So, after a rather long gap I have at last found time to write the next post.

I think about this blog a lot and gather information and photos but then sometimes it is hard to get started – what to include? what to leave out?  How to write about my life here while steering away from the ‘too personal’ which involves other people?   Too many questions can stop you from just getting on with it! It was my birthday and we went away in my van for the first time here in Catalunya. I drove late at night to the Delta de L’Ebre which is near Tarragona and about 200 km from here. The Romans named this river the Iber and this maybe where the term Iberian Peninsula came from. Being behind the wheel made me nervous – after more than 35 years of driving in the UK and in France I suddenly felt like a beginner again. I couldn’t understand why.  Yes it meant keeping to the right and also sitting on the right so visibility was a bit restricted but…..could it be that after 10 months of being a passenger I had lost confidence? There is something here that feels different – perhaps it is the speed and the sheer amount of traffic on the roads.
We arrived well after dark and I felt rather than saw the surrounding waters. I crept along. In the morning this is what I saw….and this……The Delta is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and is a vast water-land which is now both a protected haven for thousands of birds and an agricultural centre for growing rice. The narrow roads lead from one little settlement to the next and are only slightly raised above the paddy fields. Houses sit out on watery fieldsand the intensive work of rice production means there are complex irrigation systems to fill up and empty the fields as the season requires.Like so many mirrors the fields reflect light and colourWe spent hours on the long empty sandy beaches creating sculptures from the wood that had been washed up and stripped clean by the sun the sea and the windThe van sheltered us from the strong winds that blow in this region and we parked beside the water with only ducks and stars and a new moon for company.That night in the very far away distance we could hear horns tooting and bangers exploding when Barca won the Spanish League cup and although we listened on the radio to the celebrations they all felt like sounds from another planet. Here only peace and sunshine, wind and open skies, birds and sand.
And delicious rice!