May

It's May. In April the sun shone and the thermometers went up to 23º or so in the middle of the day. Now we've been lighting the fire in the afternoon to keep a bit warmer. There's been a strong wind which has burnt the tender leaves of the plants I put out last month. Here they have a proverb which is almost the same as the English "cast not a clout 'til May is out" (don't start wearing summer clothes until it's really summer).

Facebook

I spent a bit of time the other day in Facebook. It's quite interesting who you can find through it; I say through Facebook, not necessarily on it. I came to a list of people who were at my secondary school in the same final year as me. I think I recognised the names of three men; no women at all. As we're all in our 50s they will probably be on their second or third change of surname (through marriage, of course).
Living in Spain that sounds wierd to me. Here, women keep the surnames they were born with.
Children take a surname from each parent, for example: the president of the government's father's first surname is Rodriguez, his mother's Zapatero, so he is José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. My children have my husband's surname and then mine; I only have my father's, so I've got a bad deal!
This lovely modern system where women don't lose their surnames started as a pretty unpleasant device to check racial purity in the bad old days of the Inquisition, so that you didn't marry a new Christian (converted Jew or Moslem) because you could tell by the surnames!
Anyway, that's why I'm still Sally Bracher.

Spring

Easter's over, spring is here. At nine in the morning, the sky is blue and the sparrows are feasting on the grass seed in our back garden. From here I can see a big poplar tree which is covered in catkins. In a while they'll start releasing the fluff which gets everywhere and makes life a misery for anyone with a sensitive nose. The bulbs I planted in the autumn are in bloom; mostly daffodils but also grape hyacinths (is that how you spell it?) and anemones.
There are red kites which soar over the rooftops in the city. I wonder where they nest?

Memories

A couple of days ago in Zaragoza we saw some of the sites of the sieges of the city by Napoleonic troops in 1808 and 1809. Rafael remembers his grandmother telling him things her grandfather had told her about what he'd heard about the sieges. I think it's pretty amazing how far back you can take oral memories..
This is a building left as it was in the historic centre of the city.

Ski Wednesday

On Wednesdays it's half price to ski in Le Somport. Since my morning was free I put the racks back on the car and drove to France. The ski resort is just across the border, and the actual slopes-well, tracks really, are both in France and in Spain. However, most of the skiers are Spanish, I think.
It hasn't been a good season; too many weekends and holidays of bad weather. Yesterday, though, was a fine day to ski in shirtsleeves and a hat to keep the sun off
Cross-country skiing is quite hard work for someone like me with hardly any technique. I watch people glide  past me effortlessly on uphill stretches and envy them, but I don't fall over often. Mainly because of going so slowly, but also from years of practice.
It was absolutely beautiful, with few people and quite nice snow.

Spring!

Today the sun is shining and it finally looks like spring. After months and months I got my bicycle out and used it. What a joy! I've got a flowerbed full of daffodils and they'll open soon, I hope. And two crocuses...more than I've had for years.

Diocesan Museum

On Monday the Diocesan Museum was finally opened to the public. This week it's free, at least until tomorrow. I popped in yesterday morning for a quick look, and liked it. I'd heard that it was twice as big, and I expected to see exhibits that hadn't been on show last time it was open, but I don't think there were any. What there was, however, was very well displayed in pleasant surroundings. I went out into the cloister patio; you get a different perspective of the cathedral from there. The rescued frescoes from the old churches like Bagües don't seem any different, and they are magnificent.

If I've infringed a copyright, tell me and I'll remove these photos.