Chestnuts and wood smoke.

The season of Autumn is one that aptly suits a dog such as I.  It is slow to arrive but when in full force it can be magnificent.  Dazzling blue skies providing the contrast for the kaleidoscope of leafy colours.  The high mountains here are dressed with the first fall of snow, as has happened this week, and the streams in the hidden valleys fill with babbling fresh water.  Here in the Alpujarras it is also 'Bottoms in the Air' season; a strange annual custom that never fails.  Along the footpaths and sides of the road you can clearly see locals and visitors alike bent over with their rear quarters in the air.  One of the emblematic tress of the region are its magnificent chestnuts, from which many of the houses are constructed.  At this time of the year they drop their bounty of sweet chestnuts, wrapped in prickly husks.  It is these that the tall ones are searching for on the woodland floor, sweet chestnuts.  Hands foraging amongst newly fallen leaves, bottoms proudly in the air.  Once gathered, they are conveyed to open fire or stove to roast, burn and throw out onto the ground once more.  The art of roasting and peeling a chestnut is s tricky one, but it is reason enough for many Spanish families to come up to the mountains at this most favoured time of year.

I'm not keen of chestnuts.  It's not their flavour but the feel of them that I detest.  If you see the world from my point of view you will understand.  Imagine the floor of a narrow footpath strewn ten centimetres deep with sharp needle covered chestnut husks.  Then imagine your legs are only fifteen centimetres long and that parts of your body barely clear the ground when you walk.  Would you choose to delight in the Autumn spectacle of a chestnut wood and enjoy walking under its ancient bows as you pick your way through a million intrusive sharp points?

One of the prettier sights of Autumn are the wild crocus (crocus nudiflorus) that cover the mountainside at an altitude of about 2000 metres.  The spring ones largely seem to be whiter whilst the Autumn ones appear in delightful lilac.

All things considered, though, Autumn is very agreeable to a dachshund, most of all because in the months to come he can enjoy the prospect of the fire being lit and the hearth rug rolled out.


Yours, dreaming of wood smoke,


Fergus