All Aboard...Barcelona

Hola from España ....
we are loving it here. wow. Spain has so much to offer. Think I could live here.
It's been a bit of a whirlwind, landing in Barcelona & then to a ship & cruising here & there...
one of the many episodes in our life that kind of came together unexpectedly...& still unraveling...
at last post--meant to query which body of water we were standing in front of (years ago...)...
L Michigan........Mediterranean........or Caribbean.?.......all of which have been part of our lives.....
(that happened to be in front of L Michigan....)
but, now we're in the Med...retracing steps from 40 years ago...
haven't had time to get pics together, and, being in 'vacation mode' coupled with sometimes very limited internet service, has resulted in few posts to the blogosphere.

I'll see if I can work on that....
This is a statue to Christoper Columbus, 'Cristobal Colon'   in Barcelona...
       we left from his same port...
though from a city now much different...

explorers,
architects,
artists...

ancient & modern.
the city is almost too much to take in

Gaudi
house

and
Sagrada Familia
so over the top
wonderful...


It's hard to get any group of pics to do justice to Barcelona, but I'll keep trying...



Mardi Gras
a stage &
giant figures
dancing about

and below, is another Gaudi creation, Park Guell
on a hill above the city... a whimsical park of structures, many covered in intricate mosaics, but all fun & unexpected...pretty much like this trip!
(I think I may use some of these ideas on Isla, especially in the walls there...& benches too !)

see the Med in the background, beyond the city...


and these lizard mosaics...
very cute...
I'll take them over the larger-than-life iguana
sculpture on Isla any day...

anyway...more from the Med...coming soon.
Barcelona isn't fading...but we were there days ago...

now in Malaga.... tomorrow, Morocco...

Happy Valentine's Day--& we set sail...

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) ee cummings

"i carry your heart with me" is another of Cummings' "we've got a shared secret" poems for lovers, published in 1958 in 95 poems:

memories...mom & Isla

My mom on Isla... we had many good times there together as a family.  She did pretty good to get in a few vacations to Isla at her advanced age.  We just dragged her with us & she made the best of it...
She used to like to say we kidnapped her to take her places...with her  advancing Alzheimer's and our kicking back with some 'refreshments' it was sometimes hard to know what was reality...we had fun!!!!

(She didn't really drive the golfcart...but pose, yes!)     what a good sport... and always so dressed for whatever occasion....always had her sunhat...probably from her days of boating with dad...

great MARGARITAS at ACANTILADO RESTAURANT, South Point, Caribbean Village...   Mango mmmmmmm

 

 

 

I just love how that mural at the MERCADO made such a great backdrop for fotos

 (K,S,J,B, MOM &C)

 What a great traveling group we made...and what a lot of great memories we had together.
      

Blog Hodge Podge

Blodge--is that a word?  It needs to be.  I think it would define my blog hodge podge.
       (and from a linguist point of view...I like it ! ) 

I think maybe this is common among bloggers--losing focus...as if I ever had a focus. But wait...I think I did, just over a year ago when I started this. Just venturing out, knowing nothing was daring.  But to think I could stick to a topic, timeline, learn how to post pics and have some cohesion...I see it's not doable.  And not sure I will even continue... but, if I do, where to go with it...hmmmm.....

Technically, if I continue, I feel I should seek help through a class or something. I could/should learn how to make it look better (it's daunting to see others so put together...) and maybe I'll switch to wordpress...a thought. Blogger is not easy w/a mac laptop. Plus, the template was set up in Mexico, & is in Spanish...I just figured, oh well, I'll pick up more Spanish vocab...always a goal.  I'm just too lazy to change it...but maybe...

It was about the house & Isla in the beginning, but as I/we come and go...well, life is just more complicated than that.  

I'm going to be here (farm)
and there (Isla) and everywhere (Spain, Morocco) in the next several weeks.  Retracing our history.

Well...I guess that's my life, and I'm sticking with it.
Seems I had one post that said something about serendipity...true enough...we've never had a set plan to get through life.    It has just happened.    and that's okay.   

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

The theme song we now use as a tribute to my mom...we played it at her memorial service recently,
and it's beautiful to listen to and imagine another world, where we'll all be someday...
I'm still kind of on auto-pilot...missing a dog, and a mom... they're somewhere....over the rainbow....