Going out for a run.

[Bierzo Baggie]

I have to ask, BB - what do you do that enables you to live in such a rustic part of the world? Are you some eccentric billionaire that shuns the world and lives in relative obscurity?

Poetry, indeed. Your running diary makes my suburban plods look more like a piece of obtuse corporate legalese by comparison, and I can honestly say I've never seen a basket weaver nor heard a knife sharpener's call for custom on any of my runs. And more's the pity, I think.

Nice work.

This is traditonally a mining region MLCM. There’s quite a bit of industry too (steelworks, cement factory, coal-fired power station). The rustic fringes coincide with my running routes because it’s what I look for. Don’t think that there are basket weavers and knife sharpeners all over the place.

I think running gives us access to scenes we wouldn’t normally see or recognize, wherever we are. I remember you writing about your walk to work once, noting all the little details...

Basket weaving is usually a gypsy craft but the fellow in question is a retired coal miner with time on his hands.

The knife sharpener pushes a wooden contraption similar to the one below. I've also seen them attached to bicycles. There are families in Toral who still sacrifice a pig or two so knives need sharpening at this time of year.

All these scenes will inevitably disappear over the next few years.

And I’m not an eccentric billionnaire. Came this way 18 years ago, liked it, got married, had a child and that was that. Run a little language school and haven’t made much money out of it. If I ever made a few million, if anywhere, I’d probably emigrate to Oz!