Beyond The Pale

• Winter Along the Muga River 3 weeks ago Yesterday, the 26th, was Boxing Day in England and Sant Esteve here. This rates almost as a second Christmas. Everything is closed. You have Christmas dinner with one family and Sant Esteve with the other and on Sant Esteve you eat canalons. It was also one of those special winter days. The...
• A Foggy Morning 3 months ago Tonight may be Haloween for you, but here it’s La Castanyada, the eve of Tot Sants (November 1), the day when people go to visit the cemeteries, cleaning and decorating the niches of their deceased. For La Castanyada there are parties where people roast chestnuts (castanyes in Catalan) and sweet...
• Wetlands in Drought 3 months ago  Early in September I returned to the Aiguamolls to see the birds. There was visibly less water but there were still birds there feeding. I found the same black-winged stilts, wood sandpipers, moorhens, and little egrets, although maybe fewer than before. I don’t remember seeing ducks. But...
• Wetlands in Flight 3 months ago  All through the summer there has been very little rain. When I went to the wetlands a month ago, the drought was apparent with the pond visibly lower than it had been just a week before and there were fewer birds. But there were still some there having their lunch: black-winged stilts, wood...
• Murky Waters 5 months ago When I go out to take photos, I sometimes have a plan and sometimes I don't, but if I do, I know that it’s also good to be flexible. Maybe the weather’s not right, maybe those glorious fields of rapeseed flowers have been harvested, or maybe the birds didn’t show up. But none of those...

Unfortunately, no-one has been kind enough to leave a quick positive comment on this expat blog. Be the first!