Edorta sings Razón de Vivir by Victor Heredia

Thursday, 05 July 2012 / Published in Basque music
Some more wonderful memories of Edorta as he sings ‘Razón de vivir’ by Victor Heredia to another Spanish group on the terrace of our home in last autumn. No international house-party here in Ituren would be the same without him. Eskerrik asko Edorta!

Our Basque grandparents (Amatxi and Atautxi)

Friday, 11 May 2012 / Published in Basque Lifestyle
  Here is a picture of Amatxi and Atautxi, as I have always known them; the ‘grandparents’ who adopted me when I arrived in Ameztia 10 years ago and helped me to bring up Marion when she made an appearance 3 years’ later.   Amatxi  who taught Marion how to sow, how to make bread, how to

The Making of the RTVE DESTINO ESPAÑA Documentary:

Thursday, 08 March 2012 / Published in Basque Lifestyle
Atautxi with my daughter (his adopted grand daughter) Marion. 2008
Wallflowers and Stephen Fry! When I was contacted by RTVE, National Spanish TV, to do a documentary on my life for their programme, Destino España, the natural wallflower in me was nowhere to be found! (See the video on the menu bar). Illusions of grandeur had been sown a year ago when I had a

Life in the Baztan Valley

Tuesday, 14 February 2012 / Published in Basque Lifestyle, Baztan Valley
Baztan walks, culture and mythology are interwoven in the Baztan Valley
Here is a national Spanish TV documentary by RTVE about my and Marion’s life here in the Baztan Valley in the Spanish Basque Pyrenees. In this short documentary you will meet some of the friends and neighbours who have enriched our lives: Felipe, the miller from Amaiur, and Isidro, Amatxi and Atautxi from our neighbouring farm of Zubialdea in Ituren. Zubialdea is our second home

A Portrait of an English Mother in a Basque Pyrenean Sheep Shed. Autumn 2005

Friday, 15 April 2011 / Published in Basque Lifestyle, Bilingual Families, Wildlife of the Pyrenees
I dug this paragraph out from my writings years ago when Marion was just 1 year old and it reminds me of many of those tiny cultural differences that I suppose I now take for granted. We wake up reeking of the raw onion on the dressing table …..Amatxi’s solution for Marion’s cough. It works but we

Spanish Courses in Spain – are they really necessary?

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 / Published in Learning Spanish in Spain, Teaching Spanish
Spanish classes in disguise
Spanish language courses in Spain – which one do you recommend? Where should we go? Where is the best place to study Spanish in Spain? I hear the question again and again and I am usually quite baffled by the insistence on a formal Spanish course and the intent search for a formal Spanish school