twenties are for travelling

I like the way side streets in cities like Seville and Aracena combine residential with quirky commercial. My apartment in Seville was a couple of streets back from the Museo Bellas Artes, amongst a mix of old terrace homes, churches, bars and artisan shops.

This little hat shop was a few doors down from my apartment. It was literally a window into a Spanish life.

When I went to school at 9 in the morning the shop was still closed, the window was dark.

When I arrived home for late lunch the woman who owned (made?) the hats might be tending to her treasures, dusting and fussing over their placement.

When I came home in the late afternoon she might be charming a lone client who would be immaculately dressed, proper for hat shopping.

Between 7 and 9 the shop would be alive and humming like a beehive, full of adoring women and bored husbands.

Thanks to Seville I now like fancy hats.