We were in Spain visiting friends in March 2012. Everywhere we went the light was pure and clear and there were strange dark patches and lines on the ground. Next to a tree, for example, there would be a perfect representation of the trunk and the spreading branches and the twigs marked out on the pavement. I took photographs of these horizontal facsimiles and noted that they moved and changed shape during the course of the day. I had some memory of seeing such things before but it seemed to come from a long time ago. Then I understood; they were shadows and were associated with sunlight, something we had not experienced in its pure form for a while. Certainly the whole of January and February had been cloudy in Wales, sunshine and shadows a distant memory. How nice it was to be in Spain.
And right next to our hotel in Madrid there was another miracle, the jardin vertical, a garden growing sideways out of the gable end of our building. It was by the entrance of an arts centre called Caixa Forum. We went in and looked at the temporary exhibitions and we also walked around the corner and visited the Museo del Reina Sofía, famous for housing Picasso’s Guernica. Madrid has a handful of big time art galleries and some fine architecture. But what I remember best of all was the clear light, the early spring sunshine, and the wonderful shadows.