A Deep Midwinter Greeting
Camping Alto de Vinuelas
Beas de Granada
Andalucia
Spain
December 2025
Dear Friends
We write to mark the end of yet another solar cycle, which governs all our lives. We hope that all has gone well for you in the last 12 months and that there is much to look forward to on next year’s 584 million-mile journey around the sun.
Here in the Sierra Nevada at 1117 metres (3,680 ft) - and 2,045 miles from our home at sea level on Lancashire’s Fylde coast - the curvature of the Earth arranges for us to have over two hours more daylight than they enjoy in Blackpool, which may be an advantage at both ends of this phenomenon! However, not to be outdone, the Blackpool Illuminations have been extended into January and stay on as late as 11 pm.
Our planet also has a tilt of 23.4 degrees, giving rise to the Winter Solstice now upon us. In Spain at 4.03 pm on Sunday 21st December, the sun will pause its retreat for a moment on the Tropic of Capricorn and then commence its slow 6-month journey to the Tropic of Cancer for the Summer Solstice, creating the seasons along the way.
How reassuring it is to have something objective and tangible to mark and enjoy on a global scale, rather than celebrating yet more of capitalism’s versions and exploitations of ancient myths and legends throughout the year! Every gap in the calendar left by the decline of formal religion is now filled with the output of Chinese factories promoted by spates of absurd advertising. For example, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and even Mother’s Day, which had its medieval origins in Mothering Sunday during Lent, referring to the Mother Church. It wasn’t until 1908 that an American woman with a nice mother changed it into its present commercialised guise, formalised in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson made it a National Holiday in the US on the 4th of May!
So hold on to the reality of the natural world: have a Happy Solstice and Many of Them.
With our very best wishes
Barry and Margaret
Beas de Granada
Andalucia
Spain
December 2025
Dear Friends
We write to mark the end of yet another solar cycle, which governs all our lives. We hope that all has gone well for you in the last 12 months and that there is much to look forward to on next year’s 584 million-mile journey around the sun.
Here in the Sierra Nevada at 1117 metres (3,680 ft) - and 2,045 miles from our home at sea level on Lancashire’s Fylde coast - the curvature of the Earth arranges for us to have over two hours more daylight than they enjoy in Blackpool, which may be an advantage at both ends of this phenomenon! However, not to be outdone, the Blackpool Illuminations have been extended into January and stay on as late as 11 pm.
Our planet also has a tilt of 23.4 degrees, giving rise to the Winter Solstice now upon us. In Spain at 4.03 pm on Sunday 21st December, the sun will pause its retreat for a moment on the Tropic of Capricorn and then commence its slow 6-month journey to the Tropic of Cancer for the Summer Solstice, creating the seasons along the way.
How reassuring it is to have something objective and tangible to mark and enjoy on a global scale, rather than celebrating yet more of capitalism’s versions and exploitations of ancient myths and legends throughout the year! Every gap in the calendar left by the decline of formal religion is now filled with the output of Chinese factories promoted by spates of absurd advertising. For example, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and even Mother’s Day, which had its medieval origins in Mothering Sunday during Lent, referring to the Mother Church. It wasn’t until 1908 that an American woman with a nice mother changed it into its present commercialised guise, formalised in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson made it a National Holiday in the US on the 4th of May!
So hold on to the reality of the natural world: have a Happy Solstice and Many of Them.
With our very best wishes
Barry and Margaret
Margaret at Camping Alto de Vinuelas with the 3479 metre (11,480 ft) snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains to the South
In the village of Huétor de Santillán, a year-round message: 'Who Loves Does Not Mistreat' referring to the flowers and to the natural world
In the rain Barry deals with a Polish truck driver blocking the exit from our lunchtime parking space
In the Spanish village of Navajas, old tyres find a Seasonal use
Time to give way