Sunset, And Cloud-spotting in Benalmadena

Sunset at the moment is about 8.10 pm. However, it would be another half an hour or more before the sun sets over the horizon of the Mediterranean sea.

I get a good view of the sun setting behind the mountain ranges from Roger’s balcony. If I am lucky, I get treated to some magical, and phenomenal natural light shows and cloud formations.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been lucky this year. I have not seen any impressive sunset, light shows or cloud formations. These are my best captures to date.

The sun, beginning to set. It will eventually go down behind the mountain ranges

Cloudy skies

“Contrails are line-shaped artificial clouds formed when water vapour in airplane engine exhaust condenses and freezes into ice crystals at high, freezing altitudes.” - Wikipedia

These are some more dramatic ones – courtesy of Roger, from the earlier months of the year.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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All Puns Intended

Sometimes, the only way out of a stressful life is to have a good laugh – at life, at yourself. A hearty laugh will overcome more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.

The following images are from the internet – Facebook pages and friends’ WhatsApp messages. I hope they bring on a chuckle or at least put a smile on your face. May your days be filled with laughter.

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Biology - Briefly

Know your body parts. Understand how they are quietly keeping you healthy and alive.

"Many people treat their bodies as if they were rented from Hertz – something they are using to get around in but nothing they genuinely care about understanding." - Chungliang Al Huang

Some interesting fun facts, trivias about our body – courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Inside Biology’, ‘Human Scope’, 'Dark WIsdom’, 'Body Truth' etc… However, I do not know if they are true. Some of them sound really incredible.

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The Liver Explained: The Hardest-Working Organ in Your Body!

Did you know your liver performs over 500 essential functions every single day? From filtering toxins and producing bile to storing nutrients and supporting metabolism, the liver is one of the most important organs in the human body. – A Facebook post by ‘Human Scope’

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Did you know? Around 70% of your immune system is located in and around your digestive tract. That means every meal you eat isn't just feeding you — it's also feeding the trillions of microbes that help regulate your body's immune defenses.

Inside your intestines lives a vast community of bacteria known as the gut microbiome. These microbes constantly communicate with immune cells lining your gut, helping your body distinguish between harmless substances and harmful invaders. When your gut microbiome is healthy and diverse, it helps strengthen the intestinal barrier and keeps your immune system functioning in balance.

What you eat plays a major role in shaping this microscopic ecosystem. Fiber-rich foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds nourish beneficial bacteria, while fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, and traditionally fermented pickles provide live microorganisms that help support microbial diversity. As gut bacteria ferment fiber, they produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which nourish the cells lining your colon, strengthen the gut barrier, and help regulate immune activity.

Research published in Nature Reviews Immunology, Cell, and Nutrients has consistently shown that diets rich in fiber and fermented foods are associated with a healthier gut microbiome and a more balanced immune response. While no single food can prevent illness, consistently feeding your beneficial gut bacteria is one of the most effective ways to support your body's natural defenses over time.

Try this: Aim for 25–30 different plant foods each week, and include a serving of fermented food most days. Small daily habits can help build a healthier gut microbiome — one meal at a time. – A Facebook post by ‘Body Truth’

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Every tear starts with the lacrimal gland. Located above the outer corner of each eye, this small gland produces the watery layer of your tears.

Every blink spreads this protective film across the cornea, keeping the eye moist, washing away dust and microbes, delivering oxygen and nutrients, and helping maintain sharp, comfortable vision. A simple blink is one of your body's most effective defense mechanisms. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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The Pituitary Gland Explained | The Master Hormone Gland That Controls Your Body

The pituitary gland is a tiny organ at the base of your brain, but it controls many of your body's most important functions. Learn how the master hormone gland regulates growth, metabolism, reproduction, stress, sleep, hydration, and signals other endocrine glands. – A Facebook post by ‘Human Scope’

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Your body isn't the same body it was yesterday.

Blood cells, gut lining, skin — replaced constantly, around 3.8 million cells every second. That adds up to roughly 330 billion cells rebuilt in a single day. You're not aging in place. You're being continuously rebuilt. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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Your blood pressure is constantly changing with every heartbeat, movement, and breath.

Baroreceptors in your arteries detect these changes, while the brainstem rapidly adjusts heart rate and blood vessel tone to keep pressure within a safe range.

This automatic system works every second, without conscious effort. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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Hyaline cartilage is the smooth, glass-like tissue that lets your joints move with remarkably low friction. It cushions the ends of bones and absorbs shock with every step.

Because it has almost no blood vessels and no nerves, damage often develops silently and heals very slowly. Your knees, hips, and shoulders depend on this thin layer more than most people realize. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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Your gut lining doesn't let everything in.

Molecular transport proteins recognize specific nutrients and decide, millions of times a day, what crosses into your blood — and what gets left behind.

Not everything that reaches you deserves access. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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Your cornea is one of the most remarkable structures in the human body.

It’s the transparent outer layer of your eye that helps focus light — and unlike most tissues, it has no blood vessels. Instead, it gets oxygen primarily from the air through your tears and the surrounding environment.

Even more fascinating: the cornea contains an incredibly dense network of sensory nerves, making it extremely sensitive to injury and irritation.

Your eyes are doing extraordinary work every second—without you even noticing. – A Facebook post by ‘Inside Biology’

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The idea that your exact existence had odds of roughly 1 in 400 trillion is often shared to illustrate just how many circumstances had to align for you to be here. The precise number, however, isn’t a scientifically established probability and depends heavily on what events are included in the calculation.

Think about the chain behind a single human life. Your parents had to meet at a particular time, one particular sperm had to fertilize one particular egg, and countless genetic combinations could have produced someone entirely different. Go back another generation and the possibilities multiply again. Continue through hundreds or thousands of years of ancestry and the number of alternative outcomes becomes almost impossible to comprehend.

Change just one meeting, one decision, one journey or one moment anywhere along that chain and the person reading these words might never have existed.

That is why the “1 in 400 trillion” figure is better understood as a thought provoking illustration rather than a literal biological statistic. Whatever the true mathematical odds might be, your particular combination of DNA, ancestry and circumstances represents an extraordinarily specific outcome among an enormous number of possibilities.

Out of billions of years of cosmic history and generations of human lives, somehow the chain continued all the way to you. When you look at existence from that perspective, simply being here is pretty remarkable. – A Facebook post by ‘Astrophilesz’

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Star Gazing in Arroyo de la Miel

In the evenings, when we are not out, we sit out on the balcony to enjoy the night view of the villages at the base of the mountain ranges. I never get tired of the view. The peaceful and serene view is beautiful and very relaxing.

There will be drinks and some light snacks.

From the balcony, I also get a good view of the night sky. This allows me to star gaze. There are not many stars to be seen though – due to the pollution in the sky. If I stare long enough at the sky, I could spot a brief twinkle here and there before they disappear again.

There are about half a dozen of the brighter ones – one of them we identified as Arcturus, the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky and the brightest in the Northern celestial hemisphere.

In the early evening, we see Venus, and when there is a new moon, we will get to see the moon for a few nights.

This is the moon and Venus quite close together. Each night, the moon comes into view an hour later. It also sets later and further away whereas Venus sets earlier each day until we don’t see them together anymore.

The moon and Venus drifting further from each other every night.

This was the last night we saw the moon. The following night, when it came round the corner, we were already in bed.

We once saw an unidentified object zoomed across the sky. Since then, we are always on the lookout for unidentified objects. We did see a couple of bright and brief flashes. But we had no idea what caused them. Other than that, we saw planes coming in and going out. Once in a while, we saw a seagull or two flying pass. And occasionally, we saw fireworks in the distance.

We were accompanied in the evenings by ‘Ocean Radio’ - a radio station that plays very nice hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. It is a joy to listen to songs we grew up, and are familiar with. They sure brought back memories of days gone.

If you are a fan of oldies, you can try and see if you can get ‘Ocean Radio’. They play non-stop music all day. No commercials and it is free.

So, very pleasant evenings at home.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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The World of Animals

“The purity of a person’s heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals.” - Unknown

A peek into the world of animals. I think it is good that we learn something about the animals that share our wonder-ful world.

Here are some fun facts and trivia about animals, courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Strangest Facts’ ‘Wild Wonders’, David Attenborough, etc… However, I do not know if they are true. Some of them sound really incredible.

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A broken cold gene should make this boar a walking liability. Instead, Siberia handed it a furnace and told it to improvise. The real trick is not toughness. It is metabolic loophole hunting.

Most mammals rely on brown fat, a heat-making tissue packed with mitochondria, to burn energy directly into warmth. Pigs lost that classic system long ago, which is spectacularly inconvenient when winter starts acting like a freezer with opinions.

So the Siberian wild boar cheats differently. Its liver steps into the role like an emergency generator, pushing fuel through heat-producing chemistry when ordinary cold defenses are missing. No cozy brown-fat blanket. No proper shivering engine. Just biology making a backup plan under brutal pressure.

That is what makes the animal so strange. It is not surviving because evolution gave it the obvious tool. It is surviving because evolution found another door.

Sometimes the rulebook breaks, and life keeps the receipt. – A Facebook post by ‘Strangest Facts’

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A rare sighting of a white stag has recently been reported, though its exact location is being kept confidential to protect it from potential harm. 

Often regarded as a symbol of mystery and reverence in many cultures, the white stag is seen by some as a sign of hope and renewal. For those who encounter or hear of such sightings, it can feel like a reminder that rare beauty and wonder still exist in the natural world. – A Facebook post by David Attenborough

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Giant otters do not just live in rivers. They help run them. And after years of decline, protecting them means protecting the whole moving machine beneath the surface.

These are not casual swimmers with cute faces. Giant otters can grow around six feet long, hunt in tight family groups, and move through South American waterways like they have seniority.

Their nickname, “river wolves,” is not just dramatic branding. They are loud, social, territorial hunters that patrol lakes, oxbows, and slow rivers, feeding mostly on fish and helping keep aquatic food webs from tipping out of balance.

That is why their disappearance says more than “one species is in trouble.” It can point to damaged riverbanks, polluted water, overfishing, mercury from gold mining, and forests being stripped away from the edges of the water.

Save the giant otter, and you are not saving a mascot. You are saving the fish, the banks, the wetlands, the nursery channels, and the wild logic of a river that still knows how to breathe.

Some animals are not just part of an ecosystem. They are proof it is still working. – A Facebook post by ‘Strangest Facts’

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A takin looks like nature built a goat, a moose, and a bison from memory. Somehow, that odd design works beautifully.

High in the Himalayas, where cold air can punish every breath, the takin comes dressed for bad weather. Its shaggy coat is protected by oily skin secretions that help repel rain and snow before the cold can settle in.

That oversized nose is not just for character. Its large nasal chambers warm freezing mountain air before it reaches the lungs, saving heat with every inhale.

Even the body shape makes sense. Short, powerful legs and split hooves help it move across steep, rocky slopes with the confidence of an animal that never agreed to be graceful.

It is bulky, strange, and quietly brilliant.

Some animals survive by looking sleek. The takin survives by being a walking weather system with horns. – A Facebook post by ‘Strangest Facts’

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Lions and wolves both live in groups, but they act very differently when leaders change. In lion prides, new leaders may drive out or even kill the cubs from the previous leader. Wolves, on the other hand, are more likely to welcome pups into the pack after a change in leadership. They do not see the young as rivals but as part of the family.

Wolves raise the pups together, with adults helping to feed, protect, and teach them. When a new wolf becomes the leader, the rest of the pack usually keeps caring for the pups instead of turning against them. This shared responsibility helps the pups grow strong and learn how to hunt and live with others. Acceptance makes the transition smoother and keeps the pack united.

Because wolves take in and raise pups regardless of leadership shifts, their packs stay more stable over time. The pups benefit from safety and lessons, and the pack gains helpers as the pups grow. This behavior shows how cooperation and trust can help a group survive, even when things change at the top. – A Facebook post by ‘Amazing World’

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Table For Two

Table for two on the terrace with a view of the sun setting behind the mountain ranges. I don’t know of any restaurant around here that offers such a view.

When we are not dining out, Roger and I take turns to cook simple meals. We eat simply, usually cooking something that is not too much trouble – something simple but healthy. We are not foodies.

We have our dinners on the balcony, or terrace, as some would call it. This way, we get to enjoy and watch the sun set behind the mountain ranges while we eat.

These were some of the dishes I prepared. I am not a good cook. However, thanks to the advance in gourmet science, there are ready-made sauces. Just mix the sauce into whatever you are cooking and viola, you have a nice dish. They certainly make light work of preparing the ingredients from scratch.

Chicken curry

Stir fry asparagus with prawns and carrots.

Stir fried broccoli with carrots

Stir fry eggplant

‘Bak Kut Teh’ – literally translates to 'pork ribs tea'. It is actually pork ribs in herbal soup.

Green Curry

Black pepper chicken

Simple, healthy dishes - usually, one meat dish, one vegetable dish and some eggs or another vegetable dish, and some rice.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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