What a wet spring! This is my 30th year in Andalucia and I don´t remember one like this one. Reservoirs are having to let water out – when there´s been droughts and water cuts over the last few years. A day or two we had blue sky and plants shouted with buds and joy, then the rain came back.

Reading headlines like ´ Andalucia has accumulated enough water to last for four years ´ and that was over about six weeks is just ludicrous. But here in the mountainous Jaén province in the north of Andalucia we have been far luckier than other areas with rivers bursting their banks and flatlands flooding, causing many to evacuate their homes.

Anyway not being a lover of the cold and less of rain there have been no travels (except a duty call to the cold and icy UK in January) so far this year.

Finally I´m off for a jaunt to Galicia this week and while excited, I am not jumping for joy as rain and cold temperatures still remain. The north of Spain (with a climate not unlike the UK) has been on my agenda for a while and although we are going to visit old friends a boutique hotel to check out is also in the plan. My other half doesn´t know yet – he likes a surprise or should I say he just goes along with whatever I have organised. And how I love to plan a trip!

So in the not too distant future I´ll be bringing you a new, delightful place to stay – or so I very much hope. Not all establishments we´ve visited have seen the light of a page here.

Be back soon!