Apulian stories - Lizards and other visitors

Apulian fields are full of lime stone rocks and gravel. To be able to plough their fields, farmers have been collecting thoses stones for centuries and have built dry stone walls on the borders between fields. Our house was fenced by such a wall, too. They are an ideal living space for lizards and I have seen plenty. Here is a selection.

on an olive tree

a very long tail .... still the original

here with a regrown tail - they grow without the original colour and dots

This poor guy took an involuntary swim in the pool and could not get out. After his rescue he was so cold, he could not move for several minutes and had to pose for some portraits.

This lizard was hiding under a rosemary bush. 

He saw me but was less scared than others and waited half hidden watching me. I crouched low with my macro lens and waited patiently. After a while he decided I was no cat and posed no danger. His curiosity won over. He slowly slowly emerged from his hiding place,

 and slowly slowly moved closer to have a look at me and inspect the lens! Courageous ! 

Other visitors to our house were beautiful red and blue dragon flies: 

I had the ambition to capture one in flight, but they are so fast and small, and their flight manouvers  are so erratic, that the autofocus had a hard time. 

a grasshopper

and a much slower visitor.

Apulian Stories - Olive trees

Apulian flora is dominated by olive trees. Millions and millions cover the ground. Flying into Bari or Brindisi, one can see the characteristic landscape dotted with olive trees from above and into the distant horizon.  

Approaching  Bari - olives to the horizon (and a limestone quarry)

I have photographed many old olive trees and some individuals may have been around for millenia. Weather and age have carved beautiful structures in their bark through the centuries. 

  

In addition I  have tried to capture the "living soul" of the olive trees  - moving their greenish grey and silvery leaves in the wind, quite vivid and lively despite their slow growth and stately age. Here are some long exposures capturing the movement of the silvery leaves in the wind.  

and the real thing in a double exposure : 

I spent a happy afternoon shooting experimental "nonsense" - but that's what vacations are for :)! 

Apulian stories - the Land of Trulli

The funny trullo architecture is the first thing, visitors mention when you ask them about Apulia. 
Trulli were first built on agricultural land as simple temporary field shelters or storage houses made from the stones collected from the fields. They were set up with dry walls without mortar or cement.

Theory goes that people  started building their permanent houses in trulli architecture when an estate taxation was introduced based on cement and mortar buildings. If tax inspectors were in the area, these buildings could quickly be dismantled: look, what a poor person I am, not even a house to live in! It seems the most likely - still, many people become very inventive, when they try to avoid paying taxes. 

Trulli are abundant in the Itria-Valley around the pretty white towns of Alberobello, Ostuni, Martina Franca and  Locorotondo. 

Alberobello: 

A Trullo Church in Alberobello: 

overgrown with Passiflora caerulea

Locorotondo, another of the "white" Apulian cities. 

 inside the baroque Chiesa madre di San Giorgio

Ostuni

view to the mediterranean sea

upstairs downstairs

where there's a will, there is a way.

Ostuni Cathedral

Martina Franca: 

 Dolce Vintage