I had a non-news day today. Laetare Sunday, the 4th Sunday in Lent is traditionally “Take a break Sunday!” when people following some kind of Lent discipline would have a relaxation of the rules: maybe a nice lunch with a bottle of wine. In some traditions the priest wears rose-coloured vestments at Mass instead of … More Oh no! Morris tramples the Spanish flag
Hello and welcome to the blog: this is the end of the first week of Covid-19 coronavirus lock-down in Spain. And if you are still bothered, it is the end of the Third Week in Lent; so hands off those cream cakes! Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday, the day when there is traditionally a relaxation of … More Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 5
I want to start off the blog with some simple practical points today, so that those who may find the information useful get it straight away. Others with a more leisurely approach, in these times of lock-down might read the less urgent and more general ramblings, or nobody might read them. But no worries: it … More Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 4
Aitana donkey begins her new role as the fashion correspondent for the blog. After Rubí made a rood comment in her Tuesday blog, Aitana rose to the challenge and asked the Peasant if she could write a trial article for the blog. (See her comments under Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 3). I agreed. … More Coronavirus Spring Holiday Fashion Supplement
We are now in the fourth day since the lock down was announced by Pedro Sánchez on 14 March, the Estado de Alarma, similar to a “state of emergency” but a lower degree within the Constitución. I had intended to shortly publish today’s blog post but I am going to reserve today’s piece – including … More Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 3
Hello, I’m Rubí and this is my Rubí Tuesday blog, because I writs it on Tuesdays mostly but sometimes mostly not, according to whim. I do the writting but not the reading, and Morris donkey does the reading, as he doesn’t do writting at all. Spain announces a State of Pandemonium The first thing you … More How to Disinfect your Peasant
In the opening of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year[1] he sets the scene in London in 1665 “in Long Acre, or rather at the upper end of Drury Lane,” and it is striking how he focuses on the discourse of local people as they gradually learn about the first two deaths of … More Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 2
The blog title is offered with apologies to Daniel Defoe, whose novel A Journal of the Plague Year recorded the narrator’s experiences of the great bubonic plague of 1665 in London, with an important sub-theme dealing with God and religion. I will return to Defoe’s novel later. Every year that I try to follow some … More Journal of the Virus Year: Chapter 1
The Peasant seems to be well into his Lent, which is all very well but we have to suffer his Taizé chants while he is sweeping out the stable and his voice is not so tuneful these days. Is he going tone deaf? I’ve no idea why the Peasant thinks the readers of this blog … More First Rubí Tuesday in Lent
Jacobo the farrier came here to El Parral yesterday to trim the donkeys’ hooves. The date was his choice but it seemed to be a fitting start to a Lent retreat: new hooves on Shrove Tuesday, like a moment of donkey confession. “I confess, farrier, that it is six months since I, Brother Morris had … More New hooves for Lent
