Madrid gardens

Our trip finished in Madrid so that Anita could attend the miniatures exhibition there, and while she was there I took the opportunity to visit the botanical gardens in the town centre.  They were started in 1781 by King Charles III who wanted a record of the plant species to be found in the Spanish colonies.  Stout fellow.

When I lived in Staines, I had an apple tree, Ballerina type, tall and slender.  You could judge the height of the paper boy each year by the height at which the remaining apples on the tree began.  So I was impressed that there were trees of edible fruits (persimmons and tangerines), with the fruit still on them, in a public park.  Mind you there was a 3 euro entrance fee, and a great big free park next door, so perhaps that keeps the riff-raff out.

Dahlias are an intensively cross-bred plant, yielding many different shapes and colours of flowers for the garden.  The park had an examples of the original Dahlia, much taller than the garden plant, but still with a simple beauty in the flowers.   And the tree was spotlit so I took a picture.

The trees were all in their autumn colours, and the day was clear, crisp and bright - you couldn't ask for better conditions for strolling around a park full of trees.  So I just strolled, enjoying the space, the relative quiet in the city centre, and took some photos.