Viral Spain Blog 24^th March 2022.

Did you get the brown dust treatment last week? The mountains around here disappeared behind a fog of tiny suspended sand particles from the Sahara. We have had milder versions before. This was much denser and brought down by heavy rain to give a yellow brown coating to all horizontal surfaces and many vertical. We envied our neighbour whose house is painted a creamy brown colour on which the stain hardly showed.

Luckily we saw an add by enterprising friends offering pressure washing. We booked them and headed north for a weekend with daughter and partner. We drove 300km. on Thursday (hence no blog) and they caught the train down to Ciudad Real after work on Friday. We were all staying in Almagro. It is a picturesque place, with new houses built to look like the older ones and no blocks of flats anywhere near the centre. The main square is surrounded by wooden buildings. To be honest I rarely get excited by buildings but enjoy the historic atmosphere they create and love to visit new landscapes. The town is surrounded by very green undulating countryside peppered with volcanoes and castles. We climbed a very steep track to see a dramatic hill top fortification. I was pleased to find I could!

Next day we went to see a volcano. It was shut! No really. There was a little pay hut and a locked gate and the whole volcano was fenced off.

It was Sarah's birthday on the Saturday so we went for a posh meal. The food was very good but unfortunately my wild pig came alone, a huge plateful of delicious sliced meat with nothing else. I am worried that this reveals my lack of finesse in the food department, but I longed for a chip or two.

Our return on Monday was easy. The rain held off until after we got here. Alas the clean up had not taken place. We learnt while we were away that it wouldn't but it was still a disappointment to see the skin of mud half way across every tile. Heavy rain had created a semi clean effect but done nothing for the walls nor windows.

And now it is back again. The brown rain is spattering. The mountains sit behind a yellowish veil. The wind is howling and the dust spreading.

I feel grateful that it is not bombs and bullets besieging us. Our weekend was a good escape from thoughts of war.

It was also another chance to continue to get to know our 'son in law'. (They are not married but he has become somehow more than daughters partner.) We had some good conversations and these usually veer between fun and seriousness. I told them how I like sometimes in a low moment to think of all the people that love me. Alex later said how he hoped I realised he was on the list. I was so touched. It was both the sentiment and that he felt able to share it.

So, an escape, some significant sharing, and beautiful countryside and town. Even the predicted rain held off.

And now alas I am back to the sore throat and headache malaise that has been coming and going since Covid over a month ago. I thought I was over it. I will be.

Go well my friends.