APAPS 21.11: Play Misty For Me

 

In last week´s blog, we were ruminating on the meaning of “the exception proves the rule,” a saying traced back to the speeches of the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero. It is strange for me to remember that, about 65 odd years ago, I had enough Latin to be able to read his speeches in that language, and maybe was able to understand quite a lot of it. Couldn´t do that now - no way.

Also strange to think that, if it hadn´t been for slavery (dare one mention the  topic these days?), his speeches would not have survived. This came about because one of his family´s slaves, a man called Marcus Tullius Tiro, wrote them down. Born a slave, Tiro was raised in the household of Marcus Tullius Cicero, father of the orator. Tiro’s master gave him his own first two names, as was a common practice then, and had him educated in Latin and Greek as well. Tiro assisted Cicero in his career as an orator by taking down his speeches in a special shorthand (Tironian notation) that he developed himself. Cicero often credited Tiro with the care and editing of his manuscripts. As part of the family, Tiro looked after Cicero’s children and associated with the friends of the orator on a regular basis.

 In May or June of 53 BC Tiro was freed by Cicero, but that did not end his association with the orator. Quintus, the orator’s brother, praised Cicero’s decision to free Tiro, a man to be valued for “his literary talents, charming conversation, and wealth of knowledge.” After Cicero’s death in 43 BC, Tiro published volumes of Cicero’s letters to his friends and family. Tiro himself wrote a biography of Cicero, but the work has not survived. Once freed, Tiro was successful enough to be able to retire to his own country estate where he died at the age of 99.

The Daily Telegraph recently had an article about another freed slave who prospered in later life. He was called Marcus Virgilius Eurysaces who was a baker and who had became very rich after being freed, so rich that he had the privilege of being able to build himself a tomb 33 feet high within the walls of the city Rome. The top of the tomb has relief carvings showing grain grinding, flour sifting, kneading of dough, baking of loaves and their distribution for sale. It seems that Eurysaces had a wry sense of humour too because the tomb has an inscription to his wife which translates as

“Atista was my wife; a most excellent lady in life; the surviving remains of her body are in this breadbasket.”

And now to our walk on Wednesday. We who live in the Silves area don´t always recognise the difficulty faced by those who live in the far west have when driving eastwards to these early morning starts. Usually it is one of being blinded by the rising sun. Today it was one of thick mist at dawn. Anyway, they made it and the mist prompted some atmospheric photography.

We were joined by Chris and Rachel Davis, from Kenya, coincidently acquaintances of old of Maurice and Esmé Clyde, currently spending some time in their Figuerinha home. Rod turned up without his accustomed Tilley but was able to fit comfortably inside one of JohnH´s spares, size 7 5/8 or 61 centimetres for the cranial cognoscenti. The start of the walk was delayed as people fussed and cooed over the new star of the show, kitten Figaro

but eventually the Starter Photo could be taken.

         The men: JohnH, ChrisD, Rod, Paul, Yves. The women: Myriam, Rachel, Maria, Hazel.

The track we followed was well-known to most of us although the scenery at the start was new, all the oranges having been cleared and replaced by newly planted avocados and increasingly intrusive fencing.

We did a bit of cross-country scrambling. Or off-piste as some people like to call it, emerging on an old donkey caminho still recognised in Google Maps as a right of way.

Then we came a cross a stretch of agricultural land which just last year had been a thriving strawberry and vegetable undertaking,

Last year

 but is now sadly neglected. Why? Perhaps the grant money has now all been spent on fancy cars.

Some good looking peppers were to be seen but will they be harvested?

Photographer at work

The results

We then came across a huge heap of black cannonballs which turned out to be abandoned melons. 

A strange effort to gather them and then just abandon them.

At the near-by farmstead, some hunting dogs provided us with enthusiastic applause as we passed.

Yves managed to get in one of his usual artistic shots of everyday miscellanea.

We passed some workmen laying the foundations of a wall. Myriam suggested they needed a beer because of the heat; the answer was “No. We need whisky.”

Then it was back to Casa E which we reached after just over two hours at about 9 45 am.

The Track and the Statistics.

(Ignore the finishing time of 10.38 am and total time of 2 hrs 59 mins . I forgot to switch my gizmo off until an hour later).

We were joined for breakfast by Chris and Antje, the latter sporting a fresh array of bandages covering up goodness knows how many stitches.

Hazel then served up a spicy lentil soup plus garlic breads, mini-sausage rolls, teas and coffees,  and seed bread with a variety of jams, preserves and marmalades.

ChrisD is dubious about the extra chillies

Hazel´s charity collection raised Euros 120. Thanks to the donors, and thanks to Maria and Rachel who assisted with the table service.

Now to solve last weeks quiz:

You were asked what the connection was between those four pictures.

The answer is:

i.e. Maldives and Malé, Belize and Belmopan (never heard of that one but it does exist), Taiwan and Taipei, and Algeria and Algiers.

As usual Paul and Myriam got the answer, Paul even contributing a fifth connection of his own: "zil and silia".

This week´s quiz is:

What completes the fourth box in this sequence?

For closing music, I could have chosen the song Misty - tune by Errol Garner - which includes the line “I´m as helpless as a kitten up a tree”  - but just in case Figaro gets ideas, I will instead offer A Foggy Day in London Town in a short but sweet version by Tony Bennett.