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/Galiza

The smaller annual lottery – El Niño – dropped €20m into next door Marín. I wonder if it will all be spent there. Marin’s annual budget is estimated at €20-30m.

Here’s Lenox Napier on the one Spanish subject I might know more about than him – rain. Though not floods.

More public service . . . The best festivals in Spain for your 2026.

The Spanish hold their own in a fight with the sneaky Italians. So far . . .

A nun called madre María de Iranzu says – a tad incredibly – that Pontevedra [ciudad] ya es la Fátima española. Because of this lady: Sor Lucía dos Santos was one of the 3 young visionaries of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917, alongside her cousins. Lucía came to live in our city, as a nun, and had more visions, both in a chapel and in the street. Oddly enough at the site of the synagogue of the ex Jewish quarter. I don’t get the impression Jews are making a lot of this.

I’ve come very late to the Spanish Garnacha grape and have found it to be smoother than Tempranillo. Or, as Wiki, puts it: It’s spicy, berry-flavoured and soft on the palate and produces wine with a relatively high alcohol content. Better late than never, as they say.

Europe

France sided with Russia in condemning the Trump administration’s capture of Nicolas Maduro at an emergency UN Security Council meeting.  Emmanuel Macron had initially celebrated the US’s seizure of Mr Maduro, saying Venezuelans could “only rejoice”, but on Monday walked back his support, saying he “neither supported nor approved” the US military operation.  

It’s said that 90% of French folk think their country is in decline. Possibly lower than in the “We are doomed” UK. Where no one seems to have a positive thought right now.

The USA

Trumpisms:-

• We’re getting rich from the billions coming into the Revenue from tariffs. [Yes but as, effectively, a sales tax, paid by US consumers not foreign companies].
• Maduro killed millions. [No, he didn’t. That was Stalin and Hitler].
• We will create democracy in Venezuela. [But only after all the oil’s been sucked out, apparently.]

So, are these bare-faced lies or hallucinations of a disturbed mind? Who really knows.

There is a view abroad that Venezuela is a foil – at most a rehearsal or a stepping stone en route to the real object – taking over Cuba. This is said to be the lifelong goal of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who once used some choice pejoratives in respect of Trump but who now surely sees him as the path to his dream of revenging his exiled parents. Vamos a ver.

Folk who have these convictions also believe that Greenland is a classic Trump distraction ploy and that there’s no chance whatsoever that he will invade it. And wouldn’t even if it weren’t part of the EU. Again, time will tell.

Interesting to see that Michael Wolff is trying to get Melania Trump in front of a judge to make a deposition about various aspects of her entry into the USA and her work there. Needless to say. Trump is spending millions on lawyers to prevent this. Their basic strategy is ensuring that, one way or another, she isn’t served with the subpoena, as this would be fatal.

I’m (again!) getting close to the point of only citing here things that make me laugh and might do the same for you – on the (pretty sound) assumption that, one way or another, you follow the news.

In this vein, here’s John Stewart, with an excellent proposal, made even before the latest madness.

And

Jimmy Kimmel: Trump Delivers a Scatterbrained Speech to the GOP.

Nothing to do with Trump . . . Astonishing to read that the obesity rate in the USA might have just shot from 40 to 70%. In the way that they do, American clinicians have re-defined the condition by rejecting the simple/simplistic BMI measure in favour of one which takes into account body fat distribution. Thus putting far more folk in danger of adverse health outcomes. And needing treatment. It’s called “BMI-plus-anthropometric obesity”. Or, if you have a normal BMI and at least 2 elevated anthropometric measures, “anthropometric-only obesity”. As is the modern custom, there is now a preclinical condition as well as the – more dangerous – clinical condition. Also needing treatment. I guess.

Quotes of the Day

• Puffed up with pride and clearly very pleased with himself . . . : A description of Trump in a Spanish article.
• We Americans are going full Conquistador in Venezuela.
• If we hadn’t already known this to be true, we can see its validity being displayed in front of our eyes:-

The Way of the World

How things change . . .

• Folk were appalled that Clinton made 20 million dollars via various deals after he left the presidency.
• Trump is forecast to make 10 billion dollars during his term.

Spanish

• Ansia: Enthusiasm, eagerness. Anxiety. Longing, yearning.
• Santiaguiño: 1. Someone from Santiago. 2. An expensive small crustacean of the slipper lobster family. It has a robust, flattened body in reddish-brown hues and paddle-like antennae. After cooking, spines on its carapace form a pattern resembling the red Cross of Santiago, inspiring its name from that of Galicia’s patron saint.
• Socavar: Undermine

Did you know?

London has a mayor most people who deals with buses, transit maps, and housing shortages. This mayor gives interviews, wins elections, and appears regularly in newspapers looking concerned. This article is not about that mayor. It’s about the other mayor. The one who governs exactly one square mile. The one who does not run London so much as preside over it with a level of ceremonial confidence that suggests the job was invented back when people thought hats were serious business.

Finally . . .

A few birds are back in my garden, now that it’s warmer and wet. A wood pigeon, some greenfinches and a sparrow or three. Oh, and a bloody magpie. But no robin as yet.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

A total of 37 caliphs ruled from Baghdad under the Abbasid dynasty that endured for 5 centuries –  750-1258, regarded as one of the most extraordinary periods in the history of civilisation. Spain also blossomed at this time but was under the rump Umayyads that the Abbasids had dethroned in the rest of the Muslim world. Interestingly, like the non-Arab (Aryan) Persians, the Abbasids were originally Shiite but, once in power, changed their allegiance to Sunnism. Which they shared with the Umayyads in Spain.

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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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.