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

And, lo, the hunter of the east 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

The birth of modern Spain, courtesy of the Autodidact Professor.

A small town in Murcia might have solved the problem of squatters, which has led to growing desperation among local communities facing persistent illegal occupation. I don’t think this is much of a problem in Pv city, though I have noted the bricked-up doorways on one building said to be occupied by (‘decent’) squatters at the Lérez end of O Burgo bridge.

Cousas de Galicia

Those sleeping rough in Pv city are said to number around 40 – 40% up on 5 years ago. A tad ironically, one of the early scenes in the Netflix series The Gardener features a square – A Pedreira – where they’ve taken to sleeping under the soportales. Not that they appeared in said scene, where the killer meets his next target.

As befitting the place of his birth – and not far from his family home, now a museum – we are to have a new kids’ park in Poio dedicated to Columbus(Colón). Featuring not one but 2 replicas of the Santa María, which was, of course, built here in Poio – one designed for children under 6 and another larger one with integrated play elements like slides, climbing panels, and puzzles. I look forward to taking my grandchildren to it in August. If it’s finished by then.

Talking of Colón . . . HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this feature on a nearby castle which was the property of someone – Pedro Madruga – who is said, in reality, to have been the famous navigator. You might have to click an X or two.

Some friends told me last night that, after they’d built a new house, the council obliged them to forfeit a strip of their land alongside the road and then pay for the construction of a pavement on it. Which has cost them a very significant amount of money. The pavement, by the way, starts and ends with their house-front, as the plots on either side are vacant. Something to bear in mind, should you be planning to build a house in Spain on a plot where there’s no pavement at the front of it.

LA LA Land

Yet more projection from Trump. Of whom someone once said every criticism is a confession.

True to form, Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for derailing his peace plan by refusing to accept the loss of Crimea. The US president said Mr Zelensky was “prolonging the killing” and warned Kyiv to accept US demands or risk a complete Russian takeover. Such a lovely chap.

Paranoia now grips the White House as it seeks scapegoats for the market turmoil it has inflicted on itself. Chief among the imagined conspirators is Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve. Trump would gladly get rid of him if he could, even though in apparent recognition of the damage his attacks have done, he now denies any such intention. Trump has also changed his position on his trade war with China only days after briefing that the whole purpose of his tariff policies was to isolate China. But now he plans to be “nice” to Beijing. Who knows what the next 24 hours will bring? It’s chaos. The US president only has himself to blame both for the slowing economy and the sell-off in markets. It’s textbook stuff, and Trump has just delivered a master class in how not to do it; if you plan to do radical things, you need to tread carefully and methodically in a consistent manner which takes markets with you. To simply plunge in fists flying is nearly always doomed to fail, if only because financial markets – always a fragile and complex construct of positions, assumptions and conventions – find it hard to adjust to rapid change without a serious bout of indigestion. . . . After a couple of weeks of mayhem, Trump seems to be rowing back from some of his more extreme positions. All part of the plan, we’re told; escalation to de-escalate.

I can’t recall why but I’ve started to read Eric Hoffer’s 1952 book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and was struck by how pertinent these comment are, as regards MAGA:

• Those who would transform a nation must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope.
• For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.
• They must also have an extravagant conception of the prospects and potentialities of the future.
• Finally, they must be wholly ignorant of the difficulties involved in their vast undertaking. Experience is a handicap.

Ukraine v Russia

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen next, though – of the two of them – I’d say Putin is more predictable than Trump. Who possibly makes it up as he goes along.

Quotes of the Day

• This is the central predicament of the politician’s life: We constantly demand that they tell us the truth. In electoral terms, however, this so rarely pays off.
• It is a masculine fiction that beautiful women should have no thoughts out of harmony with those poetic sentiments that their beauty inspires.

Net Zero

This is a podcast which explains that there’s both a stupid way to deal with the challenge of global warning and a wise way. There’s quite a lot of stats but it’s worth listening to the end, whichever view you currently have of the challenge and its immediacy. The video of it is here.

Spanish

• Travieso: Naughty, mischievous, rascal.
• Mercachifle: Peddler, huckster.
• Pompis: Bottom, behind, etc.

Did You Know?

An English viewpoint on US tourists to the UK . . . Americans have been a little bit baffling of late (well, since 1776 really), but we have now been given an insight into their psyche by a poll from YouGov. It asked US adults whether they liked or disliked various historical phenomena, and they said that they love castles and chivalry (you always want what you don’t have). About 50% said they liked monasteries and Vikings, though you would think that liking the former precluded liking the latter. They are also less than keen on crusades, which is a blessed relief. However, a whole 9% are fond of the Black Death. With their current health secretary, they may well be in luck.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

Today was the first outing this year for my Panama hat. As I walked into town, I pondered when and where would be the first time I’d leave it behind. I now know the answer – today in the place where I have a morning coffee. But I did remember it before I’d gone 100 metres, so am not yet completely ga-ga.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• I can also be read on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/colin.davies.752861 or on Substack at https://doncolin.substack.com/
• 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.
• 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. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. But see here on this. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.
• Getting a mortgage in Spain: Some advice on this challenge.