Saturday was somewhat a very special day for me, that mixture of happy - sad feeling, that comes with a glimpse of a smile, while the eyes reflected the soul and just couldn't hide the emptyness within.
I decided to drive from my village down towards the ocean, breathing fresh air, with just slightly opened window of my car, listening to Van Morrison's Moondance and ..Have I told you lately...
The winter months are beautiful here on the island. That is the only time we get some rain,the only time when everything is green and almond trees are in full blossom. Strawberry season is just starting and my Village is famous for growing them. They actualy taste and smell like real strawberries not the fake-plastic-like-no-smell-ones you bye in big cities.
People here love horses...one of the rare things that connect this island to Peninsula, how they call mother Spain. They often ride them on weekends on our narrow, curvy roads...this all adds up to the "sounds of my island", something I never heard before in my life, being an urban-fast-lane-lady. Here you wake up with the sounds of *ding, ding, ding* coming from sheep who roam freely in the valleys, at night my "howly-owly" comes to her favorite spot on the tree facing my bedroom window and greets me. Locals here, believe they bring luck...and oh, boy, was I freakin out until I got used to all this...it took some time...but eventualy I got used to it.
Its hard to get used to the silence, coming from urban, noisy cities, too far from the country side..you long for it...then you experience it and it takes a while to get used to it, it keeps you awake at night at first, maybe because one just doesn't believe in existance of such places. Taking a walk, just behind our urbanization, the sceenery is unbelievable...there is a huge pond, which they use for watering their near-by fields, my suprise was, that, one day sitting and staring at the still surface of the clear water...I actually saw carps...but huge ones. I asked my neighbour who owned the pond, if he knew he had big carps in his pond, he said : "Sure, whats the use of having sweet water for watering the fields if you don't have carps in it".....huh...I said: "Oh, sure, now why didn't I think of this ...????" He clearly saw my surprised look...so he sat next to me on the grass and said: "Wait...".......so we sat for some time in silence and *waited*...I couldn't help thinking *now what the hell are we waiting for*....but soon there was another surprise...two rabbits chasing and playing just infront of us....he said "See....shhhhhh"....sure I was *shhhhh* I couldn't believe my eyes....the rabbits ran off as soon as some sheep were heard approaching the valley...oh and not to mention a couple or, rather BIG lizards that were injoying the sun while *tanning* themselves on the near by rocks. He then told me a story which helped me understand this island and the people. /This was some 8 years ago, when my family and I just moved to the Canarys/....so he told me...:"I can see you are a new-comer, must be from a big urban city, well Señora, things here are different, life here is different. See , there, thats my house. Whenever you feel like, just drop in for a Cubata or some good wine and our local cheese and olives. I own some land here, and I grow potatoes, oranges, olives, watercress....I have my own sheep, 3 horses, and a number of chicken. I even have a donkey...but he's more like a pet...my grandkinds love him, ofcours, not to mention a couple of dogs and God knows how many cats. I've seen you come here and watched you from my house. I knew, you are trying to get accustomed to your new life-style, so, when you said your *Buenas Dias*, today, and asked if I knew I had carps in my pond, I decided to join you and tell you about our life here on the island and some of our customs. Come, now we go to the house and you meet my family and we have some wine, cheese, and you feel much better."
So I went to his house, met the family, had some wine, cheese, olives, local sausages and watercress salad.......since that day, every weekend I had a large basket waiting for me at my doorstep with fresh eggs, home-made cheese, potaoes, other vegetable, fruit....and many times, I was even given chicken /you guys don't even know how REAL chiknen tastes/ ...oh and sure, we ate a couple of carps that were sooo good, and brought sweet memories of ol' Contintent- Europe.
So driving and listening to Van Morrison, injoying the clear bule sky and colourful sceenery, all those thoughts came back to me in flashes...I remembered when we first moved to this island, I remembered the silence...my neighbour...I remember the good times and the bad times....then I saw this crossing ahead of me...which I knew was a short cut to one of my dear friends. I took the short cut which led me down to a *barranco - Spanish* , *wadi - Arabic*, *canyon - English*, ...the whole island is cut with those canyons, where once, some hundreds years ago, lava used to flow...after all,this is a volcanic island, oh and just imagine, last winter, after some real heavy rains which lasted for a week / a very rare thing to happen , here/ there was a little stream formed in the *barranco* and the local school took all the kids for excursion to SEE THAT???? Can you believe this...oh, well.....
My short cut lead me thru the *barranco* then klimbing to the oder side of the valley and into the mountains, very narrow road...but no traffic. I could see the hacienda of my dear friend, placed on a small hill, with the most wonderful view of the hills and valleys reaching the ocean....
My dear friend Francisco, born Canarian, owned a posh and stily restaurant in London for many years, then one day...out of the blue, decided to come back to his native island, redecorate his grandmother's hacienda, in such perfection /that even I was amazed/ , hah, with a gran terrase under the wine leaves...l'courbisie chairs, fancy tables ...a huge bar, facing the swimming pool, which was surrounded with all exotic plants, palms and bushes of bamboo....the house consists of various rooms, all decorated in a different style : Arabic room, Indian room, Ol' Europe room....just plain fabulous.....
It is not a public place, you may call and make a reservation for a lunch, dinner or *a-day-out*...you will be asked who recommended this place to you, what would you like to eat, how many people were coming with you....and with some luck...you'll manage to get a date in a moth or two...depending...LOL
Well, being a close friend of Francisco's, I have this advantage of just dropping in out of the blue...after all he is gay and I am his best girlfriend and he my best gayfriend...we go a long way back....some 25 years of true friendship, we know everything about each others lives, and we admire each other....a friend I can talk to, a friend I can sit in silence with, a friend I can cook with /which I find highly honourable from his side/ and a friend who knows to distinguish the happy smile and the sad look in my eyes...immediately.
I walked up to the terrase.....empty, no people, yet,...maybe just too early...and gave one of my recognizable shouts: "FRANCISCOOOOOO" 
"Hey, Lady /just his style of talking/, I missed you, how was Milano???" ......but then his broad smile changed into a worried look...seeing my * mixed-feeling-face* , he put his arm around my shoulder and walked me to the terrase...
"So, what's up, Lady?"
"Oh, just shut up, Francisco, and I missed you too! " , was the only thing I could answer.
"OK......so, what are we having....ummmm? " ....he said with all the patience in this world that you can think of.
" Just bring us a couple of martinis..."
He gave me a surprised look in silence, I rarely drink martini....so....the two of us know each other so well, no need to explain, no need for questions...we just understand each other..
The martinis came, he sat next to me, and we took our glasses. I looked at him over my glass of martini, smiling slightly, feeling slowly the tears gather in my eyes, but, yet, smiling, I said:
" I need to wish someone a happy birthday, today. "
So, we *chin-chin* our glasses, we both say "happy birthday"...a tear slides down my cheek, while I gaze from the top of this hill to the ocean and even somewhere accross the ocean towards that horizon....what a place with a view.....what is beyond that horizon, I always wondered.
Francisco and I, together made a fruit cake....he made me laugh while throwing flour at me...we were like two kids making nonsense in the kitchen. From martini it was back to my Shandy...back to never ending talk about my life, of my recent trip to Milano visiting my daughter, to placing 45 candles on the cake, carrying it out to the terrase, which now was illuminated by side torches and glowed in the dark stary night over the Canarys......
I blew the candles and made a wish.
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