Flood alerts across the Balearics tonight…

It’s Bookshop Day so here’s a poem in celebration of all those amazing bookshops out there.

Lunch time in 1772, as beautifully (and mouth-wateringly) evoked by Luis Egidio Meléndez of Madrid. It's his day today.

🇪🇸La Comunidad Weekend🇪🇸 I wrote about my week in Madrid (as a tourist) through the lens of where the city has been and where it's going. Enjoy, share, gracias! brendyboyle.substack.com/p/whats-next...

Don’t just take my word for it, it’s a wonderful time for a jaunt to Madrid…

My mum and her sisters often wore matching outfits - made by my nan - when they were children. This implanted some magic sartorial connection between them which means that now they will often discover that, entirely without planning, they have all independently purchased the same item of clothing.

Trivia on 'trivia' In ancient Rome, a trivium was an intersection of three roads (tri, "three" + vium, road). According to the Romans, when people met at a trivium, they would discuss trivialis ("inconsequential things") - which eventually helped give trivia its modern meaning.

"My name's Kitty. I could have married, I've given gallons of blood and I can't stomach whelks, so that's me for you." RIP Patricia Routledge.

NEW: The centre of Madrid, Spain is being brought to a standstill right now by a massive student-led protest in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla. #Gaza (🎥 Mohammed Shakeel)

Torrential rain causes flooding in Ibiza port…

Red weather alert in Ibiza and Formentera as Storm Gabrielle whooshes through.

‘Police in Spain have arrested three men thought to have piloted a “narco-submarine” carrying more than 3.6 tonnes of cocaine from South America to Galicia, after the trio’s wet clothes and claims to be pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago raised suspicions’ @swajones.bsky.social

My new book on #wine and sustainability is here! Order your multiple copies (ideal Christmas present for family, friends, pets etc) from academieduvinlibrary.com/products/roo...

This is Annie. She is a dental therapy dog. Her job is to help patients experiencing anxiety by providing emotional support. While dentists go through years of schooling to treat patients Annie is able to lower their blood pressure and reduce anxiety just by being there. 14/10 (TT: funny.bunny9215)

From Romanesque to Realism, how to convey different art styles in sign language…

Today’s artist without a (known) birthday: Alejandro Loarte, from Toledo. Painter of still lifes. And sometimes other things. Here with marvelous not-quite-symmetry.

Spain’s broadcaster RTVE has confirmed that it will not participate in Eurovision next year if Israel is allowed to take part. This is big. Spain is one of the Big 5 countries that contribute the most financially to the contest.

Out in just 16 days: my month-by-month guide to the 1980s in pop, from Run-DMC to Mel & Kim, and from Haircut 100 to 808 State. It's called #IntoTheGroove, it's published by @eandtbooks.bsky.social, and you can buy it from all sorts of places, like here: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/into...

Delighted to share my first professional music piece in over six years in the excellent @blitzed80smag1! There’s plenty of great stuff in the issue, including my review of Terry Hall’s album Laugh. Go buy it now, in all good newsagents and even some mediocre ones 🤪 #blitzedmagazine #musicmags

La Reforma https://www.wikiart.org/en/joan-miro/not_detected_227961

Ep 31 of my music textcast #FirstLastAnything. This week, read my conversation with the journalist and travel writer William Ham Bevan (@hambevan.bsky.social), where we cover TV schools soundtracks, one of the 70s' biggest bands and old tapes of the top 20. firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/09/14/f...

Very interesting programme on the rise of food tours, featuring Melton Mowbray and Bristol. “It’s the independent, small food tour operators that are the burgeoning scene” www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Gruff Rhys on reinventing Welsh language music and taking it global www.channel4.com/news/gruff-r...

¡QUÉ MARAVILLA! The Llibreria Ramon Llull in Valencia @ramonllulllibreria.bsky.social has a section organized by TRANSLATOR! 💙💙💙💙 #xl8 #traduccion #translation #namethetranslator #tradusky

Ball d’Àliga, festes de Tortosa. Eagle dance, Tortosa fiestas.

“For a brief moment back in 2016, the internet’s obsession was the physical and mental well-being of an English YouTuber named Marina Joyce.” Read from Beatriz Serrano’s debut novel Discontent, translated by Mara Faye Lethem.

“…since my husband and I follow a mostly vegan diet that allows for some seafood, we couldn't eat a lot of the cuisine, which had dairy, meat, or eggs in it”

Adult boy. Looks like he's walked straight out of Oliver Twist... Raval, Barcelona, 1959. Photographer Joan Colom took dozens of photos like this. Poor kids who had seen too much in a neighborhood of the defeated. Via Boig de Can Fanga on X.

📚 In 1914, at age 70, Benito Pérez Galdós sat down with La Esfera. Nearly blind but sharp as ever, he mused on Spain, memory, & the novelist’s duty: “Spain is an endless novel.” Today we unpack the interview, its context, & why it still matters today. ✍️ themadridreview.com/f/%E2%80%9Cs...

España tiene más de dos mil castillos. Algunos se alquilan, otros se derrumban, varios se fotografían y unos pocos aún resisten con la dignidad de lo inútil. Hay lugares que no caen, pero tampoco terminan de estar en pie. www.jotdown.es/?p=274569

One for @whenisbirths.bsky.social

In Wigan today. This plaque in front of the library remembers the 11 men and 1 woman who came from this northern English town to fight against fascism in Spain. 3 were killed.

Looking fab in 1613, Richard Sackville, 3d Earl of Dorset. Nobody could beat his embroidery, gloves, & esp his shoe roses!! By William Larkin.

The great actor Eusebio Poncela has sadly died aged 79

NEW! In ep 28 of #FirstLastAnything, author, broadcaster and musician Dr Leah Broad (@leahbroad.bsky.social) joins me to talk about the representation of women composers in classical music, her stupendous award-winning book #Quartet, and the BBC Proms. firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/08/24/f...

“Even when we were delayed, no one seemed to mind…Because time was what these night trains were giving us” @monisharajesh.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

“the eucalyptus munchers” @secondmentions.bsky.social

This is absolutely beautiful with the wonderful Joshua Bell.

Villages in the Valdeón valley in the PIcos de Europa national park being evacuated. So many terrible fires across northern Spain today.

NEW! For ep 27 of my music textcast #FirstLastAnything, broadcaster and writer @benbaker.bsky.social tells me how pop coalesced for his teenage self in the mid-90s, about silliness in music, and his work for internet station @noiseboxradio.com. firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/08/17/f...

‘All those years of abandonment had left ravines, gullies and pine forests overgrown and made them into temperature-activated timebombs’ @swajones.bsky.social @stephenburgen.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

@rorycj.bsky.social @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social #SophiefromRomania #OtherPeoples’Holidays

Hay patrias que se fundan con espadas, cruces o constituciones; la nuestra, con garbanzos, morcilla y un desprecio milenario por la mesura. www.jotdown.es/?p=274649

“Fires in Spain in August exceed the total forest area burnt in 2024”

Oh no, phylloxera has been found in Tenerife. “Producers believe the outbreak began when a local resident planted infected vines in their garden. The pest is thought to have spread from there to an abandoned vineyard” @decanter.com www.decanter.com/wine-news/ph...

Another wildfire on the Costa de la Luz. Melia Zahara and El Cortijo hotels in Atlanterra have been evacuated.