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 […]
El aire de las castañas – the wind that shakes the chestnuts
The Valley of the Squinting Windows
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 […]
Day 14 in lockdown – the mountains still stand
Snowshoeing at Puerto de Ventana
Snow day
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 […]
Winter on the way
Treehouse
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 […]