Triacastela to Sarria

Hello, everyone. As we approach the goal of our pilgrimage,  we join many of our fellow pilgrims in wanting to get it done. (Something about sleeping somewhere new every night, I think.) 

Triacastela is a smallish town, and the masses of pilgrims passing through there has affected the layout. Along the pilgrims' path there are eating places and sleeping places, and in the afternoon as the day's arrivals filter in, there are people hanging out at the outdoor tables watching for trail friends to come past.

The dog knows where to find a cool drink 

This old fountain still has benches around it. Pilgrims passing through use them to rest or to remove layers if the day is warm.

From Triacastela to Sarria there are 2 routes. We took the San Xil way.

We stayed in a barndominium in Sarria, a former barn that has been converted to a small pensión for travelers. Our room appeared to have been a dovecote in the past. The stone walls are about 2 feet thick and the original windows are about 10 inches square. (Now glassed in, of course. ) There was a modern window in our room and on a shelf below it was an electric heater.

As it's getting late, I will sign off now.

Puppy proofing the pincushion pile

 Hello, everyone. 

There was a puppy visiting last weekend at our place. He wandered into the room with an arrangement of the little pincushions on a small shelf-stand. They must have been fascinating,  as an hour or two later I found one on the living room floor. Slightly damp.

Obviously the pinny collection needs to be contained. 

Views from all sides of the vase of pinnies.

They're now puppy-proof, sitting on the big table in a glass vase. And he can still play with his doggie toys.

Recap of Primitivo, Days 3 and 4 (updated: Days 4 and 5)

 Hello, everyone.

Today, since much of what was to be said about the walk to Campiello has already been said, I thought I would combine that with the following day from Campiello over the Hospitales route to Berducedo.

First off, the walk to Campiello was deliberately a short day. We got there about noon and immediately had a coffee with a egg-and-chorizo bocadillo tapa. Then we got with the people about a bed to sleep in and the washing protocols (bought tokens) and got after the laundry. Then we had a snack of "seafood-rice salad" from their little grocery and finished off the laundry. At suppertime we ate a pizza in their cafe and also got jamon and cheese bocadillos for the next day's picnic lunch. These turned out to be huge.

A bit of scenery after leaving Tineo. (By the way, Tineo had installed street lights on the walking trail out of town. By the time we ran out of lights there was starting to be walking light from the sky.)

I think pictures from the Albergue Casa Ricardo in Campiello have already been included in the en-route post about this stage.

The next morning, we left before actual light, but there was no traffic on the road and we were able to follow it.

The sun came up while we were walking. (Actually that tends to happen with us. Even more so when we walked this time, into the shortening days.) 

We passed through Borres and didn't locate the little bar. Well, we passed it, but after considerable discussion didn't try the door to see if it was actually open or not. After Borres we came to the split in the routes. A number of the people who were walking at that time had mentioned that they were going to take the low route, as it has a lot more facilities en route. They were still going to end up in Berducedo, probably as there is precious little in the way of lodging along this stage this year. (I think there may have been an option to sleep in Pola de Allande on the low route, but as we took the other one it didn't matter to us.) The low route has more kilometers and, significantly for us, a lot more climbs and descents according to the information we had. We went the high way because once we got up there is would be mostly ridge walking. Which is fairly even. And it was.

Y'all will note that while there is a real slope here, the trail isn't sloping a whole lot.

That little grove of trees in the background, and the famous ruins, are about the only place one could take shelter from a big wind up there. And with the said wind, the pine branches might fall on one's head. Other than that, it's a whole lot of open area.

This is an interesting bug that we saw along the way that day. It looked a bit like it was laying eggs in the grass. We had never seen this critter before.

Later we passed along the very dooryard of a farm in the hills, large friendly dog there, and through the village of Lagos, lovely water fountain at the church, no bars at all, and arrived 5:30 in the evening at Berducedo, for a 30 kilometer day. We were so tired. We ate the remnants of our bocadillo picnic sandwiches (most of them, we had only nibbled at lunchtime) for dinner along with a bottle of Spanish wine from the little grocery there and went to bed.

One Last Photo from Manitou Springs

 Hello, everyone.

There was one more picture from Manitou Springs that I wanted to share.

The bench with the bright decorations was made from old skis--there is a business in the area that redoes the old skis into furniture. (I didn't think it looked super comfortable, but it's cute.)

The pup was enjoying herself in the shade.

A pre-Christmas stroll in nature

 Hello, everyone!

Last week, taking a break in those last few days before Christmas, a group of us went for a small hike at El Sal del Rey. This is a very historic salt lake in the north part of the county. 

Long time readers may remember Sal de Rey being visited in the past. This was a return visit, and an introduction for the younger members of our party. We were four adults, two children (both under 10 years) and 3 dogs. Truly it was an expedition! And everyone in the group, even the youngest, finished the walk under his or her own power. 

A view of the lake and the sky that day. The area that looks like trampled snow is the salt. It was not a bright crystalline display that day, even though the conditions were very dry and the water level of the lake was low. We concluded that there had been a small amount of rain in the area recently.

The path from the parking area to the lake was just about 2 miles one-way. As some of the party were dogs, and some were children, we took it easy and enjoyed walking along the trail and over part of the salt to the edge of the water. 

The oldest puppy in the group, truly an elderly lady, finished up her four miles with no problem. As y'all can see, she even had a big smile on her face at the end, after having a few sips of fresh (bottled) water from the doggie dish.

Pets are allowed at Sal del Rey if they are on a leash. As it is a wildlife refuge, allowing our pups to run wild after any rabbit or javelina they see is not appropriate. (Some of the wildlife could injure the pups, too.) 

Pretty doggie

Hello, everyone.

It has been busy around the old homestead this past week, with both canine and youthful visitors. Very little embroidery work was done, very little walking-with-camera was done, and to cap it off we had the edge of a hurricane this weekend.

The happy hostess of the canine houseguests. 

The reaction of the baby Caribbean Tree Cacti to the almost nonstop rain during the night and off and on all day. They had to be picked up from their pan, the water dumped, and then be put back. The pan was moved farther from the edge of the porch, too.

Hoping to resume more usual activity levels in a few days!

After a short hiatus, one needs to organize a bit

Hello, everyone.

The hiatus in posting was unexpected. I went with a group from church to the land of Israel. (More on that in future posts.) On the first day there, I went to make a blog post from the tablet.

Whoops. The tablet picked up on the local Google version, which is in Hebrew. It's possible to figure out how to click the sign in button, just remember that everything on the right before is now on the left. (It's one of those languages that reads right to left, instead of left to right.) The next screen, however, requested the password. In Hebrew, which the password in question isn't.

Well, when you travel, you learn new things.

For today, a picture of a dear pal:

Ready to play now?

I'm still getting back into the groove of the home space, will begin posting trip things soon. It was very educational and edifying.

Happy dogs

Hello, everyone. As was said a few weeks ago, it's been really busy at the home place and making new posts has slipped a bit.

Just for the fun of it, a picture from our recent Thanksgiving trip to visit family:

Happy puppies on their first family road trip.

While visiting we saw something that never appears at home in deep south Texas:

The ground under the tree was completely covered in the beautiful yellow leaves. (Leaves almost never color where we live.) As pretty as they were, though, we mostly noticed that going a few hundred miles northeast at this time of year meant going into a much colder area. Brrr!

Training report (walk report)

Hello, everyone.

We were out of pocket for a few days, and didn't get as much walking in as we would have liked. We did, however, get a chance to visit Government Canyon State Natural Area outside of San Antonio, Texas. This park is really neat! And if you have gotten, and brought along, your Texas State Parks annual pass (plus photo ID) you get in free, too.

It's a little bit hard to find--there is only one entrance and it's near but not directly accessible from Loop 1604. Use your map skills to find the 90 degree bend in Galm Road, the spot with a traffic circle, and you're there.

We found a walking trail that was really excellent for walk training for the Camino: some slopes, plenty of rocks to step on or around, some flat surfaces, shade and sun mixed. (Estimated distance, round trip to the tracks, about 5 miles, give or take.) And, completely unexpectedly, the trail we walked goes to some fossilized dinosaur tracks.

 A small sample of the trail surface. It might look a little bit intimidating, but the rocks, even when loose, are not sliding shale pieces. They're relatively settled in their places. Just pick your feet up! Bike riders also use this trail--walking their bikes over the rougher rocky bits I think. Dogs are not allowed on the back side trails, but there are some flatter trails at the front, marked on the park map that are open to leashed pets to walk. Those trails are recommended for the younger set, too, being shorter and possibly easier for their little legs.

Some of the dinosaur tracks. I confess, I never in my life thought I would see this. There are at least three sets of tracks at the place they were found. These are the tracks from some kind of big four-legged creature that once walked on a silty beach. There are also some three-toed tracks that are described as "therapod tracks." The man we talked to at REI the next morning told us that the tracks were a complete surprise to everyone. The flash floods a year or two back exposed the bedrock where the tracks lie and gave park visitors a reason to walk a little farther than they might have. (It's not the shortest trail at the park.) There are cute little signs along the path telling the walker where to go and interpretive signage to assist the non-geologist to understand the sight.

One bit of warning about this park: if you depart at the time of the evening rush hour, when most people are leaving work and heading to their homes, you will be in a traffic jam. Just stay calm, match speed with the rest of the vehicles, and abide by the traffic signals. We turned right on Galm when leaving, crept along for a while, and then turned left at Culebra Road to get to Loop 1604. (Culebra is under construction, a project that looks to be adding another lane going each way, so the traffic jam at rush hour may ease somewhat by next year.) It's possible that going farther  around the traffic circle and retracing our earlier route on Galm to head back to Loop 1604 would have been easier, but it seemed like the traffic was almost equally busy both ways. Evening rush generally takes up about an hour or an hour and a half around the 5 pm to 6:30 pm time period, if one is wanting to plan the trip to avoid it.

The hours stated on the park entrance sign were Friday through Monday only, 7 am to 10 pm. If you choose to be there after the sunset time hits, you will certainly want a good flashlight. It is, after all, a natural trail only slightly improved for the visitors.

More Valley birds

Hello, everyone.

It's been busy around the place. As a result, the dog walking has been missed for a few days. Today, however, the dogs got their walk. We just wandered the neighborhood--with DH still in the Boot we don't want to get too lost in the woods--but we did see this bird at the drainage "pond" (looks like a ditch to me) and after we got past him so the sun wouldn't be against us, got this photo:

I thought he was really tall but maybe he's just another one of these:

Yellow-crowned heron? This is another part of the same ditch.

Both of these were taken about the same time of day. (The dogs need to go out early, or else it's just too hot for them to be out walking. We've been getting up near 100F for days and days.) And, as y'all can easily see, there are limits to the amount of camera gear that can go along on a walk with two leashed doggies! These were both taken with the cell phone.

Zumaia

Hello everyone.

This is a view from the approach to the lovely town of Zumaia on the coast.

Those little bits of random cloud are wet. It drizzles a lot in this region.

We have seen a lot of friendly dogs. Some of them are hiking with their people. Some are in their little tote bag sized carriers.

We also passed Billy the goat, tied out on the path doing his "mowing" job. He was perfectly civil, too!

Because she's sweet

Hello, everyone.

It's been hectic lately and I see that there hasn't been a post in the last few days. Sorry!

Cuddles checking out the volunteer shrub. (Manzanilla, also called Barbadoes Cherry, a native shrub.)

Being a dog, she's not often in a photogenic pose. This week she cooperated when I had my phone.

Block Play Ideas

Hello, everyone.

In connection with a new quilt that has been requested, there has been some pencil block work done lately. The requestor is a Texas Tech student.

A quick stroll through Pinterest didn't come up with a whole lot of candidates...there was the square named Ararat for an elephant square from the Kansas City star, and a whole lot of applique elephants, and a couple of other pieced designs that just didn't appeal a lot.

A Tech elephant

Yes, yes, I know that Tech are the Red Raiders. And one of their big slogans is "Guns up!" But the masked rider is way, way beyond my artistic level. As is the hand in "guns up!" position. (Any hands, actually, are beyond my artistic level.)
The doggie with a blanket shown earlier was a possibility, and it might even make an appearance, substituting Tech fabric for the Aggie fabric that was used for the first dog blanket.
Here is an elephant, suggested colors being two shades of gray (the ear different from the rest) and the blanket being Tech-design fabric. The corners could be black, here, and the "floor" could be green, with the remainder of the background either a nondescript "solid" of any color or maybe a sky type design. There is just enough extra room at the top to add a little more shape to the ear if wanted. But do we want an elephant ear that looks like a straight-up lozenge?

The Double T in 6x6 square

This one to have the Double T in black and the main background red. Possibly a contrast shade of white or pearl gray in the side bar. (Side bar is there because I am really uninterested in blocks with odd-numbered dimensions--it was 6 tall and 5 wide until that was added.) If the square was made in 12x12 format, the double coloration of red and black in the square could be done. Also the serifs on the smaller T could be done with no problem, and the larger tee could have square serifs too. In that case, I would sub pale gray or white for the background and either a strip of Tech pattern fabric for the side bar or just have the side bar as part of the regular background. (Switching the sides of the bar could give a nice zigzag effect in a vertical stack of the T squares, too.)

And an attempt at a bridge

For this one, colors might be gray and/or black for the bridge structure and either a plain background for the rest or possibly something that suggests a body of water near the bottom and sky above.

The previously shown hammer and wrench blocks might even make an appearance, too, in the thematic colors of red and black.

Just because she's cute

Hello, everyone.

Just for the fun of it:

As y'all can see, things are quiet around ye Olde Homestead at the moment. We're all trying to recover from the cooking, and the wrapping, and the baking, and the visiting, and the baking, and the visiting and the eating....

Just for fun: a dog picture

Hello, everyone.

The Cantankerous Cat has been getting publicity lately and it seemed good to also let one of the Marvelous Mutts have some blog time.

This photo was taken on the night of the Miracle Christmas Snow of 2004. It started snowing at 8 p.m. and stopped around 10-ish. The next day, the snow had all melted by noon. Snow doesn't last in deep South Texas!

Senior Dog, back when he was the only dog, contemplating the change in his world.

The barrel cactus is up on the porch, but it still got a good dusting.

 The next morning, before all the snow melted:

The native sabal palm, dressed in White Christmas beauty.

That snowfall covered pretty much the entire state of Texas. And the HEB Gocery company actually published about 5 books of peoples' snow pictures over the ensuing years. They were beautiful.

Block play: Doggie with blanket

Hello, everyone.

This is more block play--a new design. As we all know, Texas Aggies say they "bleed maroon." This block is a tribute to their mascot. (H/t to About.com's quilt blocks.)

Doggie with blanket (Tribute to Reveille)

Doggie almost completed

Materials list

	Blue	Tan	Maroon
2.5” square	3	3
1.5” x 2.5” strip	2	2
1.5” square	5	8
3.5”square			1
1 7/8” square	2	2
2 7/8” square	1	1
1.5” x 3.5” strip	3	1
1.5” x 4.5” strip	1	1
2.5” x 3.5” rectangle	2	2
4.5” x 3.5” rectangle	2
5.5” x 3.5” rectangle	1
Black scraps for eye and nose

12” square

Doggie sketch. Dotted lines are seams
between pieces of the same color..

Dog: tan. Blanket: Maroon. Background: Light blue.

The dog is divided into three sections: Middle, Back, and Front.

It is a good idea to starch and iron all the fabric before beginning to sew. It makes the stuff stiffer so it will hold still. 

It is important to press seams and trim to square before sewing any crossing seam. Small errors can add up to a wonky mess.

Middle of dog:

Using 3.5” x 3.5” square of maroon, Sew 1.5” square tan to each bottom corner snowball style. (Blanket) Press and trim. Sew to 1.5” x 3.5” tan strip.

Assemble section: Sew 4.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to bottom side of tan strip. Sew 4.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to top side of maroon square. (Midsection with blanket—12.5” tall by 3.5” wide)

Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. Set midsection aside for now.

Back end of dog:

Tail section:

Sew 1 1” tan square onto corner of blue 2” square snowball style. Press and trim. (Upper curve in tail)

Make 2 1.5” half square triangles blue/tan. (Tail tip and tail base) I use the quick piecing method and do two sets right away. To do this, place the 1 7/8” squares on top of one another, right sides facing in, and mark a diagonal line from corner to corner. Sew ¼” away on each side of the line. Be sure these stitching lines are straight. Cut on the line and press the two half-square triangle squares open. One of these squares is the tail tip.

Sew 1 tan short edge to 1.5” blue square. (Tail tip and upper background piece) Sew rectangle to 2.5” blue square with tan pieces touching. (Tail tip rectangle is now 2.5”t x 3.5”w)

Sew second half square triangle square with 1 blue short edge joined to blue 1.5” square. (Tail base angle)

Sew 1.5”x2.5” tan rectangle to 1.5”x2.5” blue rectangle, forming a square. (Body of tail) Sew tail base angle piece to tail body piece. (Tail base rectangle is now 2.5”t x 3.5”w)

Sew tail tip rectangle to tail base rectangle. (Tail section is now 4.5”t x 3.5”w)

Rump section:

Sew 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip to 2.5” x 3.5” tan rectangle. (Haunch is now 3.5” square)

Rear leg section:

Sew 1.5” x 4.5” blue strip to 1.5” x 4.5” tan strip.

Make another 1.5” half square triangle square in tan/blue using the last two 1 7/8” squares. (You will have one bonus 1.5” half square triangle square at the end.) Sew to 1.5” tan square on tan side. Sew to 1.5” blue square on blue side. Sew 1.5” tan square to bottom of blue square. (Leg and foot)

Assemble section: Sew leg rectangle assembly to haunch assembly. Sew tail assembly to top of haunch assembly.

I sewed the midsection to the rear section right away and it was a great encouragement to see that it was already looking “doggy.”

Front of dog:

Front leg:

Using a 2.5” square of tan, sew 1.5” square blue to tan square snowball style, press and trim. (Elbow)

Sew 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip to 1.5” x 2.5” tan strip. Sew to bottom of elbow square. (Arm rectangle is now 2.5” w by 4.5” t)

 

Sew 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip to 1.5” tan square. Sew rectangle to brown side of arm rectangle. (Adds front paw to leg)

Sew blue 1.5” x 3.5” strip along bottom of front leg.

Sew 5.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to front of leg assembly. (Lower front quadrant is now 6.5”w by 5.5”t.)

Head section:

Make 2 x 2.5” half square triangle blue/tan using the 2 7/8” squares. (Ear and back of neck)

Sew one of the 2.5” half square triangle squares to a 2.5” square of blue, with blue edges together. (Back of neck)

Cut a 1” square (true) out of the black scrap fabric. Fold one of the 2.5” tan squares in half to locate the center. Fold three edges of the black square under ¼” (press!) and pin with upper folded edge on center line and unfolded edge at edge of square. Baste edges together. Sew folded edges down onto tan square. (Eye) Sew this tan square to tan edge of second 2.5” half square triangle square.

Sew the back of neck piece to the eye piece, being careful to match the diagonal seams.

Cut a 1” x 2.5” strip from the remaining black scrap fabric. Lay it on a 2.5” tan square with right sides together and raw edge of black strip ½” from edge of tan square. Sew the strip down with ¼” seam, press and turn the black over and press down. Black edge will be even with brown edge.  Trim the brown fabric underneath leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Sew 1.5” blue squares to both of the corners of the black strip snowball style, press and trim. (Muzzle)

Using a 3.5”t x 2.5”w blue rectangle and a 1.5” square of tan, sew the tan square snowball style to bottom left corner of blue rectangle. (Forehead)

Join forehead piece to muzzle piece, being careful to match diagonal seams. Sew a 2.5” blue square to bottom of muzzle. (This section is 7.5” tall by 2.5” wide.)

Sew 1.5” tan squares onto corners of short edge of other 2.5” x 3.5” blue piece in “house” shape. Sew to long edge of 3.5”t x 2.5”w tan rectangle. (Shoulder and front of neck with jaw)

Sew ear/eye assembly to top of shoulder assembly. Sew to muzzle section. (Head quadrant is now 6.5” wide by 7.5” tall.)

Assemble section: Sew front leg section to head section.

Assemble dog: sew front section to middle section. Dog block is 12.5” square.

More simplicifation

Hello, everyone.

It's been a busy week. As part of the simplification/decluttering process, we released a massive, carved, antique dining set to the Salvation Army. (Having ended up with a family dining table and its chairs, there were just too many dining sets in the house!) And we've been making repeated pilgrimages over to their donation center/back side of the thrift store.

There have been many beads, a mixed collection of odd pieces of glass and kitchen gadgets that never quite took off for us, and so on.

Today and yesterday, it's been the sewing room's turn. There's a pile of folded fabric, ties and so on that's about 3 1/2 feet high, that's going to go over there the next time someone goes.

I wanted to put up a picture of the ribbon rolls that need a new home, but Snap! I just upgraded to Windows 10 and I can't find the pictures that I loaded from the SD chip.

A gratuitous puppy picture!

Obviously I need to do more work on the picture management end of this program. Not to say, this stupid program.
Microsoft, you didn't need to mess up, oops, completely rearrange the way Windows 7 handled pictures. That was working fine. And it made a new folder every time I uploaded the chip to the box. It was great. Now I can't even find the pictures I uploaded to the box, to add them to the blog--or anything else I might want to add them to. Like maybe an email.