The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

Interesting they have strelitsias alongside their pool. Indigenous to South Africa. We had tons in our garden, always a vase full of them in the house. I grew up in a subtropical area, lots of rain. I never knew they were drought tolerant!
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Interesting they have strelitsias alongside their pool. Indigenous to South Africa.
I had no idea what those were! Maybe a lot of SA plants work both here and in California - for example lots of jacaranda here. I always like to see them as I planted one in my back garden in California 20 years ago and now it is HUGE.

OK, now I just went down a rabbit hole on jacarandas. I always thought they were South Africa natives, but turns out they're from south America and imported into South Africa. Whichever direction, seems you have a lot of them there!
 
Google “Pretoria Jacarandas” for incredible photos.

Sydney also has a ton of them, and in bloom season the views of the Sydney hills from the harbour are exquisite.
But the slimy flowers on the footpaths of the lower north shore... It makes walking with a pram really hard!

There's definitely a lot of overlap in suitable plants between SA, Aus and California. Though with how wet Sydney has been all my drought tolerant perennials look a bit stunned.
 
I had no idea what those were! Maybe a lot of SA plants work both here and in California - for example lots of jacaranda here. I always like to see them as I planted one in my back garden in California 20 years ago and now it is HUGE.

OK, now I just went down a rabbit hole on jacarandas. I always thought they were South Africa natives, but turns out they're from south America and imported into South Africa. Whichever direction, seems you have a lot of them there!
I always assumed the Jacaranda was native to Australia but Google has proven otherwise 😬

Nathan's school has "native Australian" plants as their house colours.... And Jacaranda is one of them 😬🙄😆

Blue - Jacaranda
Yellow - Acacia
Red - Waratah
Green - Kurrajong
 

Lab_adore

Moderator
Staff member
Those swims look gorgeous Emily, I live in the water in Summer and Spring. Maxx loves the beach but will not - no way - get into our pool. I'm kinda grateful because it is the one place that is dog-hair free; but on the other hand I know he would enjoy getting cool. We put him in a lot as a puppy but he would always swim to the steps and get out immediately. Just not a pool dog I guess 🤷‍♀️
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Just not a pool dog I guess 🤷‍♀️
I don't think Carbon is really a pool dog either. It's not the pool itself because he does the same thing in Cornwall in the tidal pool on our beach. He'd just rather have those waves hitting him in the face. Calm water is clearly a bore to him. Also I don't think he likes the pool we've used here as there's no way he can get out on his own. We may have access to a pool in California for a few weeks, and it has stairs on one end. Let's see what the Señor thinks of that. Maybe he'd like it better if I jumped up and down to create some proper waves. 😁
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Hola amigos, guess what? ML and I have gone illegal surfing for two mornings in a row now! It is illegal because there are NO DOGS on the beach, but we went anyway because ML says "The rules can go f*&k themselves". I am gentleman dog, so I have no idea what she is talking about, but we sure have had a lot of fun, even if we go so early that it is still dark outside. De hecho, in fact it was a visit to amiga Miry's sick little cat that made ML decide to break the law for me. She says I am young and healthy now, and that is the right time to run in the waves and have fun. Some day we may have to be calm and only look at the water, but that day is not today. Ojala!

Today we are have a catching up and packing day: it is a little boring but I do not mind so much after my swim. We were going to go to the beach with cows, but ML looked online and indeed they have now made this beach NO DOGS too. So today we pack, this evening we go to a pretty white pueblo for a paseo, and then tomorrow we do something touristic. Vale, and maybe we also illegally go swimming again. Because really amigos, am I not worth the 200 Euro fine and possible prison time? Absolutely I am! I would visit ML every day if she got thrown in the clink, I promise!

No photos of the beach here in Spain because that would be evidence of illegal activity, so instead here I am looking stunning in France near Calais!
IMG_3689.jpg
 
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