Pablo & Judi Kauffman

Our hike today started and ended in Durcal, a town about 20 kms. outside of Granada.

We were welcomed by this trumpeting burro,

Then hiked up to what looked like an unfinished picnic area.

Went back toward town,

Then crossed a gorge and up the other side. Southern Spain is very dry right now. The only reason the trees are green in the middle of the picture, is because they grow along the stream at the bottom of the gorge.

Water is a precious commodity here. This canal brings water from melting snow and ice on the mountains farther up, down to the olive groves and other crops below.

Without water, even the weeds dry up.

The almond trees in the forefront are non-irrigated, rendering them non-productive, as contrasted with the greener plantations in the lowlands which receive water. I’m reminded how Jesus said he was the living water. Without water, plants (and people) die. Without Jesus, there is spiritual death. Will Spain ever see an outpouring of the Living Water?

Just as natural water can produce hardy trees

And bountiful crops,

And tillable land, so the Living Water can bring about growth and abundance. But you have to stay down low, down by the river, near to the Water. Jesus said that the humble, the meek will inherit the earth. When you get up high and mighty, away from the Water, you dry out.

However, even a green tree, like this fig tree, needs to bear fruit. Jesus cursed a fig tree once that didn’t bear fruit.

The next day the disciples were amazed that the fig tree had dried up. It may have looked like this dead tree. I remember an old quartet song sung by the Radio Bible Class (?) that says. “Nothing but leaves for the Master / O how His loving heart bleeds / When instead of the fruit he is seeking / We offer Him nothing but leaves.

Well, if there is no fruit to offer the Master, may the leaves at least be pretty! (said tongue-in-cheek)

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Towns in Spain are special for their long history, quaintness and picturesque settings, but mostly for their people. Our friend, Connie Clark (if you haven’t noticed by now, the captions for this blog appear on the top of the picture so your eyes don’t have to bounce up and down as you scroll through)

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Lives in a little town about an hour from Granada.

We went out to help clean her garden, "as good friends should and do."

There are lots of grapes in and around these little towns. Harvest will begin in October.

These friends of Connie's not only help govern the town of 250 people or so.

They also own some vineyards

That make fine quality wine. These wooden barrels store wine from 2006 that will be marketed and sold next year. What did Jesus say about new wine in old wineskins? They probably didn’t have wooden barrels back then. The quality of wood affects the taste of the wine. How would animal skins have affected the taste?

The finished product.

Outside the town is a pasture with “toros bravos,” the bulls that will, sooner or later, meet their fate in a bullring. They didn’t look particularly friendly or pleased that we came by.

Several days later my weekly hike with friends took us to this town called Quentar

On the way we passed this dam and reservoir. Carlos, my friend, is a big Barcelona fan. You’ll have to blow up the picture to see the Barcelona logo on his hat and shorts.

This dog didn't seem too friendly when we first passed him behind a fence in an out-of-the-way place. But he got out and joined us on this hike, turning out to be a friend, though somewhat unwanted. He was probably bored.

For our hunting friends, blow this picture of a mountain goat up, print it and use it for target practice!

We finally got to the town. The white paint helps reflect the sun, keeping the houses cooler.

The narrow streets also help keep things cooler by providing more shade during the day and serving as a kind of wind tunnel.

Towns and cities are nice but it's the people in them who become our friends that bring them alive. Cesar and Christina are friends of Kevin & Wendy.

Cesar is an expert at barbecuing? How about ribs, steak and chicken?

Our little friends, Evan & Ellie, are also experts at inventing grown-up games.

Sometimes our friends celebrate birthdays with parties

And lots of food, not only these shrimp, but blood sausage, spiced sausage, un-spiced sausage, salad, bread, etc. The food is placed on plates in the middle of the table. You have only a fork and no plate, so dig in!

Dominoes is a fun thing to do with friends.

Seeing these ants together move a piece of potato chip, we’re reminded through nature how God designed us to have friends and be friends. Many hands make light work, and can help move mountains (or chips).

We’re fortunate to have friends in and around Granada, and are looking forward to having lots more!

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You’ve become acquainted with Jorge & Angélica before (see “Córdoba). They’ve kind of taken us under their wings and are teaching us about Granada and Spain. Last night we met at 8:30 for coffee (decaffeinated for Judi) then went on a night tour of the Albaycín, the old Moorish quarter of Granada. Jorge had gone to school there, and knows a lot about it. Since it was nighttime, we didn’t take pictures until we stopped for supper – at about 11:00.

This open-air restaurant featured snails. Now, these aren’t the kind you get out of the sea. They either grow wild in out-of-the-way places in the country, or they are raised on “snail farms.” (If the price of soybeans goes back down, maybe some of you farmers can try snails!)

Anyway, this is the sort of thing you don’t want to look much at what you’re eating. Instead of digging out the squishy meat with a toothpick, I found it more appetizing to kind of suck out the juice, then the meat usually came out with it. The juice the snails were cooked in was kind of peppery with laurel (or so the ladies said) and quite tasty. As you can see, we did quite a number on the snails (except for Jorge).

The rest of the meal you can kind of figure out except in the bottom right dish, the main part of it is some sort of squid. If you’d ask me which one I liked best, snails or squid, I'd say French Fries! Actually the snails were not too bad. At least we have another option where we can take our visitors!

Since the buses had stopped running at 11:30, we walked back down to town, stopping to take this picture of the Alhambra.

We got back home at 1:45 a.m. Why not? It’s much cooler then, anyway.

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There are a lot of rocks and stones in Spain, at least in the parts where I go hiking with a group of men every Wednesday morning. The rivers and streams are filed with rocks and stones

The hillsides are rocky, even though there is some vegetation, among them olive trees. Rocks make good caves, though. I wonder how the pickup (is it Ford?) – “like a rock” - would find the going here?

Some whole mountains seem to be rocks. (Notice the road below – good for hiking and cycling – I know!)

Rocks can be useful for making water channels,

Bridges (an old tram line from Granada used to run on this bridge),

And bridge supports.

It took a lot of rocks to make this dam!

The lake behind it is a major part of the water supply for Granada.

Below this stone house (or mill), someone used stones to make a trout ladder. I don’t know if it still works.

Even stone houses can have maintenance issues!

Some stones make good resting places. Jacob used one for a pillow. That was before he was 93 yrs. old, though, like this man.

Jesus talked about stones in the parable of the farmer planting seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the foot path. That’s pretty stony stuff. Not much will happen there except feeding the birds.

Some of it fell among the thorns and weeds which, even if the seeds did sprout and grow, soon got overgrown.

Some seeds fell on stony earth. Now is when the parable deviates a little from Jesus’ version. If left by itself, the stony earth will not be very fertile.

But what happens when the stones are removed? Many of you who garden or farm will remember picking up stones so that the soil becomes more productive. Stones are useful enough for bridges or houses or roads, but not in soil!

But when the stones are removed, what do you have? Fertile soil!

Soil that will bear forty, sixty, a hundred times as much as was planted!

We have heard from several sources that much work in Spain presently may resemble “picking up stones.” What is this? Prayer. Making friendships. Making the Word available to people. Positive publicity. Some of this can be done from anywhere. You can "pick up stones" in prayer from wherever you live! Some of it can only be done from here. The promise is that the Word, planted in fertile soil, will result in an abundant harvest.

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Passion

Most Spaniards are passionate about soccer, here called “fútbol,’ especially when their team wins the prestigious Europe Cup, only a notch below the World Cup. This is real “football,” they would say, played with the feet, as opposed to the American version, which is actually played more with the hands.

I'd wondered, watching one of the first games, why the players didn't sing the national anthem before the game started. They line the players of both teams up and play the national anthems of both teams. The Italians, the Russians, the Germans, the Turks - all of them sang lustily - some more on key than others! But none of the Spanish players sang. I thought they had problems. Turns out the problem was that the Spanish national anthem doesn't have words! They haven't yet come to agreement on what the words should be.

At any rate, Spain advanced handily through group play, then faced Italy in the quarterfinals, whom they hadn’t beaten in more than 80 yrs. It came down to penalty kicks after two exhausting overtimes. Spain’s goalie blocked two kicks, and they won. The family members we were staying with north of Madrid were ecstatic!

Then after a thorough drubbing of Russia in the semifinals, Spain was up against the Germans in the final game. It began at 8:45 on Sunday evening. Few people were in the streets. But at 10:30 horns started honking, fireworks went off, people took to the streets. Spain had won 1-0.

We went out to see what was happening – people of all ages out on the streets, blowing horns, brandishing Spanish flags – in general, a big-time celebration. This is what happened to one pretty fountain.

Before

During the celebration – the fountain drew revelers as meat draws flies.

Afterward. It took some 18,000 euros to replace the damaged tubing, lights, flowers and shrubbery around the fountain. Was it worth it? You be the judge!

This was the front page of the newspaper two days later, when the team arrived back in Madrid. One million people thronged the streets to see them.

Passion – will Spaniards someday be as passionate about Jesus?

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