A Day Of Rest.

                                        The church of our lady of Bethlehem in Jacarilla Spain

I have just returned from another glorious and restful two weeks in my Spanish home in Jacarilla. At a time when shops in England and Wales could be allowed to open for longer on Sundays, which will see us scurrying ever more frantically from workplace to shopping centre every waking hour, the gap between life in rural Spain and Britain could not be more disparate. 

In most villages across Spain, shops shut on Saturday afternoon and don't reopen until Monday. After siesta, church bells will peal, calling the community to mass and at around 10pm families will gather in restaurants and bars to eat and socialise together. On Sunday morning the church bells chime again for those who didn't attend Saturday evening mass and after church, dressed in their Sunday best, again, families will gather in large groups for a long and leisurely lunch. 

Sunday is a day of rest, a time to be with their families and to practice their faith. A deep quiet descends upon rural villages such as Jacarilla, everything apart from restaurants and bars are closed and the beauty of it is, that everyone is resting from work and routine collectively, a day of rest shared in the company of friends and family is an entirely different thing to 'having a day off' on ones own, a time when people can share a sense of unhurried peace and relaxation. 

We in Britain have lost the sense of gathering as invariably someone in our circle will be working on a Sunday. Gone are the days of my childhood when cities became ghost towns and families stayed at home to eat roast lunches and take afternoon naps before visiting relatives for tea. Consumerism, commercialisation, greed and globalisation have all but wiped out any 'day of rest' and as journalist Peter Hitchens succinctly expressed in a recent article: 'A world without a proper day of rest is like a landscape without hedgerows, trees or landmarks, a howling, featureless wilderness in which we incessantly seek pleasure because we cannot find happiness.'

                       A very good depiction of modern Britain where life is profit and toil.

Spanish eating customs and cuisine are as legendary as other much loved traditions such as religion, fiestas and other social gatherings which are all still held very dear by the people. Yet again on this visit I sampled various delicious meals in village restaurants ranging from peasant food to a more modern twist on dishes. One of my favourite meals was prawn carpaccio which I shall be preparing very soon.

Prawn carpaccio

Recipe

1.2 kg uncooked, fresh large prawns

Juice and thinly peeled rind of 1 lime

Cayenne pepper

Sea salt

Good quality, extra virgin olive oil

Slice prawns very thinly lengthways and arrange on a serving plate

Cut lime rind into julienne, scatter over prawns

Squeeze lime juice over prawns, sprinkle with sea salt and cayenne pepper

Drizzle with a little oil and serve

In many ancient cultures people didn't see their thoughts as belonging to them, for example, the ancient Greeks believed that if they had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave, Athena was telling them to fall in love. In our current society, people watch an advert or read the glossy magazines for the latest fads and rush out to buy, but we call this free will.

'I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest, to make money to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.'

-Emile Gauvreau.

Love Donna xxxxxxxx