Oh, I want to go to Spain again. I've just been watching Rick Stein's Spain, and whilst the programme itself made me cringe a bit, it reminded me of the heat and the smell and the sights of Spain, particularly Granada.

Remember the part of the Alhambra where Washington Irving stayed, abyssinia? A dark, cool building, a relief to the eyes - and somewhere in the middle there was a courtyard, shielded by walls and tall trees, green like underwater, flooded with sunlight, and in every corner an orange tree with impossibly bright fruit.

( A glimpse of paradise. )

Home! Home again! Well, right now I'm at work, but you know what I mean. I return full of tales of Moorish palaces, great works of art, sangria, excited archeologists, poppies, prostitutes, walled citadels, swords, marzipan hams, flamenco posing, and churros con chocolate (I prefer the Catalan spelling: xocolata. Everything's better spelled with an X). Oh, and orange invisible nun cookies, of course.

But I am very tired (from, well, staying up late last night to sort my photos out, actually - I was home by 3pm, and Spain is only an hour ahead), and sadly I have much work to catch up on, so all I will say for now is: it was AWESOME to meet up with abyssinia!