Today was nice. Relaxed morning listening to the radio and catching up on the news, cleaning the house and kitchen, putting a wash on... the sort of things you have to do on a Sunday because everything is shut and there's not much else to get on with. Apart from work, but that wasn't happening.

Bene had been to Madrid and got back at 7am this morning, after staying up all night in Madrid - so collapsed into bed, not resurfacing until 4pm.

I made some cards before heading out along the seafront on my bike.



Although overcast, it the clouds were high enough to just be scraping the peaks of the Picos de Europa*, with the sun beginning it's decent towards the horizon.

This is the best time to go out, as the colours of the sea and the mountains change so quickly that by sitting still and watching the horizon you see a never ending sequence of light that changes the feel of the coast. Huge waves were breaking over the cliffs in the distance, a sudden plume of white on brown, while in the foreground they broke smooth and clean, littered only by neoprene bodies and fibreglass boards.

I cycled up to the Faro, and the Picos de Europa opened up, bathed in golden light, transforming the snow into gold leaf; leaving the shaded side a cold, unforgiving blue. The wind whistled through the radio masts, and I stayed to listen to the song for a while.

The sun set, punching an amber eye though the clouds, it's colour reflected along the underside of the cloud, so that for a minute the whole sky was glowing bright, before sinking below the mountains and away from us until tomorrow.

Although a nice day, I missed a trip to the mountains with Arms and the uni, just because I didn't go to the office to sign up and the online service wasn't working. She sent some photos when her phone had coverage again - they'd had blue sky all day, and had spend about 2 hours trudging though snow. I'm green with envy and annoyed at myself for missing it. Can't even do the next one because my flight back from Milan gets in 2 hours too late, though I can't really be too annoyed about missing mountains for Milan!




*so named as they were the first bit of land seen by sailors from the 'new world'