Spring is here

I have blog block, and more pictures of London and Barcelona to show you, but first I am going to post in real time. Today, my beloved and I had a picnic at Parque Quinta de los Molinos because the almonds are in full bloom, and there has been no rain. If you are in Madrid, you need to go to that park ASAP. It is a magical land, and a great place for a picnic.

If you want to know more about the park you can see my previous posts here and here.

More London and Barcelona photos coming soon, plus this weekend I leave for Montpellier, France!

Navibus

 Last night DH and I decided to take a ride on the Navibus. As the name suggests it is a bus that only runs during the Christmas season. It is an open air double-decker bus that drives along a certain route in order to see as many of the city's Christmas lights as it can. The city of Madrid puts up festive lights on certain streets in the center of Madrid. The lights have not changed for several years, but we had never taken the Navibus before.

The Navibus has no stops and you take it from Plaza de Colon.

We had just gotten a new 50mm lens for our camera and we were excited to try it out.  We are still learning but I think that the pictures came out rather good! Most of the photo credit went to my husband as my hands were tucked well inside my mitts.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, hollar if you have a question. Enjoy.

Plaza Colon

Calle de Goya

Calle Serrano

Part of ls Jardines del Descubrimiento 

Puerta del Alcalá

Fuente de Cibeles

The fountain and Cibeles

The Metropolis

Gran Vía

Vodaphone "tree" on Gran Vía

Callao

The famous Schweppes sign

Christmas market at Plaza Santa Domingo

Gran Vía

Ice skating rink entrance

Puerta de Alcalá

Puerta de Alcalá with moon

Church of San Manuel and San Benito

Calle Goya

 Calle Velázquez

calle José Ortega y Gasset

Calle Serrano

Calle Serrano

A fall juant - Quinta de la fuente del berro

There is a romantic style garden near my house that I have only been to 3 times despite having lived here for over a year now. It is a problem of distance. It is far enough from home that it seems like a long distance to walk to, and then go exploring in the gardens, but too close to pay to take public transport. It is a good way to get in a 6.5km walk though and I am going to try and go more often. 

If you would like to see some pictures of this park in the Spring, here is the last blog post I did about this park. 

Here in Madrid we are still in the final stages of autumn, even in early December.

This garden is not as grand as most I have been to, but it is still a reminder of the sense of past us US citizens crave. As I walked through the park today I wondered: "would this garden's historical features have been more impressive to me if I was just here for a visit? Am I starting to get used to seeing old buildings and that has taken away their impact? Or maybe becoming accustomed to the Europe-ness of my surroundings makes me now better able to single out the things of great beauty?" Food for thought. What do you think?

Talking about great beauty, this Gingko tree was straight from a fairy tale. It is really hard to get a picture that capture's it's beauty. It's golden leaves and the way that they fell 'just so' on the lush green grass underneath, made the whole journey more than worth it. I was not the only one it affected, there was a man walking my way who kept glancing back. I thought that he was waiting for a dog, but I never saw one.

Those rich people knew how to construct even their gardener's huts with style.

That antenna is one of the more recognizable in Madrid. Sometimes when I am across the city and I see it I realize just how small the footprint of Madrid is compared to some US cities.

What you can not tell from these photos is that it is so cold there is frost on the ground in the shade, yet the roses still bloom.

Madrid really has two seasons: hot & dry, and cold & wet. 

So there was my walk for this morning. Excuse well I go get out my dye-pot and get to work.

Sunday Picnic

I have plans afoot. I am hoping to teach crafty classes (instead of English) here in Madrid this fall and I am in the process of working on a schedule with some lovely ladies who have a textile teaching studio in the heart of Madrid. I will release details once things become finalized. Let's just say that I am on board to teach some spinning and needle felting classes! In Spanish! I am nervous but excited to practice in my new language. Until then I am studying all of the textile terms in preparation.

But until I can release the details, I want to share the perfect day I had this past Sunday with my husband of almost 10 years.

We took a picnic lunch to Parque de Quinta de los Molinos, which some of you might remember from a previous posts here and here. It was a beautiful day, it is still a little warm here in Madrid, with the days getting up to 30C (82F), but in the shade it was perfect. As you can see the leaves are changing, and I am excited that my favorite season is here!

The thing about this park is that there are many olive and almond orchards. They are very old and very charming. You can walk amongst the orchards if you want, or in our case picnic, and even come and pick the fruit when it is at peak.

The park also has an estate house, grand walkways, manicured gardens, and eucalyptus trees, which I love to photograph.

Here is the area we settled on for our picnic. We had lunch early, around 1pm, so we had the place mostly to ourselves. (Most Spaniards eat lunch on Sunday around 3 or later, and they sleep in.) In fact except for the dull roar of traffic noise, we could pretend that we were in the countryside. The soil (dry and rocky) and the smell of pines reminded strongly of the mountains in my home State of Colorado.

We ate, we lay on our blanket looking up at the sky and talked. Sometimes we were silent, listening to the breeze in the trees and the bird song. These moments are what life is all about. 

But... there was only so much time you can sit, lie on the rocky ground so we packed up our picnic and made our way leisurely out of the park. Note to self: Picnic more often.