Calças-de-cuco (Cuckoo's trousers)
Last week's health warning still holds. The blog editorial committee is divided over the wisdom of trying to show or say something different week after week while conditions are so limiting. And the blog may well take a few weeks' break.
This week's mini drama, presided over by Jones, was played out on the path beside the property. The incident involved two dung beetles, the smaller of which had collected a ball of dung that was coveted by the larger. These creatures are much in evidence at this time of year, generally seen backed up against their little round prizes. My wife, disturbed by the mugging, intervened to protect the smaller beetle's interests, using a leaf to try to keep the mugger at bay.
BIG BEETLE ASTRIDE HIS DUNG BALL
In vain. The thug would not be distracted from his prize. In the end Jones watched helplessly as he made off with the dung, leaving his victim empty-footed. We sometimes come across such beetles lying helpless on their backs, and do our best to right them. It's a tough life on shit street.
The week's two big jobs have been watery ones. Wednesday I turned off the jacuzzi pump with a view to replacing the water with Slavic's assistance the following day. In the event, he couldn't come - car trouble! Jones assisted me instead, first to empty the tub and then to refill it.
It's quite a big job as the jacuzzi sits on the upper patio, which means much raising and lowering of hose pipes, as well as directing the old water on to the appropriate plants. Now we wait a day or two for the jacuzzi to warm up.
Friday dawned sunny and windless, ideal for removing the winter cover from the pool. We were impressed by the clarity of the water that had lain undisturbed for six months. The bulges you can see beneath the cover...
are these three large gym balls that were intended (with partial success) to raise the cover in order to drain off rain water. The rain still collected in pools. When we drained a large one earlier this week, we came across thousands of mosquito larvae. We got the little buggers just in time.
Having removed the cover - it was pretty dusty - we hosed it down and spread it out in the sunshine to dry before folding it up and putting it away. Then we put "the shark" to work to vacuum the bottom of the pool. Now all we need is for it to warm up. Spring is steadily giving way to summer. The car's air conditioning is already working hard on our weekly shop.
Another task was to shear Russ. With their thick coats, both he and Bobby have been struggling on our walks, panting heavily and pausing in the shade to catch their breath whenever the opportunity arises.
Neither of my electric dog clippers was up to the task, even with new blades. In the end I took a pair of scissors to him, hacking out as much wool as I could before thinning out his undercoat with a wire brush. Somewhere along the line, sheep genes got into Russ's family line.
A DRINK AT THE WATER ROCK
For the dogs and us, long walks make up the highlights of our corona-epoch days. We spend the best part of an hour on an extended afternoon circuit,
often listening to the BBC news programs as we make our way along the paths. At night we catch up with the Portuguese news. Portugal's government, like most, is caught between trying to revive the economy without rekindling the spread of the virus.
On our return from the hills, we sit down to biscuits and baggies. There are no words to describe how good they taste after such exertions. The beasts simply collapse for the better part of an hour,
rousing themselves again for supper. I do the dogs' meals. Jonesy does ours. We haven't had any complaints (although Barbara does express the wish that the local restaurant would at least open to do take-aways!)
SALSIFY FLOWER (Tragopogon hybridus)Enough unto the week!
No comments:
Post a Comment