"Tranquila..."

We hear that word a lot here, "tranquila" - it essentially means to slow down, take it easy...mellow. It´s August and so most of Europe, and certainly most of Spain is on holiday. But I suspect that people here are "tranquila" most of the time.

So..can´t write for too long, ´cause it´s nearly 10:00pm and I´m pretty tired (muy cansada)- it´s only about 1:00 there in Portland right now. 1:00 in the afternoon, y'all are kind of just in the middle of your day!

Here, the moon has risen above the Serra del Cadi, a stunning mountain range that looks straight out of the Southwest. There are crickets singing and bats fluttering about and it´s very quiet save for the sound of the river that runs alongside the land. Sometimes I can´t believe my luck in landing here.

Let me tell youa little a bit about how our days work here. It´s all really random, and they can change at the drop of a hat depending on who shows up, but here´s the general idea:

6:30am - I wake up and spend a couple of hours reading and walking the footpaths that stretch out all along this property. My favorite spot so far, is to visit the crumbling ruins of this old stone farmhouse, not very old by European standards, it was built in the 18th century and is doing a nice job of tumbling down brick by brick. There are horses that roam around and this is sort of their home base. We say hello to one another and then I commence to writing a little bit before the day starts.

9:00am - I go to the kitchen to meet the rest of the folks for breakfast. This usually consists of Muesli and fruit. Hugh (owner of the property) soaks the Muesli every night, adding almonds, linseeds and hazelnuts. Then, in the morning we grate up apples, and put peaches or melon or whatever along with it. This is sort of the staple, we have yogurt on the side and sometimes bread if we want it. And tea and coffee of course.

9:30 - Miguel, our work leader, sets us up with chores for the day. This can be anything from weeding or planting in the garden, to helping out in the kitchen, to cleaning the pool or the hotel rooms. Because it´s August we have a lot of folks during the week dropping by to use the pool. For the past couple of days we´ve had the same large family - about 10-15 of them - come by and use the barbeque, for which we also provide salads for. So usually someone has to stay on hand in case someone wants to buy something for the bar. I am getting slowly better at this, the whole spanish part...it helps to have to hear it and speak it every day.


....well, we have to take a break, I have to get off the computer...I´ll tell you more later on.

Much love to all...I love you..and think of you all every day!