I have just been for a Christmas Day walk with Aitana and Morris and will shortly go up to Finestrat for Christmas lunch with friends. Thanks to all readers of this blog and to those of you who were also readers of the Brother Lapin blog which preceded it.
It is five years ago that I bought Rubí and Matilde and just over four years ago that they gave birth to their foals Morris and Aitana. All the early times – with photos and videos – are recorded on the old Brother Lapin blog which still exists as a record, but is now replaced by this blog.
It was on the old blog that Rubí began writing her Tuesday blog posts Her ventures into theology, astronomy and climate change are quite remarkable. Here is Rubí’s Tuesday blog from June this year, when she decided to write about the new encyclical on climate change from Pope Francis.
And in these cooler shorter days of winter, it is good to recall the long hot lazy days of July. The video I posted on the old blog “La Vida es Bella” really captures the simplicity – and the hard work involved – of life here in this field withfour donkeys. Have an enjoyable Christmas and a happy New Year.
Update 26 December
The blogpost for Monday 28 December will be a reflection on the role of the donkey in the mediaeval Feast of Fools. Meanwhile, here is something festive and very silly…
Equus Asinus 
Happy Christmas to you too, Gareth, and to the Donks. You are lucky to have such lovely weather for a walk, it’s peeing down here! All the best for a good year. Looking forward to reading the full donkey story. Mags xx
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Happy Christmas, Maggie. I just returned from Christmas dinner in Finestrat, so I did my second walk for the day, after leaving my car in the village following enormous lunch with friends, and champagne, wine and brandy… Yes, the weather here is lovely. Sunny and warm in the day but gets a bit chilly at night. Donkey story will be a good one. It has been a long while in germination. xx
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Merry Christmas to you and the donks. Oh, a picture of the four of them in their Santa hats came up on Facebook the other day. From a group called “For the Love of Donkeys.” I thought, “I know those donkeys!”
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Happy Christmas, Mary. I just looked at the “For the love of donkeys” Facebook picture and it is last year’s Santa hats photo. This year the girls all have pigtails on their new Santa hats!
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A happy Christmas to you, Gareth – and best wishes for the new year.
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Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year!
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Thank you, Luisa and Jock, and a happy Christmas and New Year to you. Blog post for Holy Innocents 28th December will be an extended reflection on the role of the donkey as a centrepiece of the mediaeval Feast of Fools.
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Go back to one of the few remaining good writers at the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/12067459/Goats-and-monkeys-harps-and-donkeys-the-pride-of-Peterborough.html
And a happy new year to you and the donkeys!
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Indeed, Christopher Howse is probably the only remaining good writer on the Daily Telegraph,and even he – alas – cannot make up his mind whether it’s a “ciborium or baldacchino”.
The difference was explained to me in St Paul’s basilicia in Rome by the Benedictine monk who writes on liturgy, Daniel McCarthy OSB. The structure in Peterborough cathedral is rightly called a ciborium.
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