FULL MOON OVER ALTE FICA
This is a brief blog, concerned mainly with the paths and ramps that Slavic and I have been building.
For several weeks we have been extending the concrete paths that loop around the park, an acre of terraces and trees beyond the house. I tractor the wet concrete down, Slavic lays it on a damp gravel base, rakes it flat, smooths it out and cuts grooves in it.
Each evening, while Barbara goes to feed her waifs, the dogs and I head down to the dell at the bottom of the park (where they get a treat) and then work our way gradually up the paths to the top of the park (another treat) before completing the circuit back to the house. Takes 20 minutes.
The paths offer us a mud-free circuit on damp days and a route through the waist-high vegetation that rises with the winter rains. The latest paths feed into new reinforced tractor ramps in the picture. The ramps link the lowest level of the park, where the tractor sits, with the terrace above. They are much steeper than the photo indicates.
The process is slow as each load of wet concrete has to be brought down from the cement mixer, which is located beside the sand and gravel heaps in an adjacent field 300 metres away. That's as close as the delivery trucks can get to the house.
Well this is how it looks, paths leading off the new ramps. I'm waiting for the concrete to harden further before using them. Previously I've used a rough and not very reassuring gravel track.
Wednesday, I joined visiting UK friends (Mike and Lyn) in Benafim to admire Manuel's spectacular collection of motorbikes, several of them vintage models. Barely half of the collection is pictured in the photo. Manuel runs the nearby Hamburgo restaurant,
where we joined friends for dinner and conversation that evening.
Also Wednesday I had what is likely to be my last swim of the year. We have been braving the waters at C21*. Under cloudy skies the water has now dipped below 20, which is beyond the pale.
Barbara has spent an hour or so each day, nursing and feeding Braveheart, (seen far left) who has been suffering from ataxia, a condition that has left him staggering around; for some time it has been gradually worsening.
This week he died. I called Slavic, who came around at the end of the day to help us bury him in the field where our dogs lie. We interred him beside Prickles (whose blue bowl you see. Ono is also buried nearby. We find it a comfort still to have them with us.
On Thursday, we fixed up the bricks surrounding Braveheart's grave. To the right lies an empty grave, intended for the next of our ageing pets. Hopefully, it will stand empty for several years yet.
Also Thursday, Barbara took the train to Lisbon to spend a couple of days with Llewellyn and the dogs while Lucia is away travelling for work.
Barbara reported rain and rough seas along the Cascais peninsula. We both woke to light drizzle on Friday morning. I'm hoping for a real shower or two before the sun returns this afternoon. We are desperate for rain.
As I said, brief and mainly about building stuff. Sometimes, that's how it is.
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