healingwords: poetry for the soul

This is the well outside the village where not so long ago donkeys would stop to drink on their way up to the hills. The well still has water but is not in use. The village water supply is pumped from deep underground from a river that runs under the valley. We are dependent on the rainfall in higher mountains and some dry years the supply is under pressure, especially when the villages dependent on our wells double their population in Summer and swimming pools are filled. Water is a precious gift and when you have experienced it being cut off or the supply controlled it reminds us quite how we take for granted the gushing tap.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

I am used to dry Summers in Spain and distressed trees but with climate change I have witnessed a clear change in weather patterns. The seasonal droughts are more common, the spring and autumn rains sometimes don't appear, there is a continual risk of fire and flowers and trees are confused by the changing weather. Most native trees and plants here are adapted to the arid climate but the lack of water leads to more vulnerability to disease. Fire strips the hillsides and the soil is eroded. This area is on the edge of the desertification zone and if temperatures continue to rise in the next decades the environment in large parts of Spain and southern Europe will be threatened. We all need to do what we can to help halt climate change, every little effort in our daily lives is worth taking.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.