Greetings from Mykanos.
No I haven’t forgotten you and I hope you haven’t forgotten me. It has been a while however. I have been meaning to write for some time but must admit that we have been slightly distracted by travel and projects.
The travel included time in Madrid and London and some bits of the English Bush for Adriano and me. In London we saw exhibitions of Georgia O’Keefe, David Hockney and The Abstract Expressionists … along with the permanent collections of course.
Straight after getting back to Bogotá I flew to Indonesia (33 hours) to work for the world renowned Emmo Italiaander. While I was there, Adriano was in Bilbao taking in the giant Francis Bacon exhibition at the Guggenheim. He probably spent 33 hours at the Bacon as well, before doing Renoir at the Prado in Madrid.
Needless to say our bags on the return journey from Europe were very heavy, as we were toting a stack of completed sketchbooks, art materials and exhibition monographs. Oh, and a couple of kilos of Tilda Basmati rice.
In kitchen with pussies
The projects included the ongoing development of my book, now entitled ‘Passion, Pleasure and Peril: Learning to grow coffee, and live, in Colombia’. Catchy eh? I am on the third version of it at the moment and it is taking up a lot of my time and energy. At the same time, Adriano is overseeing the construction of his new studio here at Mykanos. It will be great, with lots of natural light, views across the fishponds to the greenery and mountains beyond, and with a big new Gin & Tonic terrace forming its roof.
And of course we are having the annual Cosecha or harvest, but fortunately Horacio has been looking after that. It is the first time that we have not been here for the start of it and that was deliberate as Adriano wants to delegate more and concentrate more on his art. Counting coffee beans is one way to spend your time but it is not a life. Thankfully, as Jack who monitors commodity prices could tell you, the coffee price is up and we are making some money. Gracias a Dios! With the building and travel however we are also spending it, but we figure it is more important to spend it on ourselves and what drives us rather than amassing it in a bank to leave to children we do not have.
In London we were pleased to spend some quality time with our very great friend Father Reg, former vicar of St Stephens Gloucester Road. Yes, it is true, Father Reg has retired. It was very moving to attend his last Mass. He has been our rock-like support and infinitely generous host in London for very many years and we managed to enjoy a good few meals in the final month of his term. In fact we celebrated his birthday and our 31stanniversary at the River Café on the 4th of October. I had been there twice before. Once when it was the staff canteen for the Richard (now Lord) Rogers architectural practice, with creative collaborator John Wyatt, and signed the petition requesting it be allowed to open for dinner at night. (They still have to get everyone out by 1100 pm so as not to annoy the neighbours.) Second time was with brother Chris and sister-in-law Penny.
This time, considering its renown, I idly wondered if there might be any celebrities dining. Both Adriano and Father Reg said they couldn’t care less and were just hoping for some good food. The food was good, as was the service, a perfect blend of friendly but respectful attentiveness without intrusion. I had the last laugh however. One table over, there seemed to be some familiar faces, and sure enough at one large table was Barry Humphries and wife Lizzy Spender, Michael Caine and wife Chakira, and a bald man with a blonde wife who turned out to be Rupert Murdoch and his wife Jerry Hall. Well, if you are going to have celebrities they might as well be A list. Reg had his back to them and was very pleased not to have to look at Rupert. Adriano kept an eye out however and noted that the bill for the table of 10 (there were two other couples we did not recognise) was paid by card by Jerry Hall. Rupert is lucky to have a rich wife.
Back here the place is looking ever more beautiful. Adriano is busy getting the huertas (vegetable gardens) up and running, getting rid of the old stuff that over matured whilst we were away and planting new. The extended gardens are settling in and newly sown grass is gradually covering the exposed earth that was turned up as the land was re-contoured. The goose family tromp across to every corner of it, from pond to pond, up and down, wherever Father Goose leads them. There are no internal fences, save those protecting the huertas from would-be nibblers, so the geese and the ducks are having a lovely time.
Adriano and huertas
This however has caused a problem. Checho the Rottweiler Doberman cross is very territorial. As long as the different areas of the gardens (home, animals, vegetables) were separated by fences, there was no problem. Now however, it is all one and Checho has turned homicidal. It is like an episode of ID (Investigation Discovery) the cable channel, which features dramatised real life stories of murder and mayhem in segments entitled ‘Wives With Knives’ and ‘Assassin in the Family’ and ‘Deadly Women’ and the like.
You might remember when Checho had a go at Father Goose a while back, and our worker Alvaro stitched Father Goose’s wound back together. This time Checho killed Mother Goose. What a headline that would be! It seems the only animals safe from attack are the pussies, Pispirispis and Mafeluchis. He obviously knows either that they are too tough for him or that they are inviolate. He learned that from Torsalino who always kept him in line.
So sadly, Checho has departed for Rancho Grande, where he keeps Shakira company.
In the meantime we had a flying visit by Ophelia and Ben. Ophelia is an Aussie from Sydney (and Walcha) we have known all her life, and her beau Ben, is a boating Brit from Nice. They hired a car in Medellin and drove to Cali, dropping in and spending two nights with us on the way. They are the first people I know who have hired a car and driven through the Colombian countryside since Adriano and I did it in 1990. A great couple and it was good to get to know Ophelia as an independent adult rather just an adjunct to a family we hold very dear.
Ophelia Ben and us
By the way, we were in London when the plebiscite about accepting the proposed peace deal with the FARC guerrillas happened in Colombia
If we were here, Adriano would have voted ‘no’. We felt that the FARC were getting away with murder, literally, and were getting too many concessions. Their leaders were going to get five positions in each of the two legislative chambers, for two presidential terms (total 8 years) without standing for election, and they could keep their fortune for kidnapping, extortion and drug smuggling and cultivation. Timoshenko, the leader, boasted that he would not spend one night behind bars.
There are a lot of completely innocent people and their families who have suffered horrendously at the hands of the guerrillas and very many Colombians thought that such leniency and triumphalism obscene. And they voted no. However almost as many voted yes, and overwhelmingly they lived in the areas most affected, the areas in which the FARC had been most active. They wanted an end to the horror that had bedevilled them for so long.
Were we right in seeking some form of punishment for decades of criminality and terror, or should we have better appreciated the concerns of those in the front line who regularly lost loved ones?
It is something we can discuss over a G&T in the hammocks.
President Santos made the mistake that David Cameron in the UK made by trying to threaten the nation with disaster if they voted the wrong way. Vote for peace, he said, or you vote for war. For us it wasn’t a vote for war, it was a vote for peace but not at any price.
Adriano, who abhors Santos getting the Nobel, now thinks it might just have been what was necessary to get a better deal. Pressure was off to win it, the world was watching, and the deal was fine tuned to better represent the feelings of ordinary Colombians. Ex-President Uribe, who lead the ‘no’ campaign was invited to take part in the negotiations and many of the original terms were modified.
It was ratified by congress today, and by the senate yesterday, so let’s hope it delivers what so many of us want … a new era of realised hopes and aspirations.
As for us, we are looking to enjoy a new era as well … one in which coffee still sits at the centre of our lives but more as an enabler than as a preoccupation, a means by which we can paint and write more, and which enables us to seek new inspiration in places both familiar and foreign. And enjoy good food and the odd glass of Single Malt.
Cheers … or as we say here … Salud, Dinero y Amor.
Love from him and me
Barry
