Category Archives: spain

the last ficus

12 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in sevilla, spain

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ficus encarnacion

So sad to hear the news today that we are about to lose our last giant ficus tree in the Plaza de la Encarnación. When I first moved to Sevilla there were four of these magnificent trees, one on each corner of the square. If I’m not mistaken, the two on the east side of the square were removed to make room for the Setas, and last year we lost the north-west one for the same reason we are losing this last one. Apparently they were rotting inside, branches started falling off (obviously a hazard) but I mean, what the hell? These trees are the responsibility of the City Council to maintain. How is it that this “rotting” was only noticed in 2022 and only after a large branch broke off? And since then, why wasn’t the last remaining tree studied and cared for?

Anyhow, I took this photo the other day after I’d heard about the branch falling and, as you can see, the tree had been seriously pruned back. But dammit. This feels like it could have been prevented.

at the market

09 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, spain

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rubio

The other day I posted this photo on my Instagram/Twitter/FB and omg… the response has been wild. At the time of posting I didn’t even know what kind of fish this was, just saw it at the market and thought “wow! now that’s a FISH!” I have since found out that it’s known as a rubia in Spanish (gurnard in English, perlón, golondro, alingorri in other parts of Spain) but nobody, including experienced seafood chefs, had ever seen one this big. Apparently it’s especially good in stews or fried, with a white sweet meat from feeding mostly on prawns.

Of course there were plenty of other comments wondering if this was a dragon, a dinosaur, the Loch Ness monster or even Jar Jar Binks. You just never know what’s going to catch the public’s interest.