And just like that…

The snow melted on the mountains, I’m wearing shorts (albeit with a sweater on top), and the tourists are coming. Everything changes with the weather: clothes come off, flowers bloom, things get busy…

I’ve noticed, and locals have confirmed, that the tourists and second-home owners are coming to the coast earlier in the year since the Pandemic ended. It used to be that things didn’t start ramping up until Easter, but COVID put a new spin on everything, especially escaping the cities.

I have a love/hate relationship with the tourists and second-homeowners here. The love part – I’d say that’s stretching it, more like the tolerant part – is that without them, the shops and restaurants are closed. And when they arrive, whoo hoo! We can eat out again, even during the week! And the cute boutiques where I overspend open their doors. But the hate part is that I don’t want to share. This is my part of the world. I live here through rain and WIND and dreary days. They sweep in during the sunshiny days and act like they own the place! But they haven’t suffered! It’s not just the suffering. They don’t have the appreciation of the calmness, the emptiness, the wildness, the beauty.

I don’t have much to report. During these past two weeks, amazingly, I’ve had no calamities! I did have one lovely experience. I visited a bird and animal preserve in a marshy area just about an hour north of me, called Aiguamolls. I saw storks, flamingoes, tons of ducks, wild Camargue horses, beaver, deer, cormorants, ibis, and other birds I couldn’t identify. The storks were amazing. They make a sound by clapping their beaks together. It’s very loud. The Preserve says that every visit is different, depending on the migratory birds that are taking a break at that location at that moment on their way north or south. And at one end of the preserve, it opens up onto a beautiful beach with a fantastic view of the town of Roses, Spain.

Oh, and I did stay up till 5:00 a.m. to watch the Oscars live last Sunday after walking 10 km earlier in the day. I don’t think I’ve stayed up all night since the disco days! It kind of whipped my ass. It’s always been something I enjoy watching, although the next day I had to skip yoga and I spent a large part of the day on the sofa.

The photos below of Aiguamolls wildlife are not ones I took myself. It was a very gray day and my photos aren’t very good, but these are representative of the exact sights I saw while there.

Bonus grocery store update. I bought this chicken thinking it was regular chicken breasts, right? Well, it’s chicken breast “extra fi” – extra thin. The breasts were sliced paper thin. I’m not sure the purpose of this cutting of the chicken, but it didn’t work out as planned for my chicken caesar salad.

Also, I mentioned previously about the big aisles in grocery stores dedicated solely to chocolate. This store, which I go to because the wine I like is on a lower shelf that I can reach, has a whole alcove dedicated to chocolate, the Xocolateria. Sorry, I cut the X off in the photo.