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!

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.

Parque Quinta de los Molinos, parte dos

The family is going through a difficult time right now. So I am going to bring you another photo post from this past Saturday. Parque de los Molinos is a park with a ton of early flowers, the star of which, is the almond tree.

So if you are going through a difficult time too, take time to enjoy the beauty of these flowers and to know that in the Northern hemisphere spring is coming. 

Parque de Quinta de los Molinos