North African Hedgehog at So Na Caçana.

The North African hedgehog (Atelerix algirus) or Algerian hedgehog, is a species of mammal  in the family Erinaceidae.
It is found in Most of Northern African countries, South of France and the Balearics.
Very little is actually known about the preferred habitat of the North African hedgehog. It has been found in Mediterranean conifer and mixed forest climates as are present in southern mountainous. It is very common in the island although hundreds of them are killed every year by passing cars.

 Hedgehogs are insectivores but tend to live on an omnivorous diet. They feed on all sorts of little animals, such as earthworms, snails, beetles, caterpillars and carrion. To a lesser extent, they also eat plant matter, including fruits.

North African hedgehogs are generalist omnivores. They forage at night for arthropods, small vertebrates, carrion, fungi, and other available foods.Hedgehogs are insectivores but tend to live on an omnivorous diet. They feed on all sorts of little animals, such as earthworms, snails, beetles, caterpillars and carrion. To a lesser extent, they also eat plant matter, including fruits.

San Clemente

San Clemente, or Sant Climent as we call it in menorquin is a traditional village Close to Mahón.

A group of farms and country houses have been located here since the very old times. In fact most of the farms in the area have names of Arab origin so probably they were already here 800 years ago.

The current church, built in 1889, replaced an earlier one, from the 17th century, and occupies a centralizing place in the village center.

End of Season 2019.

It's been a long 184 days season. May 1st. when we opened seems ages ago.

Now it's time for a deserved rest for all the staff. We've been to TAPS CAN AVELINO for a meal and get together, and this is how the harbour was after that. So Quiet.

Sa Torre Vella - The Old Tower.

I have always liked the old country houses of Menorca.
 
Built hundreds of years ago using the poor resources offered by the agricultural environment on the island. Many times the main element of its architecture is limestone rudimentary extracted from the rock of the soil. They saw times of good harvest and many others of misery and suffering, as can be deduced from the defensive elements that can be seen in some of them.

Photographed "Sa Torre Vella" in Alayor in 1987. It was still active but a holding that housed the old tower had deteriorated so much over the years that could barely be intuited and during the years that followed fell, like so many other farms of Menorca in the abandonment
 
Today, the Fontanille Group has restored the old houses and turned them into a select hotel away from the mundane noise where the charm of the old rural architecture can still be appreciated. Hundreds of years later.

Creu d'es Tres Termes.

In Menorca there are still some crosses that mark some fact or location and that are erected in old country roads. The oldest are from the middle ages and some of them are exhibited in local museums as they have been removed from the roads to prevent deterioration.

The cross in the photograph is not one of the oldest, but it is certainly more than a hundred years old. It is at the exact point that marks the divisions of the lands of the term of Mahon, Es Castell and Sant Lluis.

Wayside crosses are especially common in Roman Catholic regions. Most of them were erected in previous centuries by the local population as a sign of their faith. Several of them were put up at places where an accident or a crime took places. The custom of placing an "accident cross" at spots on the roadside where people have been killed has, meanwhile, spread worldwide. Many wayside crosses, however, simply act as waymarks to indicate difficult or dangerous spots or to mark intersections. On walking maps, wayside crosses and shrine are displayed in order to aid orientation. On many crosses there is an inscription which may indicate why the cross was erected and by whom.

Deciamos ayer ... (As we were saying yesterday ...)

"As we were saying yesterday ..." is a phrase widely used in the Spanish language to refer to something that is retaken, after a time of silence.

Let me start by thanking all the people who have encouraged me to resume this blog that I have had a little forgotten in the facts but not in the thought and that I will try to keep updated.
 
The story of that phrase takes us to Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, philosopher and later rector at the University of Salamanca. A sensible and clear-minded man. 

Unamuno was removed from his two university chairs by the dictator General Primo de Rivera in 1924, over the protests of other Spanish intellectuals. As a result of his vociferous criticisms of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, he lived in exile until 1930, first banished to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and later on exiled in Paris, as related in his book De Fuerteventura a Paris. After a year in Paris, Unamuno established himself in Hendaye, a border town in the French Basque Country, as close to Spain as he could get while remaining in France. Unamuno returned to Spain after the fall of General Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in 1930 and took up his rectorship again. It is said in Salamanca that the day he returned to the University, Unamuno began his lecture by saying "As we were saying yesterday..."

Na Macaret, January 2019.

Slightly windy these days in Menorca.

Picture by Paco Noguero.