Editor's note: This week's blog is largely about our projects, which are described and illustrated at some length. Readers will be forgiven for skipping through numerous pictures of our preparations to site a wooden hut in our field.
But I begin with our plum picking. This tree at the corner of our field is straining under the burden of a particularly fine crop. What's more, we got to the fruit before the birds did. The easiest way to reach up into the higher branches was either via the raised tractor box or the ladder.
There, not bad for an hour's work. They're delicious too. Barbara stews them and what we don't consume now goes into the freezer for another day.
The next big harvest - more plum trees aside - will be the carobs. The big green beans will blacken over the next few weeks and be ready for picking shortly afterwards.
But that's for the future. This week's big project has been converting the old pen (in which we first kept the orphans), adjacent to the exterior car port, into a suitable site for a wooden shed. Slavic arrived with his beefy mate, Alexander, early on Sunday to set about it. Although they started early, the heat of the day soon caught up with them. The sloping pen was five metres square with a fall of about half a metre. Levelling it up was a much bigger job than we anticipated, mainly because we hit a large rock just below the surface. Lacking a pneumatic hammer, our only option was to bash it - and a great deal of bashing it took - the best part of a very sweaty hour.
With the site roughly levelled, we set about burying the rock fragments and covering the area with gravel, which we hosed down thoroughly in preparation for its concrete topping.
Slavic set several concrete bricks into the gravel to get his levels. The second load of materials I'd ordered didn't turn up in time,
leaving us to finish the fringes later. A roll of heavy fencing wire served to reinforce the concrete slab, not that it will have to bear much weight.
Barbara had thoughtfully put a couple of hamburgers in our shopping basket in anticipation that the workers might be hungry. They certainly were.
While we were at it, Barbara and I cut back the huge agarve on the fringes, taking great care as she did so. Each of those fleshy leaves is fringed with thorns and nosed with a needle-sharp point. And the "juice" from the plant burns the skin. (Barbara needed some soothing lotion applied afterwards.) Pruning encourages the agarve to grow upwards rather than out.
Wednesday we took Liz Brown to lunch at one of the snack bars along the Cabanas village foreshore. There was a sprinkling of tourists, mainly British, surveying the pavement snack bars and idling along the boardwalk.
We stayed well away from an establishment at the far end which had been the scene of a minor covid19 scare. Portugal is coming to terms with several outbreaks just as the tourist season gets underway. Not good, especially as it will not be on the list of "green destinations" approved by the UK.
We were saddened to hear that one of our favourite guests, Poppy, had been diagnosed with cancer, and it was thought kindest to put her down. RIP Poppy. We loved you and we will miss you.
Thursday Slavic returned to complete the concrete slab.
The pavers sitting under the watering can are intended to line the front of the slab in due course.
An aside: I had inadvertently allowed an assistant at Leroy Merlin to load the pavers into the boot of the car without being aware of a plastic bag holding a custard tart and goat's milk cheese. Misshapen as these delicacies were when we rescued them, they tasted just fine.
The last jobs were to line the rear wall with a concrete skirting where the earth had been exposed, and to secure the netting. Now we await the delivery of the materials for the wooden hut - (falsely) promised by Leroy Merlin for today - for which all the preparatory work has been intended.
TIME TO FEED THE BIRDS
Friday afternoon - after shopping and lunch with friends. No delivery yet. I've just spent half an hour trying to follow up on the store's website, first in a "chat" with the so-called (utterly useless) "virtual assistant" (which was very sorry that it didn't understand my questions). It offered me the option of talking to a real assistant before apologising that none were available.
Saturday pm: Last word. We are back from Leroy Merlin to inquire about our non delivery. A young woman, who could not have been less concerned, said they were waiting on the supplier and it wasn't the shop's problem. (Not very) sorry about that!. I have to remind myself that it's sensible not to get oneself worked up about little things that really don't matter one way or another, however irritating.
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