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.

So sorry, didn’t get a pic but was having too much fun to think of it. My Rebecca and I hosted tapas and dinner tonight for three great folks. And it was warm enough to be our first outside meal of the season. A memorable occasion.

Well, who was there Felipe? First, Dayna and Catherine (with a C) were here for one of their last meals before boarding the big silver bird to Spain and St John, the start of the Camino Frances! I am so jealous. And they have enough time and money to do the whole thing. Way cool. They are excited and we are excited for them, obviously. They will be sending emails which we will publish here. This is the Springtime Camino and you will be able to see/hear what that looks like. I am so jealous!

Then, then, Esther was here. We have been awaiting her arrival to kick off her three month stay here on Vashon. We will make sure to get you as much as possible from her as the season progresses. She is very knowledgeable about all things Camino. I am so excited!

I don’t have her facts and timeline complete but she has traveled the Way three times over the years. The first time in 08, the hard way, as in carrying all her gear and staying in the beloved albergues. After that she started to write a book for preteens and walked,bused and taxied through twice to get her facts straight for her writing.

My Rebecca, Kelly and I had the opportunity to read the manuscript of her book. Somewhere back there in my archives is a blog post about that I am sure. But anyway, we have known and loved her book for a while now. And that goes for her too.

Yea, so we were all together for two hours excitedly talking Camino from all angles. We talked about gear and traveling light which these gals have a handle on. I even advised them to take a couple dressy things, which threw them after all my advice about paring down. Their packs are so light that I think they can afford it and you never know when you have to meet with the Bishop. And we talked albergues and hotels. And we talked about surprises and miracles. I think they are ready.

Also they took my little light weight map of the trail that I carried. And my poles are going across with Art in May. All fun. I just know that we all enjoy reliving our Camino experiences one way or another. Relive on, love, Felipe.

A few weeks ago we had a lovely visiter to our backyard Camino. It was just before the film crew got here so it got lost in that flurry. But back to the Reverend Bonnie Barnard who stopped to see us and walk and talk with me. I don’t quite how to introduce her other than to say she is a friend, and that is enough around these parts.

Our walk was one in which we were arm and arm in short order, just like the Camino ideal. Or talk had the kind of depth, honesty and richness that we all strive for. Sometimes things are just easy.

So, I just want to put in a good word for her and her new mission in Scottdale, AZ. She is opening a new spiritual center there and we are praying for her sucess in this outreach. I don’t know dates, addresses or details but she has a website to get all that. So, I don’t know if we have AZ readers to this blog but maybe.

Big coming and goings here today. Esther Jantzen is back from a winter in New Mexico and will be here for tapas. Then Katherine and Dayna will be here to walk this morning and they are flying out to THE Camino on Wednesday. And we have our finger on this pulse for you.

Father Marc in his homily yesterday had the phrase, “our cockroach hope” which is sticking in my memory and coming up now. I don’t know where that fits in exactly but we will figure it out. What is our cockroach hope here at Caminoheads?

So, the start of a new week, a big week, Holy Week. Make it happen for yourself. Yes yes yes loves, Felipe.

I was off walking on the backyard Camino with Dayna today. We are just getting to know each other although we are close geographically, as in she is just around the corner. But we discovered that we have this mutual interest in calligraphy which I’m not sure that I have a handle on what it all means.

It is basically the art of handwriting but handwriting sounds so simple and art seems complicated. See? I don’t think that I could have said that better if I had tried. That just sort of typed itself. And there on to typing and keyboards and talking to each other as we are communicating right now.

I remember my Dad teaching me lettering and a love for communicating in that fashion. I don’t think that we knew the word calligraphy but we had the spirit. Then the excitment in fourth grade to learn cursive (longhand) with the Palmer method. This all sounds like ancient history. But it gets even better!

The elementary school that I went to in Buffalo, NY was in two old old buildings. The steps were are cupped, Caminolike, from billions of little feet. You have seen pics with the desks that were wrought iron and wood and screwed to the wooden floor in rows, each had a hole in the top for an ink well. The ink well was a little glass container that once had held the liquid ink and was used with a straight pen to write. The student would dip the nib of the pen in the ink and write a few words and dip again and continue. This is one step more modern then writing with a quill, a feather, gang.

And our teacher somehow got into an old storage area and found enough of the pen nibs and holders and blotters and wells to outfit they whole class and we used that stuff the whole year. Timemwise people were just in the transition between fountain pens and on to ball point pens then in the 1950’s. And here we were with this ancient stuff to learn to write cursive with. I was in heaven.

So now when I notice a person with a “nice hand” or in other words who takes joy in writing and communicating in that fashion I make sure to compliment them. I think that is what Dayna and I clicked on as we walked the Camino this AM, it was the joy we shared for that particular form of communication.

What does this have to do with the Camino anyway? Well, maybe we are talking about taking the time, when we can afford it, to communicate in an artful manner. To say to our audience that beside wanting you to get what I am saying, I value you. I am taking my time to be with you. I am “spending” my time with you. Isn’t that what we did on the Camino where we walked on our blistered feet ever so slowly across Spain.

I’m weeping, sorry, love you, Felipe.

p.s. – thank you Dayna.

Hopefully this will be the last blog on skunk cabbage for the spring, but you never know. It’s really in it’s prime now, so I thought that I would show you. These plants are about a foot high just so you get an idea of scale. I really wish I knew how many centimeters that is, for some of my friends.

Spring is here on Vashon Island and that is a good thing, as far as I can see. So, this would mean that spring is in some stage along the Camino in Spain and France. Snow melting in the mountains, temps warming up, rain becoming less frequent. Albergues opening up for the new season. Fun to think about. We have Caminoheads going to Spain shortly and maybe they could do some reportage. I will ask.

Well, here we are with today being another day in tha saga. What questions do we ask ourselves? Like, how can I do things to glory of God today? What is the most powerful way to spend this day? What about my fellow man? What about all the creatures around me? And don’t be overwhelmed. Make something happen. Thanks, Felipe.

Yesterday I went to the mainland for treatment at Swedish Hospital but leaving the Island early gave me time for the side trip to Kirkland, WA. I got lost on some quirky little streets there but finally arrived at the studio of Sacred Heart Radio. These are the guys that granted me an interview back in Feburary and was aired here in the Northwest in early March.

The station was in fundraising mode and was doing a lot of talk trying to get listeners excited and contributing. Volunteers were taking calls and donations. Pretty fun and I chatted with the volunteers in the inbetween times.

At one point I got to be on the air for five minutes to Caminohead along for the listeners. I am turning into such a ham, pretty funny really. So, I thank the folks at Sacred Heart for their hospitality and friendliness.

OK, on to Sister Rose Pacatte, who is a Catholic Sister, big time film critic and friend of our beloved Annie. On Annie’s recent visit here she gave me a signed copy of Sister Rose’s book about Martin Sheen (The Way). How nice. I just checked into the Sister’s blog which is huge and awesome and something I need to explore. Just Google Sister Rose and good things happen.

Well, am walking here in half an hour. Don’t know if anyone will show up but either way it’s good. Katherine and Dayna are leaving for Spain on the first so they may be here. Yup, keep walking out there, radio frequency loves, Felipe.