SMELL THE JASMINE ummmm…strange things

often happen or are seen…..

like, have you ever seen a ferret having a bath? Or, on a lead going for its morning walk? Or a rabbit enjoying its lunch while sitting ON a cafe table?

Passing by a neighbours house one morning, their teenage daughter was testing the water in a baby’s bath, towel at the ready – to bath her ferret!  Tenderly lowered  her pet into the water, bit of shampoo, gentling rubbing and rinsing….it loved it…wrapped him up in a soft towel and patted dry. No problem…quite normal goings on I suppose!

And the ferret out for its morning walk? Well, this was along the promenade in Malaga. Car pulled up, young woman got out, put a lead on what I thought was a small dog or even a cat  – no, it was a ferret quite at home and at ease. She sat down on the grass, put some bits of whatever down, ferret ate and enjoyed them and off they went for their morning walk.  Years ago, when my son was in his teens, I had one of his mates in love with me and one Saturday morning a knock came on the back door and there he stood with a silly look on his face. He has come to show me, he said, his very best and favourite possession and out of his pockets came………his father’s ferrets!

And the lunching rabbit? Well it was here in the village, in the main square. There I was  having a coffee and on turning round, there was the rabbit sitting on the next table enjoying  his lunch of salad, completely at ease in the sunshine and basking in all the attention.

One sight I wanted to see was the goats in the branches of the Argan trees in the Essouria district of Morocco. These trees are Morocco’s answer to the Spanish Olive Tree and apparently goats love them.  Argan oil is VERY expensive but lovely – it is ground down from thre nuts of the Argan tree by Berber women working for Co-opertatives.  Lovely on salads,it has a peanutty taste and it is equally lovely when turned into body creams and if they put orange blossom into it, it is so nice as a massage oil.

A ‘magical’ sight…as least I think so, is the traffic on the Malaga motorways early in a morning.  At least three or maybe four, lanes of traffic, all going foreward, leaving and joining , sliding lane to lane, silently like ballet dancers – it is a silent, smooth and graceful ballet being played out in front of you, changing ‘steps and partners’ as we all move forward. My other half thinks I am mad – something he often thinks! But to me it is a very graceful start to the morning – the pace and dramatics change though as the day progresses!!.