Musings

First light from hotel room. The cloud cover soon dissipated.

We exited town by the back way—our first ford…in, amazingly, a Ford!

Infrastructure slope! From top to bottom…. Various electrical poles. Major regional irrigation water, in pipes, not open channels. Zigzag of roads on slope. Road bridge of at least three arches. Railroad bridge of two arches. Oh, and guardrail to keep us safe.

“I can see Madrid from “my” dead olive tree!” [Hint: tall buildings are visible just to the left of the tree, on the horizon.]

I can also see Madrid over this Medieval well with stabilized walls.

I can see my spouse atop a Medieval bridge!

The shady side of this gorge, where I stood to take the above photo, is so shady, the lichens were this prolific.

On the opposite side, the sunlight means happy mosses, with other types of lichen.

One of my favorite compositions of the day.

We drove up to a famous Late Paleolithic site (and museum) with Acheulean-style tools, with and many animal bone fossils and no hominid remains. We were welcomed first by this beast, two cats on the porch of the museum, and no one to allow us in. Oh, well. [Truth: we did know it would be closed by the time we arrived.]

There’s a day-moon from our last mile, and we’re at our hotel for the night. It’s only a little over an hour before the restaurant opens for dinner service. We worked up an appetite!

Posted at 1:38 PM | Comments Off on Not in Kansas

First time a pilot came out to apologize for a late flight—he did it twice, over the mic to all, then walked around and took questions. [Really: last night, but first part of flight in essence.]

First high-elevation corporate witticism I had to “share.” [We left about three hours late; our destination: Madrid.]

Best airline food I’ve ever eaten. Yum. Truly.

We took off in the rental car, headed north, and the first time we hit a dirt road we saw our first caballero.

First Roman villa. This is a late one, and the central courtyard-garden still sports a tree.

First five-arch Medieval bridge. Last modified in 1973.

First Neanderthal cave cluster (mostly protected from the elements with a roof or with small openings—fenced, so we couldn’t get closer).

First fabulous sky of the trip.

First mystery. Sign says the water isn’t potable.

First dramatic bottleneck/pass we’ve driven through.

First night’s hotel room view.

We’re getting into the swing of the Spanish lifestyle: we will dine tonight at 8:30; only two more hours to wait. Over and out.

Posted at 12:28 PM | 2 Comments »

Did you hear it snowed in Atlanta today? This was most of the three inches we got at our house.

Behind the treeline, that’s the local landmark Mercedes-Benz Stadium. You can see from the south line of the Marta train (which perennially has filthy windows, shown here). Here’s a hint: the south line ends at the airport, “the busiest in the world,” although perhaps not today with the number of cancellations. But not us!

Posted at 5:24 PM | Comments Off on Genuine white stuff, the cold kind

It’s not pretty, but it tells a story…gutter ice in sunshine, with leaves.

Posted at 8:22 PM | Comments Off on Still not-quite life

We had rain off and on all day, and I looked out into the gloom at one point, and a sprig of a 5 foot tree in the understory sported bright yellow leaves, such survivors.

I found out today that coral and jade are the 35th wedding anniversary materials.

Posted at 9:55 PM | Comments Off on Survivors = troopers ?

With a cold snap on its way, I sought flowers during my walk in the bright sunshine today. It’s 22°F colder now than when I walked. No lie.

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on Eye on the thermometer

Solid rain most of the day made hours and hours of mellifluous white noise.

Posted at 9:20 PM | Comments Off on [Headline? What headline?]

Speaking of tools, 🤣, we fired up the furnace yesterday to stave off the brrrrrrr. In truth, we’ve rolled into the winter side of autumn, after an unseasonably warm summer side of autumn.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on File under: it had to happen

We received our first rain with a chance of soaking in since Helene. Yay. It began last night and into the morning, and then the afternoon was merely overcast and damp.

Posted at 9:17 PM | Comments Off on Whew

Confession: this photo is from last week in the UP, a daisy-ish fleur in a mowed path, nestled in with a dusting of fallen leaves.

I thought it was dry up there, yet it’s dry dry dry here, too—no rain yet in this month in ATL, which is…WOW!…as it’s already the 23rd. OTOH, it’s great to see a flower even if the weather is especially arid and un-supporting of plants.

Posted at 9:37 PM | Comments Off on Weather watch (again)