Today is a public holiday in Spain celebrating the Immaculate Conception. Carol suggested that, if the Immaculate Conception is December 8th and the birth of Christ is supposed to be December 25th, then the gestation period works out at a little over two weeks. Now that really would be immaculate. Well, either that or the gestation period is a little over a year, roughly equivalent to a blue whale. Just a thought.
This computer seems to have something akin to an immaculate conception, too. Now that our hosts have left on their trip, the very reason we are here in Spain, we have moved up into the main house and into the room that also houses Geoff’s computer. I know this is going to sound crazy but, having been hibernated overnight, for the last two nights it has burst into life all by itself and woken us up. Last night it fired up at about 3:30 AM, causing me to get up and put it back to sleep again. The previous night, it was Carol who answered the call. This must be like having a baby (he said, never having had one). Weird!
Since the country was essentially closed today, and to loosen up after yesterday’s assault on the Bernia, we decided to go for a limbering-up walk through the vines down into Lliber for an initial investigation. The weather was decidedly average today proving that even Spain does have a winter but it was a whole lot nicer than being at home. The sky may have looked a little threatening but it was a pleasant 14°C or so, nonetheless. We found a cut-through to the vineyards on the valley floor and were surprised to see several bunches of grapes still clinging to the vines. Most of these were too rotted even for dessert wine. The rot certainly didn’t look very “noble”. I can only assume that these were bunches that were ripening too late for the main harvest and that they had been left in situ.
Once in Lliber, we found the local bread shop tucked up a side street. It was, of course, closed, but a couple of local bars were open so we popped in for a cerveza before wandering back to the house for lunch and the kind of lazy afternoon that befitted both a public holiday and slightly wearied legs.
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