Hola de Espana
So I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, rather I am in the remotest mountains of Extremadura in Spain. In this place I not only have a bed, I have my own room, and even a balcony! From it I can see out over the property, which is amazingly beautiful. On my left I can see the valley start to dip, held up by ancient dry stone walls to make terraces on which there are fruit trees growing. The valley deepens then, going down to the stream at the bottom which is hidden by huge green trees. Behind the house, the road leads into town, and behind the town rises huge and craggy snow-capped mountains.
On the other side of the stream the horses are grazing. There are five of them, four adults and a fowl. One of the mares somehow hurt her leg, and when the vet came he said that her leg was infected and would have to be treated with antibiotics. So now to my list of skills I can add: Can give a mostly wild horse antibiotic injections.
Yes, I had to tie her to a tree, fill not one but two syringes with icky viscous fluid and stick the needles one after the other into her neck. Blagh. My hands shook and it was really hard to pierce the skin and of course the horse wasn’t happy, poor thing. After the first couple times she started trying to kick me when I came near. I don’t blame her.
My host here is a bit of an odd duck. His name is Marifa and he is a bit anal about a lot of things which makes him kind of hard to deal with sometimes, and he’s started kind of creeping me out a bit too. On the other hand he is very generous in terms of living conditions and food. And he’s only here half of the time. The other he is in Madrid.
The first week was the hardest. I was horribly homesick and was trying to get used to this weird fellow and then spent the weekend completely alone. I went to town one day to try and use the internet, but the library is only open 2 hours a day, and not on Sunday or Monday, my two days off. The people in town were so nice but No one speaks English there and I barely speak any Spanish, so it wasn’t really a social visit. Then on Tuesday a British couple arrived and everything got better. Allister and Lizzie are wonderful, real Nelson people. They have been so sweet, always cheery and making lovely meals, and I just love listening to them talk. Lizzie and I went down to the river at the bottom of the property and went for a dip. The water was freezing but we laughed a lot.
We’ve been working so hard, and mostly with bramble bushes, so our arms and hands are completely scratched up, but afterwards Marifa has been teaching us yoga and meditation. It’s been really cool, especially yesterday we did this exercise where we have to move our arms really slowly and feel the energy between them and feel the energy and I DID!!!
Love to all, keep me informed.
On the other side of the stream the horses are grazing. There are five of them, four adults and a fowl. One of the mares somehow hurt her leg, and when the vet came he said that her leg was infected and would have to be treated with antibiotics. So now to my list of skills I can add: Can give a mostly wild horse antibiotic injections.
Yes, I had to tie her to a tree, fill not one but two syringes with icky viscous fluid and stick the needles one after the other into her neck. Blagh. My hands shook and it was really hard to pierce the skin and of course the horse wasn’t happy, poor thing. After the first couple times she started trying to kick me when I came near. I don’t blame her.
My host here is a bit of an odd duck. His name is Marifa and he is a bit anal about a lot of things which makes him kind of hard to deal with sometimes, and he’s started kind of creeping me out a bit too. On the other hand he is very generous in terms of living conditions and food. And he’s only here half of the time. The other he is in Madrid.
The first week was the hardest. I was horribly homesick and was trying to get used to this weird fellow and then spent the weekend completely alone. I went to town one day to try and use the internet, but the library is only open 2 hours a day, and not on Sunday or Monday, my two days off. The people in town were so nice but No one speaks English there and I barely speak any Spanish, so it wasn’t really a social visit. Then on Tuesday a British couple arrived and everything got better. Allister and Lizzie are wonderful, real Nelson people. They have been so sweet, always cheery and making lovely meals, and I just love listening to them talk. Lizzie and I went down to the river at the bottom of the property and went for a dip. The water was freezing but we laughed a lot.
We’ve been working so hard, and mostly with bramble bushes, so our arms and hands are completely scratched up, but afterwards Marifa has been teaching us yoga and meditation. It’s been really cool, especially yesterday we did this exercise where we have to move our arms really slowly and feel the energy between them and feel the energy and I DID!!!
Love to all, keep me informed.