a year in the world

ok, so.......this week i have been listening to frances mayes a year in the world on cd as i drive to and fro.....and though i am disappointed that the author no longer reads her own books aloud.....it is still soothing to hear someone verbalize such luscious descriptions of place, of food, of flora and fauna......the first section was of her travels in spain......including a january visit of madrid and it's many plazas and museums......sound familiar?........she seems to have had a mixed experience....her spouse was sick, and the weather was cold......but her notations on the paintings she found memorable at the prado and the thysssen were so evocative of our trip.......she remembered goyas that were not the cats......and was especially enthralled with the bosch piece....how could one not be fascinated......and she failed to notice the scrawny baby jesus similarities between so many northern european painters, nor the madonna-with-breasts-in-her-throat favored by so many painters of the age........well, she was distracted, i suppose...........as i pulled into my driveway this evening she was wrapping up a meandering drive through rural portugal.......next to france?..........as i mentioned before, i was somewhat letdown that the author herself didn't read this book aloud, as she did the first book about her home rennovation in tuscany.....her south georgia accent was crucial for the reflections- on-childhood whiffs that were maybe overdone......as opined earlier......only david sedaris can muse about his childhood memories without me taking umberage after the second or third trip down memory lane.........alas, frances toured neither the barcelona area, nor the basque region......though she did eat in a bar that hemingway made famous in the sun also rises....a bullfighter hangout.......one of these days i will return to spain...when the weather is a tad warmer and i have more leeway with accomodations and itinerary.......if for no other reason that to find the places that frances has described with such elan.......