Grist for the Mill (news, in other words)

The Amazing Race

One thing we’ve learned while parenting a teen in a foreign country is that it seems to be tradition, at…

Compañeros

If I was forced to choose, I think I’d say I like the city best early on Saturday mornings, when…

The Call

The swifts have returned to Madrid, or at least the first few brave harbingers among them have. Long before spring…

The Road/A Story

This morning, in the market, I overheard the older of the two butchers in the pollería say something to a…

Winter Coat

Little yappy dogs in pastel knitted sweaters; whip-thin trembling galgos wearing the dog-equivalent of down vests; stocky pugs in hoodies,…

Big Thief

Sitting in the café, I joked: Understanding what’s going on is overrated but I was whistling in the wind.  I…

Pubs, Winter 2022 Edition

The beach house has a terrible name, half pun, half innuendo — hearing it, you can’t help but roll your…

Homeplace (Revisited)

Oh, Georgia. I moved to you when I was six, in the middle of an ice storm. The first place…