A strawberry tree

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Lovely walk in the wild limestone massif of the Serra del Garraf just southwest of Barcelona. The strawberry trees (madroño in Spanish, arbocer/arboç in Catalan) were laden with fruit. They have a reputation of being a bit dull – their scientific name Arbutus unedo is Latin for  “I only eat one”) but these were sweet and tasty enough so I had about 30.

Popular knowledge has it that if you eat too many madroños you get drunk. The Portuguese have a prized madroño liquor (medronho) but I haven’t tried it yet.

A bear feeding on a strawberry tree is also the symbol of the city of Madrid.

They’re also known as arbustus trees in English.

Cap de Creus

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Cap de Creus, where the Pyrenees ends, falling into the sea in a riot of schist and fantastical erosion. Last year’s sky swept clean by the Tramuntana wind, crystal clear light. Salvador’s childhood landscape, Dalí’s dreamscape.

Frozen Ebro

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The River Ebro frozen at Tortosa, Catalonia, near its mouth. 1891, at the end of the so-called Little Ice Age. You’d have thought not much chance of this happening again for the foreseeable future, although climate sciencists say with heating world in chaos such cold snaps are also very possible.