I think it was Mary Margaret that said when she travels she carries a little bottle of olive oil and a little bottle of salt.  So she can always buy bread, a tomato and some cheese or whatever and be set for a meal.  Nice.  Almost seems too simple.

The other day I went exploring in the oil department at the local super market and came away with the really expensive stuff.  Well not the most expensive but the second most.  The most expensive brand bottles were dusty and they were over there expiration date.   I just want to taste some really good stuff.  And it was really really good needless to say.  Too expensive to use for general cooking purposes but great for on bread or salad.

And in the process of reading the labels I got the idea of the different characteristics of the different oils from different locales.  So I have a lot to learn and  a lot more fun to look forward to.   This particular brand that I bought has a resins pine taste that I like.  It is from Tuscany.

So if anyone has some good olive oil knowledge that they would like to share we could put it up on TGIF.  Speaking of which Mary Margaret sent in a great Camino rememberance that we will feature this Friday if I can keep my days straight.

Well, have to go for now.  Saint James is Afoot, Love, Felipe.

p.s. ~ I didn’t say anything about salt but what can be said?

It’s late and I haven’t blogged today.  What to do?  You know by now that I am driven to make this happen everyday.  So, I’ll do my best.  This is not so much different than being on the Camino and trying make a blog happen in the evening after an exhausting day.

Today was memorable.  Kelly, Rick and I put on our long awaited Camino slide show at our church.  We had about fifty folks come to hear us and watch the slides.  Even Sister Joyce was there.  It’s always fun to try and put the Camino into words.  Although impossible we are somehow getting closer with each try.

Just want to remind us that there are still pilgrims walking now.  I have been keeping in touch with Amita who is close to Leon walking in the wind and rain.  She is one tough cookie.  Say a little prayer for her.  I need to check my phone and see if there is anything new from her.  She is such an inspiration.  Go girl!

OK, I think that this effort lives up to our not so strict quality standards.  Hope that your day is going smoothly.  It’s cold here and I find myself longing for the heat of Spain in August.  A hot cup of tea will have to suffice for now.  Love, Felipe.

Late Saturday morning here on Vashon.  The sky is blue as a result of the high pressure system and should remain so for more days ahead.  Things colder than we are normally used to.  I’m here babysitting my sick doggy.  The Vet did some stuff to make him relatively comfortable.  So he is hangin out.

The really good news is that I was over at my friends Dick’s yesterday andhe kind of lost it and made five apple pies.  Nobody does that.  So I gott a piece to bring home which I shared with Rebecca.  She immediately calls Dick up to say that it is the best pie she has ever had.  So today, Dick gives me a WHOLE pie with the message that flattery works.  Yea, see.

Anyway back to the other Camino.  Kelly came up with a pic of the Sister what was at the gnarly old church on the hill where we got the Pilgrim’s Beautitudes.  The church itself was in a grove of trees and you walked to it.  No road or driveway or parking, old school.  Maybe I will include a few more pics of it.  The spiral stone stairway to the ultra funky bell tower and the beautiful relatively simple alter piece.

And the Sisters were always smiling, well not always always but you know most always.  Whatever they would be up to no matter how mundane or ordinary they were smiling away like they know something we don’t.  Hmm.

Then the the topic of really gnarly dudes that you would see occasionally walking like they just live on the trail.  Sometimes they would be walking the other way, the wrong way which always attracts attention.  Yea, these guys were the cool grad students on campus and we were the dorky freshman, like you can’t even approach them.  I bet they had some stories.  Needless to say that I don’t have any pics of them although they closely approximated the architipical St James Pilgrim look, if you can picture that.

OK,  Thansgiving holiday is coming up here in America when we are thankful to God for the rich bounty that we enjoy. So if you don’t know about Thanksgiving Day you had better Google it, it’s a good one.  You guys are peachy, Love, Felipe.

Yea, I got Cherry’s great piece posted Wednesday evening all ready for what I thought was Friday but not.  One day ahead isn’t so bad.  So here I am working on Friday my day of rest to get a few thoughts to you.

So, the big news is that our beautiful dog , Sture (pronounced Stura) has come down with something that looks like some form of liver failure.  I spent a large part of the day  at the Vet’s office working on that.  Bummer.

I did get my walk in this morning and I want to remind you

that I am still doing it three days a week now.  That’s Monday from 0900 to 1000, Friday from 0900 to 1000 and Sunday an hour later.  Just come and walk and talk.

I am getting reports from the Camino from a friend named Amita.  She is getting toward Leon.  The Meseta is cold and a lot of the albergues are closing down for the season.  But she is out there making her way across.

I’m asleep so it is time to go.  Falling asleep.  Love Phil

On day one of my Camino I met Olivia Newton-John and Claire Danes. I’d arrived at the large pilgrim hostel in Larrasoana around 4pm only to be turned away as the place was full. I wasn’t the least bit concerned. I was high spirited from the first day and the walk had been so exhilarating. A local directed me to a Pension House on the other side of the village. When there, a cute old man showed me to my room.

There were two bunks in the room. On one of the bunks lay two fellow female pilgrims, both red faced yet cheerful and smiling. The three of us bonded, rapid camino style. Laughing about almost everything; how tough the walk had been, how sore our bodies were and how they’d managed to manifest both a banana and a toilet on top of the Pyrenees in the middle of nowhere.

Our room was a rather stuffy. There was mould on the walls and the sheets looked like they hadn’t been washed for rather a long time. We all laughed about all that too. I felt like I was high. I was too grateful to be bothered about any faults in our room. And the girls were too exhausted to care about trivial things such as dirty bed sheets.

They felt familiar now, not the bed sheets, the girls. Their names are Olivia and Claire. I loved that we laughed so much. But most of all I loved that we were all grateful for where we were, for what we had and for getting to meet each other.

I told them, “I’m going to call you Olivia Newton-John and Claire Danes. That way I won’t ever forget your names.”

Cherry, inspired by Polish beer in Wraclaw, Polska.

Last evening Quick, his wife Carolyn and I went into the big city to see “Walking the Camino, Six Ways to Santiago”.  Lydia B. Smith is the wonderful person who is the filmmaker and driving force behind this amazing work.   Thank you Lydia for your many year effort.  I wonder what the “B” stands, for blistered, beautiful, bountiful, beneficial, best documentary ever, yea, that’s it.

We had to fight our way through downed power lines and tree limbs to get there and back, almost like last Feburary 7th when we saw the film the first time and it was the middle of a snow storm.   Anything for Lydia I guess.  Another thing that was the same was the fact that I wept all the way through the darn thing twice now.  It so captures the pain/ joy/wonder/ camaraderie/ blessing/ work / play aspects of the trail.  Absolutely, a must see!

And! And we we walked out with our own DVD’s of it.  Ha!  The much awaited day.   We so want to share it with friends.  Almost better than Christmas.

Lydia did a great job of introducing the film last night and then after took some questions.   The crowd seemed to enjoy hearing about what the six walkers were up to five years later.  They seemed all to have pitched in to help with some aspect of promotions or translating for their home audience.  The film has been subtitled in ten languages.

Then at some point in this she said, “Is Phil here?”  And I groaned and stood and thanked her and gave a short talk on the “Phil’s Camino” project.  What a deal, the limelight.  So, it is all moving ahead in strange and mysterious ways.

OK, second cup of strong coffee.  So, Gracie has the flu and is feeling all alone in her room in London.  What can you do about that?  I told her that she was definitely not alone.  Please send her what you have.

Obviously I am in love with you all, Felipe.  XOXOXOXO

My walk today included phone conversations with two old friends before breakfast, then walking with Ross, my new friend.  Then working with Wiley on a challenging project on a beautiful afternoon.  Then to a party for the 239th anniversary of the founding of the US Marine Corps.  I’m blessed with being busy with so many good things.

Tomorrow morning up at the crack of dawn to put up flags around town to honor our veterans.  It will be like walking around in a Norman Rockwell painting.  We have a big breakfast for all the volunteers that help which is really fun.  Lots of bacon and eggs and pancakes happen.

News today that one of my big  Camino mentors, Esther, will be staying on Vashon for four months this summer.  I can see some super dilly dallying in our futures.  Maybe if I’m lucky she will let me peek at the children’s book she is working on.

Also,  tomorrow we are headed into Seattle to see the Camino documentary one more time.  It is coming out on DVD also which is much awaited.  All good.

Have to bail out and get some sleep.  Thanks for being with me.  Saint James is Afoot, Love, Felipe.

Kelly came over for dilly dally and dinner.  Then we watched the 1961 El Cid with Charelton Heston and Sophia Loren.  One big Spanish history lesson.   I saw a Sophia quote the other day where she said that, “Everything she had she owed to spaghetti.”   I’m thinking on that one.

So, Kelly says to me me that it’s all my fault.  Well, that the walk was my idea and I invited him to go along.  And now he thinks about it everyday and can’t get rid of it.  You know how Kelly is, saying this sort of half in fun but even so ….  Very true Kel.

We are walking in a few minutes so I am going to give you the lean and mean version this AM as time is short.  Wiley is coming as well as Ross, a young man who has been afflicted/ blessed with blindness.  He is a rare fellow.  I enjoy his company.

Then there is a wonderful new friend that is out on the Meseta as we speak.  I have been communicating with her via phone messaging.  I am jealous.  I want to spend the day with her.  I am trying to imagine that big empty place in November.  Bigger and emptier than August when we could bearly see another pilgrim.  Yea.

OK, big and empty is a good place to leave you.  Perhaps we can fill it with our positive energy, good spirits, prayers, thoughts, wishes, hopes, hoops, yells, hollers, memories.  Excellent.

Love to you, Felipe.

Flan
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
same measurement (measure in the empty condensed milk can) of milk (I use 2% but you can use anything)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

On the metal pan, melt about 2 tablespoons of sugar, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn, until it’s golden caramel. Set aside

Blend mix in blender for about 1 min, until it gets a little foamy. Pour over caramel.
350 degree oven for 1 hr. Let it cool and put in refrigerator. I like flan a little cold.

Yup, got it in the oven with 25 minutes to go.  I have been making this recipe in eight little ramekins so I had to experiment with the time.  I am down to forty minutes to forty five minutes, still playing with it.

The beauty of the sunset is an indication of how beautiful the day was.  See, it doesn’t always rain here, just most of the time.  I find myself staring at beautiful things lately.  Staring maybe isn’t the right word.  But just trying to soak in as much as possible.  More has got to be better, right?

OK, I am going to save this for Sunday morning.  Awesomely awesome guys!  Love, Felipe.

I was grouchy yesterday and it had to due with me being locked out of my own blog site.  Finally, at 2345 I was able to get in to post Sherif’s thoughts on blisters.  I didn’t want a day to go by without a thought going out to you.

So, hopefully, things will run smoothly now.  The spam is gone which is huge and other things are happening.  THE BLOG CONTINUES!!

Right now the sun is out and I am going to get out there and get somethings done.  This  will be a shorty.  Let it be enough to say that I am totally happy being here with you and doing what we do.  I get grouchy when I think that it will be otherwise.  Love you, Felipe.