Letter from Espargal: 31 July 2020

JONES: DAWN OVER ESPARGAL
This has been an exceptionally busy week. I am trying to recall why it feels that way. I have hardly sat down to a Netflix movie. Can you imagine? While I think about it, I shall fall back on our picture diary.



Saturday two of Idalecio's guests, Ray and Ella, joined us for drinks. They are a mid-England couple with whom Barbara had struck up conversations while passing their cottage en route to the waifs. They confessed to having planned a huge pre-Covid international trip before finding themselves stranded in Bratislava as the virus struck. Meanwhile, they are making the best of things.



After a quiet spring, EU flights into Faro have resumed, possibly a dozen a day. Tourist-dependent Spain has joined Portugal in vigorous protests at being red-lined by the UK, especially as the Spanish holiday islands are little-affected by the virus. One has to sympathise, given that England heads Europe's virus death-list, with Scotland not far behind.



Summer continues apace. All that varies is the temperature and not very much.  Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were torrid. Come to think of it, so were Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. August may bring some relief.



Mello finds post-walkies relief in her pool. Barbara has been trying for days to video the dog's plunge but either her mobile phone hasn't played along - or Mello has decided to give the pool a miss.



Pally just makes the most of the damp cobbles. In our pool - as opposed to Mello's - the surface water gets so hot under the new cover that we have to stir it up before getting in. Dipping a forgetful late-afternoon foot into the water prompts a rapid withdrawal. It helps if we remember to turn the pump on half an hour beforehand.



To our distress, a neighbour's grieving dog continues his daily howls of misery at the death of his partner. They are hard to bear. It doesn't help that the dog is confined during the day to an enclosure although he has the freedom of the yard at night. Barbara has been investing in large bones in a bid to alleviate his sorrows.



Each day I put in an hour or two on the shed. The exterior woodwork has had a second protective coating; solar lights have been installed and several shelving units have been erected. Undoubtedly, it is going to be a splendid shed, a worthy workman's retreat. I even had a registered letter from Leroy Merlin apologising for the confusion over the delivery and hoping that the hefty discount had assuaged my feelings.  It certainly had. My feelings have never been better assuaged.


MOBILE COVID TESTING STATION: CABANAS
Wednesday we visited Cabanas to entertain Liz to lunch and then to bring her and Sam (her dog) back to Espargal, where she has been catching up with friends. She and Sam are based for three days in a guest cottage.



Slavic, pictured busy with angle-grinder and pneumatic hammer on our driveway, has been carving out a narrow trench to take a second water-supply pipe. It's proved to be a really big job - and a very dusty one. We hope to get the pipe in next week - although I'm still waiting for the council bill that must be paid before they will install the meter.



Thursday we drove to Faro to renew our residence permits. Entry to the city's one-stop shop these days is by appointment only. Ours was for 12.30. After being ticked off the security guard's check list, we waited "safe-distanced" outside the office with other visitors.



The renewal process itself is now largely computerised and relatively quick - although one has to wait months for an appointment. I'd spent hours filling in the forms available online and collecting copies of all the necessary documents - only to find both the forms and advice out of date. Still, the t-shirted official concerned was cheery and helpful, as well as very pleased to find that we spoke Portuguese.


BARBARA DAWN AGAIN

Letter from Espargal: 25 July 2020

JONES - DAWN MOON SUPPORTING VENUS
This blog is intended for such readers as may have an insatiable interest in erecting garden sheds. Any readers who lack such an interest - hard as it is to imagine that any actually exist - will be forgiven for getting on with their lives.



Sunday:  As it happens, blow by blow: Slavic & Alexandre arrive at 7.15 to assemble the shed. (See the previous blog). Slavic sorts the smaller sections into groups according to length. There are no instructions, only such tips as we have gained from watching a video.



Much measuring ensues to ensure that the base is square. My role is to stand around looking knowledgeable and to join discussions when sticking points arise - which they do a lot. The workers converse in Ukrainian, which I wish I understood.



From behind the gates a few metres away, the beasts take a keen interest in progress - most of them. The day grows steadily hotter. Intermittent deliveries of cold beers serve to lubricate the works.



The suppliers have given me a hefty discount as much of the timber has been exposed to the elements and is warped. (Those short side pieces [bottom left] are mis-positioned and later have to be prised out and replaced with slightly longer sections.)



There is something symbolic about erecting a door frame. It means that one can go in and out. It separates the exterior world from an interior space.....or something like that.



The planks do not fit readily into the intended notches. Slavic bends them against the warp - generally using a large garden fork - while Alexandre hammers them into position. Many take a great deal of bending and hammering.



The window frame is assembled and inserted. The warp on the left wall is lifting the short planks out of position. The roof later pulls them straight.



The shed progresses but only after frequent stops to correct the design. The biggest error is to mis-lay the base planks at the front and back of the shed instead of on the sides. As I say, no instructions!



The roof planks are hammered into position. Sorry about all the Sunday hammering neighbours. It won't happen again.



The dark planks are those that have been most exposed to the weather. The interior is quite spacious. There is already a queue of items waiting to shift across. (Nancy comments that Ratty will love the extra space.)



The roof is lined with a layer of reflective insulation that I bought separately



before the final asphalt cover is unrolled, trimmed and hammered into place. There's still a fair bit of finishing to do but nothing that requires Alexandre's muscular assistance.


THE ESPLANADE: CABANAS
Monday: After further discussion, Slavic and I returned to Cabanas where he acquired Liz's car for a lower price than that earlier envisaged. He pointed out that he would need to spend a significant sum to bring the vehicle up to the standard required for annual roadworthy inspections.



Tuesday: I had a haircut. The hairdresser assured me that taking selenium supplements would ward off most ills, probably including Covid19. I reserved judgement.



Then I went shopping to spend as much of Leroy Merlin's credit note as I could manage. Several hundred euros went on lights and fittings for the shed and the additional water supply system that we are about to install. The store paid me the difference in cash, a most welcome change from the usual procedure.


WATCHING THE CRABS IN THE STREAM
Wednesday: We joined neighbours Fintan and Pauline on a visit to Liz in Cabanas. At our little snack bar on the esplanade, Jessica - the Brazilian waitress - now welcomes us as regulars. In return we show our appreciation. The backdrop of boats floating idly on the estuary is delightful.



Thursday: was uncomfortably hot. Slavic arrived at 7 to work on the shed. The main job was to stain the wood with a preservative before adding the finishing elements. I chose a green stain to help fade the shed into the background. Jones had her doubts. But she went along with it. It needs a second coat to complete the job.



Neither Slavic nor I could fathom how the fancy door hinges worked, however we positioned them. So I bought some conventional ones at Leroy Merlin the afternoon when we went to fetch the new solar cover for our pool. The car's AC worked overtime against 36 degrees of heat.



The new cover is most welcome. We've been making do, first with the old disintegrating cover (that shed plastic fragments all over the pool) and later with the cumbersome winter cover.



Friday: Slavic is back at 7 to lay concrete steps and a path for a neighbour of ours. He mixes the concrete here and we run it around on the tractor. It takes three loads.

We are glad to be done by midday. It's another scorcher.

Letter from Espargal: 18 July 2020

Last Saturday one of us got a little older and was spoiled by caring neighbours



with whom we had celebrated at the Hamburgo the previous evening. (I'm standing, not to make a speech, but to humour my back, which has been unusually well behaved of late - dare I say it?)



On the big day itself, a worthy bottle of wine was procured for an alfresco petisco supper. The front patio is the venue for supper most evenings, once the dogs have been walked and fed and the garden watered.  We supp to the mournful howling of a neighbour's dog (whose mate had to be put down) with backing from the crepuscular chorale's strident stridulous symphony.



A birthday gift sent by express post from Lisbon took all of an impatient week to arrive but proved to be well worth the wait. The bespoke mask on her head was included in the parcel. In Portugal one is required to wear a mask in all public interior spaces, a practice accepted by the population with none of the US & UK's contentious hemming and hawing, bumbling and dithering.



Just up the road, the digger has finished levelling Idalecio's plot in preparation for his new house.  Some two metres of land on two sides of the property have been surrendered to allow for future road widening.



The spider's real enough although the photo is a bit misleading. The brute was sitting on the bathroom mirror. Barbara brought along a glass and a sheet of cardboard to slide beneath him for emigration purposes.



I dropped him over the patio railings and watched him scuttle off into the shrubbery, none the worse for wear. Another visitor, this time in the garden, was a snake that slithered over the cobbles in front of me and disappeared into a flower bed. Such visitations are not uncommon in summer. My only concern is to keep a distance between any serpents and Pally.



Speaking of whom - with the new blades for my two electric dog clippers, I managed to shave a bagful of wiry coat from his flanks and back. Pally now comes to us daily seeking attention and is quite amenable to being clipped. He's the sweetest little dog albeit one of the loudest.



His disposition is not shared by his fellow orphan, Mello, who does her best to avoid being handled. We managed to secure her and seat her on the clipping table where she sat passively while Jones fed her treats and I took off her thick winter coat.



She is looking so much better for my efforts. I hope that deep in her heart she's grateful.



After such exciting canine developments, it's a case of treats all round. In fact after virtually all developments, it's treats all round. Russ and Barri have also had much-needed summer haircuts.



Monday morning Eluterio turned up from the council to install the piping for a second water connection. It was a really tricky job as he had very little room to work and some very stubborn fittings (first) to unbolt and (then) to replace in order to split the main supply pipe between the two boxes.



With the assistance of his Russian co-worker, he took the best part of 90 minutes to complete the job. The next steps, he informed me, were to wait for a bill, pay the bill and then apply to the council for a meter to be attached to the pipework. Once that's done, the connection to Casa Nada is up to us.



Tuesday we headed west for lunch and a catch up with Liz on the seafront at Cabanas.



Our little snack bar - with the red sun umbrellas - overlooking the water serves an excellent salad.



It was much busier than it has been on our previous two visits as holiday makers arrive and the summer season settles in.



Just below the boardwalk, scores of crabs were scuttling about in a shallow stream that filtered down into the estuary.



Wednesday afternoon I drove down to meet the driver of the delivery truck bringing the kit for our new shed. The truck was both much larger and longer than I had anticipated. The driver had the greatest difficulty squeezing his vehicle between houses on opposite sides of the s-bend on the road up the hill.



It took him all of 10 anxious minutes to crawl through the gap with centimetres to spare on either side. It was clear that the truck would not be able to manage the turns on our extended driveway loop. So we had the driver deposit the load of timber on the further edge of our field.



From there he was able to reverse the truck back into the road and return down the hill. The extra space provided by Idalecio's road-widening proved to be a boon.



For the next 80 minutes Slavic and I tractored the timber a careful load at a time up through the trees to the the edge of the slab which is to house the shed.



Friday: It's a stinker. My car thermometer registers C36*.  Next week looks a little cooler. Meanwhile the pool is a life saver - although I was pissed off to be stung by a bee that I'd failed to spot in the water. I'm still sore - literally and figuratively.