Nursie, Pep, the Scythe and Ibiza.

Remember Nursie's brother in Blackadder? He had a clever idea and lost his foot - it was to cut his toenails with a scythe!

Here in San Jose I'm pleased to announce that that particular idea has never crossed our neighbour Pep's mind. He still uses his scythe to cut grass for his goats (one of which is imminently expecting goatlets) in the fields at the back of our house.

First he has to make sure it's nice and sharp


and then using a smooth swinging action he carefully avoids chopping his feet off!

Not bad for a bloke of 93! He tells me his father bought the finca and all the land - thousands and thousands of square metres - before the civil war for about 50 duros!!

Footnote - a duro is the nickname for the old 5 peseta piece. It is so called because during Franco's rule peasants who had laboured long and hard in the fields would earn 5 pesetas. As it was 'hard work' (trabajo duro) to earn the pittance it was nicknamed a duro - hard.