In The Land Of Grey And Skink

On Monday we promised you a guest post by George and here he is, with his unique take on current affairs.

No tales of goats today, but instead, reptiles and amphibians. The latest cat to join our ranks, and the smallest, lives at the farm. She is not very big, so she only catches very small creatures, such as butterflies and grasshoppers. And what I initially thought were very small snakes. But on rescuing them, I noticed feet on them.  

So not snakes, but skinks, and the species native to these parts is Chalcides bedriagai, commonly known as Bedriaga's skink.  They are only found in Iberia, and hardly at all in northern Spain. And hardly at all in and around our farm (nowhere near northern Spain)

Told you it looks like a snake. And having wanted to shoehorn skink into these pages I then set about looking for relevant music. There’s a band called The Skinks. They sound a bit like Iron Maiden meets The Sweet, and not in a good way. And there is  a song called Skink Song. I bought the album, "Far And Familiar", by Colamo.

"Skink Song" - Colamo

And I would not want to waste the opportunity to give you a relevant prog track, and joy of joy King Crimson provide that, referencing a shingleback skink in the track "Neurotica":

"Neurotica" - King Crimson

The shingleback has a blue tongue. It is found in Australia.

And back to Iberia, and the accordionist Pascuala Ilabaca, from Girona. I have no idea if she has an interest in skinks, but I have an interest in her. That sounds a bit pervy. What I mean is she performing at the nearby World Music Festival in July, and if the song below is anything to by, this could be a very good thing:

 

What about the amphibians mentioned at the top? After a few days of much needed rain here a couple of weeks ago, it seemed to stir the local amphibians into action. On consecutive days my partner found a toad and then a frog swimming about in one of our wells. 

I was not unduly concerned about there being frog or toad pee in the water (we don’t drink the water) but nevertheless the hoppers were scooped out and relocated to the bottom of the farm. Look, it could have been worse, we could have flown them to Rwanda.

And why the Bedriaga’s skink? It is named after the famous Russian herpetologist Jacques von Bedriaga (not a very Russian-sounding name, is it?)

And there it ends. I'm still puzzling over why George mentions that these skinks aren't common in Northern Spain when he doesn't live in Northern Spain. And is the whole thing meant to be an elaborate allegory about Russians being where they shouldn't be? 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. What passes for normal service round here will resume on Friday.