Back in Galicia, Spain!

   

Today I'm celebrating being back in Galicia Spain. It's hard to believe we left Sacramento two weeks ago, arriving on Saturday evening, April 14th (Spain time). Since arrival, we've had intermittent cold, warmth, bright sunny days, thunderstorms, sun again, wind . . .. Each day is an adventure in weather.

It's great to be back! We've been busy ever since, having lunches with friends, snacks with neighbors, visiting our closest neighbors Eva & Manolo often, walking to a nearby pueblo (about a mile or two away), going into Monforte de Lemos (the closest bigger town) to walk around and stop for a glass of wine at our favorite cafe-bar on the main plaza.

Above is a picture of our field that one of our neighbors, Miguel-Angel plants each year with potatoes. It was plowed like this last week with plans to plant on Monday, but a fierce thunderstorm struck on Sunday, so he had to wait until Wednesday. Here are some scenes from a walk we took to El Barrio, a small village that fringes the larger village of Tuiriz.

This is outside a small village
 called Santalla, taken from the road.

Nearing El Barrio. 

Somewhere along the way.

Meanwhile, below is a picture of the plaza in Monforte. It's like this all the time, filled with families enjoying coffee, lunch, beer or wine, pastries. Kids running about everywhere in glee. Babies being cooed over. And the rise and fall of voices in the beautiful Spanish language.

Outside a cafe-bar we like, Lienzo.

Because we have come here so often and for so long, we keep running into people we know in Monforte. It's almost like a homecoming. Our Spanish is decent enough that we can limp through conversations without too much trouble. In no way can I say we are fluent—we aren't by a long shot—but it's encouraging to at least understand most things and to be understood. (And the Spanish are encouraging. They patiently wait out our word searches.)

More pictures will be coming. Meanwhile, do you like to walk out in the country? In the park? What are some of your favorite walks?

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate.)

Four Things to Celebrate

 
As many of you know, my husband and I come to Galicia spring and fall -- usually the most comfortable seasons in Galicia, although this time they have had a delayed spring, so it's been rainier and chillier than usual. Always beautiful, though, as you can see. Meanwhile, our wonderful neighbor is looking after our house in Sacramento, so we are very grateful.

I'm also celebrating the fact that I've rewritten the first five chapters of my mystery novel. It was worth the wait, once I'd had it critiqued. Some of you may remember it looked like this:
 

There was much to think over, as you can see, and I'm glad I didn't just jump in and start revising right away. I've a much better idea about how I want to handle scenes and characters, and if I'd started too soon, it would have been like knitting rows and rows on a sweater and then needing to rip them out again. Now the book knows where it's going. (At least so far.)


A third thing to celebrate: I've mentioned before the Kickstarter campaign for coming anthology, Beyond Watson, in which twelve stories involving Sherlock Holmes will use differing viewpoints than the traditional Dr. Watson perspective. One of my stories starring Imogene (& Rusty) will be included.
The Kickstarter campaign was a huge success. The book will be coming out in June, and you can expect to see this cover again (as well as read some teasers) in the next two months.  Meanwhile, if you have projects you'd like funded, by all means visit KICKSTARTER to learn more about what kinds of projects they fund and how to go about starting a campaign of your own.

Last, but not least, we were fortunate last night to hear the great María do Ceo, a renowned fadista, perform in a concert in the Casa da Cultura in Sober (an interesting town few miles away that offers many musical and cultural events.) She lives in Galicia but is originally from Portugal, the birthplace of Fado. I originally heard her sing in August of 2013, when friends Terri & David took me to a performance at Rectoral de Castillon. (I blogged about it HERE ) Rajan and I were taking turns in Galicia that summer, while the other took care of our sick dog, so I was alone on that particular trip, but that was when I discovered Fado.

The following April, we went with friends, Craig and Melanie to hear María do Ceo sing at a town called Quiroga, an hour away, and I blogged about it HERE.  That was when Rajan discovered Fado,  too, and we've both been hooked every since. We've hoped many times to catch another performance in Galicia, but she has always been singing somewhere that would involve a very long drive in an unfamiliar location for us.

But: three days ago, our friends, Craig and Melanie, alerted us to the concert in Sober, and we all went together last night to hear her. She was marvelous, as usual. She was featuring songs from a new CD -- which we bought, of course, and had her autograph. She's a very gracious lady and even remembered me from before, which was so nice!

Here she is, kindly allowing me to have a selfie with her:


If you have never heard Fado before, listening to her singing is a wonderful introduction. You can go to here WEBSITE 

And this is her new album:

 How about you? Do you have a favorite singer you go out of your way to hear? What is your favorite music? Are you involved in a rewrite of a story or book?  How do you approach your own rewrites? Do you have to mull them over for a long time? Or can you jump right in after you've have feedback? 

Meanwhile, 

Celebrate the Small things is a blog hoop co-sponsored by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well.