America, as in the United States of — because once you’ve left it you discover America encompasses a lot more…

This morning, there were figs at the frutería, with a dusky purplish bloom to them like grapes, exotic and twice the…

The young woman referred to as Elder Girleen when this blog started 14 years ago — when she started kindergarten…

This year, I swore I’d notice the actual moment in August when the swifts, a fixture of the Madrid sky…

Half a lifetime ago, that night in May when the curfew ended and young people partied in the streets, El…

The buskers haven’t packed it in and the construction workers are still on the clock, but you can tell it’s…

… for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude,…

*Half-throttle. The morning we left Madrid for Catalunya, it became permissible for the first time in almost a year to…

Our nearest grocery store, open 24 hours a day pre-Pandemic (which, over the past 14 months, has gone from being…

First, of course, starting in January were the Facebook posts from the U.S., a trickle, then a flood: vaccinated! (I…