Friday: We took another load of carobs down to our farmer neighbour. We generally manage a load a week. When the carobs lie as thick as this beneath the tree, we can fill a tub in under an hour. The farmer looked at the carobs we had gathered and supposed, correctly, from their slight purplish hue that they had come from trees in a property we'd acquired from another neighbour. Clearly there's more to carobs than meets the casual eye.
It's not only the farmer who appreciates carobs. The dogs love them too - along with the rodents who often get first crack at them. No problem; there's enough to go round; ditto almonds. Most of ours have now been picked by other grateful neighbours. We've more than enough left for ourselves and the dogs. The latter work the nuts round in their teeth until they find a weak spot. Then crunch!
Saturday morning: Dawned windy and delightfully fresh. It was welcome. My heat-bumps and rashes have been getting the better of me. For the first time in months I donned a light jersey. Slavic and I - mainly Slavic - created more stepped paths. You might think that we've now made quite enough. But they serve both to provide easy access and to eliminate the explosion of winter weeds in corners of the garden.
In the afternoon, Neil Cusack (son of commuting neighbours) and Franziska brought baby Emerson along to say hello. We don't get many baby visitors. Jones has had a few on her knee but not for long and not for a long time. Below is a better picture of Franziska. Never mind Prickles displaying his wares!
Sunday: On our way to brunch in Benafim we passed a crowd of people standing around a figure sprawled on the pavement. No one was making any attempt to render assistance. It didn't look good - and it wasn't. On the way back we saw the police talking to onlookers and a hearse drawn up beside them. We speculated that someone had been struck down with a heart attack or stroke.
VALAPENA LILY
Half way home on the agricultural road one passes along Oak Tree avenue. The road is lined with spectacular cork oaks, huge old trees that are stripped for their cork jackets every ten years or so. One sees huge flatbed trucks carrying mountains of cork off to where-ever it's processed. These days it's turned into a variety of domestic products.
We like to park the car in their shade and spend a few minutes wandering along the verge with Pricks and Ono. It's a restful place, imbued with its own inner peace and quiet.
The lane is situated on the fertile flood plain that lies between Espargal and Benafim. We've never seen it flooded although it can get pretty wet. Some of these plots are home to small vineyards or orchards. Others are sown for summer produce or simply lie fallow - good places to look for orchids in spring.
Memorial to Dona Antónia, Benafim
Much of the area once belonged to a wealthy woman (Dona Antónia Provisório) who divided it into numerous plots that she donated to local residents. There's a small monument to her memory on the traffic circle in Benafim.
Monday: Neil brought friends, Laura and Glen, along with son, Aaron, to visit. Aaron - 18 months - has a particular interest in dogs. He certainly got to know a few before the afternoon was out. His other interest is vehicles. He loved my tractor, sitting in the seat and making appropriate engine noises. Dad and Neil secured him in the tractor box as we went for a ride around the property.
With him Neil brought his new high-tech drone. (The old one, after an unplanned dip in the pool, took itself off, never to be seen again.) The new device comes with a gimbals-stabilised camera and is guided via a mobile phone that slips into a remote control frame. The pictures speak for themselves.
The photo above shows the house and most of the (half of the) property that lies within the fence. To the right of the house are a car-port, a wooden hut (that Jones calls the work chalet) and Casa Nada (the Nothing House, so named because it doesn't exist officially).
The main house is anchored in the bedrock of Espargal Hill, 100 metres below the trig point (talefe), Barbara's favourite evening retreat. From the peak one looks down across a switchback of hills and valleys to the coastal strip, 40 minutes away.
And this final shot - rimmed by the mountain range to the north - shows the house overlooking the village that spreads out at the bottom of the hill. About half the houses in the village are out of shot or concealed by the trees.
The trees - mainly carobs, almonds and olives - conceal the bleak, brown, autumn landscape that waits - like Sleeping Beauty - for reviving rains. To our regret, there are none in sight. We continue to irrigate the garden each afternoon. Temps - still climbing into the low 30s - are at last forecast to dip a few degrees.
DEARHEART'S RIGHT EYE IS CAUSING US SOME CONCERN
Wednesday: We hear that a worker on the local construction team has committed suicide - to the shock of his family and all who knew him. We had a nodding acquaintance with the man ourselves as the team has done work around our property. He had earlier been hospitalised with cancer and it's thought the disease might have regressed. Much of Benafim, where he lived, turned out for the funeral. (Jones wonders whether his might have been the figure we saw lying prostrate on Sunday!)
TEXAN SAGE
Thursday: I have taken down suitcases with a view to doing preliminary packing for our Portuguese island holiday later this month. I carefully tried on all the trousers in my cupboard before separating them into those I could still get into and those I couldn't. It's time I did something about an overweening tummy. Jones blames it on muscles left idle by the back support that I habitually wear. I suspect that it's not the only culprit. There must be an app that allows other people to exercise and diet on one's behalf - on the new iPhone X perhaps!
~THE ORPHANS ON GUARD
The planks visible at the base of the gates are to prevent three-legged Pally - in the foreground - from wriggling under the gates and going walkabout - his favourite activity. Despite his handicap (disability for the politically correct), the dog is both swift and agile.
MORE BELLADONNA LILIES
Friday has arrived with a cold wind from the north, with more such days forecast to follow. I think that we can finally close summer's chapter. Deo gratias!
THURSDAY SUNSET
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