Friday 30th June 2017...my favorite hike!!!!!

Last night Gracie and I went out  to a small piano bar where 35 people paid 200 pesos about 11 US dollars and and about 13 Canadian dollars to listen to this amazing tenor swoon the place he was just magical...

It was the best value for money anywhere!!!!

Today no rain so i decided to do a long hike to my favorite place here in SMA....

So I started from home down past the large supermarket and this view with the red showing where I am heading and what is there????

See the white structure???

Now you know thanks zoom camera!!!!

On the way uop to the cross looking back at the Pressa!!!

Just a wonderful view from  the top!!

This fruit is called tuna!!!

I usually see a herd of wild horses and a white one especially that I normally pet but today only this fella!!!!

Anybody see the bridge??

Great fun going over this....

This is the view from the bridge ...in a few more weeks with all the rains there will be this most amazing waterfall flowing down here!!!

This is the top of the waterfall not ready yet!!!

Looking down you can see where over time the force of the water has formed these ridges in the rock!!!

One the way back home saw this unusual building!!!

Could not figure out what they are making at first I thought the one on the left was a basket for the hot air balloons!!!

So here is the App that I use to chart the walk!!!!

It was a great work out and a nice peaceful time......

So tennis is scheduled for tomorrow morning but there is NO WAY!!!!

Around 6 pm the heavens opened I have never seen rain quite like it and then followed by hail stones as big as a quarter and now at 10 pm it is still raining...I looked outside my front door it is not a road anymore it is a river!!!

I feel so sorry for those people in the Campo's!!!!!!

Thursday 29th June 2017...enough already!!!!

Yes I know we need rain for the crops....
Yes I know we need rain for the flowers and plants....
Yes I know we need rain for the reservoir...
Yes I know rain is important.....

BUT so is my tennis morning!!!!!!

Cancelled again and these are the views from my front door!!!

This time of the year is the rainy season so I know I have to get used to it!!!!! Just saying!!!!!

I had a really hard session with my trainer.... Joe put me through the wringer again but all good....later in the afternoon with Gracie we went to have lunch with my lovely friend Robin, always so nice to see her we have been friends for many years stretching back to the Casa Hogar days!!!!


Ashley is in another tournament this time in Alabama and won her match again today WAY TO GO GIRL!!!!

OK next tennis  is scheduled for Saturday...stay tuned!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

Tuesday 27th June 2017....the season has started!!!

The heavy monsoon type rains started late yesterday afternoon and kept going until the late evening so I knew the tennis game this morning would be cancelled as the clay courts just cannot get dry till late in the afternoon!!!

The rains usually go through until late July so I expect more cancellations....but the rain is so needed after such a hot and dry May!!!!!

I have some photos to down load but for some reason the computer will not scan the card!!!!

My session at the gym with Joe this afternoon was another good and hard workout!!

This afternoon a local lady who walked the Camino last year was giving a lecture and advice session and I decided I should attend......it was interesting to hear another pilgrim and their experiences and the meeting was well attended and of course it stirred up many wonderful memories for me.

This evening Gracie invited two of her friends over for dinner I BBQ some lovely  steaks we bought at Costco last week and it was a very pleasant evening!!!!

Now waiting for the rains to start!!!


Yashi Kochi!!!

Monday 26th June 2017....Sunday hike!!!

Yesterday around 11 am Gracie and I and the two dogs Einstein and Scout took of for a little road trip to La Joya which is on the road to QTO and about 45 minutes away it is a beautiful drive high into the mountains by a  series of winding roads until you get to the entrance where you pay 15 pesos and it is actually a camp site in the woods very lovely......

We let the dogs roam free and they enjoyed that...

This was funny because on the way back we met this group of scouts and they loved the dogs but they heard us calling Scout to come back and they thought that was a funny name...you can catch Scout on the far right behind the kids!!!

 saw this boy on the village back to the highway!!!

 Back in SMA one of the narrow busy streets leading to the Jardin!!!

 and an interesting shop window!!

I am afraid my winning ways in Scrabble and cards has left me I now owe Gracie 4 dinners...she does not know  it yet but that means 4 street taco stands!!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!!

Saturday 24th June 2017...hope you can see this!!!

Thursday 22nd June 2017............simple!!!

Weather wise every day is virtually the same around 78 degrees cooling off a little in the evenings....the sky a vibrant mix of white and blues!!!

Played another two hours of great tennis this morning...it is such a wonderful way to start the day we play from 9 am to 11 am....great friends and great exercise!!!

I went again to Joe's for my 30 minute work out on the Power Plate...today he put me through the wringer a really hard session but enjoyable especially afterwards when he weighed me and I am so happy I am back to 177 pounds, my fighting weight!!!

Ashley fresh of her victory at her first Pro tennis event quickly moved south to Baton Rouge where she is playing in another similar event and today she won a great match against a 29 year old woman from Montenegro who has won thousands of dollars and played nearly 500 games on tour, she is now in to the quarter finals and plays the No.1 seed tomorrow, she is doing so well and again I tell you she is only 17 years old!!!

Last night I reported that I was too modest to tell the score of the scrabble games with Gracie now I must tell the truth it was not modesty but shame....we have been playing cards and scrabble the last few evenings and as always I throw in a small challenge with dinners on the line for the winners....well I honestly tell you that between the two  different games I now owe Gracie three dinners.......I may need to come out of retirement to pay my gaming losses!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!!

Wednesday 21st June 2017...Summer solstice!!!!

The summer solstice is upon us: 7 things to know about the longest day of the year

Why do we have a summer solstice, anyway?

Updated by Brad Plumer and Brian Resnick  Jun 21, 2017, 10:23am EDT

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The summer solstice is upon us: June 20th and the 21st will be the longest days of 2017 for anyone living north of the equator. If pagan rituals are your thing, this is probably a big moment for you. If not, the solstice is still pretty neat.

Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5° north latitude. In 2017, this will occur at exactly 12:24 am (Eastern) on the 21st. (But we can celebrate on either day.)

Below is a short scientific guide to the longest day of the year (though not, as we’ll see, the longest day in Earth’s history — that happened back in 1912).

1) Why do we have a summer solstice, anyway?

Okay, most people know this one. Earth orbits around the sun on a tilted axis (probably because our planet collided with some other massive object billions of years ago, back when it was still being formed).

So between March and September, Earth’s Northern Hemisphere gets more exposure to direct sunlight over the course of a day. The rest of the year, the Southern Hemisphere gets more. It’s the reason for the seasons:

(Tauʻolunga)

In the Northern Hemisphere, "peak" sunlight usually occurs on June 20, 21, or 22 of any given year. That’s the summer solstice. By contrast, the Southern Hemisphere reaches peak sunlight on December 21, 22, or 23 and the north hits peak darkness — that’s our winter solstice.

(NASA)

2) How many hours of sunlight will I get on Tuesday?

That depends on where you live. The further north you are, the more sunlight you’ll see during the solstice. Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider created this terrific guide:

On the off chance you live near the Arctic Circle, the sun never really sets during the solstice.

(By contrast, during the winter solstice, Fairbanks only gets about three hours of sunlight.)

Here’s another cool way to visualize the extreme of the summer solstice. In 2013, a resident of Alberta, Canada — several hundred miles south of Fairbanks, but still in a high latitude — took this pinhole camera photograph of the sun’s path throughout the year, and shared it with the astronomy website EarthSky. You can see the dramatic change in the arc of the sun from December to June. (You can easily make a similar image at home. All you need is a can, photo paper, some tape, and a pin. Instructions here.)

Note that the solstice also gives us the longest twilight of the year, usually about 1 to 1.5 extra hours after sunset. (Brettschneider has more charts on that; his entire post is worth your time.)

Side note: This year, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincides with the solstice. (Ramadan’s dates vary each year, but in 2017 it runs from May 26 to June 24.) Which makes for a grueling challenge in some places: Muslims are supposed to fast until sunset during Ramadan, but for those living in Norway, Sweden, or Iceland, daylight can last up to 20 hours. "In these cases," Vox's Jennifer Williams explains, "Muslim religious authorities have decreed that Muslims can either fast along with the closest Muslim country or fast along with Mecca, Saudi Arabia."

3) Is the solstice the latest sunset of the year?

Not necessarily. Just because June 20 is the longest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere doesn’t mean every location has its earliest sunrise or latest sunset on that day.

If you live in Washington, DC, you missed the earliest sunrise — it happened back on June 13. But you can still catch the latest sunset on June 27. If you like sleeping in, that’s arguably the most exciting day of the summer.

4) What does all this have to do with Stonehenge?

No one really knows why Stonehenge was built some 5,000 years ago (at least I don’t, sorry). But one possibility is that it was used to mark solstices and equinoxes. That’s because during the summer solstice, the sun rises just over the structure’s Heel Stone and hits the Altar Stone dead center.

Here’s a graphic from NASA imagining what a summer solstice sunrise might’ve looked like back when Stonehenge was fully intact:

(NASA)

Nowadays, humans still gather to pay homage the summer solstice at Stonehenge — they just use modern technology, like so:

Photo by Tim Ireland/Getty Images

The Wikipedia entry on Stonehenge is absurdly detailed, so read up on that if you want more.

5) Is this the longest day in Earth’s entire history?

Probably not, although it's close. And the reason why is quite interesting. Joseph Stromberg did a fantastic deep dive into this topic for Vox a few years back, but here’s the two-minute version.

Ever since the Earth has had liquid oceans and a moon, its rotation has been gradually slowing over time due to tidal friction. That means — over very, very long periods of time — the days have been getting steadily longer. About 4.5 billion years ago, it took the Earth just six hours to complete one rotation. About 350 million years ago, it took 23 hours. Today, of course, it takes about 24 hours. And the days will gradually get longer still.

Given that, you'd think 2017 would be the longest day in all of history. But while it's certainly up there, it doesn't quite take top honors.

That's because tidal friction isn’t the only thing affecting Earth’s rotation — there are a few countervailing factors. The melting of glacial ice, which has been occurring since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago (and is now ramping up because of global warming), is actually speeding up Earth’s rotation very slightly, shortening the days by a few fractions of a millisecond. Likewise, geologic activity in the planet’s core, earthquakes, ocean currents, and seasonal wind changes can also speed up or slow down Earth’s rotation.

When you put all these factors together, scientists have estimated that the longest day in Earth’s history (so far) likely occurred back in 1912. That year’s summer solstice was the longest period of daylight the Northern Hemisphere has ever seen (and, conversely, the 1912 winter solstice was the longest night we’ve ever seen).

Eventually, the effects of tidal friction should overcome all those other factors, and Earth’s days will get longer and longer as its rotation keeps slowing (forcing timekeepers to add leap seconds to the calendar periodically). Which means that in the future, there will be plenty of summer solstices that set new records as the "longest day in Earth's history."

6) Isn’t there going to be a solar eclipse?

No, not on the solstice.

But there will be a rare solar eclipse across the entire continental US a bit later in the summer, on August 21.

On that day, the Earth, moon, and sun will be in perfect alignment to cast a 60-mile-wide shadow that will trace itself across the country like a dark laser pointer on a whiteboard.

In the bull’s eye center of the moon’s shadow known as the totality, the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the middle of the day, stars will appear, and birds will become confused and start chirping their nighttime songs. And it’s all because of a cosmic coincidence: From the Earth, both the moon and sun appear to be roughly the same size.

7) I clicked this article accidentally and really just want a cool picture of the sun

(NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team)

The image above was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2010 to better understand the sun. Caption: "A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F)."

In 2018, NASA will launch the Parker Probe Plus, a spacecraft that will come within 4 million miles of the surface of the sun (much closer than any spacecraft has been before). The goal is to study the sun’s atmosphere, weather, and magnetism, and figure out the mystery of why the sun’s corona (i.e., its atmosphere) is much hotter than its surface. Still, even several million miles away, the probe will have to withstand temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.


This afternoon was poker afternoon and very happy to report my winning ways continued with a win of 90    pesos....

This evening I went over to Gracie's and cooked hamburgers and then we played scrabble...and as usual modesty stops me from announcing the winner!!!!

Yashi Koshi!!!

Monday 19th June 2017...a trip down memory lane!!!!

Do you want to know what i did on this day three years ago???

I thought you might.....

Here goes!!!!!!



When I left you last night I was in the arm chair in front of a 52 inch TV watching Spain get humiliated in soccer...they have been the powerhouse of soccer for the last few years but I think it is time for change. When I checked in yesterday afternoon i noticed a family behind me waiting to check in they were a really nice looking family Mum and Dad and a daughter about 17 years old.....they looked to be upper class and friendly. As I was watching the game last night the Dad came and sat on a chair next to me he spoke perfect English and the daughter was at the table and she appeared to be engrossed in making leather wrist wraps......as the goals went in against Spain the groans got louder and then just before the game ended the daughter came up to me and gave me this  and said in perfect English"Now you have an angel to watch over you on the way" Not often I am overcome and at a loss for words but this was one of those times....I just stood up said thank you so very much and she pecked me on the cheek. I know I shall never see this young lady again but to me her act was one of pure love and to come from someone so beautiful and innocent.....where ever you are and where ever you go I hope your life is blessed. The game soon ended with Spain virtually eliminated from the World cup and many Spanish faces will be long today. Had another really great sleep and I was soaking in the tub at 6.30 am this morning....my leg felt much better but i could just feel a little tweak I am so glad I spent a lot of time icing it last night. I went down to breakfast and oh my goodness what a spread everything and I sat and gorged myself looking out at the wonderful ocean and some food found it's way into my lunch box...this was a very classy and lovely treat for me. I have been thinking about not staying in hostels and what it means in the long run and the observations I have made.....so far I am the oldest person I have seen on the Camino most are 30 -40 years younger and I guess some of them are on a budget so they stay in hostels and I know some just enjoy the camaraderie of hostel life but for me I do need to get a good nights sleep to complete this journey and having a bath tub sure helps so I am not feeling guilty about where I stay...I am sure this journey can be done which ever you want to do it!! I had my leg taped and I was on the road by 9am and I felt good..so easy you get up put on your shoes and go out and walk!!! The first few km were dreadful on this highway  I saw this guy from a distance and he was waving his arm up and down in a very military like fashion and I thought boy he is doing a great job and as I got closer his graceful swinging of the flag continued till I got closer and realized why HE IS NOT REAL!!!!!! This is what the real worker does!!  OK some history here......about 15 years ago when I first met Linda and Guy I also met in the same Mexican town Stella,her daughter Caron and Caron's two young sons...we all formed a bond that is still going strong today and we usually manage to get together once a year...as you know Stella came to SMA 2 days before I left and stayed for three weeks in my Casita and Caron and her Husband John are going to stay in my Casita for the month of July(how nice).....anyway Caron e mailed me and told me that when she and her Mum and her sister Pauline who is Ashley the tennis player's Mum(still with me??) walked the Camino last year they stayed in a hostel near to where I was walking so this morning i passed by the hostel  went in and spoke to the man and asked to look through the guest book and who did I find????  Glad to say soon off that nasty highway and onto coastal paths easier on my leg and being by the ocean good therapy enjoy the photos!!!!  For those pilgrims who do not stay in hotels. This is the town Llanes that I am heading for.  I walked through town and found a nice hotel for me to stay in for 35 Euros!!! by know you all know the routine when I get to a room in this order take a photo get some milk and have tea get the laundry done get some ice for my leg have a snooze and then go for a walk around town this is not one of the more impressive towns but still pleasant. In town I met up with the Irish girl from yesterday and we chatted and she told such a funny story of what happened to her today..she decided to take a short cut through a field not knowing there were cows and a bull over the hill and she is terrified of bulls so when she saw this bull she just froze got out her phone and texted her Dad and asked him if bulls were OK if they were with cows and calves...so funny can you imagine!!! Came back and let me tell you that bathtub is a perfect fit!!! It is now almost 7 pm and time to post this and then go into this fancy restaurant and treat myself  and then go here for a big game tonight England V Uruguay!!!  and at half time come to the room make tea and eat this!!!!! This one is for you Ms.Scholey!!!  I walked at a slower pace today and my leg is OK still a bit of a tweak but well iced and bandaged and I am fine..I have been on the Way now two weeks and with 24 km today cracked the 400 km mark today 406...a couple of more days and I shall be half way through. Spain crowned a new King today but i saw not one celebration anywhere just glum soccer faces!!! I miss this kid hope she is doing well!! Hope you are doing OK Eliza I think in two days I shall have a day off..miss you on the way you are my hero!! Things I learned today Humility!!!!!!! My body is so good to me. Did I mention I have great friends!! Yashi Kochi!!!!