What I've been doing while I haven't been blogging

1. Staring over my trusty Camino boots at the stunning pools of water known as Los Charcos Verdes in Hervás, Extremadura.

2. Clinging desperately to a swaying lamp post while an elderly woman flutters in the wind on the other side of the same post, during a wind storm in San Sebastián on Spain's Basque coast.

3. Losing myself in two long, blissful wanders through the charming Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona, thanks to tips from my generous and capable virtual guide, Alex over at Building Bridges.

4. Meeting an invaluable collection of new pilgrim friends from all corners of Spain while completing the hospitalero training of the Federación de Associaciones de Amigos del Camino in Irun. My first assignment? Fifteen days in June, tending to the Camino Aragonés albergue in Arrés, the very albergue where I arrived, limping, on my second day on the Camino, only to spend two days on ice, healing my first Camino sprain.

6. Falling in love with yet another Extremeño town: Hervás, with views to the snowcapped peaks of the Sierra de Gredos and one of Spain's best conserved and most vibrantly alive juderías (old Jewish quarters).

7. Watching a sunny Easter Saturday sky turn first to hail, then to the thick white-out of a spring snowstorm in Ávila.

8. Finding myself trapped between Semana Santa processions in some of Salamanca's most narrow medieval streets while taking altogether disappointing photos of the festivities, despite the good company.

9. Describing Salamanca as a expat home-buying destination to Spanish Homes magazine. Wait. Salamanca as an expat destination?

10. Meeting fellow blogueras-en-España Wheylona (in San Sebastián) and Rebekah from Moratinos Life (here in Salamanca, where she faithfully tended to the local pilgrim's albergue for 15 days).

13. Planning a poetic return to my home land.

14. Avoiding watching Salamanca's Plaza Mayor blow up on film.

15. Getting a good handle on how to make pulpo at home - from the New York Times yet.

16. Nursing an altogether unhealthy obsession with US news and opinion columns, especially NY Times elections coverage. Is this making anyone else nervous?

17. Discovering there are indeed "ideas worth spreading" over at ted.com.

18. Revelling in Spanish train travel, especially that magical 2 o'clock hour when one by one, each passenger faithfully crinkles open his tin foil or plastic wrapped package and snaps open his soda can, till we are all simultaneously and silently snarfing, each of us, one bocadillo, one canned beverage, and one piece of fruit. I most enjoy the thought of the waiter in the train's deserted café coach doing exactly the same.

19. Spotting Via de la Plata pilgrims passing through Salamanca on their way to Santiago...and spotting the familiar yellow arrows pointing the pilgrims' way in Barcelona and San Sebastián.

20. Greeting spring, who arrived right on time, once we'd gotten that one inevitable snowstorm out of the way.

21. Learning that a good man may be hard to find, but a dependable freelance web designer is impossible. A web project first dreamed up two years ago lies begging for death, or completion.

22. Preparing to wish you all a very happy Lunes de Aguas - tomorrow!