Green is appearing

Today I decided to go and check out the dunes after the big rain of last week.

Now, the authorities (and I can’t even tell which ones, to be honest) in their eternal wisdom closed the dunes for pedestrian access about a month ago. That is, they erected, for want of a better word, some signs all around the edge of the natural park, about fifty meters apart from each other. Signs say that there is no access the the dunes. The same signs also say that you can’t light fires there and can’t pick up flowers or bother the wildlife. Last two bans seem a bit excessive, because if you obey the first one you won’t be able to do either of the followings two, but there you go. I guess to simply say “no access” appears too harsh or unfair or something.

There are two signs that are different from the others. They say that you can, in fact, enter the dunes (presumably in those two places), but you have to stay on the path. Problem is, there is no single definite path, at least no marked one, so once you are in, you can move with a crazy randomness of a happy butterfly.

You can probably tell that I don’t like those signs and the ban itself, can’t you?

Anyway. The signs go all around dunes where there is a road. Last time I went on my bike on the path that goes around the areas that were intended for development but stay empty, I’ve noticed that the forbidding signs run out at some stage. They are changed by “you are entering protected space” signs that don’t forbid anything, just inform. That is where I went in.

What can I say. No, it’s not a “green and pleasant land”, and the grass that grows does it very cautiously and each little plant keeps a good distance from the others. But it does grow. And there are little flowers.

My precioussss, I love blue flowers. Don’t ask me why, I just do. This looks like a very small and very hairy forget-me-not, but it might be something else entirely of course.

Now I want to have more rain. All those plants are very small and can’t possibly have a good reserve of water. Benevolent universe, you listening? Not the flood of the last week, just a little bit now and then. Those people nearly took away the dunes from me, give me flowers in return. Pretty please?

Pictures of dunes of Corralejo on Shutterstock — here.