Under the flyover

  Warning: this post is photo-heavy!

 

Last Sunday we returned to the little Park that is so near to where we live. I mentioned this park in a previous post in April and by the way it now has a name which is Parque del Mar (Park of the Sea).

 There have been great improvements since then.   

The Commercial area of the Port here used to be walled off and it was not the sort of place one would go to for a walk except perhaps if you were waiting for or picking up the Ferry to Oran, Algeria.  When they built the flyover the walls were demolished and the redevelopment of the old Port which took several years created new roads and pedestrian areas. It therefore opened up this area to the city completely with large public areas and bicycle paths as well as attractive urban landscaping around the large Fish Market and the shipyards which made it easier to access.  

Unfortunately the waste ground under the Port flyover was ignored completely when renovating this area of the port and it became a real eye sore;literally a  dump! The whole area was targeted for no end of fly-tipping of household waste and also for homeless people sleeping rough! Drugs were sold there and used there and there were a lot of other unpleasant goings-on! It became known as a place to avoid and definitely not to go there at night.  There had been numerous complaints about this place from the local communities for years!

Thank goodness something was finally done about it and the city has gained another beautiful green public urban space.

It is like a real-life secret garden tucked away under that flyover.

I thought I would start off with this photograph of these pomegranates. I think it is the first time I have seen a pomegranate tree and there were several here in the park all laden with fruit. What they are doing in a park I don't know but I expect the birds will be grateful for them.   

 

 

 

 Another harvest the birds will relish are the dates on these heavily loaded date palms

 

 

Lots of flowers are still blooming. Although it is officially autumn here now the flowers don't know that and this mild climate allows them to continue flowering.  I don't know what they are called but they look gorgeous  🌻

 

This looks like lilac?

Those funny bottle brush flowers.

The trees have grown and there is much more shade now.

In fact this banana tree has shot up and is nearly touching the bottom of the flyover

I told Sr P to stand beside the Banana tree/plant just so you can see the sizeof it.

The pond with its waterfall is looking really lovely, a very big difference from what we saw here in April.

I can still hear frogs croaking too. 

 

 

A green lawn. Most of you will probably think "so what!" but a green lawn is a rarity here because it is so hard to keep that lawn green in this climate.  

 

...and an old olive tree 

 

These trees fascinate me or rather the trunks of the old olive trees!

I love the rugged way it twists and turns; natures own work of art .

It reminds me of a painting from Van Gogh

Google image

The Olive Trees  1889

 

 

and then we got to the end of the park but it isn't really the end because what I have shown you here is just the first stage of this project and very soon we will be able to continue walking on into the next part of this park.

Image from Google 2021

Construction is underway and the park will continue on all the way down over that bare ground that you can see. I would say about another year. 

I so look forward to seeing it. 

 

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Happy Blogging

 

Amanda :-)