A Parrot in the Pepper Tree: A Sequel to Driving over Lemons (The Lemons Trilogy)

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Papagailis piparu kokā" lasīsanas pieredze ir salīdzināma ar vienu no tām situācijām, kad satiec nepazīstamu cilvēku, kas uzsāk sarunu, un pašam nemanot, sarunai beidzoties jūs esat kas līdzīgs draugiem. Kriss ir cilvēks kā visi mēs, kas ir dzīves gaitā saskāries gan ar bēdīgākām, gan ar priecīgākām notikumiem. Manuprāt, Kriss ir samēra impulsīvs un ekspresīvs, memuārā aprakstītās pieredzes man ir svešas. Bija interesanti kaut uz brīdi izprast kā domā cits cilvēks un kas virza viņu. Pirmais memuārs, ko esmu izlasījis. Then, when I finish the book of this author's adventures on his own farm in Spain, I bought his 2 other books. He is now better known for his autobiographical books, Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999, ISBN 0-9535227-0-9) and the sequels, A Parrot In The Pepper Tree (ISBN 0-9535227-5-X) and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2006, ISBN 0-9548995-0-4), about his work farming in Spain. All three are also available as audiobooks (Lemons ISBN 0-14-180143-3; Parrot ISBN 0-14-180402-5), and Almond ISBN 0-7528-8597-9, narrated by Stewart. Me. Yes, that is true. And you just wait till I read your 3rd story. I will find my way into it somehow. I see right now though, there is no talking to you, so I will ask you no more questions. In this book, he writes about life with his family on their remote Andalusian farm where a misanthropic parrot joins their home and WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) come to stay.

I think the main reason I liked Chris Stewart’s “Driving Over Lemons” was because he has this way of writing that makes you feel like you’re reading an old-fashioned, handwritten letter from a really good friend you haven’t seen in ages, but you’ve kept in touch with through letters — you know, the sort of letter that’s on crinkly, thin sheets of white paper in a messy scrawl that goes into all sorts of cool details about the things they’ve seen and the people they’ve met. Following in the footsteps of his first book, here we have another delightful sojourn at El Valero, in the Las Alpujarras in Spain - at the eco friendly home of Chris, Ana and their five year old daughter Chloë..... also present are the dogs, the sheep – and their eccentric parakeet ‘Porka’. Christopher 'Chris' Stewart (born 1951), was the original drummer and a founding member of Genesis. He is now a farmer and an author. A classmate of Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel at Charterhouse School, Stewart joined them in a school band called The Garden Wall, and they later formed another band with schoolmates Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, called Anon. This band eventually became Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on the band's first two singles, "The Silent Sun"/"That's Me" and "A Winter's Tale"/"One-Eyed Hound." Although several demos from Stewart's time with Genesis appear on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them. (Peter Gabriel seems to have played drums on a couple, and the rest do not feature drums.) Krisa Stjuarta otrais memuārs. Kriss dalās ar lasītāju ar stāstiem no jaunības, - kā viņš mācījās spēlēt spāņu ģitāru, kā viņš spēlēja grupā "Genesis", kā izlēma uzsākt dzīvi Andalūzijā, - un ar jauniem atgadījumiem, laika periodā pēc pirmās grāmatas izdošanas. Grāmatas ir sarakstīta no vairākiem epizodiskiem ierakstiem, kas sarindoti bez hronoloģiskas secības. Teksts tulkots sarunvalodā.To start with, they were really very isolated, such that getting a telephone line put in revolutionized their lives. By this time, his first book had become something of a literary sensation, so he reflects on its composition and early reception, remembering when the Mail sent a clueless reporter out to find him. Spanish bureaucracy becomes a key element, especially when it looks like their land might be flooded by the building of a dam. Despite that vague sense of dread, this was good fun. With this one reservation, the book is very readable. Yes, it's light entertainment. But with some fun stories, and a few interesting thoughts about home, life, work and where we all fit in. Chris.I only shear them half way. They were getting top heavy and would fall down on the ground and not get up. So I had to cut half of their hair off. I mean. Wool. A Parrot In The Pepper Tree” is what Stewart describes as a “sort of” sequel and it delves into — a little bit — about how “Driving Over Lemons” came into being; it also touches briefly on Stewart’s short tenure with the band, Genesis, as one of its founding members. What marks Stewart out from similar writers is that this is not the life of an Englishman remaining English abroad, as in the Provence of Peter Mayle, but that of an intrepid man having to survive in a primitive part of Spain where making a living is a struggle. Hence the need to supplement his erratic income with trips to snowy Sweden to shear sheep.

They range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the endearing tales of learning about adapting to a new culture to those that essentially rage at all things ‘foreign’, where you wonder why the author went to live abroad in the first place. I’ve read a few over the years, and some have been entertaining and thought-provoking. I also like the way he doesn't try and write about his life as the perfect idyll. We hear about his worries and fears every bit as much as the lovelier side of living in such a beautiful part of rural Spain. And he also avoids the pitfall of making all the locals sound like colourful caricatures. At the recommendation of Jonathan King, Stewart was asked to leave the band in the summer of 1968 due to poor technique. He was replaced by John Silver. After travelling and working throughout Europe, Stewart settled and bought a farm named "El Valero" in the Alpujarras region of Andalucia, Spain where he lives and works with his wife Ana Exton and daughter Chloë. He came in last place for the position of local councillor in the 27 May 2007 local elections in Órgiva representing the Green Party, where he received 201 votes (roughly 8%). Well that was it: once I’d got the sweet taste of success and had all the fun of getting a book published, I sort of got the bit between my teeth; now there was no stopping me. Next came THE PARROT IN THE PEPPER TREE… that’s not to say that I sat down with the idea of writing a book called “The Parrot in the Pepper Tree”; the title came later, in the way that it usually does. Books have a tendency to name themselves, I think.Me. Yes. What is this about shearing sheep in the winter? You don't do that. They will They will freeze to death. I'm definitely not a fan of 'we escaped the rat race and bought a run down property' books but this is more than just one of those. Stewart has a fascinating past including a stint with a very early Genesis line up (which didn't last long). He dips into those early memories throughout the book and that works well. His neighbours continue to delight: one day, while waiting for the school bus to arrive, Chris encounters Bernardo, a local farmer also waiting for his children, gazing forlornly up at a tree. In its branches, there's a small dead dog. "He died last night," Bernardo explains. "I didn't want the children to see him, so I swung him round and round... and then I let him go... but I think I got the timing wrong." Under the warm, funny and self-deprecating writing of Chris Stewart, there moves a man of granite. Life at El Valero ain’t for wossies. Whether he’s describing the climb to admire the fields of gentian flowers on the on the high slopes of the Mulhacén, or the rigours of enduring a deeply uncomfortable wet Christmas in a house and a valley designed for sunshine, it is obvious that he and his family are hugely stoic and enduring.

All in all people were very nice about the book. Somebody was even good enough to say they thought my style was maturing, which gave me a bit of a boost as you may imagine. “The Parrot” didn’t sell as well as “Lemons”, but apparently this is often the case… unless you happen to be JK Rowlings. With this one reservation, the book is very readable. Yes, it’s light entertainment. But with some fun stories, and a few interesting thoughts about home, life, work and where we all fit in.Stewart's publisher, Sort of Books, announced plans to release yet another Stewart memoir in 2009, this one focused on sailing, entitled Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat. Chris prepared for life on his Spanish mountain farm with jobs of doubtful relevance. He was the original drummer in Genesis (he played on the first album), then joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, went to China to write the Rough Guide, gained a pilot's license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cooking. Three Ways to Capsize a Boat fills in his lost years as a yacht skipper in the Greek islands.