April [abril] 2026

Hola familia y amigos. I am whipped so this might feel like kind of a low energy post. Lo siento. 

the rapeseed (colza)  fields in full bloom

We kicked off the month with the Easter celebration. To my surprise, a very late, very loud parade of drums and people marching through the streets dressed as Roman Soldiers followed by a series of effigies of Jesus and Mary and a couple hundred people as escort. It was impressive to see, even if it was 11:30 at night. There is a video in the Photo Album.

We've been here for nearly 6 months now and we FINALLY got to the 11th century castle. It was a pretty hot day, but it was frosty cool inside the 14th century gothic church of Santa María de Valdeflores, build next to the remains of the 12th century Romanesque church. The view was amazing. Everything is so old. People probably thought I was bonkers walking around and just touching old walls and stuff. Its pretty simple compared to some of the castles in Spain, but its a beautiful ruin and I feel lucky to get to live in its shadow.

We also got a chance to check out the old Jail that's been converted to a beautiful museum. Seriously, I wanna decorate our apartment like this place. The pictures I got of both the castle and the jail hardly do them justice.

In the second week of the month, some friends put us in touch with a nice lady that has the Huerta(o) that she hasn't used in a couple of years right next door to theirs. Its very common here, since most people live in buildings without yards, to have walled gardens for growing food. So now we have our own veggie garden that our friends are helping to walk us through what it means to garden in the sub-Pyrenes. Its been an incredible amount of work to get it tilled and ready to plant. Beau had to climb into the reservoir to clean out the multitude of Cattails that had taken it over, but little by little, we are getting it done. It has a mature peach tree that's has these little fuzzy green balls on it already. I can't wait to turn them into jam. Or pie. Or tarts... so far we have a buttload of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and watermelon with plenty of room to add to it.

The absolute abundance of flowers just blowing up everywhere is incredible. Purple iris and mallow, bright orange calendula, fiercely red poppies, and billions of daisies and dandelions. Fig trees sprouting fruit, its just so beautiful. Every time I get out I have to stop and take a picture, none of which are good enough. I'm going to have to get a real camera at some point.

Week 3 finds us all (like... everyone... maybe on earth? Everyone I spoke to anyway...) feeling just blech. We were blessed with an invite to have lunch at a friends house and I seriously need to learn how to make that potato thing we ate, because it was SO GOOD. Also, somehow the best coffee I've ever had. I've been trying to emulate it ever since. Otherwise it was pretty low key week. Working on the huerta, and hunkering down.

And rounding out the month with a Science fair for 1st to 6th grade classes. Aeryn and her team did non-Newtonian fluids. It was a short week for school due to the regionally celebrated holiday, St. Georges Day or Dia de Sant Jordi, the Patron Saint of Aragon. Its like Valentines day, but men and women trade roses and books. Its also called the day of books and roses (ironic, I know) and it coincides with World Book Day on April 23 commemorating the deaths of Cervantes (who wrote Don Quixote) and Shakespeare. There were merchants with tables of books set up in the Plaza Mayor and it was a beautiful day to not have to go to school.

Thats all for now, folks. See you next time.