January jaunts.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Forget about nations and stuff. I’ve a sneaking feeling that social class and the weather determine much of who we are. That may well make me a meteorological Marxist. Death, like sex, is a pretty well universal taboo subject (albeit expressed in different ways in different places). Now the weather…that’s what really makes us different. And the weather’s pretty similar all over the UK (cold, wet and windy) but in Spain, from Galicia to Andalusia you’ve got huge climatic variations. I reckon that in much of Europe and in the UK in particular (hushed voice….…) class differences have always come into play (more in Brit-land due to an early industrialization maybe) whilst in Spain it’s much more of a weather thing. Compare a dry Castilian temperament or Galician fatalism with that of a cheeky chappie from Cadiz. It’s the weather that makes them different I say…..So what have all these sweeping generalizations and Do It Yourself sociology got to do with running I hear you ask? Not a lot, it’s just that it was foggy out there today and with nowt to observe all sorts of funny stuff comes out of the subconscious, doesn’t it? Anyway, one lower middle class Englishman (class, now that really is an English taboo subject) went for a run in the fog. Exchanged gruff “holas” with a couple of overcoats on the way up Monte Pajariel. Hoped the sun would cheer me up at the top but the mist covered even the antenna. Hung about for 5 minutes hoping that it would clear but started getting cold and ended up tearing down the firebreak as fast as my steamed up glasses would let me.
Running time; 43 minutes.
Walking time 8 minutes. Today Monte Pajariel beat me but I’ll be back. And in the meantime, here's a photo of a few trees.