Sunday: Armenio came up to graft some of our bitter almond trees. We'd cut off the trees at should height months ago to induce them to produce new shoots. Armenio cut a small notch into each shoot, introducing a tiny graft from a sweet almond twig and then binding it. Now it's a case of waiting to see how many of the grafts take.
Monday: We have our eyes fixed on next weekend when our house-sitters, the Ferretts, arrive. Usually something goes wrong just before their visit, a syndrome known as the Ferrett poltergeist. This year the poltergeist decided to strike the washing machine. It was interrupting its cycle, Jones informed me, and refusing to spin or drain.
I did the usual man things: clean the filter, check the outflow, pull the electric plug out and pull it back in again. At one point the device stopped working completely; then it started again. Maybe I’d inadvertently fixed it – or it had fixed itself.
PYRAMID ORCHIDWhile we were out walking, a bee flew into Jones’s hair and couldn’t get out again. It’s happened once or twice before and is quite distressing – for Jones, I mean; I suppose for the bee as well. I go to her rescue afap. This time the bee didn’t wait to be freed and stung Jones on the scalp. I pulled out the sting. Ouch!
TONGUE ORCHIDMay decided not to come lunching and shopping with us. She wasn’t feeling her best. Instead, we had our hair cut, telling Fatima about our holiday plans while she told us hers.
We've been going to Fatima for years. She could probably cut our hair with her eyes shut. Although she’s strictly speaking a man’s hairdresser, she’s happy to do women as well as long as it’s just a wash and cut. None of that fancy stuff that girls go in for.
Tuesday: When I got back from our walk, I found a tick on my shoulder – the first of the season. Then I found another in the hair on Jones’s neck – and later a third on my thigh. Fortunately, none of them had got a chance to bite in. I crushed them. I don’t buy all that St Francis stuff about brother tick and sister mosquito. April inevitably marks the start of tick season. All the dogs are wearing tick collars, reinforced with Advantix drops.
Mid-morning I had to report to the hospital near Faro airport to have my dressings changed. One of the two young nurses waiting in the surgery had earlier assisted the surgeon. We greeted each other. She attended to my chest while her companion busied herself with my back. They were very pleasant but it was hard to make conversation.
Might I take a photo for the blog, I asked. They didn’t see why not. Having been re-patched (me), we (Jones and I) continued on to Faro beach for a leisurely sandwich and glass of wine at the Electrico, followed by a snoozette at the viewing point overlooking the runway. We watched the planes twitching in the wind as the pilots lined up before dropping down on the tarmac with a puff of smoke.
The dreaded Algarvian black mould had stained parts of the back patio during the damp winter. The stains come off with bleach. It's a messy job but nothing like as messy as it used to be at the Quinta, which lacked cavity walls.
Later that afternoon, we hit the garden. I attacked the yellow wotchies and shoulder high thistles that had invaded my bean patch, yanking out a pile that overflowed the tractor box. 
Jones tried, as so often, to repair the damage done to her plants by digging dogs. Mary is the principal culprit but she waits – sensibly – till we’re out before getting to work. As I tell her often, it’s lucky we love her.
Wednesday: The washing machine definitely wasn’t working. I phoned a domestic appliances outfit in Loule to ascertain whether they could deliver a new one the same day. They said they could.
ALBINO POPPYSo I dragged an Jones into town – she didn’t want to spend money on another washing machine when the current one could be mended. But the following day was a national holiday. It might take ages to get the parts and we could find ourselves about to go on holiday while our guests made do with a non-functional washing machine. It was the kind of drama I didn’t need.
The new machine was delivered in the afternoon as promised. The guys gave us a quick and valuable lesson on how it worked. They took away the old machine for an examination, quote and probable repairs. I hope to set it up in Casa Nada
I found another tick, this time just biting into my soft upper, inner arm. He got crushed too but not before he gave me the itches! Now I strip off my clothes every time I imagine there's something crawling on my skin.
GAME TIMEWe spent the early evening gardening and working on the bean patch once again. The beans are doing ok, recovering from a month of rain in March. They’re also recovering from the games that Russ and Barri love to play there. They’re delicious – the beans! They always are.
Thursday: Natasha is spending the first of two full days here this week. Today is window cleaning; tomorrow, house and garden.
While Natasha was vacuum cleaning upstairs, we slipped up the Hamburgo in Benafim for a coffee. The bar was crowded.
April 25 - Liberation Day - is a day to celebrate and celebrations start early.
Jones helped me get the hairy twins up on the patio table for a trim, their third of the season. Mary and Russ (on the left) both have thick coats and suffer in the summer weather as well as getting tangled up with thorny burrs. 
By the time I’d finished, they looked a lot better and certainly a lot cooler. Jones had suggested getting their coats trimmed professionally but she had to agree that I’d done a good job.
No comments:
Post a Comment