Day 14 in lockdown – the mountains still stand

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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 […]

Lockdown in Spain – day 9

Trampolining in the privacy of the garden

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 […]

Why we all need to stay home. Coronavirus lockdown in Spain

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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 […]

Snowshoeing at Puerto de Ventana

Looking into León

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 […]

Snow day

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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 […]

Rolling your ‘R’s

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Having exhausted the delights of ‘I spy’ and ‘I went to market’, we were passing the time on a long car journey with some ‘trabalenguas'; Spanish tongue twisters. A game certain to challenge and amuse in equal proportions in a car carrying one native speaker (our seven year old son) and two adult learners of […]

Vida normal

beach bar at Salinas, Asturias

‘Vida normal’. ‘Normal life’ might not sound that exciting but after two months of enforced sitting around, the consultant’s words were music to my ears. That was on Tuesday. By the weekend I was walking down a scree slope with the aid of two walking poles. Normal life means different things to different people. Two […]

Treehouse

sweet chestnut tree in Asturias

One of the many things I love about Asturias is that vast swathes of deciduous woodland adorn so much of it. Beautiful to look at, especially in autumn when they put on an extended fiery show, they also provide wondrous places for hiking and great opportunities for foraging. And if you happen to be a […]

A late autumn weekend in the Picos

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When you live in paradise the temptation can be to stay put but every now and then the urge to stray a little further afield still sneaks up on us. It doesn’t have to be very far, there are plenty of spectacular places to visit within just a couple of hours drive and, let’s face […]

And we’re back…..

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Two years ago to the day I published a post entitled ‘Renovating Houses’.  It opened with a stark statement: ‘Somebody please shoot me if I threaten to buy another house that needs renovation’. And then I more-or-less disappeared from this blog.   Yup. We only went and did it again. It’s been a busy couple of years. Rebuilding […]