Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain
Since Dec 2022 we have been running our own Mastodon & GoToSocial servers. What a breath of fresh air the Fediverse has been. We have made many hundreds of new friends from around the world, mostly related to our mountain, tech and nature interests.
Connect with me/us on the Fediverse at:
Late afternoon sun on the dramatic northern faces of the Sierra Nevada. Alcazaba, Mulhacen, Veleta and Puntal de la Caldera looking spectacular. This is definitely "alpine" terrain, even in this relatively poor snow year and it's sometimes hard to believe that this is southern Spain!
Yesterday afternoon the mountains called & I just had to go up into their lofty realms to spend a couple of hours in their exalted company watching the shadows lengthen & colours deepen.
Time to escape the rat race, internet, politics & sport. Instead, time now for inward reflection & quiet contemplation, amid all this natural scenic beauty. And especially, to think of loved ones struggling through tough times.
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Eventually the light faded and the sun dropped low over the Vega de Granada. The last rays of light left the summits of the Sierra Nevada. Soul refreshed, it was time to head home.
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Oh what a beautiful morning. Have a great Sunday you Mastodon tooters!
Image of the Andalucian town of Lanjarón y the prominent cliffs opposite, called the Tajos Colorao
Spring has definitely arrived in southern Spain. Even where I live, at 700 metres of altitude, it's 26c+ this afternoon. Here's an image of our Siberian Husky, Arko enjoying the dog walk this morning before it got too hot for him.
Having a quiet afternoon listening to Patti Smith and wondering where her music has been all during my misspent youth. Now age 76 and still touring
The pretty village of Polopos in Andalucias' Sierra de Contraviesa hills. This village has been brought back to life after a Dutch reality TV series brought people back here. A picturesque village being lovingly restored by the locals. Sat on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean.
The pretty village of Sorvilán in the Sierra de Contraviesa. Slow, sleepy Spanish life where time has seemingly stood still. Superb views south over the sea towards Morocco.
Wild Women (+Jim!). A bit of a windy day in the Sierra de Contraviesa today!
Delighted to finally have our Solar Hot Water system installed. Together with our solar panels we can now produce about 95% of our annual electricity needs.
Big thanks to @[email protected] for providing the solution to my long term problem of cache-busting using @eleventy and Tailwind CSS using PostCSS. Been racking my tiny brain for ages trying to figure out a solution. His post can be found at https://www.brycewray.com/posts/2020/11/using-postcss-cache-busting-eleventy/
Just had to be my luck, didn't it? My first time hiking in the Gorafe Desert Badlands & temperatures were forecast to be below freezing. Now in my eyes, the words "Desert" & "Freezing" shouldn't go together. "Hot" & "Desert", that would surely be the norm, wouldn't it?
Generally easy walking on good tracks or dirt roads unless you get off route in which case it will be purgatory & you will possibly die horribly of heat, cold, drought or exposure 😂
New blog post https://elperronegro.com/ice-cold-in-gorafe/
The illusion in a photograph. The top 3rd of the image shows the Sierra Nevada which rise some 3000m above the plains of Guadix (marked by the obvious horizontal line). The bottom 2/3rds of the image into the fertile valleys near Gorafe represent a mere 200m altitude difference.
Last of the evening sun illuminates the torn, twisted and chaotic upheaval that comprises the Desierto del Gorafe. In the distance, the snow capped peaks of the Sierra de Cazorla.
Alcazaba (3371m) and Mulhacen (3482m) looking glorious late yesterday afternoon from the A92 Motorway north of Granada
"To Blog or Not To Blog", that is the Question? (a grumpy thread)
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Writing blogs seems to be more and more a thing from the past, I guess partly due to the expanded influence of Social Media and everybody's increasingly busy lives? I know that when I write a blog it gets hardly any interaction from the public, certainly nothing as much as a nice photo of an adorable fluffy dog nor even as much as what I had on my dinner plate the previous evening.
Usually when I point my camera at Arko he turns around and shows me his backside. Either that or pulls a funny face. Today he must have seen something of interest over my right shoulder as I managed to get the little blighter 🤣
Eerie sunset tonight in Lanjaron, partly due to the Sahara dust still lurking about
Some beautiful and somewhat lonely trees highlighted by the low winter sun's rays
Exploratory day hike today and all within a short drive from home. This range of mountains lies between Lentegi and Albuñuelas, a complicated mass of peaks, ridges, deep valleys and dry ramblas. Mostly on faint tracks. Simply stunning!
