Meandering on the Way

April 1, 2025

Meandering on the Way — March 25 to March 31, 2025

Tuesday, March 25th

We went to the Palace Hotel for lunch today, at the invitation of E’s godson Pedro, an architect who works at the hotel. A large part of his job is involved with the ongoing renovation/restoration of the hotel, which was built in 1912. Two hotels were constructed in Madrid that year—the Palace and the Ritz. They were built near each other in a neighborhood close to the Prado art museum, each vying to be more luxurious than the other. This competition continues today; the current restoration of the Palace will cost about one hundred million dollars. When it is complete, the Palace will be upbranded from Marriott/Westin to Marriott Luxury Collection.

On the main floor there are some 17th century tapestries that were part of the original 1912 decor. You can see part of one of them in the photo below. They have all been recently restored and look amazing.

The restaurant in the picture is called The Cupola and if you look up at the ceiling, you can see why. The dome is the original construction from 1912, but it too has just been restored, having been entirely disassembled with each individual piece of glass being either cleaned or replaced.

The main entrance has also been restored to be just as it was in 1912, as has the reception lobby just inside. Lots of marble in there.

The library was empty, which was nice because it meant that Pedro could give us a quiet look around.

On the wall is a framed bar napkin dating from the 1930’s. The figures were drawn by Salvador Dali; the poem is by Federico Garcia Lorca. It reads: Alfonso doce de plata/vuela en la moneda blanca/De corcho y de hoja lata/Mi cuerno de la abundancia/Me gasté en el bar del Palace/Mis monedillas de agua.

Wednesday, March 26th

We visited Aranjuez today, a town that was first established some five hundred years ago as the site of a summer palace. Today it is a town of 60,000, but until 1752, only members of the royal family were allowed to live there. There’s a palace, of course, and several huge courtyards. The main attractions are the extensive gardens, the biggest of which is the Island Garden—which is partially enclosed by a bend in the Tajo river and features dozens of big old trees as well as smaller plantings.

We had hoped to arrive early, but as it happened we didn’t arrive until…lunchtime! So we had the menu del día at a restaurant outside the palace grounds. It was the traditional kind of place with heavy white tablecloths and complementary rolls which the waiter tosses, not onto your starter plate, but just onto the tablecloth next to you. Good.

Another attraction of the site is the Museo de Falúas Reales. The Spanish word ‘falúa’ translates to ‘barge’ but these are recreational barges, not cargo carriers, and they have their own propulsion system—a bunch of guys pulling heavy oars. The Tajo river runs past the Aranjuez palace and long ago a weir was built to create a one-kilometer-long stretch of calm water. It seems that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was fashionable for kings to have nice boats that they could go float around in whenever they felt like it. They weren’t for travel, just for fun. In England, Henry the Eighth had one for toddling around on the Thames. For the Spanish kings, Aranjuez was the favorite place to go barging and the museum holds five well-restored barges from the era.

It was a long walk to the see the barges, a walk which took us through many acres of royal fields and fruit trees.

This is the smallest of the barges on display. To our eyes, it was also the prettiest. It’s built of mahogany.

This was the oldest barge…and pretty much the ugliest.

Once we’d finished with the barge museum, it was time to get back to the train station and return to Madrid. The train line between Madrid and Aranjuez is a little bit special. It was completed in 1851 and was just the second rail line ever built in Spain. So why wasn’t it the first one? Something else was more important than taking the king to his boats?

Thursday, March 27th

Finally made it to the Thyssen Bornemisza museum today. Wonderful place. Here are some things we noticed.

Autumn by Frederic Church. 1875. The Thyssen has a whole room full of paintings from the Hudson River School .

Here’s another American scene: New York Street with Moon by Georgia O’Keefe

The Viaduct by Paul Delvaux, 1963. Delvaux was a Belgian painter who is said to have been obsessed with nudes, trains, nightfall, hanging lights, and mirrors. This one hits four of the five.

Friday, March 28th

Today our friend M-HP met us in the city at Moncloa and we rode the bus out to Galapagar-La Navata, the northern suburb where he lives. We had lunch at a restaurant called Tablao and then went with him to pick up his two granddaughters from school. The girls are ten and twelve, so they both attend the same colegio. It was interesting to see how the parents came to pick up their kids. In Corvallis, we just have long lines of cars in which drivers wait patiently for the kids to come out and hop in. But at this school, the parents park their cars, get out, and walk over to the main gate, which is closed at that point and watched over by a guard. Then, about five minutes before school lets out, the guard opens the gate and the parents go into the school grounds and take up position near whatever door they know their kids will exit from. In our case, we waited in the back of the school by the playground…

When M-HP’s granddaughters came out, the five of us—in a throng of other parents and kids—walked back to the front of the school and exited through the same gate that we had entered.

We all went to the kids’ house and the girls had a little snack that Grandpa had bought them at the restaurant. E particularly enjoyed seeing the girls, as they are the granddaughters of her friend Margie who passed away two years ago. E was touched that the older girl told her that when she grows up she wants to be an English teacher “like Grandma.”

Saturday, March 29th

Our stay here is almost over. Today we met our friends L&M and M&P in Rivas to say our final goodbyes. Of course this involved another nice meal, this time at an Italian restaurant named Cabiria. Anyone recognize the name? We didn’t, but now we know that the restaurant was named for the main character in the 1957 Fellini film Nights of Cabiria. The decor was quite amusing and artistic.

We were very lucky that it was a sunny day and we spent time before and after the dinner sitting on L&M’s back terrace next to the swimming pool. That’s where we got dessert:

As we said goodbye, we all wondered if this might be the last time we would see each other. Travel gets harder as we age and Corvallis is a long, long way from Madrid.

Sunday, March 30th

This morning E went out to a bakery and got us a couple of fresh chocolate croissants. Clearly, she is well adapted to this environment. After breakfast, the day’s main question was whether all our stuff is going to fit into our suitcases.

Later, with cases mostly packed, we returned to our local restaurant for one last Spanish meal.

Monday, March 31st

We got up at 3:00am this morning and took an Uber to the airport. After checking bags, scanning our VAT refund code, getting through security, and finding our gate, we finally had breakfast around 5:00. By 6:30 we were in the air headed for Amsterdam; by 10:35 we were in another airplane, this one headed over the pole to Portland.

The plane was a KLM 787 configured to have a “Comfort Premium” section that sits just behind first class and in front of economy. The key comfort feature is space–lots of leg room, oodles of foot room and lots of space on both sides. It’s really nice. Our Delta flight to Europe from JFK had also been on a 787 with the same Comfort Premium configuration.

Although our section was toward the front, we were not permitted to use the First Class bathrooms. Of course not! So, from our section, if you wanted to go to the bathroom, you had to push aside a curtain and walk back through the economy section for a ways. That was a weird experience. As soon as you push that curtain aside, the sight before you is appalling. Oh my god, you think, look at these people, the way they’re jammed together. And you know just what it feels like because you’ve been there. And then right after that, you can’t stop yourself from feeling a twinge of superiority because you’re so much better off than those poor souls. And that makes you feel guilty. Why does it have to work this way? What have I done, you ask, to deserve this superior experience? Not that much, really, nothing you can think of offhand.

The weather was clear, but the view out the window was pretty dull, just many hours of featureless Arctic whiteness. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t quite so featureless any more.

As the plane descended into Portland, we both had the same feeling: our long stay in fantasyland was over. We were back in the real world. We got back to Corvallis at around two in the afternoon, twenty hours after that first Uber came to pick us up at Calle Piamonte at 3:00 in the morning. We have more or less survived—we think.

March 24, 2025March 24, 2025

Meandering on the Way — March 18 to 24, 2025

Tuesday, March 18th

We did some grocery shopping today. The store is just 600 feet away, which isn’t very far, but we do have to walk home carrying all that stuff. And suppose that your items happened to include, as was the case today, a liter of newly squeezed orange juice, 1.2 liters of San Pellegrino, 1.25 litres of limonada, and a bottle of wine. At one point, M wondered if maybe we should stop buying so many liquids. E showed little enthusiasm for that idea, but she did pull one of the bottles out of M’s bag and place it in her own.

Once our larder was resupplied, we had a light lunch and then set off for a visit to the Prado Museum. We took the metro and got off at a stop called Estación del Arte (Art Station—kind of a no-brainer.) When we came up out of the metro, rain was pouring down like crazy; and it turned out the Estación del Arte is actually three fourths of a mile away from the building that has the art in it. There were rivers running everywhere in the streets and you needed to stay far away from where the cars were splashing by. When we finally got to the museum, we were pretty damp despite our raincoats. Luckily, the museum was warm and over the next hour or two we slowly dried off.

It’s a big museum, so we planned to focus on just three artists: Velasquez, Goya, and Federico de Madrazo, Madrazo being the painter who did the portrait of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda that we liked so much at the Galdiano Museum last week.

First we found the big Velasquez section, which of course included Las Meninas. Then in the Goya section we saw many portraits of Spanish aristocrats (yawn) but also some other things, like Two Old Men Eating Soup and the double masterpiece Second of May/Third of May, 1908 about violence during the French invasion of Spain. And somewhere along the line we also found another striking painting by Madrazo: the Portrait of Amalia Llano.

We also found the coffee shop on Floor 0. It is huge and efficient. So nice to have a place to sit for a spell. That gave us enough energy to buy a couple of t-shirts. And when we got outside again, had the rain stopped? Yes.

Wednesday, March 19th

We went to the city of Toledo today. Instead of driving or going by train, we had decided to book a bus tour. That meant that we had to get ourselves down to Callao in time for a 9:00 AM departure. The bus was huge and very full. The weather was fine, no rain in Madrid and a lot of sun forecast for Toledo. It was a one hour ride to Toledo and the first part was pretty drab as we passed through an endless succession of business parks and light industrial sites that lined both sides of the freeway. E remembered that the area had long been known as the place you went to buy furniture. And still today, there are lots of furniture outlets. Oddly enough, we also law lots of Asian restaurants—hot pot shops and so on. Does this mean that Spaniards who make furniture tend to like Asian food? Maybe. But more likely it indicates that Chinese furniture maker reps make frequent visits here.

During the second half of the trip the views improved a little, showing us some open country and green fields. And when we got to the city of Toledo the views got radically better, which is one reason people like to go to Toledo. In the first phase of our tour the bus drove us around the edges of the old town so we could experience some of its more photogenic aspects.

The city was originally founded on easily defensible high ground above the river. The earliest remains are from the Bronze Age.

The old city is set in a bend of the Tagus River, the longest river in the Iberian peninsula. As you can see, rain in the region has been plentiful this year. The previous two years were dry.

Big tour buses cannot navigate the streets of the old city, so our bus dropped us off at a place at the bottom of the hill. Our bus load of 60 tourists was separated into two groups of 30. Headphones and radio receivers were distributed, and our two guides led us onto a long series of escalators that took us up to where the action was. We spent two hours walking around with the guide. Among the high points was an old synagogue that looked more like a mosque to us, but which in any case had been turned into a church when Spain ejected the Jews in 1492. Just a year earlier, the Christian armies of Castille and Aragon had ended the Muslim presence by winning the battle for Granada. Those two developments marked a major change; Muslims had been living in Spain for eight hundred years while Jews had been around for more than a thousand.

This meant that in Toledo’s formative years, it was inhabited by members of all three religions, who managed to live together largely in harmony. Today all of the tourist brochures call it “a city of three cultures.” So why not go there and take a look at a synagogue that looks like a mosque, which has been turned into a church?

The gold decoration at the back was added when the building became a church. Previously the back wall might have been plain white.

Another stop on the tour was at the church of Santo Tomé to see a famous El Greco painting called The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. It was painted in 1586 to depict events said to have occurred in Toledo 250 years before. In 1323 a miracle occurred when two saints (St. Stephen and St. Augustine) came down from heaven to personally lay to rest the body of a nobleman and philanthropist named Don Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo, a.k.a. The Count of Orgaz.

Our guide pointed out some interesting aspects of this painting. First we have to understand that the bottom half shows the scene down on earth where the burial is going on; the top part is meant to show heaven where Don Gonzalo’s soul is being welcomed in. Something else we might notice in the earthly half is that everybody is either watching the body be interred or else gazing up at heaven—except for two figures on the left just next to the robed figure.

The two figures are El Greco himself and his son. El Greco is the one who is looking somewhere off to the left and El Greco junior is looking straight out at us and pointing to the part of the picture where the main action is. Our guide said that El Greco deliberately depicted himself as not looking at the burial because he wanted to make it clear that he had not personally witnessed the miracle, (which occurred 200 years before he was born.) That almost makes sense…but not quite.

Another tour stop was the massive Toledo cathedral with its many incredible decorations. But sometimes we tire of cathedrals, so here is a clip that includes just one of the cathedral towers along with a little of the street below.

Thursday, March 20th

We spent this day doing chores around the house and exploring the neighborhood. For lunch we got take-out from a deli just a couple of blocks away. We’d passed by it several times but had never been inside. It turned out to be interesting. E got a sort of twice-baked eggplant dish: half a long eggplant stuffed with chopped eggplant, tomatoes and sweet peppers. M got a pastrami sandwich. We had heard from M-HP that pastrami was having a moment in Madrid and sure enough, there it was, right in our neighborhood.

Later on we went out for a drink at a restaurant called 11 Knots. We sat out on their terrace. It was just what E had been looking for and we were there right at sunset. Not that we saw any sunset. For one thing, the sky was totally cloudy and for another, the main view from the 11 Knots terrace is of the upper floors of the apartment building across the street. But still, it was a treat to be up high above some of the streets where we walk every day. As we were sipping, a light rain began to fall. Happily, the terrace had a big awning and several heat sources, so that was nice too.

Friday, March 21st

E invited a guest for a late lunch today. We got some lasagna from our newly discovered deli and E made a salad. Our guest brought dessert: an amazing pistachio cheesecake. (It seems that cheesecake is also much in fashion here.)

Since we were entertaining, we decided to use the formal dining room…

Saturday, March 22nd

Dinner at M and P’s with the old gang. Wonderful meal and lively conversation.

The occasion featured two desserts: Milhojas de Crema and Pastel Ruso.

Milhojas originated in France, where it is called Mille-Feuille. (Either way, that comes out as Thousand Sheets.) This is an internet photo of Milhojas de Crema; The one we had looked better than this, but unfortunately we did not take pictures.

Pastel Ruso was also invented in France, to honor the occasion of Czar Alexander the Second’s visit to the Paris Exhibition of 1855. But Spanish sources say that it is neither Russian nor French. It was created by a team of Spanish chefs who had been brought to France by Napoleon the Third’s wife, Eugenia de Montijo. She was from Granada and when she married and moved to Paris, she took her cooks with her.

Sunday, March 23rd

Just a relaxing Sunday. We decided to go for a walk in Retiro Park, which is not so far away; but when we got there, we found that the whole park was closed! They had some weak excuse, but never mind. The weather was mostly sunny and it was nice just to walk around town a little, stopping for coffee and a shared dessert along the way.

Monday, March 24th

Error Alert! Contrary to what you may have read in one of our previous posts, the modern incarnation of MG Motors does in fact make smallish convertibles. This is the Cyberster, made by SAIC in China. It is 20 inches longer than a 1962 MGB roadster and, being an EV, weighs more than twice as much. Not really a sports car.

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

Meandering on the Way — March 11 to 17, 2025

Tuesday, March 11th

We set off to Barcelona today, primarily to see the current state of the Sagrada Familia, which is, of course, a Catholic church. But because it has been designated by the Pope as being of special importance, it might be best referred to as a basílica. Whatever you call it, it is certainly unique. When the building was begun in 1872, the initial plan was to construct a conventional gothic style church. But that definitely did not happen. For whatever reason, in 1873 the original architect resigned and was replaced by Antonio Gaudí, who created a new design that mixed gothic elements with Modernismo, an artistic and cultural movement related to Art Nouveau. Gaudí continued to apply his extremely fertile brain to the project until his death in 1926, at which point the project was about one quarter complete. In the following years, progress was slow and sporadic. In 1985, when M last saw it, the building had a couple of impressive looking towers but not much in the way of walls. Since then, however, things have speeded up, partly due to advances in construction techniques, especially computer aided design and milling. The goal now is to have the building essentially finished by 2026, the 100 year anniversary of Gaudí’s passing.

Our Sagrada Familia tickets were for Wednesday, so today we just did a little warm-up by going to see what is probably the most famous Gaudí-designed residence, the Casa Battló, which is located on a broad Barcelona avenue called Passeig de Gracia.

And while we’re in the neighborhood, here’s another house just two doors up the street.

Wednesday, March 12th

The Sagrada Familia is a massive tourist attraction, so when you buy your tickets online, you also get an assigned entry time. In costs $38 to enter, unless you want to go up in one of the towers, in which case it costs $80. But never mind that, because you have to reserve weeks or months in advance for the towers. We arrived at the site about half an hour before our scheduled entry time. So we sat down at an outdoor cafe to have some coffee and take a picture. It wasn’t quite warm enough to sit outside, but the view was great, so we enjoyed it anyway.

The main structure is more or less complete, but, several of the towers remain unfinished.

Soon it was time to make our entrance through the east side of the building, which is named the Nativity Facade.

This facade was the only one that was completed during Gaudi’s lifetime.

Here you can see some details. Gaudí was fond of details.

Next it was time to go inside. There, things looked a little different. The branching pillars are just one striking feature of the interior.

One thing that is finished is the stained glass. It is awesome.

Some of the interior columns have embellishments that are sure to be symbolic of…something or other.

Eventually we were ready to go outside again. We exited on the opposite side of the building. As we came out, we saw lots of people looking up toward something just above the our heads. When we also turned to look, we saw what is called the Passion Facade. Gaudi designed the church to have three great facades, all very different looking. Two of the facades of are finished and the third, the Glory Facade, is still under construction.

After the church, it was time to meet Andrea’s cousin P and his father J for lunch. After a fifteen minute walk, we met them at a restaurant called Molina de Pez, (The Fish Mill.) It was a long, leisurely meal with lots of interesting conversation. P has studied at McGill and later at Harvard and also has an interest in veterinary medicine. His father and Roberto were cousins, so J also knew Roberto’s father. J remembered meeting E once before, when she and Roberto made a visit to Barcelona while they were living in Madrid in the 70’s.

Besides some talking, there was also some eating. For starters there were croquetas de jamón serrano, ostras, and boquerones fritos—ham croquettes, oysters, and fried anchovies. For their main course, E and M split a sea bass, which was presented whole and then separated by our server at the table. A fish should swim thrice, they used to say, once in the ocean, once in butter and once in good wine. Yup. And by the way, if anyone is wondering what fried anchovies taste like, M notes that they do not taste anything like the anchovies that are found on some particularly unpalatable pizzas. Fried anchovies are good.

Thursday, March 13th

We got up and had breakfast at our hotel: the Catalonia Park Putxet. You have to pay extra to get breakfast there, but it’s an awfully good breakfast. Eve still raves about the eggs. And the orange juice came from one of those machines that squeeze some oranges for you while you wait. Oh yeah. Today we were able to have a leisurely breakfast before packing up and heading back to Madrid.

On this trip we traveled by train. There are several different companies that operate intercity trains in Spain, all of them running at around 150 MPH. Our Iryo train included one intermediate stop in Zaragoza and covered the 380 miles from Barcelona to Madrid in a total of two hours and forty-five minutes. That speed is about normal for high speed rail in Spain. For comparison, trains in China run at around 180 MPH while Japanese bullet trains and some German trains run at around 200 MPH. Japan, China and Germany also have a limited number of maglev trains, which travel at about 350 MPH.

Friday, March 14th

Today we had to go downtown to pick up E’s new pants from the seamstress. The shop was called The Little Seamstresses, but we only saw one. She was normal sized and also delightful. M’s Spanish lesson of the day consisted of the words written in white on the sign—dressmaking, tailoring and alterations.

While we were downtown, we made an obligatory stop at another of E’s favorite places, a rooftop eating area called the Terraza Corte Inglés Callao that is also, apparently, known as the Corte Inglés Gourmet Experience Gran Via. This is a little confusing whether you speak Spanish or not. Anyway, we got there around 12:30 PM, early enough so that it wasn’t too crowded; so we were able to get a tiny table by the window. We had a vermut and a snack and looked down at the city, just as E had done so many times in a former era.

Saturday, March 15th

Today we went out to meet E’s old friend M. (This M used to work at Hewlett-Packard, so we will be referring to him as M-HP to avoid confusion with M-OSU.) He took us walking along the banks of the Manzanares River. The area used to be a freeway but is now a long, park-like river walk, a change that happened partly because two sections of the above ground freeway were converted to tunnels in the mid 2000’s. M-HP grew up in a nearby neighborhood that is located just across the river from the Royal Palace Gardens. When he lived there, it formed the extreme edge of the city. The city has expanded greatly since, but the area where he lived has changed little.

It is a very quiet area, completely different from the hubbub and tourist crush of the main downtown plazas, which are not all that far away. At least we thought it was quiet, until M-HP motioned us in through the doorway of the old Tirso de Molina Market. We say “old” because the place had clearly been built to house an open market back in the days before we had grocery stores. So you have to imagine a largish rectanglar space with an iron frame holding up a simple roof to keep the food vendors from getting rained and snowed upon. This view shows the basic idea:

This is a nice enough picture, but it has one big problem, at least from our point of view. When we were there, instead of three people on this aisle, there were twenty or so. And of course it does not show all of the food sellers. There are in fact 15 retail stands or mini-shops, including five butcher shops, two charcuteries, one bakery, one fruit and vegetable stand, one gourmet foods shop, one Asian market, one pickle and olive stand, one fresh fish seller, one organic food shop, and one cake and pastry stand. There are also a few restaurants and bars in the market, eighteen of them in fact. We said that the space was largish, but it isn’t that large, so all those bars and restaurants have to be small. The eateries spill out into the aisles and the whole place was jammed with customers. The customers were all drinking one thing or another—mostly beer. All them were talking and they were all talking loud enough to be heard above the noise of all the other talkers. And so, once we passed through the door, the neighborhood totally stopped being quiet. We found that it all worked quite smoothly and it was pretty clear that a good time was being had by all.

We put our name in for a table in the paella restaurant and drank a vermut at a bar nearby. The bar was just a tiny stand but was hugely busy. We spent 20 minutes there and then sat down at the paella place to eat. E had a portion of vegan paella with artichokes and M had some paella Valenciana, a carnivore’s dish that is made with the (unwilling) assistance of chickens and rabbits. It was pretty good, but he still prefers the seafood varieties.

There were six different paellas on offer.

Lastly, here’s proof that we are not just making all this up. We are actually in Madrid.

Sunday, March 16th

Today’s expedition was to the Lázaro Galdiano Museum. Galdiano lived from 1862 to 1947 and spent most of his life in Madrid. A number of sources describe him as “a journalist, magazine editor, and collector.” Okay, fine. But check out his house, which is now the home of the museum. Is this the house of a magazine editor?

Construction of the house began in 1904, soon after Galdiano’s 1903 marriage to Paula Florido y Toledo. The museum website describes Florido as a “dama rica Argentina, tres veces viuda (a rich Argentine woman, three times a widow.) Okay…that might partly explain the house, which nowadays contains a huge collection of things: paintings, furniture, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, coins, and weapons, most dating from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The most interesting painting for E was this portrait of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a 19th century Cuban-born Spanish writer.

E remembers reading one of her books for a college Spanish class and being impressed to have a woman writer included in the curriculum. There was also a nice El Greco painting called Saint Francis in Ecstasy. In addition to the paintings, the entire interior of the house is a work of art in itself and the old furniture pieces are amazing.

This 400 year old table is beautiful, but it has a broken piece of inlay, so it’s probably not worth much.

This desk is in better shape, but it doesn’t have any holes to put your cords through, so what good is it?

Monday, March 17th

Nothing much going on today, just resting up and doing a little planning. Also laundry and maybe a little purse shopping. Only two weeks left here.

March 10, 2025March 10, 2025

Meandering on the Way — March 3 to 10, 2025

Monday, March 3rd

The day started with an hour long metro journey to the airport. We had to negotiate a couple of flights of stairs along the way, but that was okay. This time we were travelling light—no big suitcases. There were masses of people at Barajas airport and at first the security check area looked like chaos. But it turned out that the lines were moving amazingly fast. The only hard part was that Barajas Terminal 4 is one of those places that is primarily a shopping mall and only incidentally an airport.

It was a two-hour flight to Naples, time enough for a very good meal. As our plane descended, we got a pretty view of the Bay of Naples. Everything went smoothly at the airport and pretty soon we were out in the sunshine trying to figure out where to catch the shuttle to the rental cars. We’d been following signs, but the signs had pretered out. We found the shuttle anyway, and twenty minutes later we were behind the wheel of an MG, the first Chinese car we had ever been in. For those of a certain age, the MG part might sound strange, but we assure you it’s true. In Europe and Asia MG is a major car brand. MG’s are produced in China by a company called SAIC. They make sedans and SUV’s instad of little convertibles, but they do legally own the MG trademark.

The moment we pulled out of the rental car lot was the point at which our Italian adventure really began. With M driving and E helping Siri navigate, we had to get ourselves out of Naples and onto the autopista, then drive thirty or so miles to the city of Pompei and find our hotel. We didn’t do it the easy way because of course we missed an important early turn. And of course driving in Italy is…a little different. We recognized it though; it was like driving in Cyprus, except just a little easier because at least in Italy they drive on the right. So the actual driving part wasn’t bad. Navigating was harder. Siri was generally okay, but not always precise. E quickly learned how to make up for those shortcomings and whaddya know, after a while there we were in front of our hotel, right across the street from the Pompei Archaeological Park. But now what? We knew that the hotel offered free parking, but there was no indication of where that might be. This being Italy, we stopped in a No Parking zone and E went into the hotel to ask. Turns out, you had to go around to a little side street, stop at a locked gate and push a button. We did that and after a moment the gate started to slide open. As M maneuvered the MG through the opening, we saw that we were entering a very lovely combination car park and people park. The first thing we noticed was a huge lemon tree bearing equally huge lemons. We thought they were grapefruit—but they weren’t. Anyway…whew. Long day. And prettiest parking lot we’ve ever seen.

Turesday, March 4th

This was the big day! We’d booked a tour with an archeologist guide that started at 10:00. We met our group at a place called Porta Marina, which, back in 79 AD, was one of the main gates into the city of old Pompei. Old Pompei was a port city, and the Porta Marina was very close to the docks. Before we walked up through the gate we were in fact standing directly above where the old docks had been. The eruption threw out so much debris that the old docks were now thirty feet below us and the sea was more than a mile away.

The Pompei Archeological Park is a big place and our guided tour covered only a part of it, but there was plenty to see.

Of course we got to see some of the plaster casts that give such detailed representations of some of the victims. Many people died quickly, being buried under tons of hot ash. Over time, their bodies and clothing decomposed, leaving hollow spaces in the layer of volcanic debris. A man named Giuseppe Fiorelli was the first archeologist to develop a technique for using these spaces as molds to make plaster casts.

We also saw a number of surviving mosaic floors and frescoed walls.

This mosaic is at the entrance of a place called the Wounded Bear Tavern.

Inside the Wounded Bear, there is a well-preserved shrine and a partially complete fresco.

One of the best frescos we saw was this one.

These photos may not show it, but in fact there were tourists everywhere in the park. The photo below was taken at what seemed to be the most popular attraction of all. It was, of course, an ancient brothel. The photo shows one of the rooms. In the tavern part of the establishment, which was just across a very narrow street, archeologists have been able to read the posted price list. Glass of wine: 1 coin. Glass of really good Falernian wine: 4 coins. Prostitute: 2 coins.

And speaking of sex, penises were everywhere in old Pompei. They symbolized fertility, growth and prosperity, so having a phallus displayed was thought to ensure the success of a business. Below is an example. It appears on the outside wall of some kind of shop, just above the name of the business.

Of course, no good luck charm is infalible, and 79 AD was a really bad year…

And finally, in this picture taken from the window of our hotel breakfast room, we see a tranquil view of Vesuvius, the mountain that caused it all.

That’s Vesuvius on the left. Mt Somma, to the right, is a much older volcano that has collapsed.

Wednesday, March 5th

Early morning sights and sounds from our hotel room balcony..

You might think that Vesuvius would be satisfied with burying one city under thousands of tons of debris. But no. During the two-day eruption, the wind direction varied. At some point the wind blew north toward the city of Herculaneum. So that town too was buried, and hundreds of people died there as well. Only a small area of Herculaneum has been uncovered, but we heard that the ruins there were in somewhat better condition than the ones in Pompei. So, after breakfast we packed a lunch, fired up the MG, and set out to see if we could find them. Eventually, after a certain amount of trial and error, we did.

Like the Pompei ruins, the Herculaneum ruins are bordered by a modern cityscape. Also like old Pompei, old Herculaneum was a port city, right at the edge of the sea. More than a hundred people died beneath the arches at the bottom of this photo. They had gathered there in hopes of escaping the city by boat.

This was a food stand/restaurant. There are tons of these in both Pompei and Herculaneum. Archeologists think that most people in Pompei were poor and did not cook food in the small spaces that they lived in. Everybody got cheap take-out.

These frescos are inside a building used by a group who worshipped the god/emperor Augustus

There is a nice little park in the middle of the Herculaneum ruins. It has Mediterranean pines, olive trees, pomegranate trees, and a flower or two. There is also a little glass booth full of books and magazines and, best of all, a big rack of lounge chairs for anyone who feels like resting for a while.

And if you don’t want to read—maybe because most of the reading material is in Italian—you can just lie back and enjoy the view upward.

Thursday, March 6th

Since 79 AD, there have been more than two dozen further eruptions on Vesuvius. These have been relatively small, but still have caused many fatalities. A major eruption today would be catastrophic. Three million people live near Vesuvius, making it the most potentially life threatening volcano in the world.

Today we went to see the top of the mountain. A small tour bus took us most of the way; we hiked the last mile.

The red building is where the bus dropped us off. You can see a fairly recent lava flow at the base of the mountains.

The mountain still has a little steam action going on.

Our flight back to Spain was going to leave very early the next morning. So at the end of the day we drove to back to Naples and checked into a hotel near the airport, saying goodbye to the MG in the process.

Friday, March 7th

The Naples airport is old and a little cramped, not much fun at 5:00 in the morning. But it did its job and we were in the air by 6:30. We were on the ground in Madrid by 9:00 and back into our little apartamento by 10:00. We did some grocery shopping and some laundry and in the evening made ourselves a non-Italian dinner of tuna sandwiches and gazpacho. The food in Pompei was fine, but it was also tourist town Italian, with masses of cheese and carbs. We needed a break.

Saturday, March 8th

We did some miscellaneous errands today: pharmacy, grocery shopping for what we forgot yesterday, and some general searching for this and that.

We ate dinner at home again, still trying to keep it simple: garbanzos and rice with a few spoons of homemade chutney. This was followed by a chocolate or two from a Madrid shop call La Mallorquina. Couldn’t stay away from that.

Sunday, March 9th

We met L and daughter S for lunch today. They were in the neighborhood visiting the archeological museum, so meeting up was easy. We ate at a nearby restaurant and then invited them back to our place for tea. E had been dying to do this and it was fun. It was also nice to get to know S a little better, especially since she showed us how to get more channels on our TV.

Monday, March 10th

¡Chocolate con churros in la Chocolateria San Ginés! Nos sentamos en la sala principal al lado de una foto de Tina Turner.

March 2, 2025

Meandering on the Way — Feb. 25 to Mar. 2, 2025

Tuesday, February 25th

We went to an archeological museum today, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. It’s quite near to us, just a 20 minute walk. The exhibits focus on the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal) from the Stone Age up through medieval times.

One of the most famous items in the collection is a limestone bust called La Dama de Elche.

The bust was created sometime in the 4th Century BC. Experts believe that it is an image of the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, who was worshipped in some parts of Iberia at that time. The bust was found in 1897 by a farm worker who was clearing land near the town of Elche, Spain. The landowner placed the bust on a balcony at the front of his house so that everyone who passed would be able to see it. Soon, however, news of the discovery spread to Paris and the Louvre offered to buy La Dama for 4,000 francs, a large sum of money for the time. Thus La Dama resided in Paris for many years. Finally, in 1941, the French and Spanish governments signed an agreement that resulted in her return to Spain.

Today the Dama de Elche is exhibited next to another 4th Century BC sculpture, a seated figure called the Lady of Baza.

Wednesday, February 26th

Well…there’s a birthday coming up. Time to do some present shopping. First we went downtown because E wanted to look for some makeup at a famous department store called El Corte Inglés. It was only two Metro stops away, so that was easy. And it was pretty easy to find the gigantic cosmetics section. In fact the only difficulty at El Corte Inglés was the price of things. Of course that was to be expected, but still it was a shock and E decided to put off most of her purchases for another time and place.

But what about some clothes shopping? For that we left the area around Puerta del Sol and walked a few blocks down toward the Plaza España. There we found a store called Zara, a much more congenial place. Another big difficulty, though, is that the styles are so different here, first because they’re so European and second because they’re so urban. But E was up to the challenge.

We passed several Metro entrances during our travels today. Here are photos of two of them. We’ve edited out the station names. But even without labels, perceptive readers might be able to tell which is Chueca and which is Plaza España.

Thursday, February 27th

And then, suddenly, it was the day, the actual day of the birthday. In the morning M went off the papelería (paper store) to get some needed supplies. When he returned he closed himself off in our little bedroom and got busy wrapping. By 1:45, we were suitably dressed and ready to get on our way to the La Maruca restaurant over on Velasquez Street, just five Metro stops away.

By 2:45 we were seated around a table for eight and getting started with some white wine…

La Maruca specializes in Cantabrian food and everything we tried was delicious. Cantabria is on the north coast of Spain and many of its famous dishes are seafood based. E had merluza (hake) served with boiled potato pieces in a sauce of onion, garlic, paprika and olive oil. She loved it. M had albóndigas. Albóndigas are meatballs served in a small amount of rich broth. It is often a modest dish and M had had it before many times on both sides of the Atlantic. Usually it is a tasty but unassuming dish. As he looked through the menu M suspected that La Maruca albóndigas might be on a whole other level. He was right; they were superb, the best he has ever had.

For dessert E had a piece of lemon meringue tart, this on the very day that some of her Oregon friends were holding a meeting of the Corvallis Lemon Meringue Pie Society, a meeting that E had to miss.

The gathering was fun, and a special reunion of old friends. Yes, the friendships are old and so are we. We all have our health challenges, some more than others. E is very grateful for the efforts that everyone made to attend.

And finally, here are a couple of photos at our place back in Chueca.

Friday, February 28th

A much quieter day today. Our agenda was pretty simple: sleep in, then go out and get a fresh loaf of bread and maybe a can of soup to go with the broccoli that’s sitting in the fridge. That would do for dinner. For lunch we went to a very modern, mostly vegetarian restaurant called Honest Greens. Very nice. Corvallis definitely could use a branch. And oh yes, E also made a trip down the street and around the corner to a little shop called the Bazaar. She wanted some clothespins.

Saturday, March 1st

Rain. Hmm. We may have to leave. But meanwhile, continuing our quest for affordable cosmetics, we took the Metro out to a mall in another part of town—a place where normal people shop. And we found success: identical products for half the price! The cosmetics store had a tiny men’s section, which M decided to examine while E was occupied. He found a row of products meant to keep men’s hair in place. These come in various strengths, ranging from Estilo Despeinado, (The Uncombed Look) to Glued, then Ultra Glued, and finally Hard Cemento. Perhaps you think we are joking, but no…

Scenes of a mall.

Sunday, March 2nd

More rain today. Definitely time to head for Pompeii.

February 25, 2025February 25, 2025

Meandering on the Way — February 16 to 24

Sunday, February 16

We drove up to Portland today, in a sensible white Toyota, through two hours of steady rain. Not much fun. But then, after we checked into our sensible hotel, the Andees met us for dinner, which was nicer. It was still raining though.

Monday, February 17

We got up early and drove through the rain to the airport, where we dropped off the Toyota just before 5:00 a.m. A tediously long tunnel led us finally into the newly renovated main terminal, which is a sight to see. By 7:15 we were in the air headed for New York.

The new PDX is said to have nine acres of wooden ceilings.

We deplaned into Concourse B at JFK. Having had a skimpy breakfast, we were quite ready for lunch. But was Concourse B ready for us? What a sad sack collection of eateries. Somehow we made do. Four hours after that, we had a really good dinner* on our Delta flight to Madrid, which did much to boost our spirits.

*except for the dessert of which E did NOT approve

Tuesday, February 18

Our plane arrived at Barajas airport at dawn, just in time for a pretty sunrise under a still bright three quarter moon. When we got out of the plane, our part of the terminal was mostly empty. It was a long way from the gate to Immigration, but a good walk was just the thing at that point. And when we got to the immigration hall, there were no lines at all, just five or six somewhat bored looking officers, who may have been glad to see someone show up. How often does that happen?! Before long we were through customs and back into the real world, dragging our luggage along with us, looking for an airport cafe that we knew had to be there somewhere. When we found it, we ordered some much anticipated Spanish coffee and pastries and sat down to contemplate our next move.

We made sure our phones were working and then mapped out a Metro route to get from the airport to our short term rental, located in a part of old Madrid. That was all very well, but when we eventually got off the Metro in the proper area, we were unpleasantly reminded that Metro stops in the old town do not necessarily include escalators or elevators. Yuck. Our suitcases were equipped with air tags but not with anti-gravity modules . We got our exercise dragging them up a couple of flights. Then we took a taxi for the last leg.

By noon we were safely settled into our little apartment. Then it was nap time. It’s amazing how comfortable a bed can be after twenty-three hours of traveling.

Here’s our compact kitchen: fridge, microwave, air fryer/toaster oven, washing machine, dishwasher, toaster, electric kettle, and Nespresso coffeemaker, plus a two burner cooktop which is covered,, at the moment, by a cutting board.

The apartment also features a couple of minorish plumbing problems, a vacuum cleaner, lots of storage space, and a mop bucket that is accompanied by a mop handle that has no mop at the end. Interesting.

We are in a neighborhood called Chueca, named after a 19th century Spanish composer. It is inside the old city walls and is situated near a number of massive neoclassical government buildings that were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite having such distinguished neighbors, by the 1940’s Chueca had fallen upon hard times and become a place where sensible people did not go. In the sixties, hippies and artists lived here, but by the seventies it was famous mostly for drug trafficking or worse. In the eighties and nineties, it gradually became a gay neighborhood and gentrification began. It is now a major tourist and entertainment area.

Our place is not right in the center of things, but on Friday and Saturday nights we heard enough revelry to know that we weren’t in Corvallis anymore.

Wednesday, February 19th

We located a likely looking grocery store and began stocking up on things that we need. E worked on the challenges involved in buying and weighing produce so as to make things easy at the checkout counter. M got some wine and noted that prices seemed very low. Exchange rates are okay these days; the euro and the dollar are almost exactly equal. We got a take-out tortilla* that we can live on for a day or two.

*In Spanish cooking a tortilla is a thick omelet containing potato and other vegetables, typically served cut into wedges that resemble slices of pie.

Thursday, February 20th

More shopping today, to get the things we didn’t get yesterday. (There’s a limit to how much you can buy when you’re afoot and several blocks from home. ) Besides staples and other boring things, we got a litre of orange juice from one of those machines that squeezes the oranges and fills your bottle while you wait. Was it delicious? Yes.

We also searched out a vintage clothing place and E got herself a sweater to wear around the house, so as to keep her other sweaters nice for going out.

We are quite jet lagged these days, falling asleep at odd hours, etc. We don’t accomplish all that much.

Friday, February 21st

The Spanish midday meal is eaten at around 2:30 PM. It’s called comida and is generally much more substantial than the meal that we call lunch. (It is also more likely to include wine.) Today we went to see Leslie and Marciano and had comida there. The meal began with aperitivos consisting of olives, cheese, crackers and jamón serrano, followed by a squash soup, and then by chicken Alfredo. For dessert we had fresh pineapple and cream. It was great to be with them again. E and L met many years ago while E was teaching English in Madrid and have enjoyed keeping in touch over the years. L and M’s children are grown and gone, but they have left behind some lovely pets with whom we enjoyed socializing.

Saturday, February 22nd

Today we met Manolo, who invited us to join him at place called Macareno, a bar and cafe just twenty minutes walk from our apartment. Manolo was born and bred in Madrid and knows dozens of places where a person can make a more informal comida from tapas and drinks of some kind. Like most of the places Manolo has taken us, Macareno seemed tiny, with just a few cramped tables and not that many square feet of standing room, but it is a hidden gem for ambience and food. We found it by following directions on our phones. Siri led us from our apartment along a series of crowded streets, then onto a less crowded cross street, and finally onto a street that was mostly empty. But when we found Macareno and went inside, the place was jammed. Manolo had told us to arrive at 1:00—quite early to be eating—in hopes of possibly getting a table, but that was out of the question. We were able commandeer a couple feet of bar space and one stool and made do with that.

We started with vermut and a big serving of potatoes in garlic mayonnaise sauce. We went on to share some tortilla and then some skewers with anchovies, olives and mild peppers. Our bartender, Alberto, who seemed to know Manolo well, then threw in a big glass of banana wine. Then it was time for more vermut and some really delicious croquettes flavored with jamón serrano and truffles. It was after 2:00 when we left. El Macareno was still packed with customers; the difference now was that there was also a crowd lined up outside the door. Otherwise the street was still empty.

In the evening E had a nice catch up phone call with her friend Margo who has had some health challenges lately but is doing very well. This year is the 60th anniversary of their study abroad year in Puerto Rico, arranged by SUNY Albany.

Sunday, February 23rd

For today’s comida we were invited to Marga’s place. (No, not Margo, Marga) This involved a subway ride and several blocks of walking. We are so unused to urban navigation! Even with the help of our phones, we are often unsure, and yet, so far, we have always managed to arrive on time. The weather has been very cooperative, mostly cloudy with occasional sunshine and temps in the 50’s, which makes for quite pleasant walking.

It was great to see Marga, along with her son, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Her son P, who was born in Chicago, also happens to be E’s godson. E and Marga’s husbands were Fulbright students at the University of Chicago and money was tight, but they managed to have a social life by taking turns hosting dinners in their tiny apartments. E remembers that baby P had to nap in the closet when his parents brought him to E and R’s studio apartment for dinner.

Monday, February 24th

The goal for today was to decide on a venue for E’s birthday dinner. A couple of our friends recommended a place called La Maruca, so off we went to try and find the place and see what it was like. It turned out to be quite nice. After talking for a while with the hostess E found the place very suitable and the reservation was duly made. Not too surprisingly, one topic of their discussion was the matter of dessert. M believes that he overheard the words “torta de limón.”

Both of us slept well last night and we are finally starting to feel a little more normal. There is an archaeological museum just twenty minutes walk from us and we hope to maybe get over there tomorrow.

February 4, 2025February 4, 2025

Meandering on the Way — Jan. 26 to Feb. 3, 2025

Friday, January 26th

LOCAL WOMAN COMPLETES 15-YEAR EMBROIDERY PROJECT!

Sunday, January 26th

WATERFOWL INVASION!

Tuesday, January 28th

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES VANISH!

Wednesday, January 29th

LOCAL WOMAN DISCOVERS NEW TYPE OF FUR TREE!

Thursday, January 30th

Yes, it’s been quite a week, even without considering the fact that we had eight straight days of sun. Thank goodness that’s over. All clouds today, with rain coming.

Sunday, February 2nd

A quiet day today. M worked on his writing; E spent some time in the garden, refreshing bird feeders and looking for signs of very early flowers. And yes, she found some, first a couple of snowdrops in the backyard and then multiple blooms on the sarcococca bush by our front door.

In the evening we watched another very nice movie: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikiry. It’s about a man who owns a bookstore on an island off Cape Cod. More and more these days, we judge the value of an evening movie by how close it comes to keeping us fully awake throughout its length. By that measure, we give this one five stars. See this Cinemaholic link for a short (and spoilerless) feature about the film.

Snowdrops and sarcococca are nice, but neither provides any burst of color. For that we have to go indoors, where some far showier annuals are on display.

Monday, February 3rd

We were doing some trip planning yesterday and E realized that she would have to change the date of her next dental appointment. When she called this morning to make the change, she feared that the appointment might have to be postponed till April. But instead she was told that due to a cancellation there was an opening at 2:00 PM today! E thought this was wonderful, the only drawback being that today was a Monday. Dr Laster’s cupcake delivery day is Tuesday and she would have to forego her favorite treat. Oh well, you can’t have everything.

Cupcake courtesy of Dr. Tom Laster, DDS LLC. Plating and photo by E.

Or can you? During her appointment, E was informed by the hygienist that their cupcake delivery day had recently changed to….Monday! Faithful readers can well imagine E’s positive reaction to this news. In fact, as she related the events to M, she seemed somewhat abashed at perhaps having overreacted, in which case her young hygienist might be thinking that she is eccentric or something. Well. We all know what to think about that.

January 21, 2025

Meandering on the Way — January 3 to 20, 2025

Friday, January 3rd

Russian tea cakes (formed into balls and rolled in 6 Tbsp powdered sugar, excellent)

Friday, January 10th

We took a longish hike today, on a trail that we’d never gotten around to even though it is very near. Called the Mulkey Ridge trail, it is a 3.9 mile route that passes through two natural areas located on the western edge of Corvallis. The trail first passes down through the Fitton Green Natural Area and then along Mulkey Ridge through beautiful oak savannah. For variety there are also some big old firs and a healthy population of madrone. But the main thing is that it is semi-open country with lots of fine views, which is quite different from a fir forest with its view of nothing by tree trunks. About two and a half miles in, our trail went up to the top of the ridge, where we stopped for lunch at a bench in the sun. After that the trail took us down to Mulkey Creek and then continued east through a section of the original Green Belt Land Trust property. The route ends at the Bald Hill parking lot, where we had conveniently stashed an extra car so as to be able to drive back to where we’d parked the other.

Both creek and ridge are named for a family of immigrants who arrived in Oregon in 1846. Johnson and Susanna Mulkey were from Missouri and brought eight children with them. They settled on a homestead claim just west of Corvallis (then still known as Marysville.) Accompanying them was a young black woman named Ame. Missouri was then a slave state and in Missouri that’s what Ame had been. Once she entered Oregon, Amy was technically no longer a slave because slavery was not legal in Oregon. But she wasn’t free either. Oregon’s solution to the slavery controversy had been to pass a law saying that no black person would be allowed to live in Oregon. Any black person who chose to live in Oregon was subject to being publicly whipped every sixth months until that person decided to move on. But at least out in the hills west of Marysville, no one cared to enforce any of that legal folderol. The Mulkeys were able to ignore Oregon law and keep Ame on, still considering her to be their slave.

According to a memoir written by one of his granddaughters, Johnson Mulkey was a big believer in education. In the early days, he built a schoolhouse on his land and invited his neighbors to send their children there for free. Later on, a larger district school was established in area. During the Civil War this school suffered disruption due to the fact that the schoolmaster, a man named Emery Allen, was an anti-slavery northerner while some of the children came for families that had immigrated from the south. Writing many years later, Maude Keady, the memoirist granddaughter, remembered it this way:

Mr. Allen forbid the children to yell for Jeff Davis on the school grounds but allowed them to yell all they liked for [President] Abe Lincoln. One day enthusiasm ran high for Abe Lincoln. There had been lots of cheering, so my mother did not wait until she was off the school grounds until she began yelling for Jeff Davis. One of the younger Horning boys followed her lead. The next day, Mr. Allen called them up and threatened to whip them but finally let them go without the whipping. However, the school board, who were Uncle Charlie Johnson, Mr. Horning and someone else, discharged Mr. Allen and payed him off in greenbacks, which were at a considerable discount at that time.

As for Ame, she continued in her doubly illegal status even after the war, the Emancipation Proclamation notwithstanding. When Johnson and Susanna Mulkey died, she was passed along to their daughter Mary, who had married a man named John Porter. Ame outlived all four of these ostensible owners. She was buried in a Corvallis cemetery, near the plot owned by the Mulkey family but not quite inside it. Here is the marker:

When we first came to Corvallis in the late 1970s, there was a shop downtown called Mulkey’s Shoe Repair. In 1982, the shop was the site of a shotgun murder. But that’s a story for another time.

Wednesday, January 15th

It just takes a little sun for the solar car to really get going…

…until it runs into the shade.

Friday, January 17th

We had dinner at Ba’s in Albany with B and J. Ba’s seems to be popular these days; we were lucky to get there just before the rush. We all had warm noodle salads. Good stuff. M says their pho is also great.

We’ve been getting in contact with friends and family a lot lately. Perhaps it’s a response to the times.

Saturday, January 18th

Mexican Wedding Cookies (rolled in an entire bowl of powdered sugar, and perhaps even more excellent)

Sunday, January 19th

Over the last month or so, we’ve had to scramble over a fallen tree every time we walked up to Cronemiller Lake in the OSU forest. But not today.

A bit of a flaw there toward the bottom.

Along the way we found a new sign. Maybe it’s because we’re English teachers, but to us it seemed a bit off.

Monday, January 20th

Sunny today with highs in the 40s. We did our grocery shopping early, then M fetched the red car out its winter quarters. To give the cat some exercise, we drove up to Wilsonville and met the Andees for lunch.

In the evening we watched The Six Triple Eight, a movie about a battalion of black women who served in Europe during World War II. We’d intended to stop in the middle and save the last half for another day, but it was so absorbing that we had to see it all. Very inspiring.

January 8, 2025

Meandering on the Way — Dec 29, 2024 to Jan 7, 2025

Sunday December 29th

When the rain let up for a few minutes, we popped over to our local wetland for a walk.

The water was running high, up to the boardwalk in places.

Tuesday, December 31

We stayed up late on New Year’s Eve, working on a puzzle and a bottle of champagne. At midnight we turned on the TV to see what we could see. We saw Ryan Seacrest introducing Carrie Underwood at Times Square. We watched Carrie for a moment and admired her outfit. But it was a weird scene. We switched over to Channel 1962 and watched Perry Mason instead. Amazingly, Perry hadn’t changed much. As the story went along, handsome Paul Drake dug up some important information; attractive Della Street made a perceptive observation; and Lt. Tragg proved himself to be plodding but honest. DA Hamilton Burger–he whose sole mission in life was to condemn innocent people to long prison terms–was again outwitted by the wily Perry, who for some reason was walking around without his wheelchair.

Wednesday, January 1st

It rained most of the day here, which was no great surprise because it’s been doing that for about as long as we can remember at this point. We turned on the wipers and drove out to A’s place in the country for a very nice New Year’s Day gathering. To start off the year she made a pot of black-eyed peas–peas for peace–as is her custom.

We also found time to finish the puzzle that we started last night. It’s called Mushroom Boy and was harder than we expected. It was expertly crafted though, and the pieces had interesting shapes and were easy to handle. Made by the New York puzzle company.

Thursday January 2nd

Most of the action was at the bird feeder.

Sunday January 5th

We took a walk in the forest today and found lots of mud. We don’t have any good pictures of the mud, but we do have these three gems, which we plan to display in the next Lying Captions Showcase at the county fairgrounds.

Drone shot of a fifty foot high mushroom poking up through the forest canopy

Today E received an unusual message from one of her contacts in the state of New York. Her informant recently had a medical appointment at a large, newly constructed clinic. After finishing up with the doctor, our source came back into the waiting room and found that it was much more crowded than it had been earlier. According to our witness, many of the new arrivals were sitting with their heads hanging sideways and some had their tongues hanging out. We hasten to say that this message was received under less than ideal conditions and that we cannot be sure that the information is accurate. But if it is, things look to be getting pretty tough back there in the east.

Monday January 6th

Unsettling weather phenomenon today. As E began her walk, she was astonished to see her shadow on the grass, along with the shadows of various trees cast upon the house. There was also an extremely bright yellowish disk up in the sky. The two phenomena may be related. More research is needed.

Tuesday January 7th

E went back to Smart Reading today, down at Lincoln School. She had a wonderful time, meeting with three separate third and fourth grade kids, all of whom seemed enthusiastic about books and reading. Also, the location for the reading has changed from last year’s use of the open plan lunchroom to this year’s placement in the library, which is a lovely second floor room with lots of light and a great view. The most popular books, however, continue to be the Who Will Win?/¿Quién Ganará? series. (Sample titles: ¿Quién Ganará: Oso Polar o Oso Grizzly? and Who Will Win: Triceratops or Stegosaurus?

December 18, 2024

Meandering on the Way — December 9-18, 2024

Monday, December 9th

It was another cold, damp day, but off we went for a walk down at Snag Boat Bend south of Peoria. (E loves this hike, but loves its name even more.) The first part of the main trail is a boardwalk, built to cross three or four hundred feet of ground that tends to get mucky when wet. Usually we like boardwalks. They’re softer underfoot than gravel or pavement. But we didn’t like this one. The planks were a little worn and had gotten super slippery after many days of rain. So each step was an adventure. On our return leg we took another route.

After the boardwalk ended and we were back in contact with planet Earth, the trail followed along the bank of an old meander channel of the Willamette, which is now a backwater. The color palette was mostly soft greens and grays, but then…

…we found this stand of something or other, just blossoming away in mid December.. At first we thought that it might be tansy ragwort, infamous killer of livestock. But no, this is common tansy, another member of the aster family, much less lethal.

Snag Boat Bend is a detached ‘Unit’ of the Finley National Refuge. It’s a small area just in the middle of the flattest part of the Willamette Valley. The soil is excellent here and the unit is surrounded by farmland. Here’s a little of what that looks like.

We thought this might be a grass seed field, but we found out it wasn’t. This grass is growing for the benefit of sheep. We know that because as we walked along the south edge of the refuge, we came across a couple of farmers building fence along the north edge of the field. We exchanged a few words while E knelt for a moment to reassure their dog, who was nervous about us. The fence making moved fast and consumed only minimal resources: just short, skinny poles holding up a single strand of soft wire. The poles appeared to be bambu and were thin enough to be pushed into the wet ground easily. We doubt that the farmers were thrilled to have visitors strolling by as they worked, but they were very pleasant to us and of course we did not linger. This was the most interesting part of our walk, and also the most difficult for us to describe. All we have are questions. Who are they? How long have they been farming? What is their life like? How do they manage to work in the cold? What are they going to have for lunch?

Friday, December 13th

M has been under the weather lately, leaving E to her own devices. She went hiking in our old neighborhood of McDonald Forest and found an unusual view of Cronemiller Lake.

And for reference, Cronemiller Lake: Defognito

E was super impressed by this novel shopping cart at Natural Grocer’s. It’s a mini cart frame into which you can set your grocery basket. She has been waiting a lifetime for this invention.

Saturday, December 14th

Here she finds some pretty red berries among snow-covered branches. Except it isn’t really snow. More like dead moss.

Not surprisingly, our nearby wetland is pretty wet. If you live here long enough, you start thinking this is beautiful.

Wednesday, December 18th

The holiday season proceeds apace. Best wishes to all.