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

Macro/micro . . . As the poverty percentages grow, Spain’s 200 richest citizens increased their assets by 16% in 2023, taking their joint fortune to an unprecedented figure: €320,535 million, 81% more than 10 years ago. So, not just in the USA and UK.

Not that uncommon a sight even in normal years – A church reemerges from a reservoir, as Spain faces droughts-

Trouble at t’mill? A group of ultra-conservative priests from Spain and Latin America have been forced to apologise for saying they wished the Pope would die “as soon as possible”. Wasn’t private Confession enough? It was for everything I said or did, back in the day.

The UK

The Question du Jour in the UK . . . Sunak rightly called out the extremists. Now, what is to be done?

From this article: The Rochdale by-election result strikes me as a dismal augury, both for our governing party and the official opposition. The Tories are doomed. And Labour look likely to be a riven and weak-kneed administration. Things can only get better . . .??? Around 2029? After a new centre-party has emerged? Make that 2034.

The EU/Germany

Germany’s elites run scared as Putin rains down death on Ukraine, claims this Telegraph writer.

The Netherlands

Maybe I should stop seeing the country as the place to move to if I ever leave Spain . . . The Sunday Times: Netherlands narco-terror: is the nation at a tipping point? The crackdown on a murderous drugs gang has left the Dutch wondering if it will calm tensions in the country, or lead to a criminal free-for-al. . . . The Dutch police union has repeatedly warned that the country has some “characteristics of a narco-state”, although experts point out there are no signs of criminality in government — normally part of the definition. Small mercy, I suspect.

Quotes of the Day

Two (very?) cynical – but similar – overviews:-

• Every major reform results in the exact opposite of what was intended, and
• Every organisation, every paradigm, every ideology eventually ends up campaigning against the very thing it was created to protect. As with CRT.

Spanish

Pesetero: Money-grubber; Mercenary; Mean: Tight-fisted. Obvious origin. Unless you’re 20, maybe.

Did you know? . . .

During an early morning walk in Galicia, reader María stumbled on a mullein plant, which I’d never heard of. Or seen, as I recall. Technically, this is the Silene coronaria, but it also goes by the name of ‘rose campion’- not to mention dusty miller, mullein-pink and bloody William. In the UK, it’s still widely referenced under its synonym, Lychnis coronaria. Foto here.

Finally . . .

I have no idea who Fran Lebowitz is but I like him a lot . . Sixty-year-old men wearing baseball caps drive me crazy.

Someone else I like a lot is Camilla Long. This TV review might illustrate why. On the other hand, you might hate her for her nastiness. If you’re 20.

The aphorisms of 18th-century German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.

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.