Far Corners

I was busy at home all day sorting through "stuff" found in all sorts of hidden corners of the flat.  It's so good to be able to do that when I'm in the mood now, and not feel forced to do it just because I have a day off when I'd really rather rest.

These pine cones sit on one of my bookshelves, brought together from far corners of the world.  I picked up the long, straight one at the side of a winding stepped path leading around the beautiful island of Capri, a sparkling jewel in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy to whose highest point I was borne aloft on a stately chairlift.  The medium-sized cone comes from Andalucia in southern Spain, evoking memories of Seville with its jacaranda trees, Granada's stunning Alhambra and the passionate flamenco dancing.  The large cone was found on a dusty lakeside road in San Carlos de Bariloche, a town nestling beside the spectacular Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Andes in southern Argentina's Patagonian Rio Negro province.  Since I visited Bariloche in January 2011, it has twice been covered in ash from volcano eruptions just over the border in nearby Chile, closing its local airport and cutting off its vital income from tourism.  And the tiny little cone sitting in the shadow of the others represents home.  I found it on my walk back from the woods yesterday afternoon.