Thursday p.m. Blog-time: I have awoken from a deep siesta during the course of which I had to rescue my car from a tunnel, after which a man in a green uniform said something inaudible about the police calling. Twice I asked him to speak up and then I woke up. Before I could get up, I had to shift a (not so) Mini from my lap, where she was sleeping soundly.
It's drizzling steadily, a welcome and necessary refreshing of the earth before summer's grilling. The rails and pergola-beams glimmer in the patina on the patio. Beyond them, like some broad-brush water colour, the cool hills recede in ever fainter grey smudges. The dogs are snuggled down in the lounge, where they'll welcome a small fire this evening.
Looking back on the week - a run-around week in which we have hardly dined at home:
Saturday: As usual, Barbara diverts Pally with a juicy bone while I sneak off to the upper gate with the rest of the pack. As much as Pally appreciates his bones, he would rather come walking with us. His desolate howls pursue us across the hills.
On Saturday Slavic comes. He strimmed and I cleared the upper section of our field while Barbara joined Llewellyn and Lucia at a cheese and wine festival in Faro. Our visitors have stuck nobly to the non-alcoholic lifestyle they adopted some time ago, confining themselves to alcohol-free beers and wines. I admire their resolution.
AT THE FARO CHEESE AND WINE FESTIVALWhen Slavic and I sat down to a beer afterwards, he produced his smart-phone which, he said, had been playing up since he had opened a message the previous day. I took a look. Pressing any key prompted an irritating female American voice to run through a series of numbers like someone reporting on the stock exchange. The device had evidently been infected by a virus.
BEACH SWEPT AWAY AFTER LAST WEEK'S STORMSIn vain I attempted to access the settings in order to perform a factory reset. All I got in return for my efforts was more vocals from the American. As it happened, I had a spare Nokia-style phone into which we transferred Slavic's sim-card. At least it would enable him to make calls and send messages.
Llewellyn, on his return from Faro, said that it should be possible to perform a factory reset by simultaneously pressing the ON, HOME and VOLUME UP keys. This information I conveyed to Slavic.
A HEDGEHOG RESCUED FROM THE DOGS' UNWELCOME ATTENTIONSSunday: After brunch at the Hamburgo we carried on to meet Ken at May's house, which is due to be sold at the end of the week. Ken was packing up items to be transported back to Scotland. There was a great deal that remained. We loaded the boot of our car with boxes of glasses, books, cassettes, movies and other knick-knacks for which he had no use and we hoped to find one. Then we enjoyed a light lunch up the road at a snack bar where we had often dined with May.
EDGAR & HAZELThat afternoon Llewellyn and Lucia learned from their dog-sitters in the UK that their beloved 13-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Edgar, had fallen seriously ill. Llewellyn called his neighbour, a vet who knew the dog, to discuss the symptoms. His advice was to put the dog down rather than to attempt major surgery. It was a sad and sombre evening.
Monday: I tried, with little success, to interest my English class in the finer points of the French and UK elections. It was a mistake. I resolved to stick to less demanding issues in future. Slavic brought his phone along for Llewellyn's attention. For several minutes Llewellyn tried pressing the magic buttons, without success. Then he gave a delighted whoop and returned the device to Slavic - job done! I might add only that I employ Kaspersky's anti-virus for Android on my own phone.
That evening we supped at the Angolana in Loule. Llewellyn snapped the impressive Mae Soberana (annual Easter procession with a statue of the Virgin Mary) street lights that hang in the processional avenue. Loule was once well known for its extensive Christmas decorations - before the age of austerity put an end to them.
ARCHIVE: ROBBIE & CAROLBarbara's sister in law, Carol, after getting the necessary visas, flew from South Africa to join her husband, Robbie, in caring for their son, Bevan in New York. Bevan was released from hospital this week after falling gravely ill with listeriosis. He will require continued monitoring and intensive medical care for some time to come.
L&L ON A FAVOURITE BEACH WALKTuesday: L&L left early to fly back home. We drove across to May's house both to support Ken in his packing and to take him to lunch. Loule was quiet. It was a public holiday. April 25 is the day on which the Portuguese celebrate the 1974 Carnation Revolution that toppled the regime and led to a democratic system of government.
Wednesday: I had intended to clear up cuttings from a host of pruned trees and bushes. But a more urgent task proved to be the shelling of a tub of beans that I had picked a few days earlier. Jones joined me around the dining table. It took the pair of us the whole morning.
We should have picked them a fortnight earlier and shelled them promptly. Many were already shrivelling and starting to turn black. Nonetheless, most of the beans took just a little washing to recover and we were able to freeze a couple of kilos for future consumption. We love our beans. In the evening we joined the gang at the Hamburgo. We returned to find the cobbles covered with bits of sponge from yet another demolished cushion.
Thursday: Before going for my weekly back tune-up with Jodi, I dropped into the community centre to hand several boxes of glasses and other useful items. May's many cookbooks are proving harder to dispose of usefully. I fear that most of them are likely to land in the paper bin. We joined Ken for lunch. He wasn't best pleased with his news. The buyers had just advised him that they needed to postpone the purchase to resolve complications on their side. Meanwhile, we enjoyed a good lunch.
Llewellyn informed us of the death in Cape Town of Elaine, his mother and Barbara's step-mother. She had recently moved to a care home where she had suffered a second stroke earlier this week.
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