Life between the mountains and the sea
As I drive up the valley towards home the wind is blowing so strongly that leaves are pelting the car with a force that makes me fear for the windscreen. The trees that line the road bend forward, prostrating themselves before the force of this autumn dervish and shake their leaf-laden branches like over-enthusiastic cheerleaders shaking pompoms. The road, which was […]
Today’s kitchen sink drama is brought to you by The Horses in the Back Field; brightening quarantine since 2020. A frolicking weeks-old foal makes a fine backdrop to dishwashing and a distraction from drudgery. Interesting to note how adept equine babies are at wrapping their mammies round their little fetlocks. This one nuzzles his […]
Somebody stopped the clock. Regardless of the growing chaos in the world, the sun continues to shine in our little corner of it. The weather is glorious, in fact. The blossom is out on the trees, the garden is bursting into life and the birds sing loudly from dawn until dusk. The days stretch […]
I say day 9 but I’ve already lost track of the days if I’m honest. We started self-isolating the day before the government officially shut the schools, which in turn was the day before they declared a state of emergency and subsequently a state of alarm. Then, of course, in the midst of all this […]
The last place you want to be on a Friday 13th, just as the country declares a State of Emergency in the face of a fast-approaching, potentially apocalyptic virus, is at the hospital Emergency Department. But that’s exactly where we found ourselves last Friday despite all our best laid self-isolating plans. Day 1 of school […]
Spain has declared a state of emergency and we are in lockdown, obeying the ‘quedáte en casa’ (stay home) edict. It may be that after all these years of living here I have gone native but the strategy, aimed at protecting the most vulnerable in society, seems to be a good one and sits far […]
I did it! I have been promising myself for a few winters now that I would get out and sample the delights of snowshoeing and finally, this Monday, I got out there and did it. And reader, I loved it! What’s not to love? Clear blue skies and sunshine; spectacular views from the top of […]
So after Sunday in the snow, the week was positively spring-like and had me all fired up to get working in the garden. Digging and barrowing in short-sleeves and suncream in February and with views like these as my backdrop certainly doesn’t feel like work. More like balm for the body, mind and soul. And that is […]
The 9 year-old was, in his own words, ‘outraged’ at the scant covering of snow here at home last weekend. While friends in England were ‘enjoying’ blizzards we barely had a dusting, despite living at nearly 700 metres above sea level. No chance of a snow day from school on the horizon and simply not […]
Storm Hugo is currently battering most of Spain, Asturias included. Up high (above 800m) the precipitation is depositing as heavy snow and drifts. Below this height the rain-laden sky blocks out the views of the snowy peaks and muffles the usually vibrant landscape to a dull and lifeless grey. It’s good weather for curling […]
