Learning to fly

It's taken me an unusually long time to walk home every day this week.

The baby storks are in flight training. Every afternoon this week as I've passed by the Old Cathedral I've been met by a squadron of fearless storklets, learning to fly.

And I just have to sit down and watch them. I've been fascinated by storks since I got here, I think simply because they are truly beautiful birds, but also because they so remind me of sailing. They're first class wind-surfers. And when they go to land, they lower their feet, create drag, move to the oddest looking seated position and then come in for a landing. In fact, it was watching the storks carry construction materials up to their nests from the river in spring, day after day after day, that inspired me to start this blog. I just felt the urge to tell somebody!

Well, the Salamanca stork class of 2005 is out every tarde, diving off the Old Cathedral, then trying out their moves:

OK, so if I put my legs down like this, I wonder what happens....whoaaaa!!, ok I WON'T do that again......and if move this wing over here...oh, yeh now that's cool.

You get the idea.

I love a lot of things about Spain. A lot of the things I was looking to learn are here to be learned - but oh, I do especially love living close to Salamanca's storks.