Let me kick off with one of Barbara's dawns while I gather my thoughts.
Last week I bought some smart new solar lamps that Slavic and I installed at either end of the carport. At the same time we removed several older models (that had semi-retired themselves) with a view to replacing the batteries. Two of the batteries were large and heavy - not the kind one finds at supermarkets.
So I spent a good deal of time on the internet looking for local suppliers. (Amazon stocked them but the postage prices were outrageous!) Sunday I stumbled online across an outfit called "Only Battery" who operated a shop in nearby Almancil. I carefully noted it location on Google maps.
WE ARE MOVING SHOP
Monday, having confused two intersections, I drove Jones in circles for half an hour on one of those highways that don't let you off again. When we eventually found the shop, we also found a notice, pinned to the window, informing visitors that the business had moved to Ferreiras, about 45 minutes away.
Tuesday - this time with photos of the location - we drove to Ferreiras to obtain the batteries. (I'd checked that they were in stock.) The sales-ladies agreed with me that they ought to update their location online. Next I have to install the batteries, a fiddly job with multiple wires and tiny screws.
Over lunch we admired the azure-winged magpies that were taking turns to bathe in the stone bird-bath in the garden. They are such handsome birds. Each bird would take a dip before splattering the water with its wings and then making way for the next.
Magpies are social creatures. You never see a single individual. They always arrive in groups, sussing the place out from the branches before descending to the bird feeder or the bath.
Still on birds, Barbara one morning discovered a pigeon resting on the jacuzzi cover amid the shallow pools of water left by a shower of rain. As the bird was ringed, we alerted our pigeon-fancier neighbour, one of whose birds had visited us some years ago.
He dropped by to explain that it wasn't his pigeon, but almost certainly one of a dozen or more that had failed to return from a race held in poor weather the previous day. It was probably just resting, he explained, and would be grateful for a drink and some rice grains or bird seed. When Barbara opened the patio door to put seed out, the bird flew off, presumably well rested.
Meanwhile, I've been getting a hard time from a bee (or bees) that object to passers- by on the path we follow each afternoon. Twice this week, at the same spot, an angry insect has buzzed around my head. It harassed me for all of 50 metres as I stumble-fled up the path, cursing and flapping my hat frantically around my head. The dogs thought I'd gone mad. No doubt I cut an exceedingly comic figure although I didn't find it at all funny. The episodes left me breathless and wondering how to avoid a repetition.
Wednesday I was breathless again, this time after carrying Pally 200 metres up the hill to the top gate. The little three-legger is a lot heavier than he looks. I ought to start by saying that I had returned home with the other dogs when I got a "please help" call from Barbara, who had gone looking for Pally.
She found him guarding a large snake that he absolutely refused to abandon. The snake was motionless. Whether it was alive or dead wasn't clear. The only way Jones could budge Pally was to pick him up and carry him back home up a steep, rocky path - twice the distance I had to carry him - until she bumped into me. I hope that the snake is alive and has disappeared by the time we go walking on Thursday.
Thursday - the snake was indeed alive and had taken itself off. Slavic and I spent most of the morning harvesting giant "alexanders". The plants have completely colonised parts of the property. This was one of half a dozen loads that we dumped on Barbara's compost heap - and there's at least a dozen more to come.
By far the toughest job was replacing the water filter with the broken valve. Like a stubborn tooth, the compression fittings securing the old filter fiercely resisted removal and, when we finally got them out, they didn't fit the new one. A trip to the hardware shop in Benafim for adjustment couplings eventually did the trick. It was with some nervousness that I turned the water back on after installing the new filter, but not a drop came from the joints. Slavic had done a good job.
TONGUE ORCHID THAT JONES DISCOVERED IN ONE OF HER POTS
Like South Africa, Portugal has registered its first case(s) of the dreaded coronavirus. So far, they have appeared only in the northern half of the country, far from us, not that distance is much of a factor in its spread. The Portuguese government worries about the impact on its all-important tourist industry. We watch and wait and wonder whether the epidemic will affect our holiday plans later in the year.
Its arrival makes us all the more grateful for the privileged semi-rural life we enjoy among our pets, our plants and our avian visitors - far from the madding crowds. We are lucky people.
AN OLD MASTER: RONBRANDT
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