Knock, knock....who's there?

 Good morning! Closer and closer, soon we will be sharing breakfast with them

An evening visit from a white wanderer

We have opened the gate from the horse pasture so the  horses and donkey can wander freely on the finca, they are taking full advantage, munching on all the summer dried hay. Lovely to see them close to the cortijo, they come to say hello in the evening and maybe get an extra treat of dried figs or old bread.

Corona project competed- Sanctuary village somewhere in North Africa

Inspired by images from 30 years of travelling to North Africa ; Morocco, Tunisia and Mali.
 A  little art project, purely decorative, no pretensions. A refuge during these long days,an imaginary village created with paper, oil paint, glue, oil crayons, chalk, bits of an ancient lampshade made of gilded card, hand made khadi rag paper bought in India and an old Spanish Law book from 1930 with aged yellow pages : on two boards.
Enjoyed all the little experiments and creating the busy little people and having time to embellish, just finished in time for the renaissance of our tourist business in the summer months unless lightening strikes again.....

The first stage

Work progresses

Walk along the Tamuja

The last time we did this walk it was in May, with lack of rain the cattle and sheep had eaten the sparse grass down to the earth, the scenery was dusty and brown with just a trickle in the river. 
Here in Extremadura the coming of the rain transforms the landscape almost within hours. With the sustained rainfall we have had spread over the last two months we knew the walk along the Tamuja would have been restored to a verdant paradise, a perfect example of the iconic Extremadura eco system at work.  And so it was, the river was brimming, lush green grass, Iberic pigs, cows and sheep grazing under the holm oaks, stunning.

 Our usual destination, an ancient watermill only added to the beauty of the environment, as usual it was all for us, not one other person in sight.At the mill we crossed the weir to walk back on the other bank to see different aspects of the scenery.

On our way home to the finca we stopped off, as usual, in Salvatierra de Santiago for lunch at the Bar Fé, our favourite place for many reasons.

Christmas pursuits 2019

What a gorgeous Christmas day in the Sierra de Montanchez!
After several days of storms, strong winds and torrential rain we have arrived at a tranquil haven with the benefit of lush green meadows and flowing fuentes, something magical after a year of meagre rainfall almost to the point of desperation towards the end of last summer.
After a sumptuous brunch we started our walk to Manfred's olive grove high up in the sierra overlooking the village of Arroyomolinos, we love this walk because on reaching the olive grove there is the most marvellous sense of peace and isolation, the camino goes no further and the grove hangs over the precipitous gorge with vast vistas beyond.

The hike was certainly enough to work up a good appetite, we were happy to get home to the finca for yet more food and drink, in this case gravlax tapas with dill cucumber, dates wrapped in jamon and some excellent cava, that was enough until dinner.

Oh yes, this is a Christmas food fest even though it's just me and Manfred this year.
Dinner…..duck breasts roasted with clementines, sesame seed, soya sauce and garlic with asparagus, roast potatoes and parsnips….and we still haven't reached the red berry pudding with cream and nuts.
In the meantime we are messing around with the new "smart" t.v. and streaming possibilities, ooohoo! For us this is an amazing technical advance, we will see if it will change our daily rhythms, it's seductive but quite limited in what could be of interest so perhaps back to books and music....here's one of my most wonderful Christmas presents, endlessly stimulating, a great resource for art projects.

Well Christmas day is drawing to a close but looking forward to tomorrow, we will be visting our favourite bar in Salvatierra de Santiago and going for another walk. Love this peaceful time of the year before the start of the renting season with new acquaintances and lots of fun.

How to warm up whilst at La Habiba on a wet spring evening

La Habiba is our little retreat at the finca, it's a special place in seclusion surrounded by wild woods, rocks and water, at the moment nightingales are singing night and day with the eagle owl joining in at dusk. It is charming and comfortable but primarily designed as a summer house with outside kitchen. We have had a few days of mis weather so have put together a fire bowl to cheer us up, certainly romantic looking at the rain from the porch with the bowl glowing away. 

Zamarrillas

A haunting place lost in the Llanos de Caceres, a collection of buildings which represent the story of Extremadura since the reconquista in the middle of the 13th century. Now completely uninhabited except for the thriving stork colony with nests on the towers and crumbling walls of the ruins. We had a fascinating walk around the whole area which is set in an emblematic Extremadura landscape.

Known as Heredamiento y Prado de Zamarrillas, the earliest building is a casa fuerte, a fortified house, built on a small eminence, la casa fuerte de los Duranes.

These casa fuertes were built in the first years after the reconquista. The Christians from the north had finally re conquered this part of Spain after six centuries of Moorish settlement but  the Moors were still very much in evidence further south, the conquest of Granada took a further 250 years so the casas fuertes were a symbols of power with caution, scattered across Extremadura, safe refuges on journeys between the larger towns and guarding against possible Moorish attack or cattle raids.

Towns such as Caceres, Trujillo and Merida did not start to develop beyond their walls until the beginning of the 16th century when there was a surge of development fuelled by the riches brought back by the conquistadors of Extremadura from the new world, mainly Peru and Mexico. The newly ennobled conquistadors built palaces and endowed churches, convents and monasteries.

 In Zamarrillas the Casa Grande palace was built in the 16th century by the Ovando family with their coat of arms still in place. 

All through the centuries the rich pasture land and abundant water supply from the Salor river would have been used for raising sheep and cattle, particularly sheep, the wool trade of Extremadura made many fortunes. The barns and outbuildings of the herdade were used for storage, wool shearing and housing the farm workers, there are documents recording up to 200 people living and working on the estate at its peak. 

It seems that by the 18th century the farm was declining, perhaps split into too many parts by inheritance, lack of workers or it was even suggested it was stricken by a plague of termites.

The ruin brought by neglect and time was completed at the beginning of the 19th century in the war of independence or the peninsular wars when the herdade was invaded by French troops who destroyed much of what was left leaving the buildings open to the elements. 

Some renovation has taken place in recent years, re-roofing some buildings and maintenance of the dam which has created an idyllic lake behind the casa fuerte. 

We spoke to a shepherd who was grazing his flock near the lake, he said that the land and property was owned by many different owners, some unknown and unrecorded making it difficult to carry out any cohesive renovation project. 

Unfortunately the most ruined building is the church. It was once known as Nuestra Senora de la Esclarecida, a Romanesque structure from the 14th century with a hexagonal apse and remains of a pillared portico.

The image of the virgin and child once housed here was fortunately saved from destruction by Napoleonic troops and can now be seen in Caceres at the Church of Santiago de los Caballeros, although much damaged by time it is probably one of the oldest images of the virgin in Extremadura. Nowadays the church has long been used as a barn for animals and at one time a mechanical grain mill, part of the machinery still exists in a lean-to shed, difficult to imagine the devout congregation of Zamarrillas praying here under the calm gaze of the virgin and child.