Just to keep the nature blog up to date, after a pleasantly lazy lunch with a couple of our neighbours, we returned to find our first Southern Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii) of the new season flitting about the Red Valerian…

The first day of our last week dawned with an attractively blue sky so we had no qualms joining Helen for one of her Monday walks up into the mountains. I say no qualms but I have been suffering from…

Having been taunted by fresh Swallowtail butterflies when we walked up to the cross above Murla recently, today being sunny, we attacked the hill and cross behind Senija, which is a more gentle climb that I can manage with a…

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…