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

For some reason, I’ve always thought the Valencian Fallas were in April. But, no, they are this month. And they’ve really upset the English singer Morrissey, who’s cancelled a concert and fled the city, having been rendered ‘catatonic’ by the nocturnal noise around his hotel. For future reference (and avoidance of a similar experience), here is the schedule:

• 1 March onwards: Daily mascletà firecracker shows.
• 15-19 March (‘roughly’). The core of the festival. Official events
• The night of 19 March, from 20:00 to 23:00: La Cremà (The Burning). Almost all the huge fallas are destroyed in bonfires across the city, in staggered waves. Probably not terribly quietly.

Maybe it’s the Sevilla Fair which is in April, with the clue being in the name – Feria de Abril.

After 8 years of court cases, the greedy Franco family have been ordered to give up the Generalissimo’s summer residence, the Pazo de Meiras in La Coruña. This was (forcibly) gifted by an allegedly grateful nation back in the 1940s.The family had tried to flog it for €8m in 2018.

It’s officially confirmed – Spain had its wettest January and February in almost 50 years.

Europe

Over the past decade, house prices in the European Union grew 10% faster than incomes, and all metrics show that the young feel the squeeze the most. Plans announced by the EU executive in December to make housing more affordable have yet to take shape. But some businesses offer novel ways of getting a foothold in the increasingly challenging property market. Room mortgages for example . . .

The US-Iran War

Trump and Rubio dismantled US diplomacy. It’s making the Iran War harder.

A follow-up podcast, involving the same expert.

Come in Sun Tzu . . . Amid an overwhelming flood of information—much of it propaganda, and very little of it reliable—and a news cycle with the memory of a goldfish, trying to make sense of the US and Israel’s war on Iran can be exhausting. To resist this imposed immediacy, perhaps one of the oldest treatises on war can still offer some guidance.

The USA

See my earlier post citing a British view of the delusional, bellicose president. Which is very well written but, in truth, could have been produced 10 years ago,

A ray of hope . . . Why Trump insiders fear he’s lost MAGA.

I’ve mentioned the favoured White House male footwear . . . Trump keeps his henchmen in check by making them wear shoes that are far too big.

Quote of the Day

Trump spent 2 hours on the phone to Putin, talking about the war. This is 2 hours more than he’s spent talking to the US Congress about it.

Russia

Moscow duly got a relaxation of restrictions on its exports of oil. Which should help finance the war against Ukraine that Trump was going to stop on Day 1, more than 14 months ago.

Spanish

• Pagar – sin pagar – una simpa. Papeles – sin papleles – un simpapeles. But: Techo – sin techo – un sintecho.
• Mechón: Strand, lock, tuft of hair
• Hacer gala: To show/display. To glory in. But also to show off or boast.
• Caballo desbocado: Runaway horse

Did you know?

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this item:- A woman with a forged business card and a fabricated aristocratic title looted the storerooms of Madrid’s museums after the Civil War. She called herself “La Marquesa.” With poise and cunning, she plundered hundreds of paintings, tapestries and all manner of cultural artifacts in a devastated Spain. She didn’t act alone: ​​guards, nuns, antique dealers and museum directors also participated in a systematic plundering that remained hidden for decades. This true story has been reconstructed by an art historian and journalist – Peio H. Riaño – in Marquesa. El mayor robo de arte de la historia de España..

You Have to Laugh

Another uncomfortable Finn . . .

Finally . . .

Three notable things happened on yesterday’s date . . .

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.

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, this link should be useful to you.