Romanico Aragones

Some gleanings from a wonderful Spanish web site devoted to the Romanesque art and architecture of old Catalonia and Navarre.

Here's a nice capital showing the evolution of a classical form into the Romanesque.

Many wonders. Sorry the images are so small, but I have never seen most of these before, so I still marvel at the riches I have found.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Cold

This is Kidu, all grown up (puppy pics here). When he was a puppy everyone thought he was a yellow Lab, including the vet and a dog snob I ran into one day who patiently explained to me how she could tell he was an American Lab, not English. But as you can see, if he is a Labrador, he is a very strange looking one.

His personality is very much like a yellow Lab, since he thinks the whole world is his best friend and all the people and dogs in it want nothing but to play with him all the time. But he kind of sucks as a retriever; he will run and get a ball or stick but he would rather play keep-away than bring it back to you.

Kidu does not have very thick fur, and no fat at all anywhere. So when the weather turned very cold last month I wondered how he would react. We had little cold weather last year, and nothing like the week of single digit nights we recently endured. Stepping out into the pre-dawn dimness at 6 degrees (-15 C), I thought maybe he would walk fifty yards and then want to turn around and come back.

Not a bit. So far as I can tell, he does not in any way notice the cold. He has this way of looking at me when I put on my boots and gloves and heavy coat that seems to say, "How did I end up in a family of such pussies? Let's just go!" And so we go, and he runs and plays like usual. One day while walking in the neighborhood we passed a Husky with its thick coat all puffed up against the cold, and I marveled at the contrast between them. That, I thought, is what a dog bred for living in the cold looks like. 

Kidu, of course, just cursed the leash that kept him from running over to play with this stranger.

I should note that Kidu does not sleep outside, so he never experiences cold air except when he is active. And as a description of Kidu in the woods, "active" is a monument to understatement. His manic charging from place to place must burn calories at a staggering rate, and I imagine that is why he is so thin despite being fed half again the recommended amount for his weight.

If I want to skip the early morning romp in the woods because of the cold, that is entirely on me; I will get no support from the dog, only contempt that a man in several layers of clothing wouldn't want to face temperature that he cheerfully blasts into wearing nothing but his thin fur and burning desire to run free.