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

We’re watching the weather around here…watching so closely I was exhausted and crashed early…hence the late post. 😇

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Waiting game

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

I do enjoy a day-moon against a blue-sky.

Posted at 8:28 PM | Comments Off on Look beyond the obstacles

I’m guessing that’s a beech, the one with the tan leaves. They hold them very long, and bud out early.

The messy green shrub in front is, I think, some kind of honeysuckle nastiness. I say that because it offers little in the way of pretty.

Posted at 9:32 PM | Comments Off on Shrubbiness posing

I find my mind keeps going back to the dinosaur track fossils found northwest of London in 2023 and reported this week, especially the drone shots that show the entire nearly 200 yards of prints. Amazing.

[Confession: I stole this photo from my 2022 archive, still 5 January, however.]

Posted at 9:35 PM | Comments Off on Old news

Four of us enjoyed a delayed holiday meal today, with a turkey-dressing theme…missed the cranberry sauce…I’m glad the gravy turned out so tasty.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on Postponed yumminess

It was still pretty dark this morning when this critter trundled purposefully past the back door and around the house, zoom: gone. I thought: “Silver Streak” and chuckled har har har.

Posted at 8:22 PM | Comments Off on Not-rat