It snowed in Plasencia last night

I´ve been living in Plasencia since Spring 2003 and this morning was the first time I had ever seen snow on the streets...

So I rushed outside and snapped a few photos of la plaza de la catedral...

Still no sign of the storks that nest on the cathedral...

Plasencia and the Jerte River

Here´s a nice little video entitled "Otoño" ("Autumn") of the walking path along the Jerte River in Plasencia that I use a couple times a week. I don´t know the person who made this video, but we´re bound to cross paths sooner or later... And the music is fantastic.

Otoño from Julian 24Fotogramas on Vimeo.

¡Felices Reyes Magos!

Hola! As some of you may already know, yesterday was a big day here in Spain. January 6th is when Spaniards celebrate the arrival of "Los Reyes Magos" or "the 3 Wise Men". Where I grew up (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) I was accustomed to receiving gifts on December 25th, so watching my 5 Spanish nieces and nephews tear open their new toys and games a full week into January is a bit strange.

My wife´s family celebrated with a cochinillo (a roast suckling pig) at my brother-in-law Angel´s house here in Plasencia. The first thing Angel said to me when we arrived: "You drink rum?"

The day was definitely off to a good start! Angel led me downstairs to the garden and directed me to his new pride and joy - his lemon tree. "You´re going to have to drink a few rum and cokes today because I don´t know what to do with all these lemons!" It quickly became apparent that he had lured me to the garden with the promise of alcohol just so he could show off his rather impressive gardening skills. After all, he is the owner of a gardening/landscaping business. And, while admiring fruit isn´t exactly high up on my list of favorite pastimes, I have to admit I was impressed. They were huge lemons, half of them bigger than your average grapefruit.

Anyway, below I leave you with a couple of "before" & "after" photos of a typical Spanish meat-feast. Enjoy!