Autumn ...

Arriving in Spring, lazing through Summer, leaving as Autumn begins ... Tubalitas has been a theme ... a coffee stop on the 2 hour cross country walk ... Teresa, a friendly barista, soon aware of the regular order ... an encounter over several days with an English couple, Ann and Alan, both from forces backgrounds ... finding areas of agreement ... always possible ... which triggers a thought stream from a Facebook post from another ex-forces Alan, this one a friend from Stanhope, always warm and helpful ... political views set aside in order to enable it ... the post a video from an international athletics event, the USA pole vaulter ostensibly fully focused on clearing the bar and reaching top speed when the Star Spangled Banner struck up ... like Pavlov's dog, he stopped on autopilot, stood to attention, hand on heart ... fully conditioned ... worrying to me, but apparently praiseworthy to my friend and thousands of "likers" ... critical comment on FB briefly considered, the opportunity to propose alternative words, the Blood Spattered Banner maybe ... pointless on reflection, possibly coming from my own conditioning from a communist youth ...

As a student, in the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, as well as embracing peace and love, an urgent need to act against perceived evils in Vietnam, Latin America and the junior partner role of no longer so great Britain, falling into the fallacy that means and ends could be separated, this penitent ex-communist visited the USA via Camp America, an organisation offering free flights, bed and board, plus two weeks holiday at the end, in exchange for working on a children's summer camp ... as soccer counsellor ... the daily flag raising ceremony was observed with amusement, but after two weeks, when the whole camp was divided arbitrarily into four teams, red, yellow, green and blue, all activities scoring points in a competition called Colour War ... or more correctly Color War ... our little team in the cabin cared for by Joel and me was split up, carefully nurtured cohesion shattered so that the American Way could be embedded in impressionable minds ... I declined ... earning a reputation as a red and a subsequent warning from the Camp Commandant (known as the Director) to stop sharing socialist ideas with the teenagers ...the land of the free ...

The seasons are more sharply separated here ... days cooler, albeit over 25 degrees, nights comfortable ... ants and mosquitoes taking a break while flies have their turn ... observing the insects has been fascinating and mostly painless .... as for tourists, they mostly arrive in August, when Spain stops work and schools take their holidays. .. the economy here is really two months, maybe two and a half ... meaning the beaches are quiet again ...

It is really feeling like walking weather ... Camino del Norte here we come, via a small hamlet an hour from Limoges ... and an hour from Plum Village Buddhist Centre too .... hmmm