<html><div style='background-color:'><P><BR>In response to Mr. Crawley's comments, having walked twice in autumn, it is certainly a good time for walking the Camino. The weather is, or was in 1998 and 2001, excellent for walking with moderate temperatures and little rain. The crowds have mostly gone home, while the seasonal refugios are open at least to mid-October (many refugios, of course, are open year around).</P>
<P>And autumn is an excellent time to sample some grapes. Whatever the rule may be, pilgrims were sampling from the vineyards in Navarra and La Rioja and later in Galicia. I seemed to be about a day behind the grape pickers in 2001, and I was somewhat taken aback by the amount of waste--grapes left on the vine and especially grapes dropped from carriers and crushed into the mud along the vinyard edges. After discussion at dinner, we determined that the few grape bunches we sampled were unlikely to be missed, and so we sampled all the way across the vineyard regions. Many of the wine grapes are tasty indeed!</P>
<P>As to apples, all of the trees had been picked by the time I got to them, but perhaps a little earlier they would have been good. On occasion a farmer hands out apples to passers-by on the Camino, and they are good apples, mostly of the sort we now call heirloom--not very pretty but delicious. Finally the almond trees were ready to be picked, but sampling almonds in the field takes some doing (I did not try any). The fruit looks rather like an apricot, a close relative, and there is a thick set of hulls between the fruit and the nut kernel. I have been told the flesh of the almond fruit is astringent and may be toxic in sufficient quantity, and if one mistakes an apricot for an almond, the pits of apricots are truly toxic.</P>
<P>And finally the crocus are indeed in bloom, and one feels rather badly about trampling them underfoot, but the flowers are truly numerous over much of the distance, especially from the Pyrenees to O Cebreiro.</P>
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<P><BR>E. O. Pederson<BR>Seattle, WA</P></div><br clear=all><hr>Help STOP SPAM with <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMNENUS/2731">the new MSN 8 </a> and get 2 months FREE*</html>