Autumn in Asturias

_MG_6802_3_4_tonemapped

Autumn is my favourite season in Asturias. The weather is stable and warm and the air and light have a clarity that is lacking in the hazy days of summer. The mountain peaks emerge crisply into view in my daily backdrop. In the foreground, the hillsides are awash with vivid russets, golds and browns as the […]

And Then The Sun Came Out….

1454803_487020791413189_2125757910_n

The sudden shock of winter, with oppressive, rain-filled skies and plummeting temperatures, may have born down heavily upon me last week but then, on Thursday, the sun came out. The skies opened out into a blaze of blue and the light was crisp and clear. All the better to see what had been going on […]

Driving Through La Rioja

IMG_0032

‘Is it real, Mum?’ Jack turned saucer shaped eyes to me. The slow passage of kilometres as we trucked our way home from Catalunya had just been enlivened by the sight of a floodlit castle, turrets and all. ‘It is. It really is,’ I smiled. ‘Oh, oh, oh. Do you think they need a knight?’ […]

48 Hour Photo Diary of a (Nearly) 4 Year Old

The weekend got off to a great start when the postman brought me a new motorbike. I didn´t realise he liked me so much. Mum said something about it coming from Aunty Sandra but I know it was from the postman. I saw him.

Last Christmas Granny and Grandad bought a fab kiddy camera for Jack. Rubber encased with chunky buttons and dials that are perfect for chubby little fingers and with great quality photos it’s ideal for the budding toddler photographer. Sadly it now languishes unloved in a cupboard. That’s not to say that the photography bug has […]

The Early Bird

With Jack starting school last September one of the biggest adjustments we have had to make has been getting up at 7.30 every morning, Monday to Friday. (And, of course, weekends too as Jack’s highly trainable body clock doesn’t switch off just because it’s a Saturday. Dammit.) It might not sound that harsh’ I know […]

Silent Sunday

 

An Autumn Weekend in León

Finally, after months without rain, the drought has ended. This is a cause for great celebration. Crops have suffered, drinking water supplies have dwindled and this corner of ‘Green Spain’ was showing signs of scorching at the edges, its usually lush verdant hues beginning to be tinged an unbecoming yellow and brown. Last Wednesday normal […]

An Asturian Apple Harvest

Apples are to Asturias as grapes are to La Rioja. As harvest gets underway here in the ‘Comarca de la Sidra’ (the cider ‘shire’) the orchards that densely carpet vast swathes of hillside are shaded under a heavy canopy of apple-laden branches. The apples are plentiful this year (they come in two year cycles – […]