autumn

Autumn breathes grey mist across the mountain;
he stamps in puddles, then laughs
with sudden sunshine.

pines sihouetted agains clouds reflecting sunset

the RAE gets a round tuit

I’ve never really understood what the “urgente” refers to in the title of the “Manual de Español Urgente”. If it was a quick guide, surely it would be manual urgente? So, under what circumstances would we be writing “urgent Spanish” and need to check whether we had the details right?

That said, La Fundación del Español Urgente (Fundéu BBVA), have brought out a new Spanish language guide which was launched yesterday, with the title “Escribir en internet: guía para los nuevos medios y las redes sociales”.
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for the record

soundwave

I’ve been making some voice recordings over the last week for various projects. There’s been a scripting and voicing of a promo spot for a new online kids’ radio station, a reading for a friend who is setting a Spanish poetry book to music, and also a reading of some of my own work for a soon-to-be-announced e-book (of which, more soon, I hope).

I’m not an expert with sound-recording software, and I’ve been having some problems deciding on the settings to use, particularly with respect to the different effects.
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fragments

The photo shows what was going on on my verandah once the sun warmed up this morning and brought the wasps out to feed on a small corpse which I assume was left there by the cats.

wasps scavenging at a cricket corpse
The villagers here in Spain would call it a langosta, I think. Even with my limited knowledge of the animal world, I do know it’s not a lobster, but I’m not sure if it was actually a locust, a cricket, a grasshopper or a katydid. Whatever it was, though:
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4-ever?

Graffiti: "te quiero <3"
how many?
This bench in the village reminded me of the story about the little boy who told his aunt, “I love you millions and billions.”

“I love you, too, dear,” she replied.

At which he burst into tears, sobbing, “Only two?”