November Light

It´s been a whirlwind around here for so long I am starting to lose track of things. And people. And commitments.

Since I last wrote our friend Patrick the Czech said goodbye and headed on down the Camino. We had a little party for him, partly over at the James´ place, where he drank way too much tequila and played Pink Floyd hits on his guitar (that´s "Pinfloy" in Spanish), and he then showed us all how to roll our own cigarettes. Which may prove useful someday if and when I take up smoking!

As you can see, Libby has finished her Camino and is back with us! She lost about 15 pounds out there and is looking smokin´ hot. She is still recovering physically, so we haven´t yet put her on the chain gang.

Today we took a long drive north, into the Leonese mountains visible from our place on clear days, to a tiny end-of-the-line village called Lois. For some reason it is home to many luminaries in the history of Spanish education -- back in the late 1600s there were endowed primary and Latin schools here for the local boys, who in their turns grew up and became luminaries. Impressive. The town today is neat as a pin and only somewhat touristed, seeing as there´s not a whole lot to DO up there...And the twisty turny road up there, which follows a babbling trout stream, is populated by the occasional cow and horse. (there are no fences. The place was private pasture well before the one-lane road went in, so animals still take precedence.)

Even with its educational past, I didn´t see any children up there at all, but for the usual sprinkling of noisy tourist kiddies.

Aside from all this, we are having reputable contractors in to give us estimates on the big job ahead, and we´re taking a very large percentage of our savings OUT of the US dollar, which is going right down the tubes. America doesn´t seem to care about its currency, long as prices stay the same at home. What a gang of ostriches. May God have mercy on us all.

We decided there´s no hurry with the contractors, seeing as we have a warm place to sleep. I wish we had taken this attitude last year. It would have saved us countless tears and Euros, but we can´t seem to learn from others.

Here are some pics, too, of the amazing light. And one of the many trailer-loads of ´hunting dogs´all over the place these days... it´s quail season!