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I’m just home from cycling and hiking through Catalonia and the Spanish Pyrenees — I wrote a bit about we started going on these trips, the intergenerational friendships we forged on our first one, and how we found ourselves on our fourth iteration here (where you can also find all my favorite pictures from the trip). I found myself deeply delighted and repeatedly surprised by the region, in part because my previous knowledge was so superficial. But now I know how to eat dinner at 9:30 pm like a pro, how to rub my toasted bread with a sliced tomato, and how to say hi in Catalan when I pass someone on a bike.
I’ve put a few specific recs hotel/hiking/eating recs below, but the trip was that perfect length where you come back energized to re-enter your routine (and come back to your work!). So I’m staying put for the foreseeable future: tending to (and digging) hundreds of dahlias, gearing up for soup season, and ready to tackle a long list of new essay, thread, and interview ideas. And as always: I’m so grateful for all of your comments and conversations this past week and the flexibility this work offers; I hope you enjoy reading this unruly gathering of all the stuff I’ve consumed, read, watched, and loved as much as I enjoyed putting it together.