Everything changes…except when it doesn’t

Lately I have been thinking about a beautiful song by Argentine artist Mercedes Sosa called “Todo cambia” (Everything changes). Here she is in action: She transformed Argentinian popular music over a four decade-long career and became a hero of the left in Latin America when she was forced into exile in the late 1970s, during

2024, here we go.

Hello, we are back, much later than planned, but still here, writing about New Years resolutions in the middle of February. It has been pretty busy of late. Some people start the year with their New Years resolutions, giving up smoking, going to the gym every week, reading Joyce’s Dubliners…. By the way, for anyone

Oh dear, or the rights and wrongs of eating deer meat

Welcome back and a Happy New Year to our many thousands of readers. We hope Christmas was a blast. It feels like a long time ago already. I seem to remember that I ended the year with a suggestion for the first blog entry of 2024 in the form of a discussion on the rights and

Bizkor goes to the beach and other Christmas adventures

So yes, Bizkor went to the beach today for the very first time in her life. She was unimpressed by it all. She is certainly not a water loving dog, and retreated swiftly from the lapping waves as the water came within inches of her paws. Still, since digging holes is one of her favourite

Goodbye my friend

I have to admit that I have spent the last ten days or so in a sort of daze, wondering about the meaning of life. I’m still in shock I think, about the fact that Glyn, one of the very first friends I made in the UK, has suddenly died. He was only 55. Glyn

Pout pourri news

How quickly things can turn. Just as I finished writing about the extreme heat of the last few months, we have had our first snow. OK, it was not here, but on Gorbea, the mountain you can see on the back of the house on the main page of this blog. It is true that

Another year in two short minutes

Summer is back

Here it is, in case anyone is doubting me. It has been like this since the last time I posted on 26th Sept. It looks like rain will finally come on Sunday (I believe it when I see it) but in the meantime, temperatures north of 30 C are expected Wednesday to Friday. I would

Autumn is back

Except that it isn’t. We have yet another heatwave on at the moment with temperatures expected to reach 35 C or above this week. Just as I thought our pepper plants had given up their ghosts for the season, they have filled with flowers again which, if the pollinators help and the unseasonable temperatures hold,

What a difference a year makes.

Welcome back everyone. Let me introduce you to Ali and Kurosh. It is amazing to think that Ali and Kurosh were here exactly one year ago as we planned to cover a very big hole in the ground with the rubber lining that would keep rain water in. Although it had been dug out in