My Rebecca and I had dinner with Esther yesterday afternoon. Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, yea. We brought my new orange flan for dessert. Then we took a walk down to the lighthouse for a little exercise. Esther trying to do 50 miles a month for pilgrim maintainance. Man, I am having trouble getting the time to do 25 miles anymore.

But it is great to have the Great Caminohead Esther here in town for the next three months. We all gabbed away for five hours with no problem. No trouble dilly dallying away. We might be short on exercise but we can still drink wine and talk pretty much at the same time, and for hours.

Also waiting to hear from Catherine and Dana in Spain. Thursday this week I am meeting with my friend Art who is walking in May and using my walking sticks. Remember C and D took my map. Maybe I can get rid of some more stuff.

OK, have to run. Hope your Monday goes well. Alperfect once again, how do we do it? Love, Felipe.

Here are three ferns in the woods along Phil’s Camino. One is dead and broken from last season. But two are fresh and new and unfolding on this Easter morn!

Yes Roncesvalles, siree Bob, what a stretch that is! I am thinking that is where our pilgrims Catherine and Dana are at this very moment as it is 1720 there Spanish time and they left St John this morning. Oh baby, that is some place for body, mind and spirit to be.

Here I sit eating breakfast of fresh eggs from C and D’s chickens. And we have a beautiful bottle of French wine that we are going to celebrate with when they get back to the neighborhood. Gals you are in our thoughts and prayers, today, right now!

So, the other major happening is that it is Easter morn and a heavy load has been lifted from us. Just like getting to a meal and bed at Roscevalles where we are too tired to care for ourselves and these gifts are there for us. Be thankful, love, Felipe.

Dear Ones,
There is snow on the pass but we believe we can cross. Kate & Mark & Dana survey the weather. All is good. Thank you for your love and support. We carry each of you with us. So, we’ll be off then.
xoxo Catherine & Dana

(Sorry, somehow cannot include pic. Felipe)

Yup, just this morning for the first time the swallows are back swooping over Phil’s Camino showing us that Spring is here! They always catch me off guard and it is such a great event in that way. Buddy Steven-O was writing to me about rhubarb, the plant, and I went out to My Rebecca’s garden to take a pic of her plants and show their robust growth. So, in the process of taking that little walk outside in my PJ’s I look up to see that the swallows have returned. Surprise surprise.

So, half an hour before I need to be geared up and walking on the trail. Who will come this AM? It’s always sort of a surprise situation and then maybe no one. But the trail is always ready for us, that I know.

OK, I am back to you. The weather turned cloudy and rainy since. I tried to get a hold of my friend the birder to get the exact species of these swallows that showed up. Didn’t answer his phone so he is probably out in search of a burrowing owl, I’m guessing.

Just listening to Angela, a friend of Annie’s talk about prayer and actually pray for folks calling in. She has a great way and very rich perspective. Rich is the word that keeps popping up. Maybe we will talk with her or about her in the near future.

One more thing that I want to get to and that is what Catherine and Dayna are up to. They left for Spain/France/St John on April 1st so they should be wrestling with the Pyrenees any second now. Am waiting for an email from them. Do they have my address? Hmm, good question.

OK, onward here coping with Good Friday. Man, just got the idea of wrestling with the Pyrenees on Good Friday. I better quit whining. Love, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, Felipe.

Listening to Sam Ccoke and the Soul Stirrers sing “I’m A Pilgrim”. Just got an email in from buddy Steve-O about the wine at the last Supper:

http://www.vivino.com/news/searching-for-the-wine-from-the-last-supper

Felipe.

It is Good Thursday and I am an emotional basket case. I am getting an early start this year. Have been taking Good Friday off for years to keep away from the saws and other tools of the trade. I’m just too distracted with thoughts of our Savior’s Passion.

But maybe I can pull off a nice post about things far away. Here we go! Lucia, one of my Camino buddies is from Sicily but for many years has taught at St Andrews in Scotland. In my mind those two places are world’s apart. And as picturesque as the north country is, she escapes occasionally to walk in Italy on famous trails there. On March 19th I blogged on this last trip but today we continue because I now have some gorgeous pics from her.

Gorgeous, right!?! These guys flew into Florence and walked A three day stretch west of there. This Tuscany. OK, I’m just going to copy her very own words from a recent email:

“Came back yesterday night, from a 3 days walking with 10 camino buddies. We started from Lucca and yesterday we arrived in San Gimignano. There are still 3 of us that are walking till Siena.
It has been just beautiful. Differently from the walk we did in January on the Way of the Coast in Liguria, the Francigena is mostly organized like the Santiago’s way. There are not that many pilgrims on the way during these days… probably in the next weeks with the good weather it will be busier. Anyway, it has been just fantastic for the landscape (Tuscany is just amazing) and even for the way how the hospitaleros had us in their places. It is still a bit different from the Santiago’s one where you can go without booking anyting. Here you have to do it, even there are hostels for pilgrims.
Here there are some pictures… one with all of us and the rest about the way, just to give you an idea!”

Well, there you have it, the adventures of Lucia. Aren’t Camino buddies so precious? No need to answer that question. Oh, and Lucia is the woman in the pics with the darkest hair.

Thanks for being with us here at Caminoheads. We treasure your participation and friendship. The best to you during this Easter season. Know that you are loved, Felipe.

Good question to ask once in a while. As I sit here in the waiting room at the Cancer Institute I am listening to a lady who is on the phone speaking Polish. I don’t know what she is saying but I am enjoying the sound of it. My mother and aunts talked Polish when they were together when I was a kid, it brought me back.

I’m not getting treatment today but came with a friend, Jennifer, who is. She is new at the game and I thought that I could help her navigate and possibly even find some fun here. We blew bubbles from the balcony here and tried to get them on the people on the street below. It was a good start.

Now we are in the treatment center and J is all hooked up to the buzzing and humming machines. And a friend of her’s showed up also, so we are talking. There is something interesting about being here as a visitor. I don’t really have to be here but I am. But if you are having fun does it matter where you are?

We are in a nice section of the treatment center, in the corner with windows out two ways. And this is where there is a planter outside one of the windows that contains a thicket of bamboo where the hummingbirds hang out during the winter. Remember I blogged about it. Something about a fat little hummingbird. But I don’t see her today. I wonder what she is doing?

There is the March issue of Time magazine that I just saw here that reminds me to write something to you. There are two ladies on the cover and they have similar cancers and the story is about how they live in different cities and they are getting different treatments options. Options are good and Seattle is a great place to be for options. If you are in Alaska or eastern Washington you would come here to get good treatment. I have to be reminded of this when I start whining about my little short ferry ride.

Jennifer and her friend are carding wool here now. Steve my buddy came one time with a pile of pad locks and we picked them to keep ourselves occupied. Fun at the hospital is where you find it.

We are going to blast out of here pretty quick. Time to get back to the island before the storm comes. Seeing clouds built up ou the big picture windows. The best to you, love, Felipe.