.

Autumn colours over the River Jucar, Cuenca:

Therefore I thought I would make a blog using some of the many photos I took over the years since returning to the UK in 2001

Sunset lighting up Black Poplar trees like fire in Cuenca:

This was another photo of a postcard I uploaded to My Photos & some of you have also commented on it.

Confluence of the Huecar River with the Jucar River

This photo shows the place where the two rivers meet. The Huecar river is much smaller than the Jucar & for much of the time is little more than a stream – until a heavy rain burst swells the “stream” which can quickly become a raging torrent.

All the photos in this blog were taken by me during the trips my wife & I have made to Cuenca – the city where she was born & where we got married & had the last of our 3 children & where I spent the better part of 30 years!

Ducks on the River Jucar in Cuenca:

As can be seen in this photo the Jucar is coloured green when not in flood. But just as the Huecar can become a raging torrent after a heavy thundery downpour so the same happens with the Jucar. As it brings lots of silt down from the hills around the city it becomes a chocolaty brown.

River Huecar at its confluence with the River Jucar (Close up):

Looking down over the River Jucar weir in Cuenca

This photo was taken in the summer when the rivers are normally at their lowest. The weir can disappear completely during floods & the river flows over it as if it weren’t there! If you didn’t know it you wouldn’t imagine there was a weir below.

Jucar River in flood at San Anton bridge:

Huecar River flowing down towards the Jucar River:

Point of confluence of the Huecar & Jucar rivers in Cuenca:

View of River Jucar from Mangana viewing platform in Cuenca:

The first & last photos here are taken from opposite directions – the first one looks UP the river towards the old city & Mangana clock tower, the last one looks DOWN from the viewing platforms built underneath the Mangana clock tower towards the bridge (just in front of the trees lit up by the setting sun) where the first photo was taken from!

As you can see from just these few photos Cuenca is a marvellous place for artists to paint – for those of us who are artistically inclined you can take 100s of marvellous photos!

Spring flowers

Spring flowers

Or should I call them “End of winter” flowers? Or what about “Pre-Spring” flowers?

We have written blogs on Snowdrops over the last couple of weeks but now other flowers are starting to pop up.

Snowdrops in Hartford Road:

These Snowdrops are growing in a garden that I often used to pass when going to work at the plastics factory.

Another photo of the same garden only a week later:

Snowdrops alongside river:

Snowdrops growing alongside the River Great Ouse at its pass through Huntingdon & Godmanchester. They were just beginning to open when I took this picture – but look what they look like 7 days later!

These Snowdrops are now half drowned! They live beside the river & most years they get covered by the rise of the river yet it seems to do them no harm! In fact last year the river covered them several times, once for the best part of 2 weeks! When the waters subsided again they were all covered in mud! It looked most awful but I suppose the mud also brings with it nutrients that keep them going year after year. We read & hear about how beneficial flood waters are for the livelihood of peoples whose lives depend on the mud from flooding rivers.

Here they are underwater! Taken on March 1st 2010:

Snowdrops upclose near river:

This clump of Snowdrops I found near the river but not in the same place as the others above. These are no more than 5 minutes walk from my place but I’d never seen them before. It’s a section further up from where I was accustomed to walk to work. The flooded Snowdrops are between the towns of Huntingdon & Godmanchester. They are on the G’chester side of the river about 20 minutes walk from my place. The photo was taken from the footbridge which I used to cross 2x a day 5 days a week for 5 years going & coming from the plastics factory where I used to work till being made redundant a year ago.

I don’t have any Snowdrops on my balcony but I do have quite a few Species Crocuses & they have been flowering for several weeks now.

As I think that’s enough of Snowdrops for this year I now want to show you the Species Crocuses now flowering on my balcony.

Crocuses are such brilliant flowers for the beginning of spring! They bring us a foretaste as it were of the summer colours. I used to grow the big Dutch hybrids but when I first grew the species ones I was won over the first time! These little bulbs have been growing for about 3 years in pots on the balcony, perhaps longer if not the same corms I originality put in. Most years they are grown under Pansies or last year, for the first time, Violas.

Species Crocuses now flowering:

This year they are growing in the same pots as Fuchsia cuttings! When the Pansies finished I put some Snapdragons seedlings in each of the pots.

But later in the summer I needed space for my Fuchsia cutting & I “plonked” them in these pots – hence the labels you can see! I hope they have survived the winter.

I had them in the greenhouse all winter & I only put them out on sunny days but put them back in when frost is forecast.

Here is a photo of Crocuses on the balcony railings:

I love these white ones. I took the photo just today, 7th March:

This one is also from today but the colours are so lovely! I could upload all 9 pics of the 9 pots on the railings but that might be “overkill”! You can find more Crocus flowers in my pictures.

I hope you enjoy looking at these lovely little flowers as much as I do! At least on the balcony railings they are high up & I don’t have to get down to ground level!