We bought our Spanish house knowing it was in the middle of the
countryside – a cortijo in ‘el campo’.
Having worked in high pressure jobs in big cities for most of our lives,
peacefulness and tranquillity was something we were looking for. However, I hadn’t quite realised that el campo
also creates a lot of noise. From dogs
barking through the night, to cockerels crowing at 3am (clearly something wrong
with their internal clock – no way can that be dawn!), and birds tweeting and
singing continuously at all times of day and night. The more we are there, the more we get used
to this cacophony of animal noises. But
some things are more difficult to deal with than others ….
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A snake snaking about
One day when I was on the phone in the sitting room, my husband Hilary dashed in from the front garden to get his camera. I thought nothing more of it, until I saw the pictures he had taken of an enormous snake in the corner of our patio. I kind of knew that there might be snakes about, but seeing the pictures made me realise that they can be seriously big, and seriously scary. How Hilary managed to keep his cool and calmly collect his camera to take these pics, I will never know. He was working in the garden, literally no more than 1 meter away from the snake! Since then, we’ve tried to find out what type of snake it is, but so far haven’t been able to identify it. We’d love to know, though, for no other reason than to stock up on the right antidote, if and when it appears again!
A story about rabbits
Every Sunday in the autumn, local people will don their hunting gear, release their dogs and roam the countryside to shoot wild rabbits. On one particular Sunday, our neighbour Francisco walks in and proudly presents us with two – recently shot – rabbits. He showed us how to skin and gut them, hanging them from a nearby olive tree, and then expertly prepared them ready for dinner (with lots of chilis, wine and garlic, marinating for two hours). I probably should have cooked them for a lot longer than 90 minutes in the oven, as the dish turned out a bit chewy and still too reminiscent of live bunnies hopping around. Lesson learnt for next time (and I’m secretly hoping that there won’t be a next time …).
Skinning and gutting the rabbits
Rabbit, an acquired taste!
Rabbit cooked Andalusian style
Zillions of ants
I love the film Antz with Woody Alan’s voice-over of the main character, Z, who is a worker ant, one of many billions, looking for an escape from drudgery to try to find Nirvana. Highly recommended viewing, and particularly relevant for those of us wanting to escape the rat race, but also during the months of May and June when our place is absolutely inundated by zillions of ants. Mainly outside, thankfully, but occasionally we realise we’ve left something out in the kitchen and the ants are there in a flash, making a long and orderly queue to pass the goodies back to their nest. So clever, though I’d prefer fewer of them, and they are HUGE! Putting your hand in an ant’s nest whilst gardening isn’t a great deal of fun either, so although I admire their organisation skills and work ethic immensely, I do use ant powder to keep the numbers down.
This is the smaller variety of ants …
Lots more wildlife
Birdsong accompanies everything that we do, from early morning till late at night. The joy of hearing this beautiful sound is tempered by seeing – yet again – more bird droppings on our newly painted house walls. And from the hammock under the trees, we listen to the scurrying about of tree rats. Yes, indeed, there are such things as tree rats, and they’ve chosen our oak tree as their home. Makes for a somewhat less relaxing siesta in the hammock. Perhaps the snakes could eat the tree rats, and the tree rats could eat the ants. Now that would be a cool solution!
We also have some cool looking spiders in the garden
Hi Marijke & Hilary,
I do enjoy your blogs, as it’s good to keep up with news of your adventures.
I was a bit worried about the snake Hilary photographed on your patio, & thought I’d do a Google search to see it I could locate a similar looking one & find out anything useful.
If you google: ladder-snake-rhinechis-scalaris-extremadura-spain-europe-ayrdfg.jpg it comes up with the pictures. I thought the one on the left of the three pictured looks quite like your visitor, but you’ll know better whether that’s the right possible one!
Then I googled what its antidote is if needed, but (so long as this IS similar to your visitor), it says:
The ladder snake (Rhinechis scalaris) receives its common name due to the stripes that juvenile specimens present on their back, similar to a ladder, even though adult individuals may present only longitudinal stripes on their body without any transversal marks connecting them. Despite being an apparently aggressive snake, it rarely bites and is harmless to human beings.
The ladder snake (Rhinechis scalaris) is an attractive harmless snake found in Portugal, Spain, southern France and some parts of Italy. So if I’m right & your visitor was indeed a ladder snake, I’m relieved to know it’s harmless!
Anyway, see what you think, as I’d hate to mislead you by wrong identification!! Thinking of you both in your forthcoming adventure.
I think you were mega brave Hilary to dash in for your camera. I’d definitely have been dashing for cover & shutting the door fast! Keep safe Friends! 🙂
dawn at kyero.com
22 Jul. 2022
Hello Ann,
Thank you taking the time to read Marijke & Hilary blog on Kyero.com, I am sure they will be happy to hear the information you have given them on their new friend (snake) on their patio.
You will find there are more blogs to read and you may be interested in our Podcast
I hope you find this interesting.
Happy reading and listening.
2 comments
Add your voice22 Jul. 2022
22 Jul. 2022