Mindfulness through the quiet storm
It was bound to happen sooner or later. The virus, I mean. The planet is a very small place, and we are all interconnected – in sickness and in health, as the traditional wedding vow goes.
Take the example of …
La lucha por los caminos públicos de Serranía de Ronda
(Artículo originalmente publicado en inglés en el Olive Press 07.03 2020)
Imagine este escenario:
Estás caminando por uno de tantos caminos públicos en Andalucía, cuando de repente una nueva verja está bloqueando tu paseo. Estás acostumbrado a pasar por puertas …
Fighting for Andalucía’s public trails – Barbed wire fences and locked gates
Originally Published on March 7th 2020 in the Olive Press
Imagine the scenario:
You are walking on one of Andalucía’s public trails, when suddenly a brand new gate blocks your way. You are used to passing through gates in …
An unforgettable visit to Juzcar’s Royal Tin Factory winery – dramatic history, natural synergy, exquisite wine and Boho interiors
Originally published in the March 2020 edition of Essential Marbella Magazine
How can an 18th Century former military tin factory in a remote, off-the-grid valley produce some of Andalucía’s most sophisticated wine? The answer lies not so much in …
Lérida and the lesser known Spain
If you ask what Andalusians know about northern Spain, they might say the Camino de Santiago or Costa Brava, but almost certainly nobody will mention Lérida. So, when a ‘native’ friend invited my husband and I to explore her home …
Going Nuts in La Serranía de Ronda
For most people nuts come shelled, bleached, salted, and packaged until they are but a pale relation of the original fruit. Here in the Spanish south though, nuts still grow on trees.
Frutos Secos (dried fruits) as they are called …
Divine Spanish Holiday Treats – spending a day in our local convent kitchen
Say the word Christmas and people’s mouths begin to water. T’is the season for sweet indulgences and sins to abound. In Spain bakers get into high gear, as amigos, families, companies and brotherhoods prepare to celebrate this more …
The Madrid Climate Conference and the ‘no-pasa nada’ rural Andalucía
As world leaders meet at the United Nation Climate Change Conference in Madrid these days and a brave young Swede has sailed across the Atlantic to get there, I thought it time to take a look at Spain’s own ecological …
Want to learn Spanish? Seven tips on how to go native
Many foreigners live in Spain for years and never learn to speak the local language. Some say they are too old. Others won’t even try, surviving I suppose, with English and sign language. I am the first to admit that …
Long weekend in Lisbon – a pastel city portrait
Mysterious, magnificent and mellow – many words have been used to describe Portugal’s coastal capital, though I see it as a portrait in pink and blue. Arriving across the Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge, the city lays bathed in …