Life in Culebrón

I soon get itchy feet if I’ve spent too many days around the house. Fortunately, there’s nearly always something going on close to where we live to cheer me up. One of the advantages—drawn directly from the disadvantage of living a fair way from anywhere—is that we don’t look to just one source for our “what-to-dos”. If I lived in Alicante, Madrid, or Murcia, I’d expect there to be something going on just around the corner or a short bus ride away. Here, where there are no buses and driving to the larger cities requires a real commitment, it’s a matter of picking and choosing from all the towns and villages around us. We often go to concerts, theatre, exhibitions, and various other events, but one of the oddities of Spain, at least for me, is that the place is cram-packed with fiestas. Fiestas are not just "events"; there might be a big music festival or a sporting event, but that is not a fiesta. Now, if you live here, you know full well what a fiesta is, but for those who d...

I normally do a roundup of the Pinoso population whenever the town hall releases the latest padrón figures—the official register of all local residents. This usually happens in late January, but for some reason I missed the publication this year. It only struck me the other day, while chatting about the perceived influx of people from the Netherlands and Belgium, that I’d forgotten my annual “easy blog” post. Like everyone else, I’ve noticed a language that I presume is Dutch (though with my ear for languages it could just as easily be Swedish or Lithuanian). I’ve also heard plenty of chatter about the large, somewhat out‑of‑character houses now peppering the Pinoso countryside. Rumour has it this boom in Dutch immigration is largely down to a single family: the Jelies. I can’t say for certain if it’s true, but Perplexity tells me they were featured in a programme called Familie Jelies: Een Huis Vol Emigreert, and more recently in Jelies & Gnodde: Grote Gezinnen Emigreren. Apparent...