Sketching along the way, Way

Here are just a few sketches from our walk along. I am using Paper 53, because I decided that I really liked its limitations .... Other sketch Apps I used were either too clunky to manipulate, made lines that all looked the same, or took too much time to master as tools. Paper has serious limitations, such as the color palette, but I love the lines it makes. Yes, as an app, it is a bit pricey, $7.99, but I figure that is about the cost of one pad of paper!

And, one thing I learned from Lisa Call, setting limitations as rules can be a good thing.

Textile Sampler

The textures are mostly stone, slate and tile, forest and path, sky and bird sound. But lace making is a cottage craft here and most inns where we stay have lovely embroidery and lace-edged linens. Our hostess at Casa de la Samoza in Coto said that the winters were long and quiet and lacemaking filled the days.

This season, the textile inspiration of the day is that of flowers, amazing colors and form and thousands of them making a carpet of every meadow. I have never seen a country as full of flowers as Texas in a good spring until now. In addition to the wild vistas, every garden is festooned with roses, enormous camellia trees, honeysuckle and wisteria.

Continuing the Journey

As we walk, our bodies adjust, complain, grumble, and our spirits at times weary of one or more of the rituals of the walk, or take on a complaint about the sun or wind, or the kind of path underfoot or the highway noise on a particular stretch. But as Linda reminds me, we, almost miraculously, recover with a night of sleep, renewed for the path, ready to take on patience again, ok with trying to find wi-fi only when it appears.

We've now competed 5 days of walking from 8 to 12 miles a day, more than half our journey to Santiago de Campostela. Each day has its surprises, beauties, frights, frustrations and delights, many of them culinary, I must admit. In addition to my journal and sketches, I am keeping a food of Spain journal, with images altered and original, and some sketches, too.

So, with walking, eating, sleeping we refresh and renew. At the inns we meet and talk more each night, a kind of moving feast of stories.

Walking in Stones

Galicia is as unlike ones stereotypes of Spain as it could be. The music is Celtic with its own harp and bagpipes, the lanes are green, green, green. The stones here are slate grey and rich browns and all is covered with mosses, succulents and wild flowers as thick and varied as a good Texas spring.

We are staring day four of our slow easy last 100 k of the Camino de Santiago, we will be on the way until next Saturday when we will attend the Pilgrim 's mass at the cathedral where relics of Saint James are venerated.

Internet service is a bit sketchy so my posts will be sporadic, but once home I will upload a PDF of my trip journal for anyone interested.