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

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

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable: Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España

From Fascinating Spain, the very best of the least-populated pueblecitos in Spain.

Castles in Spain. There are hundreds – nay, thousands – of these, witness my growing file on them, for future travel relevance. Some are not in the best of condition and these fine folk want something done about that. Possibly pushing large stones up a steep hill.

The UK

The eternal problem of insufficient housing.

Two articles on the even bigger problem of the rise of unacceptable Islamic protest/agitation in the UK, from right-of-centre journals:-

• Juliet Samuel in The Times: What should worry us most is the possibility that our civil society has already frayed too far to be repaired, and that this is only going to get worse and worse. 
• Sherelle Jacobs in the Telegraph: Multiculturalism is dead. The entire mainstream political class is terrified to confront the catastrophic failure of liberal multiculturalism and the consequent proliferation of Islamic fundamentalist enclaves that threaten Britain.

For the left-wing view, here’s The Guardian. Essentially an attack on the Tories, rather than a focus on the problem perceived by Samuel and Jacobs.

En passant, I’m currently living in place which has a very large Muslim contingent. I haven’t seen a whiff of pro-Palestine protest. No Islamic fundamentalist enclave here. Just shops selling great Asian produce. But, then this isn’t London, Rochdale, Bradford or Rotherham. Where I very possibly wouldn’t want to live. Whatever the shops offered,

Ireland

Galicians believe that their (mythical) heroes settled Ireland. But the Irish have their own myths and back in the 18th century a belief arose that Ireland had been colonised by the Phoenicians. For which there is nil evidence whatsoever. As with the belief that they sailed past the Pillars of Hercules in search of tin from Cornwall in SW England. In fact, some modern historians believe there never was such a people as ‘the Phoenicians’. Even if they did invent the alphabet.

The EU

The eurozone is about to go bust, says the headline. Though not really the text.

Germany

And an odd headline. In The Guardian, of all places: For a vision of Britain’s future, look to Germany – it’s not pretty. Rationale here. Some good questions – but no answers – in the final para.

Russia

All eyes will be on Putin’s state of the nation address on Thursday. Will he use that as an opportunity to formally annex Transnistria? For those who believe they are witnessing a repeat of the events that saw Russia recognise the republics of Donbass and Luhansk and the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the concern is that this could set in motion a chain of events leading to similar conflict in Moldova. An invasion of Moldova remains unlikely though, at least in the near future.

Gallego

For Spanish-speakers . . . Some Gallego/Galego for you to tackle, in a cartoon by (I think) the wonderful Castelao, some of whose stuff can be seen here.

Did you know? . . .

You shouldn’t buy wine in clear glass, it says here.

Islamists, of course, think you shouldn’t buy wine at all. And I guess they no longer sell it in Iran, where the most popular brand in the 1970s was Hezar-o-Yek. Or ‘One Thousand and One.’ Which was a carpet cleaning product in the UK at that time. How we used to laugh every time we drank it. Even before drinking it.

Finally . . .

The wit of Samuel Johnson: Number 7: By pure coincidence, very topical:- Wine makes a man more pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

The Usual Links . . .

You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .

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 – updated a bit in early July 2023.

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers.