Thursday midday: It's raining. On the far side of the valley Benafim is barely visible through the murk. Distant rolls of thunder alarm Barri who is panting with nervous anxiety under my desk. She hates strange noises of any complexion. I am endeavouring to calm her down, not with much success.
In view of the weather Barbara is giving the weeds a rest day and applying herself to Casa Nada instead. She feels that it needs a tidy up. I hope that the two black cats who occupy it are appreciative. Barbara would struggle to give herself a rest day. She is subject to a rigid and demanding conscience that will not permit her a day off if there is anything to be done - and there is always something to be done.
From time to time it will concede her a reluctant postprandial hour with a magazine and a dog on the sofa. But that's the limit. My conscience is a lot more tolerant. As long as I have something to show for the passage of the day - a token of appeasement - it leaves me pretty much to myself.
OFF TO WATER ABSENT NEIGHBOURS' FLOWERS
For much of this week my principal task has been to plough our lands and trim the shoots on the almond trees that were heavily pruned earlier in the year. Yesterday I set about replacing a fused stair light. In theory, these lights simply twist in and out of the socket. But, as so often in life, there's a gulf between theory and practice. This ex-light, like a protesting politician, was determined to hang in there. I had to prise it off with screwdriver and pliers while lying flat on the floor. It took me half an hour to do the job. That more than satisfied conscience.
POPPIES: COURTESY LYN MACKRILL
There's a cheer-up fire in the wood-burning stove. The rain continues to pour down. A drenching squall descended on Benafim late morning as Mary was trimming my hair and toe nails. I had to leap still besmocked from her chair and rush outside to close the windward car windows before the dogs drowned.
LYN: YELLOW BEE ORCHID
For a while the downpour eased off. Then, as I was about to leave her salon, the heavens opened once again. I got soaked just crossing the pavement to the car. And I got doubly drenched when I stopped on the way home to retrieve a smelly bone from the boot and leave it on the roadside for the stray. Fortunately, being soaked is not a serious condition, not when home and a change of clothes are just a few minutes away.
More heavy rain is due on Saturday. I shall have to call off the boys and wait another week to lay a second curved concrete strip just beyond the carport gates, intended to give me side access to the carport. We laid the first strip last weekend. (For the record, we have three sets of exterior double gates: the main gates and then, above and below Casa Nada, the carport gates and the tractor gates. We also have three exterior pedestrian gates and several interior gates. In short, we are a multi-gated community.)
MAIN GATES TO THE RIGHT; CARPORT GATES BEHIND THE CAR
Tuesday morning I was munching a wake-up slice of toast on the side of the bed when I became conscious that I was not the only creature enjoying breakfast. A hungry tick had attached itself to my throat overnight, no doubt courtesy of Ono who was snoozing innocently at my side. Jones ripped the wretched creature off and flushed it down the loo.
PALLY JOINS THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTRELS
Apart from the usual itchy bump I have evinced no untoward symptoms. We inevitably suffer one or two such bites each year. The dogs wear collars that the ticks find distasteful - that's apart from the three orphans who will have nothing to do with collars. We try to put a squirt of bug killer on to their necks from time to time but even that's hard work.
I have - apropos of nothing - booked an appointment with the Portuguese AA to renew my driving licence, an item that is subject to renewal every two years from driver-age 70. At least one can go through the renewal process six months in advance of the expiry date. Last time it took much longer than that to receive the actual licence, a case of the technology being rather more efficient than its operators.
LYN: FLOWERS ALONG THE VERGE
Natasha came to us a day early before flying off midweek with her son, Alex to Sweden where he is in a team competing in a gymnastics competition. The pair of them are now able to travel on their newly-acquired Portuguese ID cards, acceptable in lieu of passports within the EU. I am envious. I wish we had the same. Some years ago the UK government tried to introduce ID cards but the citizenry revolted at the mortifying notion of having to carry ID - considered a nasty European habit.
Next Tuesday marks the arrival of (Barbara's brother) Robbie and Carol from South Africa. They spend a day and a half with us before flying off early on the Thursday morning with Barbara to Venice to join a week-long Mediterranean cruise. For most of that period I will have the welcome company of Cathy who has previously proved herself a champion garden waterer - a coincidence. Mind you, judging from the forecast, she won't have much work to do.
Thursday evening: The sun came out late afternoon and the dogs dragged us off on their usual hike around the hills.With me I took along two walking sticks to prop myself up as the steep hard-baked paths turn treacherous after rain. To no avail. On a skiddy descent my feet went from under me and I plunged headlong into the bush. Jones, hearing my falling curse and the collapsing shrubbery, hurried back to ascertain my state of health. Fortunately I am well padded and – bruised dignity aside – suffered little injury.
It was only on our return home that I found my mobile phone absent from the breast pocket that it inhabits. Jones went back to find it (and did, where I’d fallen). She is rather swifter and more agile than I am. In fairness to myself, while she was away I trotted down to feed her adopted waifs with their daily bones. I was relieved not to bump into the neighbours who insist on plying us plentifully with baggy whenever they encounter us – a case of too much of a good thing.
Although we have for some time abstained from alcohol on Tuesdays and Thursdays I considered myself justified under the circumstances in adding a fortifying shot of brandy to my coffee. After all, I told a querying conscience, it's not every day that I survive a crash landing in the bush.
No comments:
Post a Comment