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

Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas reports that Spaniards are going on holiday with fuel up to 21% more expensive than last year and hotel prices skyrocketing. Little wonder that stays are shorter these days. And that the owner of Pv city’s most popular tapas place tells me takings are down on last year, as belts are tightened.

From Mark Stücklin – How to cut your air conditioning costs. Possibly.

The property crisis . . . Counterproductive tinkering?? Santiago de Compostela yesterday joined A Coruña as a stressed residential market area. These are the two Galician municipalities that have adopted the measure but there are already 319 in Spain, the vast majority in Catalonia. From today, and for the next 3 years, new rental contracts for primary residences will be subject to the conditions established by law to prevent abusive rent increases. In some cases, prices will be capped, and in others, their annual adjustment will be limited. The declaration also entails the continuation of income tax reductions for rentals that meet certain price conditions or tenant profiles. Furthermore, Santiago de Compostela has lowered to 5 the number of properties required to classify a landlord as a large-scale property owner.

A must-visit place in Valencia?

Let’s talk of northern Spanish villages, said the Walrus . . .

• The Galician village of Seceda is a jewel of slate roofs in a natural paradise. It lies at the heart of the Serra do Courel in Lugo province and it has preserved its traditional architecture almost intact since the 19th century.
• This is a village in next-door Asturias which – thanks to Indianos – is said to look like Havana. There are similar houses elsewhere in Asturias, which you’ll meet if you walk a Camino through that region.

With the ‘financial help’ – subsidies, I guess – of both the regional government and the council of Santiago de Compostela, Wizzair will initiated some new international flights through that city’s airport. None of these will be from the North West of England and the development suggests that Wizzair will cease to be one of the few airlines that fly from London to Vigo. So, things for us in the Rías Baixas won’t get any better and could get worse. With luck, those with spare (taxpayer) cash will see value in, effectively, bribing Ryanair to restore their service from Liverpool to SdC. Or to start one from Manchester.

A reader comments that it would be wrong to blame humans for the wildfires, given the other factors at play. Against that, the DdP reports today that 80% of this year’s major fires in Galicia were either caused by negligence or were deliberately started by pyromaniacs.

An effective way to reduce wildfires. Put them out 5 years before they start.

On this subject, below this post there’s an English translation of a Spanish article on preventing fires here.

Europe

Reflecting the contempt in which Infantino is held, UEFA has indeed rebelled against FIFA’s plans to bring investors into the World Cup, asserting that it will boycott future FIFA competitions, including World Cups, if FIFA goes ahead with this. UEFA’s position is that the World Cup should not be treated as an “investment product” and that it will only reconsider if FIFA abandons the proposal entirely and gives binding assurances it will never do this again.

So . . . Did Trump and his in-laws finally break the World Cup? Interesting view: It’s quite obvious that the USA World Cup was used by Infantino, in cahoots with Trump, to demonstrate to investors how much money can be extracted out of the beautiful game. The whole thing – the hydration breaks, the awful half time show – it was all a set-up. And a nice comment . . . Gianni Infantino’s vulgar, grasping, Italian-Swiss corruption really does make one long for the halcyon days of Sepp Blatter and his elegant, refined, German-Swiss corruption.

Bottom line: As the ranks of dissenters grow, Infantino’s position at the helm of FIFA could soon become untenable, which would surely be the best possible outcome of this disastrous World Cup and the Trump and Kushner families’ efforts to take over world football’s governing body.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. The war widens.

The United States of Trump America

Utter lunacy, on several planes, from Trump: Does anybody have any idea how much Money and Prestige the United States Supreme Court has cost our Nation with their negative Rulings on Birthright Citizenship and TARIFFS? The answer, TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

Of the total US national debt created over 250 years, Trump’s presidencies account for an historically large share of around a quarter to just under a third.

Why Trump Is Melting Down Over His Unsolvable Mess.

The Way of the World

Techno-fascism/feudalism: This, some say, will follow on from the current ‘late-stage capitalism’.

• Techno-feudalism: A theory that holds that the digital economy is starting to resemble feudalism: a small group of – platform owners function like modern “lords,” while users, creators, and businesses depend on their infrastructure and generate value through data. Essentially: Power through economic dependency and rent extraction from platforms.
• Techno-fascism: A more political term. It describes the use of digital technology for authoritarian control: surveillance, propaganda, data domination, AI-driven manipulation, and alliances between tech power and hard-right or anti-democratic politics. Essentially: Power through political control and coercion using technology.
• They can overlap, but they are not identical. A company or system can look techno-feudal if it monopolizes digital access and techno-fascist if it is used to intensify authoritarian rule

Spanish

• Musealizar: 1. To transform a place of cultural interest into a museum. 2. To turn something into a museum piece.
• Alfolí: Storehouse, barn, granary
• Intachable: Blameless, unblemished, stainless, impeccable

Did you know?

A Galician genius . . . . These days, we measure a room in metres, weigh coffee in grams, and calculate distance in kilometres. And we take this for granted. For centuries, each Spanishm kingdom, and sometimes each guild, used its own unit of measurement. Trade was chaotic, and science was best left unmentioned. And among those who brought order was a Galician farmer who, it is said, possessed a brilliant mind. History remembers him as ‘the Mathematician of Bermés’, where he was born in 1770, the 7th child of a Pontevedra farming family. Without money, without connections, with the options that fate reserved for the children of 18th-century Galicia: the countryside, emigration, or the Church. Which he clearly defied,

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

I forgot to say that every time she writes or spells out her name, my daughter Faye is asked to confirm it’s Fy-ee. And it’s then that she again finds out that the Spanish name Fe is not widely recognised.

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

How to reduce forest fuel: there are more than 2.3 million hectares unused due to the abandonment of agriculture and livestock farming.

Reducing the number and intensity of forest fires is everyone’s responsibility. Farmers and ranchers are taking on their role and criticizing the abandonment of rural areas. They are demanding a plan to reduce the amount of fuel during the winter. Because fires cause Spain to lose many natural resources every year, and especially every summer. To reverse this trend, it is essential that extensive forestry become profitable again.

The abandonment of extensive agriculture and livestock farming has left more than 2.3 million hectares unused for farming, according to data from WWF Spain. Furthermore, the sheep and goat population has fallen by 30-40% in the last 30 years. “Without this productive sector, there are no actors to manage the land, so biomass accumulates and forests become more flammable,” this environmental organization emphasizes.

Without this productive network, there are no actors to manage the land, biomass accumulates, and the forests become more flammable.

Without an economic and social fabric in rural areas, there will be no effective and adequate forest management. Rural depopulation, lack of economic profitability, and the disappearance of traditional uses are the other structural cause of the forest fire problem in Spain.

For example, extensive grazing and transhumance remain among the most effective and least costly tools for fire prevention, as they naturally reduce dry vegetation and, consequently, the fuel that feeds fires. However, both activities are in sharp decline due to their lack of profitability. “There’s a lack of livestock in the mountains,” laments Felipe Molina, president of the National Association of Extensive Livestock Farmers (Anggex).

Extensive livestock farming helps maintain the population and protects the landscape.
The number of grazing animals is falling at a rate of 520 fewer sheep and 82 fewer goats per year. According to data consulted by Efeagro, official censuses reveal that the sheep population has plummeted by almost two million head in the last decade, and the goat population by 300,000 in the same period.

Extensive livestock farming operates year-round, stabilizing rural populations, protecting the landscape, and reducing the risk of wildfires.

In Spain, more than 250,000 families, mostly located in rural areas known as “Empty Spain,” depend on this sector. “Extensive livestock farming operates year-round, stabilizing rural populations, protecting the landscape, and reducing the risk of wildfires,” notes Interovic, the Interprofessional Agri-food Organization for Sheep and Goats.

For his part, Molina supports charging livestock farmers for grazing their animals in the mountains and justifies his position. “Extinguishing a hectare of wildfire costs €10,000, according to experts,” while an acceptable investment would be “paying the livestock farmer €200 per hectare.”

Competing with intensive farming: the role of the consumer

Extensive grazing is not profitable because it has to compete with intensive production systems. These are the farms that produce lower-quality food where the animals are kept in worse conditions and which leave their mark (for the worse) on the area where they are located. Their proponents say that this is the way for everyone to be able to eat meat.

“Extensive livestock farming and transhumance not only generate quality food and sustain life in rural areas, but they also play an essential role in fire prevention and environmental protection,” Interovic points out. “Where livestock graze, vegetation is reduced, and with it, the risk of the fire spreading,” the organization states.

Extensive livestock farming and transhumance sustain rural life and play an essential role in fire prevention. Therefore, they demand that institutional support and consumer purchasing decisions be maintained “constantly and not only when fire makes the headlines.” This is the way to ensure their activity is profitable and guarantees generational succession.

We consumers can do something. Carlos de Hita, a specialist in recording nature sounds and soundscapes, says: “The next time you go shopping, pay attention to the origin of the meat, legumes, and fruit. You’ll understand why extensive livestock farming and the agriculture that protects the forests from fire are disappearing.” This rural sound recordist says on social media that “consumers also have a responsibility there.”

City dwellers don’t want to live in rural areas.

To all this, we must add that urban society has become disconnected from rural areas, according to WWF. City dwellers “maintain a static perception of nature—’the forest is untouchable’—which hinders the social demand for landscape-scale fire prevention policies.”

This disconnection has also occurred because people “are not willing to live in rural areas” if they are not guaranteed “minimum conditions.” This is what Julián Piracés, who has been involved in the sheep and goat farming sector for several decades, emphasizes. In his opinion, “the optimal conditions for people to return” to rural areas are not in place.

The result is that more than 77% of Spanish forests lack management plans. This creates homogeneous, young, and low-diversity landscapes, highly vulnerable to fires. The result: abandoned forests, without profitable uses or sufficient investment, which increases the flammability of the land.

The Natural Treasure We Lose Every Yea

In ecological terms, we lose a tremendous amount to wildfires. This is because, according to Greenpeace, massive fires impact vegetation, wildlife, hydrological balances, water quality, the atmosphere, soil erosion, soil microorganisms, and ultimately, the landscape.

Forest fires are a direct cause of habitat destruction for fauna and flora, including iconic species. They not only destroy trees and plants but the entire associated ecosystem. Fire affects vegetation, wildlife, soil, water, and even the microorganisms that allow the forest to function properly. And although a forest can recover in a little over 50 years, there is irreversible damage: lost habitats, displaced species, and disrupted food chains.

In 2025, countless protected natural areas were affected by wildfires. 18.5% of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) and 139 Natura 2000 sites were affected by the fires, with more than 156,000 hectares burned within protected areas, according to data from the environmental organization.

These fires caused the immediate loss of forests, scrubland, and habitats of community interest, and also compromised the recovery capacity of ecosystems especially vulnerable to climate change. A total of 171 species saw their distribution areas affected, including endangered species such as the Cantabrian capercaillie, the Iberian imperial eagle, and the cinereous vulture.

Renaturalizing the forest

To reduce the most dangerous and massive forest fires and to improve the health of ecosystems, a study led by the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) proposes using renaturalization. The goal is to make the system function in a more balanced way by treating fire as a disturbance, making forests more resilient, and reducing long-term management costs.

Lluís Brotons, a CSIC researcher at CREAF, points out that “thanks to rewilding, we could have landscapes where fire plays a key role in shaping and protecting the environment, but without it spiraling out of control.” As he wrote last year in The Conversation, “rewilding could help in many cases to mitigate some of the risks caused by altered fire patterns, such as the loss of lives, homes, and natural resources.”

Among the possible rewilding practices proposed by CREAF are localized burns to open up spaces in key areas. This type of solution attracts various endemic species of butterflies and birds, whose populations have declined alarmingly in the last forty years. Furthermore, mosaic burning would benefit biodiversity and prevent the risk of dangerous wildfires.

The Usual Links .

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If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you. And this, on the annual costs of owning property here.