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The illiberal count and a land of wine and potatoes

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  Given the nature of my early trips to Spain, in February half terms, the land had a bleached feeling to it. If we were getting all anthropomorphising it was as if the life force had retreated into the earth, leaving brittle straws of grass and naked branches. I remember the same crossing from valley top to valet top in South Wales in my youth. We are going up a valley that reminds me of my early visits. Fields in the valley floor and then scrub as the slopes take the land away.  Ahead of us is Romanones. They got a count so let's talk about him. Alvaro de Figueroa was the son of Ignacio Figueroa y Mendieta, a millionaire whose dad had owned a fortune from mining companies, and Ana de Torres y Romo, daughter of the Marquis of Villamejor. He got a law degree in Madrid [1885] and began his accent to power by joining the Congress of Deputies in 1888 for the Liberals.  Think Whig Party rather than the party of David Steele.  He seems to have been an argumentative chap w...
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Always thankful for the attention

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I know I said we were doing countryside but we will be doing the design new burbs fairly early  on in the process. Given the fact the gridded wonderful thing has an Aviation Avenue and a Street of the Engineer’s Academy I think we are on a reused space of a military origin. We are going into Horche. It does sound a bit German.  The English wiki page is a bit brief.  The Spanish is more fulsome. In fact this page’s author gets almost poetic….. ‘ The Arabs knew about good food, comforts, luxuries and comfortable homes, that is why Side Abdremen, Governor of Guadalajara in the 8th century , founded a farmhouse in which to enjoy his days off in this place of green vegetation, abundant and fresh waters and good climate which he called ORCHE, in memory of his Horche in Mesopotamia. ‘ Let us face it, the War of the Spanish Succession was a bit of busy time for Horche.  In 1706 the Portuguese turned up to collect coin and corn.  Shortly after the rightful claimant / utt...
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Dark, moldy, and wet.

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  We are heading out into the countryside - and we will be here for many many weeks - so strap yourself in for a fair bit of diversions. Crossing the E90 we follow the road and make a stop at Cereales Ferrer , a generally well regarded animal feed shop that has been doing its thing since 1940.  http://www.cerealesferrer.es/   Generally it is five stars and no words. Sometimes a few happy notes and some deeply upset ones. |Jose felt 75 euros for straw is robbery, and Beatriz noted ‘ The packages were dark, moldy, and wet ’ - which I’ve put in for the blog title. We are wandering onto Iriepal.  It is a standard little place of 950 souls. The village is crossed by the Arroyo de la Cerrada and has done sensible things in its history, like having a hospital for the poor, a mill and an oven [in 1527.]   Yes, the GSH Dictionary went there in the mid 19th century. IRIEPALon a plain, surrounded by hills, it is mainly exposed to the north, northeast, and west winds. Its c...
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