What's happening in the old fool's village?

[Slywoody]

but I’m British so should be excused.

Now, that is a classic line there!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your roof leaking. Hope all turns out good for you.

 

[jenjscott]

Yes, its been a crazy year here for weather too. Drought in some places. torrential rains with mudslides in California, the coldest winter(so far) in 15 or 20 years in many places throughout the south. Blizzards in the northeast and huge snowfalls all across the north.

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Hello Slywoody,

Roof is all sorted and mended, I think, thank you. I suppose we'll find out next time it rains. As for talking about the weather... Well, you can take the Old Fool out of Britain, but you can't take Britain out of the Old Fool.

Victoria

 

[mamagardener]

serviche, is a popular South American dish. The way my MIL makes it is shrimp in a citrus based sauce with cilantro. She cooks her shrimp first, but most people leave raw shrimp in citrus sauce overnight and the citrus :"cooks" the shrimp. I have never had it that way so I don't know how it tastes, but I love the way my MIL makes it.

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Mamagardener: I shall look out for that, although I'm not sure what 'cilantro' is.

The village is very busy today as it's the weekend. At 5 o'clock all the villagers will stroll round the square and up the road to exchange gossip with other villagers, show off babies, etc. It's very nice; in England we hardly knew our neighbours.

Victoria

 

[VictoriaTwead]

I love living in Spain, but just sometimes it makes me a little sad. Like these quail, for instance. (I think they are quails.) Like I said in my January newsletter:

I’ve mentioned before that you can tell the season just by listening to the sounds of the village. This month there are two new sounds; a clicking noise, and braying.
The clicking sound is made by poor quails that are kept in little domed cages and hung on the walls outside houses. They are females and will be used as decoys later in the season. The cage is set down, the bird calls and the males are attracted. Bang! and the males are shot for eating.
Of course Joe and I heartily disapprove, but that’s what the villagers have been doing for hundreds of years, and I know we’ll never change them.

I think I object even more to the tiny cages than the fact that the males are shot. Just wondered what other people think?

Victoria

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Deleted because I posted the same thing twice. Ooops! (Excuse an old fool.)

Victoria

 

[Slywoody]

I would say old habits and traditions are hard to break. We have quite a few traditions here that would be termed "less than desirable" also, however, i'm not at liberty to discuss them on this site.
Are the females kept in the little cages year around or just for the hunt? Just curious.

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Hello Slywoody,
Good question, I didn't make myself very clear, did I? The females are kept in those domed cages from December to March. The cages are hung outside during the day, then inside (usually on the living room wall) during the night. The rest of the year the birds are kept in runs which are fine, plenty of space, etc.

On a more cheerful note, we have a new donkey in the village. (Slywoody, I know you've already heard about poor Joe's escapade with the donkey from my newsletter!) Anybody want to see her?

Victoria

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Just discovered that the donkey is a boy. Ooops. Blame a couple of Old Fools' eyesight...

Here he is with Joe.

Joe's forgiven him, by the way.

Victoria