PRECIOUS water is exported from the dry lands of Spain in millions of cubic kilometres each year. We receive it in Ireland in, for example, tomatoes, which are probably 70% water.

IT ISN’T all sunshine here, although there’s a lot of it; happily, it can also rain. We’ve seen no downpours or deluges, in spite of the locals’ ardent prayers but, yesterday, we woke to find the day darker than any in the five weeks we’ve been here and outside it was very cold.

WE WOKE early, hearing voices in the olive grove, and looked out to see men and women moving about in the dappled sunlight, laying a carpet of green plastic netting around a tree.