* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
My first intention was to make a video with the swallows collecting mud to fix nests or make new ones. Because that’s why they approach puddles like the one we see in these photographs in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos.
They also go to the water to drink, of course, but there they find the material for their nests. In this case, we see the swallow in action in the town of Altet, in Urgell.
Portraying this scene has inspired me this story, which I have written in Catalan, about four generations and their swallows (orenetes):
In the summer, Jana wakes up to the song of swallows, she has work to do. To begin with, he goes to the hen house to get the eggs, which he puts in a basket.
Then he draws water from the well and brings water to the chickens, rabbits and pigs, they already respect him a lot, the males are very fat now, of course, when there are piglets he can’t help but touch them and play with them . The times when Mother gets angry with him because he arrived dirty from head to toe.
Once he has finished his work, it is time for breakfast, but first he must fill the canti with water from the cistern.
Mother already has the table set, Father needs to arrive to be able to start breakfast.
Jana, sitting, thinks about two years ago, when her grandmother was there, what a good time she had with her. With grandfather also when he told him those stories by the fire or on the way out drinking the fresh air. Now when the grandfather got angry, he chased her with espadrilles in hand, the laps she had made around the dining room table or around the farmhouse. Now the day I caught him his ass was hot.
The Father arrives, washes his hands in the basin and everyone has breakfast. When he finishes, he takes a good drink of wine with the leek and takes the sarró that Mother has prepared for him, inside are two very thick slices and a slice of Donegal, it’s lunch. He is not coming to lunch today, he is going to do the chores he needs to help build the new church in the town. He adds the bottle of wine, he didn’t take any water, as they have the village fund next door. He kisses Mother and prepares to walk for half an hour until he reaches the village. Jana doesn’t understand why sometimes Father slaps Mother’s ass when he leaves the house and even less if Mother smiles.
When the Father has left and the Mother has packed the table, they go out to the entrance of the farmhouse. There, Mother pulls out some socks or other clothes and Jana plays around there.
They are protected from the sun because the balcony above them acts as a porch
The swallows are building nests or fixing old ones, since they are taking advantage of the nests year after year.
Sometimes Jana is delighted looking at them, then the mother reminds her, nests and swallows don’t touch, it’s lucky to have them at home.
Life passed very quickly, Jana Pubilla already had a godfather, the knight of Cal Beb.
In addition, it suited his parents because he was the youngest of a good family, they had good fortune and life had smiled on them.
As soon as she realized she was already the Mother of a Mark, a demon, the one they neglected had already done so.
The Father had already left them, but his Mother was still there and helped him a lot.
But the fairest devil in the world, with a sling, Tore the swallows’ nests, in the breeding season, All the chicks to the ground. At that the cat in the house, which was sleeping on the stone table they had at the entrance, jumps up and I don’t need to tell you that there was no lice left.
Grandma Laura, when she saw what had happened, burst into a state of inconsolable crying as Jana had never seen her Mother cry.
Marc and his eight years, it was clear that he had made her fat and the boy is very much like his grandmother. Seeing her crying endlessly and the angry face her Mother had, she burst into tears and hugged her grandmother, telling her don’t cry anymore Grandma, I won’t do it anymore and she never got tired of repeat it It was a drama.
Jana’s husband came back from working the land, He left Ebro next to the fig tree, he saw the disaster at the entrance and when he went inside and saw the faces of the three, he said nothing. He looked at Jana and she winked at Marc.
He understood that the boy had made her good, looked at him seriously, the boy burst into tears. The grandmother did not hesitate for a second, she hugs her grandson and tells the Father, it was an incident. Marc, feeling protected by his grandmother, stops crying.
The Husband looks at his wife (Jana), she suddenly starts laughing like never before, her husband hugs her and also bursts out laughing. Grandma and Marc look at each other, kiss each other and also burst out laughing.
They dined amidst laughter and from that dinner came the heir’s promise, that he would never hurt any animal again.
In fact, Marc is one of the great activists in favor of nature.
He starts to be pro nature thanks to Maria, the daughter of Cal Guinar, with this blessing they started going out, but she was studying Medicine in Barcelona and they didn’t see each other as much as they wanted.
She finished her degree and was able to settle in the county, so she lived in the village.
He started mechanics at the Castellvell school in Solsona and ended up as an engineer.
Everything was served.
It’s going to be a great wedding.
They settled in the town, in a house that they were fixing every now and then.
And what was written happened, Peace was born.
The Grandfathers left.
Marc kept the farmhouse in good condition, but everything that was farming was abandoned.
We have already reached the 21st century.
Pau, a prestigious computer scientist, wanted the manor house for rural tourism.
His father gave it to him, they modernized the farmhouse, electricity, water, heating, wifi and swimming pool.
It was a success.
But there is always a problem, the tenants, they went to bed late, in the coolness of the marinade it was very good, they played or chatted and it didn’t come for an hour.
But that, when it was day, the swallows came out of the nest and sang.
Customers complained that those screeches woke them up.
Pau was clear about it, he destroyed the swallows’ nests. With such bad luck that some foresters were passing by and saw him.
They stopped and asked Pau
“What have you done man of God, this is forbidden. Swallows are protected by law. Do you know that for every swallow’s nest you have in your house you can save about 2,000 mosquito bites per summer?”.
“If you want, I’ll make it easier for you, at most a swallow eats five grams of mosquitoes per day. You count how many mosquitoes you eat.”
The determined Pau answers:
“I’m in my house and I won’t have a nest on the facade, it would just be missing! Plus the tenants complain about dirt and noise.”
The foresters continued: “Do you know that people from the city go to the countryside because there is peace and tranquility, but the villages also have their problems?”
“They go to the countryside to look for silence, what silence?, in the countryside there is noise day and night. Do you hear that stream passing by here? It’s a continuous noise, the day you don’t hear it, it means it’s not there water. Do you hear the wind among the trees? If you don’t hear it, it would mean there are no trees. If there were no trees, you would hear the singing of all these birds that we hear.
“When the tenants complain that the cricket sings all night or there are bees, what will you do, fumigate? Nature is a living thing and it beats with its noises and smells.”
“Sir, how do we fix it, you have committed a crime, according to article 334 of organic law 10/1995, of November 23, of the Penal Code. Therefore, doing so can lead to a prison sentence of six months to two years. The destruction or deterioration of nests also entails financial fines that can range from 5,001 to 200,000 euros.”
Pau was left blank, he called his Father.
The Patriarch came with nothing, when he arrived he greeted himself effusively, schoolmates, sorry he wanted to say to the foresters.
When he was caught up, the four men decided they would make it up to each other.
The next day, the corporal and a technician came. They headed for the chicken coop. They looked at it from end to end, decided to fix the fence and make a bird sanctuary.
About 6,000 euros were spent.
And Pau is still cross, about a nonsense that could cost him prison, with the sanctuary and explaining to the people that the farmhouse is in the middle of nature with all its advantages and disadvantages, he had a queue all year to be rented
Pau promised himself that when he had a son, he would teach him what nature is and, above all, to love it.
Dedicated to my goddaughter, I did my best when we went to the forest to make her appreciate what was around us. Everything related here has come from my imagination, except everything that refers to the penal code, fines and prison.
