Of life and pots and peacock plumes

This is really my second post of the day so when you get through reading this just move on down to the next one. It has more photos.

So… I have a two-for-one story. A couple of months ago we went on a tour with the base tour company (called ITT) and along the way the bus stopped at a roadside area where there were “famous” cave burial sites. Bob and I didn’t feel like walking up the steep hill so we stayed at the roadside area. After a bit we noticed a man in the doorway of a building next door who looked like he was making pottery. We walked over and started a limited conversation with him and sure enough, he was painting and decorating huge pieces of pottery, pots and vases, etc. He told us he had relatives in Philadelphia and that he made a living decorating these pots. So, of course, we had to buy one. After we paid him for the pot he asked us for a dollar---an American dollar—for a souvenir. We gladly gave it to him. It’s really a lovely vase painted brown with gold designs and trimmed in gold rope. It’s about two and a half to three feet tall and sits on our porch.

Same story, second part. Last fall Giuseppi bought what he thought was a female peacock (actually, peahen) to mate with his male peacock (redundant terms: male and peacock). Turns out he now has two beautiful peacocks with lovely tails. I’m assuming it’s molting time because he came over a few days ago with a bouquet of plumes and put them into our vase. They look great together, the brown and gold of the vase is a beautiful contrast for the iridescence of the peacock plumes. (By the way, the chickens aren't real)


When Mike and Chris were here they were amazed at the wonderful smell of orange blossoms that filled the land. Lately the smell we have is that of dead things. Something has been getting into our neighbor’s chickens and killing them, one or two at a time. His chickens have an area of relative safety but have the run of the yard and apparently have been in the yard when the whatever comes calling. In the States we would be furious, sitting out at night guarding the chickens or fortifying a chicken coop to make sure our chickens are safe. I have been interested in our neighbor’s reaction: one that seems to be an understanding of nature in this harsh land. Not so much resignation as knowledge that it is to be expected sometimes.

What an interesting people.