First - The Journal

No, dear reader, I have not yet answered my e-mail, unpacked my bags or read all of my mail but here I am thinking of you and wanting to get something up after 2 weeks of nada. Spain was magnificent and Portugal almost better; everything went off without a hitch and we are back home again to our lonely little cat-boy and thriving garden. We owe all of our joy to our good friends here who watched our house and watered our plants; our dear Kay even had snacks waiting for us on our arrival home last night for which we were very grateful.

We ate like gluttons and drank like fish; walked all over every town we visited and I took over 750 photographs. Most of my photos are not very high quality but good enough to share over the web; who prints out pictures anymore? Unless, of course, we plan to collage them somewhere. But that's another story.

I took lots of pictures of castle windows and doors; door-knockers and graffiti. I met a bullfighter in the lobby of our hotel after watching him on the TV in the bar deliver the coup d'grace to a thundering bull (I know, I felt sorry for the bull too but the matador was oooh-la-la and the bull was huge and scary so you have to admit that it was amazing of him to have faced such terror). The suit of lights was fabulous, his physique amazing and his face to die for. Sheesh, what a thrill! I love me a matador.

We all agreed that Barcelona was the city with the most going for it from our perspective; the Gaudi architecture and tiles, the fun on the Rambles, the enormous outdoor market there, the tapa bars, the people from everywhere to marvel over. Exotic and yet familiar; it felt perfectly perfect.

I fell in love with the Alhambra like so many before me. I have always been attracted to moorish design and the gentle architecture of that place which communicated to me a spirit of people both poetic and gentle. Lovers of beauty and grace. Likewise the Mezquita in Seville, that former mosque with the light and dark arches. Photos coming; not too many but a few to share.

My other favorites were Rondo (Hemingway, Rilke, Orson Welles also loved this town) and Obidos. I feel guilty leaving anything or any place out. It was all good; eye opening and transforming.

But for now I must go and get some laundry done. Back to the nuts and bolts of daily life.