Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'
Covid
Spain: German tourists have been flocking to Mallorca since Friday, with tens of thousands more planning to enjoy an Easter break in the Balearic Islands – whilst citizens living on mainland Spain are not allowed to travel there during Easter. They all have to provide PCR test results not more than 72 hours old at the airport showing they are Covid-free.
Cosas de España
An editorial from the (sort-of-left-of-centre) El País on depressing political developments here. More depressing than usual, I mean.
Talking of politics . . . An imminent punch-up over new housing laws.
This cartoon would be very apposite for Spain . . . .
Cousas de Galiza
Bit of a scare this morning when an English language journal suggested we’d be confined to our townships over Easter. Fortunately, it was a mistake. My trip up the coast is still on.
Here's the mayor of Pontevedra et al in the chozo/chouzo/choza/chouza I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, when the whole area was mired in mud and the video from it I posted showed only cloud and rain. And not the Dawn Marshes below the recently deforested area.
The UK and the EU
The EU claim that it has a (war-inspired) legal right to take over any intellectual property it likes has its equivalent in the 1985 UK government attempt to take over - under a 1939 law - the DNA fingerprinting technology my company had licensed from its inventor and future Nobel Prize winner. For the record, this was foiled with the help of, first, Mr Thatcher and, then, Mrs Thatcher. Who realised how unwise it was in an inter-connected world for governments to expediently steal technologies. One wonders if Brussels will also see sense in due course. Sadly, mere bureaucrats rarely do and the EU doesn't have a wise political leader. Or any political leader, for that matter. Only a puppet with a committee of real leaders somewhere in the background. Led by a German leader who isn't exactly covering herself with glory at the moment.
The EU
I saw this after I'd written the previous paragraph . . . The EU needs sane and sensible voices to end its vaccine delusions. So, I'm unlikely to disagree.
Quote of the Week
In these post-shame days, guilt is not necessarily the mother of consequences. Not in the political sphere, anyway. Either in the UK or the EU.
Finally . . .
The local sparrows and greenfinches have grown fat and lazy on all the seed I buy for them. I very much hope they haven’t got slower and less alert, as I’m pretty sure I glimpsed a swooping sparrowhawk(gavilán/gabilán) twice over the weekend. If so, it’s hardly likely to move on, given the rich and easy pickings. And, if it takes any of 'my' blackbirds, I'll have to shoot it. Or at least try to trap it and release it on the border with Asturias. Or, closer, Portugal.