Greyhame Farm/ Memories

Exuberant growth goes hand in hand with a secret existence, evidenced occasionally by the circling of vultures overhead, the whitening bones of a recent kill below and the occasional sighting of the berry-spotted poo of the bears.  Life has to be quick here with a years growth taking place in a shortened season.  On the high meadows the grass grows hand in hand with a variety of herbs, orchids and other flowers.  Cattle, young and old, roam as freely as the dominant bulls will allow, with their bells ringing next to the herds of horses who keep to separate pastures with their own bells and foals.  Species live both separately and together with bees and wasps drinking from separate ponds, but fertilising the same flowers.  In the green leaves and the limestone caves hide the midnight predators who themselves become the hunted as the days shorten and Autumn takes the leaves from the trees to provide a bed for the animals, a home for the ants and nutrients for next year´s explosive growth.  The people of the hills come to enjoy the land of their parents at weekends.  Their fields get smaller as the uncontrolled growth shows trees creeping back onto the ancient pastureland.  In Asturias, nature seems to be in the ascendancy, belying the ecological woes that the leaders of the world ignore. - words by Willie Giles