On Tuesday May 13 we went to a nice seafood restaurant in Viana do Castelo with our friends Maayan and Dan, to celebrate our anniversary. That's the seaside city about 20 minutes away, and the restaurant was a cozy and unpretentious place with fabulous food. We had an awesome seafood platter similar to what we had some time ago in Matosinhos, with a huge variety of seafood, and we all had a great time. And this time we remembered to Instagram it before we dug in.
We've got a few irons in the fire right now: working on acquiring some adjoining land, getting the pool whipped into shape, remodeling the garage to add a guest room, moving the stair lift control box so it is out of sight, getting solar panels installed, starting up our post-residency applications, and hiring a gardener. Yes, all at once, and none of it makes very interesting reading. We'll report on whatever turns out to be photogenic (or blogogenic).
We did take the morning off on Monday May 19 to check out the
Ponte de Lima biweekly market though. It's a sprawling market very similar to the one in
Espinho which we described in
this post back in September, but not as large. Everything from clothing to crafts to sausage to vegetables was there and we had a good time browsing.
Garbage and recycling (G & R) here in Ponte de Lima and back in Vila Nova de Gaia is different than we're used to in the US. There is no curbside pickup. Households are responsible for taking their G & R to one of many local depositories, where recyclables are segregated into types and trash goes in a dumpster. At first we thought that would be a messy nuisance, but we quickly got used to it. In Gaia we would take our G & R half a block, near the grocery store when we'd go shopping, and it's similar here in Ponte de Lima but we drive instead of walking. It's really no problem, and not much more difficult than taking your garbage cans to the curb and back on garbage day in the US. So it's just a normal part of life for us now. There is also no such thing as "the dump", or transfer station either. If you have large garbage, almost no matter what, you just leave it next to the dumpster and the weekly truck picks it up (if a neighbor hasn't snapped it up first). That's actually more convenient and less wasteful than in the US.
On our way to do some shopping the other day, we pulled up to a G & R depository just as the garbage truck was about to leave. We jumped out to leave a large, heavy box of cardboard scraps with them. As Gerrit began dragging it to the back of the truck, the driver motioned for him to wait. He pulled the truck up a little, and the guys on back jumped off to take our stuff. "Tudo cartão" (all cardboard) Gerrit told them about the big box, and they took all our other stuff from Pat too, with smiles as they drove off. Just a nice little snapshot of how things work around here.
The big box of cardboard actually came from a barbecue which Gerrit just got. He loved his Weber in the US (he says they really are better), and when Pat saw one come on sale we scooted down and bought it. We really made good use of our new lift getting the monstrously heavy box upstairs, and Pat put it together while Gerrit wept over the hideous forms needing filling out to get our goods shipped from the US. The BBQ is a beauty, and Gerrit is looking forward to roasts, chicken, ribs, and fish this summer. It's a Portuguese tradition to grill whole sardines, or larger fish which have been split lengthwise, with nothing but olive oil, salt, and pepper. Gerrit has been using the broiler in the house oven to simulate that, with tasty results, but a real grill with real wood smoke will be ever so much better. He will try to resurrect his favorite America's Test Kitchen rib rub with local ingredients too.
And the guest room project, which started off as a bungalow and morphed into a garage remodel, is out of gas again. We had a project manager working on it with us, but we just couldn't make it work to our satisfaction. We do have two guest rooms available now in the main house, but we want to convert one to an office and hobby room and still have a second guest room available so we can host two families at once, but the plug has been pulled on all that again. Next time we'll get it right.
And it is springtime in Ponte de Lima! Here are some photos of our garden.
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Beautifully colored succulents we have in several places
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This vine is wonderfully fragrant in the late afternoon
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Our ipê tree had gorgeous yellow blossoms which led to these furry coffee-colored pods |
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This tree is at the upper end of the driveway and is beautifully fragrant in bloom
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Also in the front is this yucca-like plant which is now producing lovely big fluffy seed pods.
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(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done. Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)
