I went to a synagogue but love was not there
I walked to a temple no better to fare
I came to a church bolted and locked
Without a hijab the mosque was blocked
I sought out the lodge but again I could see
That this would not be a good place for me
I spotted a coven in circle at midnight
I could not indulge in their secret rite
So onwards I wearily searched all the land
And hunted through books I held in my hand
I looked at the ancient philosophies
And followed the music I heard on a breeze
I listened to speakers who cried out to warn
That this world would end if love we did scorn
Yet nobody mentioned where love might be found
So I entered the abbey where the Queen was crowned
And breathing the incense I wandered around
A movement, a glimpse and a scurrying sound
Caused me to startle and look to the ground
There at my feet was a whimpering pup
His eyes were so pleading as he gazed up
I found him some water, I gave him a kiss
And in that precious moment I understood bliss
Deep in my centre I felt us connect
As out to the sunlight we jointly trekked
I became us and me became we
And love was between us invisibly.
Rasta was born in 1997, was always a great passenger, always keen to go to new places and always cared for me. I miss him every day since he died of old age back in 2012. This photo was taken just before we embarked on our journey around France & Spain in 2004. I would never have traveled so confidently without him. He attracted a lot of attention everywhere we went. Not only was he a very good looking Groenendael dog but he was never on a lead. He learned Spanish commands, too, from new friends and my students.
He would howl down the mountain if I was more than an hour late returning from teaching in the village, at my English evening school and the whole village adored him.
He worked with me in so many different ways throughout his life and when I was a Dog Warden he was indispensable. I was once offered to name my price by Essex police after they saw him in action. Needless to say I just laughed and said "On ya go....try to take him.... this should be fun!"
Rasta was so loving towards everybody but, like all dogs, he was quick to spot a wrongun! If he did not trust someone he would position himself between me and that person and silently snarl. On more than one occasion I was told that he was snarling but as soon as I tried to look he would straighten his face but flick his eyes so that I got his warning very clearly. The only time I saw it was as a reflection in a shop window and it shocked me that he could look so fierce!
Otherwise he was a totally magnanimous character. He made friends very easily with other dogs and one stray we picked up became his best mate. As a Dog Warden, I had to take all strays to the kennels and if they were there too long, condemn them to be euthanised. This was something that I was not prepared to do, so I would advertise them in the local paper, vets and pet shops until I found them new homes.
Ben was a German Shepherd, Staffie cross and did not trust humans at all. He was the only dog I could not place in a home so I would take him out of the kennel to play with Rasta for a short while whenever we were there.
They mostly play fought.... it would look really fierce but I realised that they were sparring and improving their skills. Eventually I signed him out, paid his costs and he came home with us.
He had never seen a toilet flush, never lived in a house and had a lot to learn. Rasta showed him all his manners very quickly and they became a superb team.
On Rasta's 3rd birthday we popped into a local pet store to place fresh advertisements in their window and he was attracted to a kitten who was for sale there. This fiesty ball of fluff was trying to attack him through the cage and he was enchanted. He then did a very odd thing. He came over to me and touched my purse with his nose. The shopkeeper laughed and said "I think he wants you to buy the kitten this time, not a bone!"
So I bought him Pearlie for his birthday and she was HIS cat, not mine. She became an essential member of our team and, though everyone said that cats do not travel, she adapted to living in the van effortlessly when we sold up and took to the road.
We finally settled in Spain, after more than a year of searching and traveling. We chose an abandoned fruit farm in the Sierra de Gredos, Extremadura.
It is a large "communidad" (like county) in central Spain. It means extremely hard and it is in many ways. The terrain is very mountainous, full of pure white granite and fertile black soil but the temperatures soar to over 50 degrees centigrade in August and plummet to minus 10 at night in winter. It is famous for producing tough people who were recruited to join Columbus on his sea voyages and also for being the place that old Roman generals liked to retire to for recuperation.
The plains below the mountain range are dry and hot with treacherous winds. We also had some spectacular thunder storms which would spate the rivers so much so that the granite boulders could be heard rumbling along in the water.
Rasta once ran at least a mile along the river bank when his cat Pearlie fell in and was swept away. He must have found her because by the time I found them they were strolling back soaked but safe.
It truly is "extrema dura" on the Sierra de Gredos and on Almanzor in particular. Almanzor is over 3,500 ft high and the name means "big soul". Before the Romans invaded Almanzor was entirely covered in a Celtic city and my own small fruit farm was littered with the remains of their homes. Further up the mountain I found old fish keeps and the ruins of thousands of miles of terracing.
I bought a fruit farm and, of course, we had to have a flock of chickens to control the insect population. Then we acquired Soldato, a retired goat-herding horse, who kept the grass down and led the whole family on lengthy explorations on the mountainside!
This was our team and Pearlie became the Queen of us all. She was quite feral and a superb hunter who turned her nose up to prepared food.
There are endless stories of our adventures..... but that will wait for another day.