Spring and Sardines

The fourth and last painter came to bid on Tuesday Mar 24.  We're glad we waited; this guy seems great.  He is very knowledgeable and professional, speaks English, and also installs Velux skylights.  This is handy, since one of ours is leaking and needs replacement.  He took one look at a skylight and saw they were not tilted to the proper angle, which he says is the most common reason for leakage.  So we're waiting eagerly for his quote.

Gerrit continues as pool slave.  He finished cleaning up after the filter sand replacement, cleaned the pool vinyl cover, and vacuumed the pool itself.  He refined his vacuuming and backwash techniques using the wealth of knowledge he has been accumulating.  Next he will be testing and adjusting the chemicals and salt once again.

And Pat continues to bond with our kitchen, cooking new recipes, fig and banana breads, healthy cookies, and granola.  She has also been working with our gardener and horticulturalist on irrigating and improving the garden.  They have planted melons, squash, and cucumbers in a sunny spot, which will be beautiful and delicious.

On Wednesday Mar 26 we went to our first PLUNO lunch (Ponte de Lima United Nations Organization, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual UN).  Pat had signed us up a week or two prior.  It's another expat group with members from all over the world (some of whom we already know), who get together monthly at a very nice restaurant atop the highest point in Ponte de Lima.  We had a great time, enjoyed great food, and made new friends.

There are some gorgeous huge eucalyptus trees on our property which are unfortunately shading some of the neighbor's property.  Our neighbor has mentioned this a couple times to our handyman as he worked nearby.  We asked the neighbor over for a visit on Saturday Mar 28 to chat and to discuss it.  We offered him some of our land to plant on, but the problem is shade on his existing olive trees, not new crops.  We couldn't see a good solution for now but parted friends.  Gemini AI came up with a few likely ideas for Gerrit, so he'll propose them to our neighbor.

In the afternoon of Saturday Mar 28 we made the one-hour trip to Matosinhos, near Porto, for a tour of the Nuri brand sardine factory.  Sardines, fresh or canned, are beloved in Portugal, and Nuri ships internationally too.  Sardine-crazy Austria makes up 65% of its exports!  The tour was a benefit for the care of street animals in the Porto area and raised over 400 € ($462) for the cause.  The tour was fun and cute and the tasting afterward was great, but we're not sure we'll do it again.  It was interesting to see how they do almost everything by hand, using the same methods as the founders did in 1920, but it being Saturday there weren't any line workers there and the floor was empty.  We got to do pretend can filling and wrapping though, also digging in a sandbox like children for buried symbols of the trade (a boat, a fish, two empty sardine cans), and watching movie shorts.  A glass of excellent vinho verde with bread and sardines after all that silliness was welcome.

The final product	Old style at the entryway
Factory floor, with marble work tables	Pat in her bunny suit on the pretend assembly line
Manic Gerrit in his sardine-proof bunny suit	The final station, for can labeling
Cool belt-driven machines from the 1920s	Making it all worthwhile

We've been having spectacular weather the last couple of weeks: clear, temperate, and sunny.  Our hot water and electricity have been almost entirely solar-generated, and fresh breezes blow through our sliders ajar.  The air has been smoke-free most of the time, giving us beautiful views of the Ponte de Lima valley.  Glorious!

(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.)

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