Stef wanted some new art work, so I did this.

It is based on a design I did for a tattoo I eventually want to get. The shell is a symbol of protection as well as the camino, and morning glories are one of the flowers for September (the month the truck hit me) as well as the flower for Virgo (my Zodiac sign.)

In the Victorian language of flowers, morning glories stand for both love that is eternal and love that is unrequited. As I said in Stories from Webb, the scar the tattoo will cover is a symbol that the love of man may fail but the love of God never does, so morning glories are the perfect flower.

All that doesn’t mean anything to Stef, but that’s okay. It’s a pretty picture. And the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

There was another concert today. We missed part because we were expecting to hear it from the house, so we thought it started late. These musicians were much quieter than last weekend’s performer.

Afterwards we ate in a restaurant. All of us were craving meat. This was on the table when we arrived.

Stef and I got the pilgrim’s menu (at the pilgrim price.) Kana got Cachopo, an Austurian specialty similar to Chicken Cordon Blue but with beef, and Michelle got veal.

The pilgrim’s meal started with an Austurian stew. Beans, collard greens ( yes, you read that right,) and potatoes with blood sausage and salt pork on a plate to add separately. Stef said that particular recipe had won a competition and I believe it. It was goooood.

The vegetable pudding that followed was not my cup of tea, but then peas and cabbage are not my favorite vegetables. The cabbage rolls were stuffed with brisket (also a surprise) with a chicken sauce (another surprise.)

My dessert was cheese with honey. It was way more liquid than I expected, almost a cream cheese sauce.

And speaking of sauces, last night I made pasta with butternut squash sauce and broccoli. We had a family with two young boys staying with us. As I cooked the others kept asking, “Do you want to mix this with that?” and I kept saying, “No, separada.” You want to make a meal that is a young person’s nightmare? Pasta with squash sauce and broccoli.

By keeping them separate, one young man was able to eat just pasta, and the other avoid the broccoli. We roasted marshmallows in the garden by way of compensation.

For dinner yesterday I made Bean and Lentil chili. No corn because the grocery was out of it. A lady who was not staying here wanted to have dinner with us so she could eat with her friend, who was staying here. She sat next to me and said, “This is why I love the Camino. I did not expect to be having dinner with an American.” And I said, “Eating chili.” She laughed.

So last night I tried to say something in Spanish and used the wrong verb form. So Kana, who remember is Japanese, corrected me and conjugated the verb for me. So I said, “Among things I did not expect was to be learning Spanish from a Japanese person.” And she laughed.

Yesterday Michelle arrived. She is Asian-American, Chinese I think. I left the kitchen to come write because she and Kana were getting into a discussion about the best way to make rice (as much as one person with little English and one person with little Spanish can) and I am staying OUT OF THAT.

So here I am in Spain eating rice with two Asian co-workers in a house owned by a Dutchman. The world is getting very small.

After a hike for Veronica’s birthday on Saturday, and two small walks on Sunday (one w Eugenia, the other w Luz-Dary and Toby,) Stef wanted to do a REALLY long (15 kilometers, full stage of the camino long) on Monday. I foolishly agreed.

OMG, y’all. I know when I’m getting tired on a hike because my boots start slipping. I was slipping 20 minutes in. I saw the words “Llano de Escaleras” on the map at the beginning, and I thought, “ Stairs? Stairs in the mountains?”

There were a lot of these, both up and down. I started feeling lightheaded when I walked them. At first just my legs wobbled, but then it became my whole body.

Stef said something about being careful because the wood on the stairs is sometimes bad, and later he said, “Don’t walk like an elephant!” It took a lot for me not to reply, “ Stef, I am walking in the only way I CAN walk.”

After over 3 hours of walking, we ate the sandwiches we bought. Then began walking the 12 kilometers back to the car.

We were on the road for awhile then got back on the trail. As we were descending, it started to rain, a fine rain that gradually soaked through my shirt. I didn’t have my rain jacket and I didn’t want to put on my hoodie because I wanted it warm and dry when I got into the car.

Stef wasn’t sure of the path; he’d never traveled it before. So we went the wrong way a couple of times. The clouds were obscuring the view below and nobody could get cell reception. We were getting wetter and wetter and colder and colder.

I was really thirsty but I couldn’t stop for water. I would have gotten too far from the others (they were having to wait sometimes as it was) and the only thing keeping me warm was movement. Standing still in the rain just wasn’t a good idea. But I was so desperate I began sucking the water out of my sleeves, which were so sodden, especially around the wrists, that I could do that.

Just like when I was on the Frances outside Grañon, we were not in the red but we were in the yellow. We were cold and wet, unsure of our path, and darkness was coming. I heard Eugenia say something about “la noche.”

Stef wanted to head over a CLIFF ( okay, it wasn’t a cliff but it was a pretty steep drop off) and scramble through the brush to the path we could see below. I said if we are doing that, I’m putting my phone ( dead which is why I don’t have pictures) and glasses ( so covered in rain they were useless) in my pack, and had Eugenia do that for me.

Fortunately Stef decided I wasn’t equal to brush scrambling, which I wasn’t, and finally found a path down. We got to a small village and sheltered in a barn while Eugenia asked for directions. While waiting, the owner of the barn saw us and offered to drive us to our car. Her name was Angela. And she was.

I decided then I REALLY dislike the mountains. As much as I want to see Stef and the others again, it will be awhile and it won’t be as long. I hesitate to say I hate any part of God’s creation, but the mountains come close.

Luz-Dary is from Columbia, but she and her dog Toby live in Pola de Allande. She is an interesting person. She wrote a book, and made sure to tell me it had “ mucho sexo.”

Stef and I went to visit and eat Columbian empanadas. She and Toby like to walk in the forest so we did that afterwards. Toby spent the whole time fetching sticks.

Toby: “Stick.”

Today we worked in the garden. Probably not enough work but I got filthy dirty and blistered my hands even more.

I keep meaning to work on the mural but I need more white paint and I don’t know where it is. I’ve asked Stef but he didn’t get it for me.

We planted beans, zucchini, and lettuce.

We also grubbed out another plot to plant.

After lunch Stef and Veronica went back to work on it, but I showered and then went to the supermercado. It will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday and maybe until Easter. God forbid I run out of Coke Zero.

I also bought the ingredients for strawberry shortcake. I told Stef and Veronica about what we would traditionally have for Easter dinner and they thought strawberry shortcake sounded amazing. So I bought what I need to make some. Without measuring spoons or cups. In metric. Wish me luck.

Today we got more work done. Stef said he had been down the last few days but now it was time to get more work done. So we organized the laundry room and I painted some doors downstairs. Lunch was very simple, salad in tortilla wraps, which Stef requested. I think Stef is getting tired of my “complicated cooking,” although I think I have been cooking pretty simply.

Anyway, after lunch I took a brief rest on my bed, because I was SO COLD, then went to the garden and dug up all the weeds again. It was not easy. The hoe rubbed a blister which popped and then a second blister formed afterward. But the garden is ready for planting tomorrow.

The Italian volunteer arrived around 6. Stef asked me at lunch if we were going to speak English or Spanish, and I said Spanish. My Spanish really hasn’t been getting better since Montse and Carlos left. (Carlos made it to Barcelona, btw.) Hopefully it will go back to improving.

I have only met the volunteer; Stef brought her out to the garden where I was working. We said, “Hola” and when I came in she was in her room. Stef heated rice with chili peppers for dinner and I had that damn stew. The volunteer didn’t come out until I was in my room, so I have no idea what she is eating. Hopefully the rest of the stew.

I’m not really sure what to cook tomorrow, or if I should. We haven’t had many pilgrims, and Montse is demanding Stef pay what he owes her. But we are in the middle of Holy week, which is actually a time you get pilgrims, and we haven’t been. And we need to be sure we have all the food we want tomorrow, because the stores will close and they won’t open again until Monday.

Time just gets away from me here. I look at each day and ask, “What did I really do?”

Yesterday’s Curried Butternut Squash and Lentil Stew wasn’t bad, but damn there was a lot of it. We ate it for lunch again today and there is still half of it left. I bought some freezer bags at the supermercado because I am tired of the damn stuff.

I got up around 11 and Stef and I talked until 1 p.m. Then we changed the sheets on the beds (we had two pilgrims last night) and started the laundry. I went for a walk in the rain, got the bags and some Coke Zero (dropped on in the store, so it is in the fridge till tomorrow) then painted a door downstairs that needed a second coat. (It needs a third too, but that is tomorrow.) I was going to work on the mural but I got cold. Dinner was broccoli and mushrooms over rice. I told Mom she’s going to start eating more vegetarian food when I get back.

I know I’ve lost weight but I have no idea how much. But walking and eating mostly veggies will do that. Even though I eat “postre” most days. And a fair amount of Napolitana cookies, although not as many as I used to. (I’m bring a box back, guys, don’t worry. Maybe two.)

I also talked to Montse and Gingerbread Jon. I wanted to make sure he was okay after the shootings in New York. He is.

These pictures aren’t from today but I know y’all like pictures so here you go.

Stef drove to Santiago to pick up a friend who had finished the camino (Nikolas from Eugenia’s party) and take him to his village near Tineo, so I spent most of today alone. I slept until noon (I was awake till 2 a.m. talking to Alexander) then did some laundry. I booked my hotel in Madrid for when I return and played around on the computer a bit.

Around 4 p.m. I went for a walk in the forest and was gone about two hours. I did more laundry and started dusting the downstairs. Stef came home and said he hadn’t eaten all day so I started dinner. Stef had left the garlic at Eugenia’s and had to go get it. Dinner was Pasta and Spinach Pesto topped with Fried Mushrooms and Hard-Boiled Egg.

Luz-Dary and her daughter Jessica came over and brought No Cheese Cheesecake. It was pretty good. After dinner we played Parchesi. Jessica won and Luz-Dary came in second. Poor Stef lost big time. It was actually kind of brutal. Tomorrow Stef is going to buy apples so I can make Curried Butternut Squash and Lentil Stew.