Snow on La Sagra, the first of this autumn and it seems to have come so quickly. The snowline is down to 1700m, maximum temperature 14 degrees, minimum 4. Windspeed 22km/hour, UV index 4. Temperature of domestic hot water created soley by the solar panel, 39 degrees.
Better light a fire!
I’ve pinched this article verbatim from www.wild-spain.com ‘s newsletter which I think is fascinating.
. 6,000 year-old nomadic cattle tradition endangered -
Spain’s 6,000 year-old tradition of moving cattle between winter and summer
pastures, along with it’s many environmental and social benefits, could soon
be over, warns Adena/WWF. There are now 300,000 heads of transhumant cattle
in Spain, compared to 5 million a century ago. Transhumant cattle spreads
manure (soil fertility), eats brushwood (reduces fire-hazards), disperses
plant seeds (5,000 seeds per day per sheep), recycles post-harvest crop
waste (cereal stubble, vineyard leaves), avoids use of fossil-fuel (travels
by hoof), adapts to climate change (goes where the grass is greener),
creates wildlife habitats (patchwork of grazed open areas), conserves
ancient breeds (merino sheep, tudanca cows), produces high quality products
(organic meat, specialty cheeses) and employs 10,000 families in Spain.
However, says Adena, Spain’s modern drovers have problems obtaining state
benefits and face unnecessary red-tape when travelling between autonomous
communities. Date: October 27, 2008 Source: WWF/Adena
and I pinched the picture from www.daylife.com/
Sesame drew, cut and pasted these pictures of Snoopy and his kennel the other day and I think they are rather gorgeous. Alarmingly, in a dusty old box somewhere, her mummy has a whole scrap album from when she was little, devoted to Snoopy.
Too bleak for me I’m afraid.
I have often talked, I realise, about the mountain La Sagra to the north west of Los Gazquez which lies in the Parque Natural de Segura. This is how the Junta de Andalucia would like you to see it, in another fine film from a helicopter with rousing music from Holst and a fifty fag a day narration from Andalucia es de Cine.
Whilst out for a walk the other day we came across this little bunch of feathers upon the ground. The feathers being unmistakably those of the abundant Jays in the forest around Los Gazquez.
And the feather plucking perpetrator of this crime? My guess is the Peregrine. A Jay is too big for a Kestrel and the other commonly sighted falcon at the moment is the Peregrine.
Guilty as charged, no wonder it’s a bit quieter out there.
This season of mellow fruitfulness finds figs at Los Gazquez in abundance. They are one of the highest plant sources for calcium and fibre and dried they are even richer, having copious quantities of copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium and vitamin K.
Jam appeals to me but Sesame and I just like to graze like Hanuman in the Banyan tree.
This is a photograph of Spanish artist Antonio Lopez Garcia, a man obsessed with quinces. He is criticised by many artists for his neo-academism but admired by Robert Hughes (Shock of the New) apparently. I’m sure his neo-academism would have gone down well at my old art school (The Royal Academy Schools).
Spanish director Victor Erice made a film about the artist in 1992 called El Sol del Membrillo (Sun of the Quince Tree). The film records his attempt to capture the perfect fleeting moment of the beauty of quinces on canvas.
Now I doubt our quinces at Los Gazquez would qualify as sufficiently beautiful for Sr. Don Antonio, but what I would like to achieve with them is to capture the perfect fleeting moment of the beauty of the quince in a jar of quince jelly (Dulce del Membrillo). I shall search for the secret recipe.
Now I know some folks don’t like potentially venomous creatures like spiders, and indeed my wife has a serious phobia about snakes. I tell her there are no snakes in Spain so she is fine, even though she has seen more upon the high-ways and by-ways than I have. And phobias concerning snakes and spiders apparently operate upon the same cognitive lines.
But I love them all, and I loved spotting this little creature Eresus cinnaberinus in the walled garden today. He (as all males have the impressive display) is the decorative one, but smaller than the female who is plain and black. He was quite aggressive as you can see in this display. If you need more then look here.
And before I go, notice the orange lichen on the rock and how the colours are exactly the same as the spiders abdomen.
Miro lives! We had a call from a good friend last night who spotted her in the Rambla about half an hours drive from here. He put her in their dog pen until I could get there and what a joyful renunion it was. She was hungry and thirsty but otherwise as normal although when we got back I could see her nervous agitation in the direction of the barranca.
I think a little less freedom is in order and she needs to go to bed at the same time as us. Not chasing wild boar piglets in the night.
