Saturday, 1 March 2025
These plants, decorative in this area, mystified me (with my northern mental database) until I found them labelled somewhere. Now, I know them to be relatives of artichokes…sporting rather elegant dagger-leaves-of-green.
Friday, 28 February 2025
Our view through the garden to the rising sun…sooooo changed. Indeed, we might even be able to grow grass (!!!). For now, we’re just trying to get used to the increased light. [Guess that’s the same for the vegetation?] [Am I repeating myself?]
Thursday, 27 February 2025
The dangerous trees (in the insurance world) are off the property, gone or in pieces stacked in the street. However, serious compaction is left behind. Who are the next specialists we need to counteract this problem? Rrrr. Aerator consultants, perhaps?
Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Meet the stubborn stob (which I wanted to spell as staub, but I don’t think that’s a real word in English, although this posting program is accepting it—hmm, while it tries to change stob to stop—rrrr). The crew de-branched the stob yesterday, and they’re coming back tomorrow to take it down. Waah. But it has to go. We had a good run with these trees, and now a no-name storm has taken them from us (with the help of tree-removal teams).
Sunday, 23 February 2025
Clearly, our morning view is…clearer. I calculate five trees removed in the last few years.
Wednesday, 12 February 2025
It really doesn’t look like it, but this is a night shot, from a few minutes ago. My guess is that the unbroken drippy cloudcover is reflecting the light back and back again, so the sky isn’t dark? Goodnight, squirrels.
Monday, 3 February 2025
This is maybe the third time we’ve seen a stand of these silver-barked trees. Dunno what they are…mystery arboles.
I’ve confirmed that this is Moncayo.
Wind turbine alignments. I’m trying to get my photographic fascination with them out of my system. Round hay bales can grab your eye this way, too.
We’ve seen plenty of large and small irrigation ditches, but rarely the valves. Here’s a split, where the flow is being directed two ways.
One of our goals today was to get a look at a large eroded area, or badlands, that is a park called Bardenas Reales.
We did find one place with a road we could safely try to get into (or towards) the heart of this sculpted landscape. You can see we didn’t get far, as farmed fields remain.
We partly circled Moncayo yesterday, and completed the loop today.
One more eroded landform.
I finally got a shot of the Ebro when we crossed it. I think this is normal spring elevated levels.
We cut through a “corner” of the lower slopes of the Moncayo massif, and found what must be a relatively warmer area, as many orchards flaunted blooming trees. My guess was peaches or apples, but I couldn’t parse the tree shapes and figure out the species.
We went through/by many little towns. Amazingly, most had parked cars and evidence of active residents. I cannot figure out the economic support for these scattered villages.
Later in the day, I became fascinated with the variations in soil color…this is rather brick red, and the trees are not yet blooming (February, remember…snow on elevations, remember?).
Castle ruins above larger small town…note the white lenses in the far distance behind the jagged walls…Moncayo massif, again.
I counted one man and one dog with this substantial sheep herd. As we continued up the road, it was evident that they’d come down it for at least a mile. Transhumance underway? Earlier in the day, we saw a smaller herd, controlled by a man with a loaded mule and four dogs. Spring is springing for shepherds.
This is the second fox we’ve spotted. Neither was much concerned with our presence.
I just encountered a description of wheeling clouds of birds as resembling the billowing robes of a genie. As shown….
Sunday, 2 February 2025
Wind turbines on horizon. Strange color balance (through windshield).
Frost patterns…one shady place we saw frost as late as 11:30am.
Flags, bell tower.
Storks, backlit.
Horses, also backlit, with frost, tracks.
Medieval rock graves, Revenga.
Medieval rock graves, Regumiel. They antedate the 12th C church built partially atop them.
Medieval rock graves with ice skim, Duruelo. Some sources say this trend in this area, the Upper Arlanza Basin, say these graves are 7th/8th C. Others say 8th–10th C.
Stand-alone snow-capped mountain, perhaps Moncayo.
Wind turbine array, with Pyrennees in far distance and Ebro basin between.
Rioja territory grapevines.
This is the part of the Roman city of Graccurris, founded 179 BC, that has been “reconstructed.” I could make little architectural sense of what seemed to me to be mostly a wasteland. Of course, there was significant Medieval occupation here, too….
Largest church in Alfaro, essentially modern Graccurris.
Smaller Alfaro church.
Fuzzy moon out our hotel window, a few minutes ago.
Saturday, 1 February 2025
We left Bilbao in a light rain and went west, in and out of raininess.
We saw the ocean—quick peeks—at least a half-dozen times.
When we cut inland, we encountered clouds above and with us.
In Europe, we’ve found far more frequent tunnels than in the USofA. A tunnel we went through before we reached Bilbao was almost 3 km (1.82 mi)—I forgot to look it up until now.
The elevations eventually had snow…from a storm that came through about three days back. Luck is with us.
We took a wee side trip to see the source of the Ebro River, where there’s a lovely little park…and the river’s first dam.
This is a monument to the river. With a mallard.
Just a few miles from the source are the upper reaches of a major reservoir on the river.
Then, the topography became more rugged, and we drove a bit in dramatic gorges.
Even the side drainages are dramatic.
Oops, look what we climbed into.
Fortunately, the road was clear and the temps waaaay too high for there to be ice.
This is the only town we went through where the buildings had exposed beams. I suspect many of the buildings have beams—they’re just clad in mortar or whatever.
Finally, we descended and the landscape opened up, and the fields are greeeeeen!
Hotel window view….
Friday, 31 January 2025
Different day, different museum: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, established 1908. This is the “Old Building;” behind it, the new is being reworked—note crane. The collection focuses on Basque and Spanish works.
This is Ramiro Arrue’s (1892-1971) “Euskaldunak karta jokoan,” meaning Basques playing cards.
He did it about 1919. I was fascinated by the footwear, especially the boots on the left with exterior laces.
Aurelio Artete did this in 1930–35, and called it “Euskal arrantzaleak,” or Basque fishermen. Again: footwear…. I’m wondering if the short boots are of rubber? They do look globular. Also: bare feet.
We saw one Picasso on display: “Still life with glass/bowl of fruit,” dating to 1937 (don’t know the original language of the name). In English, it’s “still life,” but in Spanish it’s “naturaleza muerta,” or, literally, dead nature.
They had three Goyas on display, including the side of the shipping crate they came in from France…I didn’t get the full story. This was the middle painting of the three (yes, I cropped it), the esteemed Bernard Tavira, dated about 1787-88.
Here’s a detail of the Señora’s carnation and ruff.
A few smaller rooms displayed fascinating historical documents and the like that normally no members of the public get to see. These are a pair of pages from “Corpus Iuris Civillis;” it dates to before 1477, and is in Gothic script. This is a later copy of a compilation of Roman laws from AD 117–565; the compilation was ordered by Emperor Justinian I, who was emperor from AD 527 to 565. This copy was made for Pierre de Laval, who became archbishop of Reims in 1473, and died in 1493. Many modern legal systems relate back to these laws.
Here’s a small section of the official document of excommunication of Henry VIII of England by Pope Clement VII and the Holy Council of Cardinals. This is an authorized copy sent to the Spanish court, and dates to 1531.
And then we were outside enjoying the sun…we found groundskeepers at work—here the fountain cleaners.
Here’s Bilbao’s river, the Nerbioi (Basque), or Nervion (English). This view is toward the mouth. This area was once the port area. With larger ships, it’s moved to the bay at the mouth. Note also that Bilbao, the city, is along the river, and the higher elevations are forested.
The façade of this building stood out to us both. It appears to be a private business…. BTW, that’s a pedestrian bridge to the left.
And, our riverfront trajectory brought us back to…this sculpture/building by Frank Gehry (born Frank Owen Goldberg, in 1929).
I very much enjoyed seeing Anish Kapoor’s “Tall Tree & The Eye” (2009) without raindrops.
Here’s this combo moto and lift that I posted yesterday from the other side.
Guggenheim detail. I think this is employee parking on the “back” side.
And, for giggles, a totally different façade, in town, away from the former port area.