About five o'clock in the evening
There is none of the dryness and aridity that often bedevils the seaside , around our Vaccares . On its high banks , it boasts a fulsome covering of fine , velvet-smooth grass , a perfect showcase for unique and charming flora . There are centauries , clover , gentians , and those lovely flowers that are blue in winter , and red in summer , apparently changing their clothes to suit the weather , and , when they have an uninterrupted flowering season , show their full range of colours . About five o'clock in the evening , as the sun is going down , these three watery delights , without boat and sail to cover and change them , open out into an amazing scene . No longer is it just the intimate charm of the open-water and the irrigation channels appearing here and there between folds of marl , where the smell of water pervades , and is likely to emerge at the least depression in the ground . Here , lake Vaccares gives an impression of size and space . The radiant waves attract flights of scoter ducks from far away , and herons , bitterns , and white-flanked , pink-winged flamingos , lining up to fish all along the banks , in many-coloured strands .