Life at the old homestead

UDATED FROM 2011!

Please refer my comments to the header photo.

This scene is somewhere beyond picturesque Ares with its medieval prison cell in front of the church and before the beautiful town of Cantavieja. It struck me because it presides over the landscape, ancient, in a time warp, untouched, and yet if you look closely, you can see the modern world encroaching on it piecemeal.

As piecemeal as the collection of buildings that would have been typically added to accommodate various family members and their spouses, some with caved in roofs (perhaps these members went to the cities to find jobs?), others with “make do” roofs for the animals, and others clearly still inhabited.

In the fields to the left cows graze contentedly, black, mottled, white, a hardy collection of mixed breeds. The fields are still divided by dry stone walls, and the whole ensemble imparts bucolic charm. Yet, if you look to the hill at the right you see the tops of wind farms rising over the brow. They look quite diminutive here, but  travel the road on and round the corner.  Here they dominate the landscape, a long line of gigantic windmills twirling away in the never ending expanse.

Now, look even closer and you will notice the electricity poles at the edge of the homestead’s fields. SO they have juice you think? No, they don’t, the poles and lines carefully skirt outside the edges of the fields, probably so that the Spanish electricity company does not have to pay rent for placement on private land.

At an average cost of 10,000 euros (2010) to connect to a nearby pylon, there would be no way this place could afford it. Note the lack of satellite dishes and antennae on the roofs. Note the aging pick-up truck. The world may be encroaching on it, but this place goes on just the same, in its own cocoon. Actually, a nice cocoon. For now…