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Setembre 6, 2026

Bugs (also im going home)

So, aside from the Andalucían heat beating me down I´m pretty homesick, and so far havent been banned from Europe. so I´m going home, see how it feels and move on.

an image of a mating pair of some species of stink bug on a lettuice leaf, it is black and orange with a strking geometric pattern

I made it from Andalucía back to Barcelona, spent a few days in a hostel in the hills near Baixador de Vallvidrera, the entire forest was closed due to some sort of infectious disease affecting wild pigs that was concerning for farms or something, I had a Helix removed in barcelona because I slept on it, do your research on cartilage piercings.

an out of focus shot of a large hymenoptera, bee or wasp on the white flower of a bean plant. the insect is almost black, but shifts blue/purple in the sun and makes and impressive sound when flying

Then, still in Catalunya I headed south to El Vendrell, and went to a place in the hills to the north, the temperature was almost 4 or 5 degrees cooler and still i was struggling to work outdoors after around 9am, the area is quite beautiful. Many terraces with high stone retaining walls, almond, olive, carob, grape and a variety of fruit trees in this area.

an orangwe stink bug with little horns on its foward quarters of its back. It's sitting on a lavender flower laid out over a pink linen. The colour is vibrant orange on the legs and edges of the body to a more muted yellow/ brown in its center.

Augost 16, 2026

Burro in the Window.

She's mad because I didnt have any orange peels for her. Mad and dusty.

a Burro in the small window of a wall filled with brightly coloured glass jars and bottles

August 12, 2026

Near total Solar Eclipse anyone???

From Bacór we had a 95.6% eclipse (should have stayed in Barcelona!) such a cool thing to see. Although, check your lens is up to scratch before, not after the eclipse please, turns out a standard welding glass is not quite there, but its probably fine. anyway here's the shots from just before and at the peak of the eclipse; now with this interactive slider!

Solar Eclipse Peak, the image is almost the same, but the golds and greens have been severely muted the interactive slider is fun to play with.

a long shot out from the mirador. dry grass makes up a large portion of the foreground, its a golden straw colour, the sun is to the left. the shot shows a road in the shade of the valley on the left hand side and more sheer cliff face in the soft sedimentary layers on the right. in the distance are three rows of mountain range with the flat center of the landscape filled with various trees and white buildings dotted throughout.

July 30, 2026

South, To Granada!

After a week of €30 a night hostels (not "it") a 15 odd euro option in Granada was welcome, although the drop in price was directly offset by several increased degrees of temperature. My last day in Barcelona came with way too much unprotected sun and I took my one and only day in Granada city relatively easy. The city is quite nice, not a mini Barcelona, but still beautiful and with more affordable food. Plus tapas with a drink, welcome to the land of milk and honey! I had pollo a la brasa con patatas for dinner (I went at 7pm and it was almost too early) there was also a whole street of falafel stores, just like home.

From the hostel balcony, two slim folding chairs with a round table. A red lantern-style lamp is on the table. The balcony wall is a short, white plaster wall topped with clay roof tiles typical of Spain. In the background is a brick wall covered in vines on the left and a conifer on the right. Further into the background are several small dormer roofs with the same clay, half-round tiles; they are backed by more conifers and the arm of a crane poking out. There are no clouds in the stark blue sky.

From Granada I caught a bus east, through the Andalusian countryside toward Baza where I arranged to stay with a family living in a traditional cave house. The UV is hitting 10 most days and we can only really do a couple of hours before it gets to 35°C+. So far I've pulled a lot of weeds, fixed a lamp, rehandled a rake and picked up a couple of carretillas de estiércol de burro.

A wide shot of the Andalusian mountains. The foreground is mostly olive and conifer trees leading up to the first ridge; the receding blue ridgelines occur four times over into the far horizon.

july 26, 2026

Bienvenida a Barcelona

Well, ferry back from naxos was slow and I took a seasickness tablet as well, so it was quite pleasant. we had another night in athens before flying to Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia, a place full of detailed stone buildings and 4-meter-high timber doors, all routinely washed (in some areas) of the constant urine they receive due to the severe lack of public toilets and bladder control of people living in the city. Over 26% of whom are foreign nationals.

A delightfully separated condensed milk coffee with a generous shot of whiskeyin it, I drank this along with a very narrow sandwich

so anyway the city is nice, the subway is affordable and relatively nice. apparently it is quite an active city for pickpockets, but just clutch your handbag close and act like you aren't as lost as all the other tourists.

Wow look at all the completely necessary details, of dragons and spirals and wrought iron balcony railing and brickwork and corbels innumerable

it seems like every building is built just to take up the time of a stone mason who could have been drinking vermouth or eating some sort of seafood dish instead, but someone had to do it. and someone had to pay for it! (mostly with money made by extorting humans as commodities in colonies, slaves.)

a very low shot of a dozen or more balconies with intense wrought scroll balustrades and layers and layers of corbels and mouldings and layers of other layers

park Güell.. well it was very hot, and there was a lot of opportunities for instagram worthy shots, which was unfortunate as you couldnt really see much of the sculptures for the constant stream of people lined up for a shot with them. this photo contains only columns and tile, a rarity. Also; it contains no temporary fences and no discarded plastic, such a rarity.

some very grand scalloped columns, holding up the lookout plaza above; the ceiling between each column is a dome full of tile. The base of each column is also tiled from floor to about shoulder height, I assume for the ease of washing off urine.

July 20, 2026

Naxos!

turns out the high speed ferries make me violently seasick! we spend three days on naxos, mostly in Chora where I saw some beautiful wasps and beetles, the food is incredible, PI & FI, Melimilon (went four times), Melanes Cafe for breakfast by car, saw this given up on VW, and many sάvra (lizards).

A yellow and black wasp from above sitting on a peach coloured flower with several green flower buds.

A blue T3 transporter ute. sun-faded and overgrown with dry grass. pallets are leant against it. There are trees in the background. the ground is pale and dry.

A narrow laneway in melanes, naxos. there are white flowers in bloom covering the path. with a set of marble topped stairs leading up to the left and some exposed stone on the right. a narrow channel is cut into the floor to track any water down through the village. the sky is a clear blue in the top of the image. some of the stone is exposed in the wall with the white render in disrepair.

July 16, 2026

snack city

a gyros, a beef pie, a leek pie, a ricotta bagel, a Gemista, a cheese pie, and a bunch of coffee. we learnt kalimέra for good morning, and efcharistό for thank you! This morning I woke at 6:30am and walked to the national gardens, a perfect start to the day with many joggers and birds, plenty of birds to see including the Pica pica and the south american Myiopsitta monachus

A close up of an aged stone ring with loose mortar, there are vines growing out of the cracks and the background is filled with pine trees