Thursday, April 9, 2009

Return from Ortigosa




The last few days we have been on the farm, which exempts us from life. So I neither know nor care what is happening in the world. In the summer we spent upwards of two months there, during which I neither watch the television nor read a newspaper nor listen to the radio nor have access to the internet (that will have to change this year, because of work), and the world ticks over quite nicely without me telling it what to do, pointing out its more obvious flaws, and generally watching over it. It is quite surprising, and in a way disappointing, to discover in September that everything is still working more or less as it was and that nothing of consequence has happened. When you follow certain areas of news, politics and science obsessively you become like the neurotic passenger in a car; when you nod off or your attention wanders you are jerked back to full awareness by the shock of realizing that the driver hasn't crashed. (Having said that, the Cobbler clearly can't manage without me).

The fields are fairly green, at least from a distance, but sowing was interrupted frequently by rain, so the growth is irregular. Rabbits are everywhere, and eagles circle lazily above the hills. There are lilacs in the garden and the rosemary is in flower all over the mountainsides. This is, of course, just an excuse to publish a couple of photographs, so here you are.

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