Musings

I was Weather Aware this morning when I took this at 7:30am New Time. As I recall, there was more orange along the horizon, or what passes for horizon here, so in my mind’s eye, it was a much more striking image.

We are even now very Weather Aware, listening to the noisy, gusting wind (to 47mph right now, my app says), and waiting for a nasty line of storms to come through, when is it? perhaps 11pm or midnight, then continuing for hours. Maybe I’ll really be able to sleep around 6am. I’m predicting yawns for most of tomorrow.

Note that I have not mentioned tr__s.

Posted at 9:46 PM | Comments Off on We are WA (WAWA)

We’re in that transition season when (some of) the grass is still winter-brown, with green accents from early turf-onions. Also, we may be in the coldest phase of this spring, and it’ll be warmer from here on (here’s hoping?).

Posted at 8:00 PM | Comments Off on Marking time

We’re supposed to have a front come through overnight, so windy storms, perhaps (hopefully?) weaker than the other weekend that caused us to need four large trees removed. Whew. Still, before the winds, somehow a fading camellia blossom found its way to our front steps this afternoon.

Posted at 8:52 PM | Comments Off on Relocated by wind

We’re coming out of a run of cold days, and we’re headed for some lovely warm days before cold rolls in again. The warmth is enough to get the pollen going, in a bit of an ironic twist.

Posted at 8:42 PM | Comments Off on Ahhh-chooo

Here’s where the deciduous magnolia trees/blooms were three years ago on this day; the buds are not this far along this year…and there’s a cold snap coming.

Posted at 9:06 PM | Comments Off on Looking back

The moon was bright this morning, even just after 6am. Clear and cold.

Posted at 9:29 PM | Comments Off on Sooooo bright

The “possible five inches” of rain turned out to be about two-and-a-half, which is far less…dangerous. Even more exciting: the sun came out almost all afternoon.

Posted at 8:26 PM | Comments Off on Sun…wheee

Today’s precip was on the misty-moisty end of the spectrum. The prediction I hear for the next two days is deluge…perhaps five inches.

Posted at 8:54 PM | Comments Off on Umbrella n boots

Today’s first stop was Numancia, one of the many locations that had pre-CeltIberian settlement, then CeltIberian, then a big rehab/redo by the Romans (who took it in 133 BC). As an additional treat, clouds brought moisture that the temperature converted into ice crystals.

Need I mention that we walked carefully?

Walls, hence occupation, seemingly go on forever.

A fancier dwelling….

On to Uxama. This tower dates to the al-Andalusian period, when Arabs controlled most of the peninsula, including this area. They built many watch-towers to consolidate and maintain their power. It worked for generations…until it didn’t. The castle to the right (red arrow) dates to the 10th–11th C, with later modifications. The river in between (blue arrow) is the Ucero.

Uxama is better known as a Roman city. If all this area had buildings, it was a very large city (I am not sure that it did). This excavated area is between the major hilltops; this view is to the southwest.

The domestic complex in this corner of this area includes and underground store-room (far right; bodega in Spanish).

We left the Roman world behind and checked out the Riaza valley near Montejo.

I’m guessing this is wheat. I’m guessing it’s doing pretty well. We’ve been seeing large piles of bales of wheat straw, just rotting…it appears they bale it with no market…is there a subsidy involved? Just trying to figure out the political economy….

See those lovely mountains below the narrow cloud layer? Tonight’s room is in a tiny village in their foothills.

We motored through this Medieval gate to check out central Ayllón.

Two civic-ceremonial buildings on the mostly Medieval main plaza…. I think the one on the left was a church, and perhaps still is, but the signs relate to non-religious usage.

A different view of this same end of the Plaza Major.

Construction detail…showing beams embedded in soft brick and adobe-type wall materials.

In contrast, this is the building material of the small village we’re staying in. I’m calling it slate.

It’s even visible on one wall of our lovely room.

Posted at 12:44 PM | Comments Off on Beyond Roman-ness

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….

Posted at 3:15 PM | 2 Comments »