This has been a frustrating week. The frustrations began when I set out to help a friend whose computer keyboard has been playing up. With me I took a spare keyboard as well as the usual canine travellers. When I arrived, it was minus my spare keyboard. I can only think that I must have put it on the car roof while I attended to the dogs.
There was no sign of it back home either. Its likely landing spot was the deep ditch (right of the flowers) below our exit road. But no amount of searching from above or below has revealed its presence. Nor has there been any response to a note I pinned to the village notice board. I keep on expecting to see the keyboard lying in the verge. I can't believe that it's gone.
Saturday my workers returned to widen the concrete strips down the steep little-used public track that separates our house from our field. I laid the strips down years ago to improve the steep and awkward access to Casa Nada. At that point they were intended really just for pedestrians and tractors. The track, which runs to the top of the hill, is too rough to accommodate other traffic apart from determined 4x4s.
Now that we have created a route across the field to the house, the car and delivery lorries will appreciate the additional width. Much of the time we park the car in a shady spot beyond the fence. Opening the main gates is an invitation to the dogs to rush out. Our five will return immediately but the orphans frolic off to find amusement where they can.
THE SISTERS SUNNING THEMSELVES
Their principal diversion is to bark at dogs belonging to Idalecio's guests. Since they're able to slip through his fence and are not easily hushed, this can be a proper pain.
They also delight in hassling Barbara's cats. Inside the house, the cats fall under our protective umbrella and share the warm places around the fire with the dogs. But outside, in spite of our vigorous dissuasion, the orphans reckon they have free rein, leaving the cats feeling nervous and intimidated.
Nelson has returned twice to continue clearing and burning off cuttings. I spent several hours on the tractor turning over the heavy growth in the park and the field. As you can see , it was knee-high. If only there were a way to leave the wild flowers in place while taking out the clawing and clinging weeds. Barbara cordoned off areas of special floral interest that she didn't want me to disturb.
The old sheep pen (above) is an area that she has been weeding by hand for several years. It's a floral symphony, a delight to both eye and heart. She has also started working on the areas around the house that we know as Mary's garden and the secret garden. Her established plants tend to disappear under the wet season's invasive green mantle.
The picture shows me holding two "grip-grabbers", a gift - much appreciated - from my sister, who wished to spare my back. (The photo was intended for her benefit rather than posterity!) For some time I had been using a smaller model lent to me by Marie, especially useful for picking up the dogs' plates. Like an elephant's trunk, the grabbers are both sensitive and versatile - equally capable of picking up a match stick or small log.
VINCA LINING THE ROAD
The week's - nay, the month's - serious frustration has been dealing with Meo, our Telecoms provider. It began on Feb 5 when I cancelled my internet service because I now subscribe to a vastly faster internet by satellite. Their technician assured me that I could still keep my Telepac email account.
The next day I visited their shop in Faro, as advised, to confirm the cancellation and other changes to the contract. On March 16 - more than a month later - when I found my account was still being charged for the service, I revisited their shop to query it and was reassured.
Midweek I got a call from a Meo operative to trying to convince me to stay with the service which he insisted had not yet been cancelled and still had to be paid for. Because virtually all Meo negotiations are done by phone, the client is left with no written record of any resulting agreement.
Yesterday Meo messaged me to say the internet service had finally been cancelled; at the same time my Telepac email account went down. Yet another visit to Faro and three helpline conversations seem unlikely to revive it. I spent much of Thursday afternoon informing contacts and organisations of the change.
Mind you, if I thought I had troubles, they were minor compared to those of Llewellyn's London neighbours whose cars took the full impact of a collapsing tree during a violent storm early in the week. Llewellyn's car - luckily - was parked further along the road.
Portugal had its own high winds, the tail of the British storm, and strong enough to bring down much of a huge old carob tree in the garden of Anneke and Nicoline. A Portuguese neighbour with a chainsaw and tractor came to their assistance.
We were lunching outside a snack bar when this restored Ford Capri drew up. It was much admired and deservedly so. Back in the 70s I drove a Ford Capri - acquired from my brother - and loved it in spite of its bad manners. At that point, the muscular bulge in the hood/bonnet indicated the presence of the 3-litre engine. Later Ford adopted the bulge as standard on the 1.6 and 2-litre models as well.
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