ThePlagueYears: Back to Spain...in my mind

A dull day, in every sense.

It was cloudy all day, a rarity this bright winter, and the wind was chilly. It was fine for exercise in the morning, though - no rain or snow, the paths and roadways all bare and dry.

I listened to more of my Pulitzer-winning biography of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century abolitionist. He was briefly featured in The Good Lord Bird, the mini-series about John Brown (played by Ethan Hawke) that we watched recently. That got me interested. I'd known the name previously, but not much about him.

He was an amazing figure, a run-away slave who educated himself and became a political radical and masterful writer and orator. His words are still studied today in schools and universities in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Given his origins and the life he led until he escaped, it's an astonishing accomplishment. But he was also an interesting dude, with foibles and flaws like anybody else.

It felt colder than the 7C reported when I went out for my afternoon amble about 4. The wind was from the north...or east - it's hard to tell sometimes when you're walking the downtown streets. It went right through me.

I'm definitely bored with downtown London as a photo subject, although I'm sure I'll return to it. I didn't take a single shot.

Back at the ranch, I carried on with my project of combing through pictures from our 2018 winter away to see if I can find any worthwhile shots previously dismissed or that I thought I might be able to improve upon. I found a few, but nothing really significant.

Most, I realized afterwards, are ones I had processed at the time. But I was able to tweak and slightly improve them. Editing pictures is a little like editing words for me (and for most writers, I suspect)- I'm a bit obsessive compulsive about it.

The first two were taken in the Cathedral Square in Las Palmas, the main city of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. We weren't exactly blown away by Las Palmas, but in fairness, we were a bit grumpy about everything because of the mediocre (or worse) weather we had most of the time. But these colonial era buildings lining the square I thought were lovely. I believe some, or possibly all, are government offices now.

Karen and I made the walk from Las Vegas, the village where our rented villa was, to Valsequillo, a slightly larger town on the other side of the ravine a couple of times. The path down into the ravine and up the other side was once the only way Las Vegans could get out to somewhere bigger, until they built the bridge over the narrowing of the ravine. The walk is not unpleasant and a bit of an adventure. Late in our stay, the trees and flowers, protected from the wind, blossomed early.