When we touch the first crystalline stones of a pale violet, we remember the teeth of the men and women who inhabited the caves of these mountains, eating fresh game or carrion or roots or crickets, but they did not have black holes. The teeth of our Paleolithic ancestors were full of greenish tartar and … Continue reading Fluorite
We are in the midst of canicula, those summer days when the sun bakes the fields and nature slows down, overwhelmed by the high temperatures. Apparently, the term canicula comes from the Canis constellation, to which Sirius belongs, the brightest star in the sky. In ancient times, the beginning of the hottest season in the … Continue reading Canícula
Fifteen thousand years ago, landscapes looked very different from what they do today, when the species known as Homo sapiens was just another opportunistic life form that adapted as best it could to a hostile environment in order to survive. It is difficult to imagine which species were affected by our expansion, not only through … Continue reading Life Landfills
These days, a stroll through the lavender fields of Brihuega coincided with reading Federico Kukso's book, "Odorama: A Cultural History of Smell." There are things that stink and are exquisite, like cheeses and perfumes with refined scents that, however, if we drink them, are disgusting. There are also days when humanity stinks as a whole … Continue reading Lavender
Conveying the disaster that is happening with water in the natural environment without falling into arguments to which we have become accustomed and that little call attention, besides being unoriginal, is like making a toast to the sun. The catastrophic discourse has lasted so long that it does not transcend, the daily dramas have immunized … Continue reading The rivers that are disappearing
We biked through the Alcarria conquense from Ercávica to Segóbriga, one hundred kilometers along a GR trail that had been abandoned to its fate, pedaling alongside the Guadiela, Mayor, and Cigüela rivers, over the waves of seas of wheat and barley, past abandoned sales, pigeon houses, and cigar factories, and through fallow fields and borders … Continue reading The Route of the Espejuelos (small mirrors)
Groundwater is stored in locations where it is maintained at a constant temperature and in a disposition similar to the surface topography of the area where it is found. These locations, called aquifers, are geological formations formed by successions of layers of porous and impermeable materials in which freshwater is housed underground. The porosity of … Continue reading Water from the Spring
In the seventies of the twentieth century, the German tourist Roland Lorkowsky brought thirty-two Danube catfish fry in a jug, which he later released into the mouth of the Segre River so that they "could grow and multiply" in the reservoirs of Mequinenza and Ribarroja. Before him, the nature protection service ICONA had released all … Continue reading Small Silurus
"Gammarids" or "Gammarus" are a group of amphipods that constitute an order within crustaceans. Their name "Amphipoda" comes from the Greek amphí, "on both sides" and podós, "foot"; as a characteristic, they are small and do not have a shell, they have a typically compressed body, gills present at the base of some pereiopods ("little … Continue reading The gammarids, river shrimp
To be honest, I have to confess that I don't believe in any powers that stones transmit beyond awakening aesthetic taste, the pleasure of giving them as a gift, or, in a more perverse realm, fostering greed. Undoubtedly, my approach to mineral collecting belongs to both the realm of wonder and beauty, but what I … Continue reading The Stone Powers
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