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 . .

Places in Spain to visit:-

• Glorious Galicia
• Granada, Spain’s most spirited  city. Whatever that means.

It seems very unfair . . . Without you or I even knowing what is, the Iberian desman is on the verge of going extinct.  

The UK

Here’s Richard North today on something which must rank as a serious concern – an attempt to, effectively, blackmail the government into favouring a religious minority – Muslims – over all other sections of society.

Spain. too, has taken in a lot of immigrants over the last decade – more than 10% of its population, in fact. But the great majority of these come from a very similar cultural and religious background – in South America – and, so, don’t present anything like this challenge to their adopted country. Forced conversion to Christianity suddenly seems the right thing to have done. Politically, at least.

Germany

Serious stuff . . . The soaring price of Doner kebabs and currrywursts.

Quote of the Day

Myths are not about truth. Myths are about the human struggle to deal with the great passages of time and life—birth, death, marriage, the transitions from childhood to adulthood to old age. They meet a need in the psychological or spiritual nature of humans that has absolutely nothing to do with science. To try to turn a myth into a science, or a science into a myth, is an insult to myths, an insult to religion, and an insult to science. In attempting to do this, creationists have missed the significance, meaning, and sublime nature of myths. They took a beautiful story of creation and re-creation and ruined it.

The Way of the World

The lunacy of child liberation. Some lovely sentiments. eg Children are maniacs. Left in charge of their own lives, they will subsist entirely on Lotus Biscoff Spread eaten from the jar with a dessert spoon. They are excellently good at losing things, breaking things, and setting things on fire.

Russia

• Here’s the Washington Post with a long article on what Putin has done, is doing and will do to Russia. Quite a read. And a troubling one.
• ussiaAnd here’s today’s Times on the same subject.

Do You Know?

The company which makes the Swiss Army knife is planning to make one without blade. Victorinox hopes the new product will appeal to customers living in countries where carrying blades is illegal. Londonistan, for example.

Did You know

Tennyson was plagued by autograph hunters. As a pretext, one wrote to him asking which was the better dictionary, Webster’s or Ogilvie’s. He replied by cutting the word Ogilvie’s from the letter, pasting it to a blank sheet of paper, and mailing it back.

Finally . . . .

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.

If you’re thinking of moving to Spain, go to one of my early April posts to see a link to an excellent guide on this.