BARBARA: DAWN OVER ESPARGAL
For the record, this is a standing up blog (as opposed to a sitting down blog). Such uprightness reflects the consideration I am showing to my back in the hope that it will return the compliment. The jury is still out. Meanwhile, back or no back, life goes on.
Last Friday we drove into Faro to collect our Portuguese language competency certificates from the university. A member of staff at the secretariat scrutinized our passports and exam numbers before handing over the certificates and requiring our signatures on her list. Now we await documents from South Africa, not expected for several months.
On Saturday it rained, not sufficiently to awaken the Algibre, but enough to muddy the rock-strewn veld churned up by the wild boar on the far side of the hill. The photo was taken later in the week after we'd removed obstructing rocks and retraced our path. Barbara says she quite likes these porcine ploughings. I don't.
SECRET GARDEN FROM THE SOUTH PATIO
Sunday we bought our planned pool (set for delivery next month) and endeavoured online over brunch to help friends retrieve a parcel from customs. We failed. One can't help feeling that customs have no desire for the public to be united with their parcels. I shudder to think of what chaos Brexit may bring to our Amazon (UK) orders.
The early hours of Monday brought a super wolf blood moon, an eclipse much anticipated by my wife who rose from her bed to photograph it and who was greatly frustrated by the camera's unwillingness to focus. Her close-ups all looked somewhat hazy. Nevertheless, she got a couple of creditable shots.
On Monday, as I unlocked the front door, the postbox key came loose and fell to the hall floor just inside the cat flap. There I left it temporarily on the basis that it wasn't likely to go anywhere until such time as I was in a more key picking-up frame of mind. (Jones occasionally has things to say about my tendency to leave for tomorrow things that don't have to be done today. )
FIRST BEE ORCHID
That night in my dreams I searched fruitlessly in a labyrinth of rooms for the key. First thing on Tuesday I picked the key up and reattached it to the ring. I've enough unsettling dreams without spending my nights hunting for keys.
Barbara continues to make daily visits to Maria, an elderly widow who is recovering from a broken shoulder. We arrived one day to find her television out of order. I did my best to coax it back into life, changing the batteries in the zappers and pressing all the more promising buttons - to no avail. Maria said she ask another neighbour to call the service provider.
On Tuesday, after a visit to Jodi, I spent some time trimming shrubs and deadheading the rose bushes. I had to tread carefully on such traces of the path as remain amidst the sprawling garden greenery.
FIND THE PATH
Nature goes bananas here in winter. Jones speaks vaguely about going back into the garden but the cold wind this week has done nothing to encourage the thought. On a visit to Maria she learned that another visitor had freed a wedged button on the TV zapper and managed to revive the set.
STANDING ORDERS
Like many internet users I have become accustomed to spam emails offering me vigorous sex encounters or a fortune (dear beneficiary) in return for a small fee. One I hadn't come across before arrived in my inbox demanding a substantial payment in bitcoins on pain of sharing my "more intimate pictures". It disclosed one of my early passwords as proof that my computer had been hacked. I declined. I'm not into bitcoins. (Kindly let me know if it turns out that I might have been wiser to pay.)
DAWN BREAKS
Wednesday we ran around doing a host of those things that have to be done but whose doing leaves little record. On reflection, we did a little shopping, gave a document to our lawyer, checked on medical insurance and some other mundane stuff. The only clear memory I have is of feeling that we had accomplished something but I can't remember what it was.
NO SHORTAGE OF LEMONS
Thursday brought a horrible wind. While the lemons don't seem to mind, it's hammering the almond blossom and casting a shadow over the next crop of nuts. Fortunately, the double glazing dulls the sound.
WESTERN HORIZON ON OUR AFTERNOON WALK
Thursday evening: We have enjoyed a leisurely afternoon walk. The dogs are now laid out in their baskets. Jonesy has gone off to visit Maria. It's time to make a fire and wrap up the week. What better way to conclude than with this lovely picture of the setting moon, taken at dawn after the eclipse.
SETTING MOON: BARBARA
Friday: Some days are made in heaven. Today is one such as must have greeted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
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