We made amazing home-made red sangria tonight and went out to the countryside for dinner…this included visiting a local friend that has horses, we picked brevas (figs in their early stage) and wild strawberries that stained my hands red and were deliciously sweet and juicy in my mouth…then we said good-bye to our friend and went to the hills just outside of town where there’s a beautiful old stone well that fresh spring water comes up from.

My mom and her boyfriend actually get all their drinking water from this well because it’s so good. With the sun setting we enjoyed the view of vast open fields and had a picnic right beside the rock walls of the well. We could hear the sound of the water gushing out and then trickling down into the grass at the other end. Sitting on a blanket and leaning against the stone wall we ate Tortilla Espanola that my mom had made earlier that day (love that stuff!) and fresh bread and local cheese…and we kept drinking from the huge jug of the red sangria we made together….local red wine, rum, apples, pineapple, splash of Fanta (not my favorite but that’s ok for this recipe), and chunks of orange picked from the orange trees that grow along the street here just outside our front door.

Once the sun went down and the colors faded, we could hear the sound of frogs nearby along with the tranquil sound of running water. Leaning our heads back, we looked up at the sky, full of dazzling stars that came all the way down to fade into the horizon of distant hills. A large beautifully full oak tree was off to the side and its dark silhouette was the only interruption in the myriad of stars. They were so vibrant and bright that I felt like the longer I looked at them, the more they were coming down closer and closer to me from the sky…the Milky Way became more and more distinct in its lite white haze and each of us saw some shooting stars.