Off to Scotland day after tomorrow, then back here with just a few days to pack it all up. An odd kind of limbo we're living in, not unproductive as Alex and I are both getting good work done on our research, but still a kind of frozen moment, suspended between our year's adventure in Europe and the long trip home. What to do in the meantime? Why not haul a few pictures out of the vault?
We had a fun afternoon a couple of weeks ago with our friend Helio, father of Annabel's friends and schoolmates Roma and Flavia. He drove the three of us out to Cabo de Peñas, the northernmost point of the Spanish coast, directly north of Oviedo, to show us his old stomping grounds, including the big nature preserve that encompasses the cape itself, the village he grew up in just alongside the cape, and the two largest towns in the area, Luanco (where he and his girls live by the beach in the summer) and Candás.
These shots are out on the point itself. Some of you may recognize that strip of blue blowing out from Annabel's head. Yes, the blue hair she had glued on at the Tanana Valley Fair last August is still, incredibly, hanging in there.
The first one above is the beach in Luanco where Roma and Flavia will be hanging out once school ends in June. The next three are in Candás, a town that has clearly used its public art opportunities to assert its traditional connection with the sea. Annabel was impressed by the large anchor. I as impressed by the odd statue, which kind of reminds me of an overweight Gollum, naked with a fish in one hand. I can't figure out exactly what it's saying about the locals. Something I neglected to mention in the last blog that I'm going to miss is the architecture in Asturias, the colors and shapes of the beautiful buildings. I gather that both of these coastal towns are going through hard times, but they're certainly preserving their civic spirit, Candás somewhat more vividly than Luanco.
What else besides that fun outing? I never did get pictures of the penitentes in León--there are still some on Annabel's camera, I think--but here's a shot of some Easter candy in the KKK-shape of the folks in the procession. Followed by another of some more traditional American Easter candy (giant chocolate chicken) and my personal favorite, a gummy pulpo.
Did you ever get to see any pictures from Annabel's science assignment, the parachute designed to preserve an egg uncracked from our third-story window? She took pictures of all the prototypes, starting with a handkerchief, progressing to a cut-up shopping bag, and ending with a cut-up garbage back from which was suspended a rubber swim cap and an egg padded with paper towels. It did finally work, and below is a picture of the successful model. Annabel did the tests with chocolate eggs to help solace her for failures.
When I posted on the nice walk we took a couple of weeks ago, I neglected to include this fine shot of bug stuff. Tiny rock homes, once underwater, and this carapace of something insectoidal that graduated to bigger and better things. Almost but not quite the dragonfly larval exoskeletons Annabel likes to find in Fairbanks. Like I've said before, it's not really a post without a bug shot.
Another thing I should have mentioned in the blog about what I'll miss: performing goats outside our window. Or rather, "performing" goats, since as far as I could tell this goat was simply being its normal goatlike self while on the end of a leash. The accompanying music was quite loud, luckily, since otherwise I might have missed the show (and not gotten these pictures for you).
Time to go meet Annabel's bus for the second-last time. I'll leave you with a picture of all but one of Alex's students, mugging it up with my girls on the last dinner we made for them, and a shot of Annabel and Woody, a teaser for a future post with even more fabulous local sculpture. Hasta luego.
We had a fun afternoon a couple of weeks ago with our friend Helio, father of Annabel's friends and schoolmates Roma and Flavia. He drove the three of us out to Cabo de Peñas, the northernmost point of the Spanish coast, directly north of Oviedo, to show us his old stomping grounds, including the big nature preserve that encompasses the cape itself, the village he grew up in just alongside the cape, and the two largest towns in the area, Luanco (where he and his girls live by the beach in the summer) and Candás.
These shots are out on the point itself. Some of you may recognize that strip of blue blowing out from Annabel's head. Yes, the blue hair she had glued on at the Tanana Valley Fair last August is still, incredibly, hanging in there.
The first one above is the beach in Luanco where Roma and Flavia will be hanging out once school ends in June. The next three are in Candás, a town that has clearly used its public art opportunities to assert its traditional connection with the sea. Annabel was impressed by the large anchor. I as impressed by the odd statue, which kind of reminds me of an overweight Gollum, naked with a fish in one hand. I can't figure out exactly what it's saying about the locals. Something I neglected to mention in the last blog that I'm going to miss is the architecture in Asturias, the colors and shapes of the beautiful buildings. I gather that both of these coastal towns are going through hard times, but they're certainly preserving their civic spirit, Candás somewhat more vividly than Luanco.
What else besides that fun outing? I never did get pictures of the penitentes in León--there are still some on Annabel's camera, I think--but here's a shot of some Easter candy in the KKK-shape of the folks in the procession. Followed by another of some more traditional American Easter candy (giant chocolate chicken) and my personal favorite, a gummy pulpo.
Did you ever get to see any pictures from Annabel's science assignment, the parachute designed to preserve an egg uncracked from our third-story window? She took pictures of all the prototypes, starting with a handkerchief, progressing to a cut-up shopping bag, and ending with a cut-up garbage back from which was suspended a rubber swim cap and an egg padded with paper towels. It did finally work, and below is a picture of the successful model. Annabel did the tests with chocolate eggs to help solace her for failures.
When I posted on the nice walk we took a couple of weeks ago, I neglected to include this fine shot of bug stuff. Tiny rock homes, once underwater, and this carapace of something insectoidal that graduated to bigger and better things. Almost but not quite the dragonfly larval exoskeletons Annabel likes to find in Fairbanks. Like I've said before, it's not really a post without a bug shot.
Another thing I should have mentioned in the blog about what I'll miss: performing goats outside our window. Or rather, "performing" goats, since as far as I could tell this goat was simply being its normal goatlike self while on the end of a leash. The accompanying music was quite loud, luckily, since otherwise I might have missed the show (and not gotten these pictures for you).
Time to go meet Annabel's bus for the second-last time. I'll leave you with a picture of all but one of Alex's students, mugging it up with my girls on the last dinner we made for them, and a shot of Annabel and Woody, a teaser for a future post with even more fabulous local sculpture. Hasta luego.
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