Country Mouse Visits The City

Faces of relief. Menus in hand, table and seats acquired in buzzing sidrería in Gijón's casco viejo. The time: 11pm.

After eight years of living in a tiny hamlet where the silence is broken only by the gentle jangling of cow bells and the sartorial code simply dictates clogs over slippers and never being seen in public without a large stick in your hand, it seems I have reverted to full country bumpkin mode. Any […]

Silent Sunday

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A Christmas Tale

Yes, it really was a pile of dead sticks.

Christmas Eve eve. The wind howls around the house, rattling the doors and windows and whistling like an enraged banshee. Outside, unidentified objects clatter about and crashes come at irregular intervals. I have never heard anything quite like it. I lie rigid and sleepless in bed, my head full of the weather reports and the […]

Silent Sunday

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Silent Sunday

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The Outdoor Life is the Life for Us

Hanging out in the garden with friends. There´s no better place to be.

We’ve just had a four day weekend here in Spain. I’ll be honest, I was slightly dreading it as I was going to be on my own with my four year old son for the whole time. That makes me sound terrible, doesn’t it? Possibly accurately. But really it was just a sense that 4×24 […]

And Then The Sun Came Out….

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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 […]

Nature

The blowholes at Pria, Llanes on a particularly stormy winter's day

As of last week we find ourselves in the grip of winter. The temperatures have plummeted, wild winds and rain intermittently lash the landscape and the sky seems permanently set to a dead grey tone. The first snow has daubed the mountaintops in the distance. Our wood burner has been pressed into use and already […]

Silent Sunday

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Driving Through La Rioja

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‘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?’ […]