Somehow, whilst touring New Zealand in November last year, I managed to strain one side of my jaw. I suspect that a gaping yawn might have been the cause. Since a knackered jaw hinge made eating, an activity of which…

A week or so ago, we were browsing through a friend’s Spanish recipe book. [Barrafina, since you ask.] As I flicked through, on almost every other page I found myself thinking, “oh, that looks worth trying”. This is an unusually…

Yes, it’s been snowing this morning in the Jalón valley. You see, Spain DOES have winter. Nothing has settled on the valley floor but the surrounding mountains have been dusted with icing sugar. We are booked in for the annual…

This morning we wandered downhill into Jalón to see how our new house insurance policy was progressing. It turned out that it was progressing quite nicely and was ready for collection and, mas importante, for payment. Now, if our existing…

On our recent trip into Valencia by train [Valencian Markets], Francine had been impressed by the soft quality of the light on that particular morning over the rice paddies of the Parque Natural Albufera as we rattled by. So, we…

[A more difficult pronunciation topic. Spanish Bs and Vs suffer from an identity crisis. They get mixed up. The pronunciation of Vinarós lies somewhere between Vin-a-ross and Bin-a-ross. The lead letter is a sort of soft B, made without the…

[Pronounced Pen-yis-colla, by the way.] A gota fría was forecast for the Jalón area this weekend. A gota fría is literally a “cold drop”, a particular meteorological phenomenon in which a low pressure area becomes disconnected from its normal mother…

Flexible folks are the Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers. This Wednesday there was originally no moderately graded walk, just a red run and two black runs. Two blacks, indeed. Francine says two blacks is quite usual. Clearly we need more training.…

Yes, yet another walk with the Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers. This walk was advertised as the Barranco de Turrubanes Circuit, another blue grade walk of 10 kms with 350m of ascent, starting from Vall d’Ebo, which is itself quite high…