And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable

 Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Energy

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for the news that the discovery of a massive underground reservoir of natural hydrogen in Spain could deliver the cheapest H2 in the world. Well, at least according to the Anglo-Spanish company, Helios Aragón, which has found it, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. More here.

Cosas de España/Galiza

You have to hand it to the fraudsters. They commission, inter alia, a fake Goya and then try to flog it for €50m. No poverty of ambition there. Not a success, though, as you can read here.

More HTs to Lenox for:-

• Vets are bewildered about the new Animal Welfare Law, as they don’t know what to tell pet owners, not having received any instructions on following the regulations due to come into force in September.
• A British photographer, Charles Clifford, took some nice snaps around Spain in the 19th century.

I see that RENFE is to extend its free-trains program. Which might help to explain why I recently paid hugely increased prices on the line which isn’t free – from Madrid to Galicia.

A serious Flamenco development down South. And where to see good Flamenco in Madrid.

The EU and France

A very sceptical view of M Macron’s ambitions for EU ‘strategic autonomy’, under French leadership, naturellement.

The USA

More on President Biden’s (specious but politically convenient?) Irishness here. In truth, very many of the Brits he affects to dislike will be far more Irish than he is. Few of us are without Irish relatives along the line.

And this is an article on his basic approach to the UK, which some would say is the USA’s key ally. Perhaps age has dimmed his faculties. Is it relevant to note that Biden confused the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team with the infamous Black and Tans? . . . “You see this tie I have with this shamrock on it?  This was given to me by one of these guys right here. He was a hell of a rugby player, and he beat the hell out of the Black and Tans”

Not the most successful visit of a US president to the British Isles, as defined here.

The Way of the World

You couldn’t make it up. Well, not these days . . . A male GP was prevented from donating blood by the NHS because he refused to sign a form confirming he wasn’t pregnant. In Ayr, in Scotland.

Social Media

A comment on the owner of Twitter, care of some clever hacker, I guess . . .

But how does his mind work? Some insights here.

For new readers:- If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.