Letter from Espargal: 10 of 2013

BARBARA SKY PICS
I got back home from South Africa last Sunday evening after 36 hours on the road to a warm welcome from my wife and a whirlwind welcome from the dogs. The plane from Frankfurt to Lisbon was 90 minutes late because of a snow storm at Frankfurt airport.


We had to sit around for most of that time waiting to be de-iced. And the train on the last leg from Lisbon to Loule was 40 minutes late because flooding on the line reduced it to a crawl. Still, I made it, in spite of the weather impediments.


PRICKLES - AVOIDING THE ANTI-DOG TRAPS
For the record, I got a lift from Bren’s assistant, Julene, as far as Pretoria. Then I took the fancy Gautrain from there to the airport. The train is something else.

It’s most impressive and should help to reduce the motorway crawl misery between Pretoria and Johburg. I could hardly credit the vast spread of development over what used to be veld separating the two cities.


Let me interrupt myself here to say that my niece, Micaela, who had fetched me from the airport the previous weekend, was attending a big horse show in the north of the country. To her delight, her horse, ridden by a top equestrian, won the open competition, an achievement that brought her an offer for the animal that she could hardly refuse.


As sad as she is to see the horse go, its upkeep has been painfully expensive and the proceeds of the sale will be welcome. Micaela runs her own business, selling upmarket equestrian equipment to the horsey community.

At the airport, I had the pleasure of catching up with Barbara’s brother, Robbie, and wife Carol, over a light lunch at a hotel. I was grateful to have Robbie as a guide. Little old Jan Smuts has morphed into a vast Oliver Tambo, reminiscent of the great European airports.

Outside on the apron there were jumbos lined up for Africa, preparing for their overnight flights northwards. The giant Lufthansa A380 bringing me home was waiting beside another belonging to Air France and somebody’s stretch 747.


It was good to get home. Barbara was particularly pleased to see me. No only had she been looking after the ranch single-handed for the previous week, she had done so with both legs in bandages after being attacked in the street by a dog. Kindly neighbours ran her into hospital twice for treatment in my absence. One of them, Liz, a former nursing sister, is changing her bandages twice a week.


Jonesy is still walking awkwardly on painful legs. The whole episode has been a most unpleasant one. From the owners of the dog, to whom I complained, has come not a subsequent word of regret or apology. LATER: We hear that the dog in question has killed a pet belonging to a family across the road. This is becoming serious.


UK friends, Mike and Lyn, are staying in one of Idalecio’s cottages, braving the showery weather as best they can. They’re camera enthusiasts who have been visiting the Algarve for decades and know more about the local bird life and wild flowers than we do. Like us, they love the orchids that come out at this time of year.

WOODCOCK ORCHID
In the park (our extended piece of hillside), apart from scillas, wild tulips and bluebells, we have found mirror orchids, woodcocks, early purples and yellow bee orchids, while in the fields around us naked man, sawfly and ordinary bee orchids abound.

SCILLA
Mike spent an hour one afternoon showing Barbara the finer points of our camera, the better to photograph these little beauties that bring us such pleasure each year.


During the course of the lesson, Mike and Jonesy took a few arty pics, as you see. The glass, by the way, is one of our recent acquisitions from friends, David and Dagmar, who are in the process of packing up their belongings in preparation for a move to a townhouse in Loule.


As comfortable as it is, it’s a tiddler beside their capacious villa in Cruz da Assumada. So they’re going through all the agonies of downsizing – deciding what to take, to sell, to give away and to throw away.


For his part, Idalecio invited us round to admire his newly completed swimming pool. And admire it we did. Apart from one or two days’ input from a concrete mixing assistant, it’s all his own hard work – and what a lot of work!

The pool is raised rather than dug. Idalecio built the surrounding walls and infilled the patio area as well as doing all the plumbing and lighting. He’s done an impressive job. The pool will be a great draw to his summer guests and ought to earn its keep within a few years.
THE SUN ON ROCHA DA PENA