A sunset in March: white clouds, pink edges. March 19, 2016
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A sunset in March: white clouds, pink edges #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-2bD
Blue sky & orange sunset. March 19, 2016
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Blue sky & orange sunset in the #secretvalley in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-2b0
Sunrise and sunset: can you tell the difference? I’m not sure I can. I used to think the colours of sunset more brilliant than those early in the morning, until I realized my perception was based on the simple fact that I see more sunsets than sunrises. However I suspect that if I took a sleeping pill and awoke not knowing what day or time it was, I would not be able to correctly identify sunrise or sunset. So, do we know which is which based on our perception of the hours before? Below are three sunset photos taken within two minutes of each other.
5 to remember
la diferencia – the difference
mi percepcion – my perception
el simple hecho de que – the simple fact that
sospecho que – I suspect that
una píldora para dormer – a sleeping pill
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Stripes in the sky: winter sunset in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-1TA
Mackerel skies are beautiful, formed by high altocumulus clouds. I didn’t know there’s another term for this type of sky: a ‘buttermilk sky’. 
The reason for these clouds? The disintegration of an old weather system, so little if any rain occurs during a mackerel sky. When this sky coincides with the sunset, the effect is amazing. 
It was here, the colours getting richer and deeper, changing from moment to moment… 
… and then gone, but the cloud effect remains until the night is black. 
5 to remember
una caballa – a mackerel [fish]
un cielo abboregado – a mackerel sky
las nubes – the clouds
el término – the term [word]
el suero – the buttermilk
Blue sky, before sunset. October 14, 2013
Somehow the blue of the sky and the pink clouds at sunset time manage not to blend together into purple. 
This winter sunset is a delicate one of wispy clouds and pale pink. 
5 to remember
de algún modo – somehow
armonizar – to blend together
morado/a – purple
tenue – wispy [cloud]
pálido/a – pale
Early evening, the thermometer hovers at freezing, frost lingers on the shadiest parts of the olive grove, but the sky is on fire. 
The local weather forecast is -1°C tonight and tomorrow night, -2°C on Saturday night. 
Dipping below freezing point: better get the logs in.
5 to remember
el termómetro – the thermometer
el punto de congelación – the Freezing point
la helada – the frost
lo más sombreado/a – shadiest
mañana noche – tomorrow night
Sunset. August 22nd, 2013.
Wispy pink sunset in a blue sky. August 17th, 2013.
What is it about a sunset that makes me come over all poetical? 
It is no mystery to me that nature has inspired some our best-loved poetry: Wordsworth, Frost, Hardy, Coleridge, Keats, Whitman, it is a long list. Here are two of my favourites, and some Spanish sunsets too. 
Emily Dickinson’s ‘Bring me the Sunset in a Cup’…
Bring me the sunset in a cup,
Reckon the morning’s flagons up
And say how many Dew,
Tell me how far the morning leaps —
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadth of blue! 
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘Move Eastward Happy Earth’…
Move eastward, happy earth, and leave Yon orange sunset waning slow: From fringes of the faded eve, O, happy planet, eastward go: Till over thy dark shoulder glow Thy silver sister world, and rise To glass herself in dewey eyes That watch me from the glen below. 
5 to remember
poético/a – poetical
delicado/a – delicate
el rocío – dew
el tejedor/la tejedora – the weaver
el planeta – the planet
Notes on a Spanish Valley 