Here's the Puerta del Sol in the rain - a rare glimpse. Rain has been a scarce and precious item in Spain over recent months, and so when it rained again today, it was good just to smell the air. But there are still people who are complaining that it's going to pour down over the weekend. Golfers, for example, whose hobby is more water-reliant than most. From a fascinating article by Fred Pearce in Prospect magazine this month: "In Spain, the Zapatero government, elected in 2004, abandoned its predecessor's plans to relieve parched fields and empty swimming pools in the south by pumping water from the wetter north. They decided instead to build 20 reverse osmosis plants along the Costas, which are expected to meet slightly over 1 per cent of Spain's total water needs." Reverse osmosis is one (costly) way of desalinating the sea. It seems that the only way we can get out of this mess now is by tampering with the natural world even further than we already have.

BTW: there's an odd little video here of the Puerta del Sol in the rain, posted to You Tube by Mikel García. The title, inevitably: Lluvia en Sol.