So happy about the current state of affairs here at Caminoheads blog. We have Bureau Chiefs actively contributing great material for Friday’s. We have lots of activity in the Comment Department. Things are humming in the neighborhood!

I got done proof reading the written material that Catalina sent me. It is some of her writing about us. She came up with an interesting comment about how this blog influences and supports the trail, and the trail supports the film and the film supports the blog and round and round. In other words they feed into each other, one helps the other. Cool!

What else is going on. The little grass runway airport next door has a new neon colored wind sock. Yea, that’s important. And today is one of the big bicycle races that the Island hosts called, ready for this, “Passport to Pain”. Pretty crazy out on the r

l need to write a thank you note to the pilgrims that came to the Veranda. That’s something that the BC’s wanted. Somehow I am having trouble writing about the Veranda proper. Maybe I am still digesting the event. I need to get that organized.

This coming weekend we are off to Port Townsend for the Film Festival there. It is our anniversary present to each other. That festival is where we had so much fun with the Phil’s Camino film in 2015. Annie and a big California contingent was there for that. Fond memories for us all.

So keep in touch. It seems the whole Caminoheads neighborhood has gotten a big shot in the arm and we may have shifted gears to a new and better product. More fun to come!

Off to my day. Alperfect and Saint James Again!

miss you loves, Felipé.

The Unexpected Camino

Greetings!!!

As another “player” on the B Team I too, like Farmer John find myself in the surprising position of filling in for Felipe and his well-worn Camino Blog shoes. Yet I sense Felipe would not have asked us Bureau Chiefs to fill in if he didn’t already know and trust that we could indeed do this…so how did we end up here?

Each of us has a story, our own unique story, of what has attracted us to the Camino de Santiago. As for my story, it seems so simple and yet so similar to many of yours. Someone or something introduced us to the Camino and we not only heard the call but something deep within our souls resonated with it. This spark in our pilgrim’s heart was lit and our Camino journey began. Many of you have already answered the call. Your spark fueled, you have ventured to Spain and for days, weeks, or even months you have traveled the Pilgrim’s Path in the footsteps of the many souls who have gone before. You share the common bond of experience and knowing this journey even if the people, places, and details differ. When asked “Have you walked the Camino” you can raise your hands confidently knowing you are among those who have.

Recently I too was with a group who was asked this question and I also raised my hand with confidence until the question was defined further…Spain! I slowly lowered my hand hoping no one else noticed. See, this question was posed to us pilgrims while we were at the Veranda just a few short weeks ago. And while I have heard the Call of the Camino from both Italy and Spain I have yet to actually walk either of them. I know my time will come but their completion is not a part of my story…yet! Until then, I am on this side of my Camino, the planning, the listening, and the wonder as you share of your experiences and stories with me and with each other.

However, here today, we converge because of the opportunity provided by Felipe, his Camino, and his blog. He and Rebecca have been willing to share their hospitality with us in so many ways and for this we are grateful. In following my Call to the Camino an unexpected turn happened when I accepted Phil’s invitation to Raven Ranch and ventured to Vashon Island. While I have yet to walk my Camino in Spain or Italy, the next time I am in a group and am posed the question “How many have walked the Camino?” I can raise my hand high and with confidence, keep it there. For those of us who have had the privilege to walk with Phil on his Camino, I have recently and most certainly come to understand that his Camino counts. If you have walked Phil’s Camino, raise your hands proudly!

Pace e Bene,

PAR (Pilgrim Archeress Rho)

Well maybe. Anyway, lots of comments came in having to do with tapas after the post yesterday. So Henriette and I will be working on our picks from off the shelves of Trader Joe’s and Costco. Here is one that she just sent in:

Here is my vision of the Veranda, at least a metaphysical version that I had before the real thing happened. Catalina dug it up in the “beginning to end” reading of this blog. I like it a lot and it describes quite well the proper venue for tapas:

“Big enough to hold a group. Maybe there are those wicker chairs that the air can blow through to lend to our comfort. The Veranda has a comfortable hold on us, bringing us together when we have been off on separate adventures and quests. Some of us have been injured, some have won awards, some have created, some destroyed. But the Veranda holds us so that we can reunite and its time provides us with the opportunity to see how we have grown while apart. We are together now and out of the glare that is often taken for reality. The din and the glare, they go together. But that seems far away for all of us now. We loosen our ties and let our hair down, we plan to stay for a while. Air is moving to keep things fresh and to rid us of the unwanted. Maybe it means the weather is up for a change. The Veranda will shelter us in a shower and we are beyond worry.” An Earlier Felipé

Here is a wine recommendation available from Trader Joe’s. It is the standby Spanish White for Phil’s Camino. It’s not too dry and not to sweet, goes well with tapas. And is 5.99 a bottle:

OK, time to strap on my walking shoes, Jim and Jen are showing up! Have a good one!

comfortable hold loves, Felipé.

Henriette was over for the afternoon yesterday. We haven’t seen her since the Veranda. We walked the Camino and sat around the table outside and talked for several hours. Tapas and sangria appeared. Well, not exactly appeared but maybe unfolded.

It seems that we are all practiced at the production of this ritual. I for one didn’t get the nickname Tapa Nazi for no reason. So, the point is that we are very efficient at putting together an acceptable spread without major fuss or muss. Of course it is all simple stuff with no cooking required. It is mostly opening containers and arranging components. Maybe some washing and chopping of fresh produce is required. Bread needs slicing and wine needs pouring.

Well of course there are utensils and napkins to put out. Salt pepper is good. Maybe a plate with oil and vinegar for bread dipping. Serving spoons and glasses need to be found. Then ambience is important table cloth, candles need appearing.

That sounds like a lot but it is all simple stuff really. No cooking or baking projects. So it all goes together quite quickly especially with a number of people helping.

And generally tapas are a potluck situation with pilgrims coming and participating by each bringing and sharing a thing or two. The potluck spirit is important I think. It is just an impromptu shared event.

So, in the process of this yesterday with Henriette and My Rebecca we hatched a plan. We had the idea that we need to get out into the world and report on good items that are available and also tried and true for bringing to share at the tapas table. So I wanted to cover Trader Joe’s and Henriette is going to cover Costco. I think that will be fun. Top ten recommendations to grab and go for the modern pilgrim.

Well, none of this says that home grown fresh produce, or homemade pickles or a rendition of Mom’s favorite meatball recipe wouldn’t be welcome, it most certainly would. But it is not necessary all the time. Simplicity is good.

We all know from experience the importance of tapas and wine for friendship and conversation. This is the reason and the important stuff. That’s the way the Tapa Nazi sees it anyway!

favorite meatball recipe loves, Felipé.

We are in a rainy patch here but there has to be SOME Indian Summer in our future. Janet from LA was going to come up but she is having second thoughts. But I think this precipitation is temporary.

I started knocking the corn down yesterday. Running the mower over the field to chop everything up and get ready for rototilling. Kind of sad. But the cycles go on. Want to get the clover cover crop planted this month so need to get started.

The corn always seems to go too quickly. It is good for such a short window. But I’m happy with the crop this year feeding all the pilgrims.

My Rebecca and I started proofreading a word document from Catalina which will be a chapter in her new book. Our part is about the trail and the blog and the film. Fun and humbling to read her take on the whole deal. I think most of the time we live our lives the best we can and don’t see how it fits into history and the bigger picture. We are thankful to her for having the expertise to dig that perspective out.

The poor girl read the whole blog also which gives me a headache just thinking about it. But she recovered some interesting Felipé quotes which was the idea. That’s what scholars do. But I’m saying,“Really, did I write that?”

Anyway, it is cool to read her words and see her view on the situation. It is sort of like the drone shots in the Phil’s Camino films. It’s a wider angle than we are used to.

My Rebecca’s first day of substitute teaching today. Back to school is here once again. Of course that means football season which is OK with me.

I have a visitor tomorrow from out of town. He was on the trip to Lourdes with the Padre and myself last year. It will be good to see him and catch up.

Well, that is the news here in early September. Wrapping up the summer is a job that requires care as you don’t want to rush it, it might stage a revival unexpectedly and you already through out the marshmallows.

revival loves, Felipé.

Yes, our new program of Bureau Chiefs to relieve Felipé of the Friday blogging is underway. And of course Pilgrim Farmer John answered the call. Well done PFJ! We are off to a flying start team!

Catherine said to me yesterday on our way to or from Mass that she sensed that it would be hard to integrate into the intensely personal world of Caminoheads blog. In other words it would be a challenge to get into the blog and do an offering because there is so much Felipé piled up in there. Well, OK.
We will just have to loosen that all up.

Farmer John for a period of his life was a Marine Corps Officer. In the Corps MC Officers are akin to the gods. I was so intimidated by farmer John and his band of officer friends when I first met them, a hold over. You just don’t hang out with officers. It’s more like, “Private Volker, there is an enemy machine gun that needs charging over there, do you see it?” “Aye aye sir! Sir, is that before or after breakfast sir?!

It is all jokes now but serious business once upon a time. And then Pilgrim Farmer talking about his basketball experience backing up the star. I got wrestling stories from the 1960’s in high school. I never played “ball” sports. I was to anxious about the darn thing. What if I passed it to the wrong guy or ran the wrong way with it or misplaced it, too much to worry about. I did cross country, wresting in the winter and then track in the spring, no balls anywhere around. Those three sports each had their own unique challenges. Cross country was such a mind game talking ourselves out of quitting forever. Track was similar but more competitive being part of a jostling crowd. But wrestling was the hardest for me.

I did after two years win a spot on the varsity team but even there was bounced around in a few weight classes because of the competition for those positions. Sometimes I would be wrestling JV again. Things were in flux. I earned the nickname “Kamikaze” because the coach might wrestle me up a few weight classes to fill a hole in our roster. That was the hardest job because there was little chance of winning and the object was not to get pinned which would be bad for our teams score. Taking one for the team had little glory.

As the Kamikaze I can appreciate being the backup guy. But the Bureau Chiefs are much more than that. They each have varied views different than mine. They bring what I can’t see or understand. They have interesting foibles as we all do. They will make the whole thing richer. Please welcome them.

Showers today. Glad that the Veranda was dry and folded away for now in our memories. Walk in fifteen minutes, yike!

Almost five hundred word loves, Felipé.

Thank God for the abundance of it all. Thank you Jim and Gloria for coming all the way from New York in May to plant. Thanks Jim Meiklejohn for help all along the way. Thanks to Pilgrim Farmer John for blessing the little corns when they were an inch tall and standing at attention in rank and file. Thanks My Rebecca for all the freezing and drying. Did I leave anyone out? Oh Steve-O was here early on weeding, thanks buddy.

And the plants survived the hungry deer and Pilgrim Farmer Felipé’s experiment with using propane to flame the weeds. But despite all that in the end it worked. The big goal was to feed the pilgrims at the Veranda which it did no problem and more.

Maybe today I will do a final pick on the Golden Jubilee variety. We had some for tapas yesterday and it was a little past prime. We had some surprise guests yesterday, Ben from Germany and Lindsey from Seattle to help us eat a few ears.

There is a cheerful woman that has worked forever as a checker at the local supermarket and I have to run up a half a dozen to her today sometime. Her father grew corn on the Island for years and was killed in a tractor accident back a while ago. So every year I make sure that she gets a few ears.

Well, yea, corn news. And Farmer John I know that you will be reading this at some point, would you please answer all the comments from your adoring fans. They loved your Friday Caminoheads blog!

OK, off to today. It is drying up outside. We had rain and thunder and lightning last night. Yikes!

thunder and lightning lives, Felipé.

In these last few weeks of the Veranda and all the organizational positive motion for Caminoheads I want us to remember our roots. Most of us trained on the Camino and it is the main thing that draws us together. But I just want us to remember that there are folks there now working away at their pilgrimage even as we enjoy our memories.

One of the folks that was here for the Veranda two weeks ago is there now and needs our old thoughts and prayers. And that is Debra Jarvis who was here with here husband Wes. I forget which day but it was probably Saturday. She is around Pamplona maybe and is challenged by shin splints. Please send her the energy that she needs to continue her journey.

I am in contact with her by cell text and my words of encouragement and sage advice are hopefully helping out. I think it is helpful to know that there is no right way. If you have to take a cab or have your pack carried then do it and continue.

Anyway there are others too that you may know of. Back them up the best you can. We are not here only to remember our own version of the Camino but to welcome others and “walk” with them where we can on their version. Remember Debra.

And so much thanks to Pilgrim Farmer John for his blog of introduction yesterday. He is such a mighty personality and it is great to have him on our team. Next friday we will have another of our Bureau Chiefs checking in with you.

So off I go. Helping Wiley with one of his projects today. All good at the ranch.

mighty personality loves, Felipé.

Welcome to the Future! As announced by Peregrino Felipe yesterday, today marks the inauguration of “The “B Team” filling in on Fridays. Usually, the “B Team” denotes the Junior Varsity, or at least “second string” players getting their shot in the limelight. Well, that’s partly true here as well, since none of us on the Bureau Chiefs Roster can fill the Big Shoes of Camino Phil. But, the purpose to is fill in and give the big guy a break once a week with this exceedingly long-running Blog. But, technically, for this “B Team” the “B” denotes Bureau Chiefs. A title we wear with some embarrassment as we don’t know how we got it, or what to do with it!

This missive goes out to many more folks than we were privileged to meet at the Veranda, so an introduction is in order: I’m Pilgrim Farmer John of Iowa. I’m the “Midwest Bureau Chief”. My so-far only Camino was in 2013, when I walked from Le Puy, France, to Finnesterre, Spain. My dear wife, Cathy, walked the last 110 kilometers into Santiago with me, and our middle daughter, Kelley, also joined us for several days. It was a total delight! My intent is to return in 2023 accompanied by a grand daughter, who will have just graduated from high school.

The other Bureau Chiefs will make their own introductions as they take their turns on successive Fridays. Not all of them are pictured above, but that shot is the only one we have available of the four of us who were at the Veranda.

I’m approaching my word limit imposed by Phil, so I’ll add this broad brush Thanks You to all the attendees at the Veranda, and the incredible hospitality of Rebecca and Phil to make it oh, so good! It’s nice that we can already start saying ‘Looking forward to Next Year!”

I don’t have all those cool sign offs that Phil comes up with, so I’ll go with the standard farewell by all old Marines,

Semper Fidelis,

PFJ

Just picked some Golden Jubilee for Jim and Richard. They walk with me quite often. Jim spent a lot of time weeding with me back in June and helped plant in May, It was a lot of work in June. Right now the picking is the easy part.

We have the wood stove hauled out of the house. It needs a rebuild before the heating season. Getting ready for Fall here at the Ranch, transition time.

I have been lagging on writing about the Veranda celebration. Still too new I guess. It had a lot of moving parts for me and they need sorting out. But I also need to say that the Bureau Chiefs have volunteered to take over blogging Friday’s to give me a break. The plan was to do that on a rotating basis. And I think that we have Farmer John slated to do tomorrow’s. So stand by for that.

Off I go loves, Felipé.