Signs of Spring

Spring is popping up here - and it's just February 28. I have lived many, many years in a climate that has a much longer winter and this is a really wild sensation.

I still have all my sweaters out. Our winter was so mild there are two heavy ones I never wore. I think the winter here has the potential to be colder than it happened to be this year, but it ends much earlier that's for certain.

We get most of our rain through the winter, so the usually brown hills around us are greening up. The pansies in our yard never died during the winter so they are popping up with flowers. The early blooming trees are sprouting white and pink petals. It's hard to believe it's so early.

I feel a little guilty about enjoying this since everyone has had such a hard winter. I have to remind myself to get out and enjoy it now because it will get really, really hot later.

Another sign of spring is strawberries. My favorite fruit. Last year I missed them because I thought it was some weird hot house aberration last year when they came in February. I'm learning that things disappear after they go out of season, so you have to enjoy them while they last.

Not sure if this will show up very well, but tonight we had a brief shower and a very strong rainbow with the beginning of a double. The end of the rainbow was out in the wild lands behind our house. First on a power line poll which is kind of funny because that is a pot of gold for someone. Then the end of the rainbow moved to the rabbit warren we can see, hmmm.

The long weekend

We went to go skiing about an hour away from home. When we got to the hotel we found out the snow was gone. So we went site seeing instead.


Kerry and our car by a Roman church, waaaaay out in the country.


A medieval town, Sepulveda where we ate lunch at Casa Paulino.


Yes, that's an egg in my soup. Along with chunks of bread and meat somewhere between bacon and ham. Tasty actually, especially on a cold day.



Madriguera, a red village. Nearby are also black villages. The earth was drastically red and so were the buildings. It was a surreal place. It felt like another time and place in the world.


This must the home of the people who like animals in Madriguera. Cats were everywhere around this place.


Ayllon, another medieval town with a Roman church further to the north. Sunday, no one around and only the restaurant/bars were open.

We raced from Ayllon down to an appointment to go through a cave. It was a guided tour, in Spanish, and pretty interesting. Some of the formations were multi colored, red, black and white due to minerals in the ground water. We went from there to a gas station to buy a bottle of water. Then our car wouldn't start. This is when we made friends with the gas station attendent, the tow truck driver, and a taxi driver. Because I left the keys to the hotel in the now towed away car, we had to sit for two hours in a bar and wait for the hotel owner to come back. We were the only guests so he'd locked up and gone to visit his dad in the hospital. We were tired to put it lightly.

Monday we took a taxi back home, yes an hour long taxi ride. That's what the insurance company said to do and they will pay us back. I sure hope so as it was over 100E. The car is at a garage in Madrid now, after a lovely language snafu on my part. A blow to my confidence language-wise. Now we are waiting to hear what's wrong and hoping it is covered by the warrantee.

Not dull, you can say that.

Blogger Aggravated

I've been trying to post comments on all your blogs the last few weeks. I'm so frustrated. Blogger kept pestering me to join the great new google version, so I finally did. I deeply regret it. Now I can't seem to get a comment up. Okay I'm exaggerating a little, but I just lost my comment to Golden's latest blog because I suddenly was swooped away to the google page which then brought me to my own post/internal blog workings. So what happened to my comment?! Also the word verification wasn't working one week. I kept seeing the letters, then entering them. Then a new screen would come up and say I didn't enter them and to do it again. But then there would be no image of the letters, just a ? box. I'm so frustrated, but want you all to know I am trying to keep up on your lives. Obviously, if one of you computer gurus know the answer I'd be glad to be educated!