The Wayfaring Wordhack

I'm a big sky kind of gal, and sometimes the sky just isn't big enough to suit me. In Saint Jean de Luz, with the ocean vast beside us, it usually is. And when we went hiking on the Spanish coast with Julien's mother a couple of weeks ago, it was heart-swelling huge, so big I often had to stop and soak it in, to try to expand into it. 




Click on the collage for a larger version. The texture of the clouds in the bottom right picture is especially neat. Small photos just don't do it justice though.

First, sourdough pancakes for breakfast. We need a bellyful of fuel for the busy day to come. After licking (just kidding) the last drizzles of maple syrup from our plates, we head to the bay. Other surfers are leaving, making more room for J on the waves.  While he paddles out, the Sprout and I go a-bird tracking. 



The tractor that cleans the seaweed and small rocks from the tideline scared the ruddy turnstones before we could get close enough for pretty pictures. We decided to do some art on the beach instead.  Photo of finished project coming your way soon(ish). 



Art on the beach is fine...for a little while. Then you need to play with the sand. Building things is fun. Like a sand fish. The sprout added a mouth and turned it into a sharkfish, but then the waves came and ate it.



Time to get revenge on the waves before heading home for lunch.



That chapel-esque structure on Sainte Barbe is nothing of the kind. It is some sort of housing for a power or water unit...or something. I wanted to verify the last time we walking up there and forgot.

The rest of the Ss in post number 2...

I must admit to feeling a bit hemmed in here in Saint Jean de Luz. Yes, the ocean is just behind the next hill over; yes, Larrun and Les Trois Courrones/Peñas de Aya loom on the horizon, their green silhouettes beckoning; but living in town, surrounded by houses, apartments, kept to sidewalks by fences and walls and declarations of "Private Property"...well, my wildcrafting soul has been fluttering anxiously.

Until the other day, the other happy day, when I saw a couple walking alongside the road, both of them with a green bouquet in hand, scrutinizing the hedgerow as they ambled downhill to the beach. I was driving in the opposite direction, so I didn't get a good look at what they had, but my first thought was "wild asparagus!"

As soon as I could, I pulled off the road and took a look at a small, undeveloped plot of land. I saw a creeping plant, tendrils winding around grass stalks, weed skeletons, fallen branches, themselves, anything that would help in their quest toward the sun.  Ah ha!  The tips of those tendrils were what they were gathering. They did smell a bit like asparagus when I snapped them off, so I was convinced they were indeed some wild variety, not just escaped "cultivated" plants.  Chuffed with my discovery, I continued on my way and happened upon a tiny bit of woodland just beside the road. My lucky day indeed. An accessible wild haven in the midst of town!

I parked the car, and Soëlie and I went a-gathering...



( wildcrafting ramblings and pics )