Spring Bounty, Rainbows, and Swims

We've found an excellent new handyman / electrician.  Marcelo was here Friday May 22 to retrofit all the concealed tubular fluorescent lights here with LEDs, and to replace the four bathroom fans which were clattering themselves (and us) to death.  He was able to get here within days of our contacting him, he was right on time, quoted the whole job very reasonably, and did a great job.  He speaks only a little English, so Gerrit got to try out his Portuguese with him.  Gerrit was told that his Portuguese was "very, very good", but he is sure that Marcelo was just being nice.  It's good to get to know tradespeople who can help like this, and we're sure we'll call on him many times in the future.

Saturday night May 23 a little after midnight we had a huge thunderstorm pass right over us.  Lightning flashed continuously, every couple seconds, and one very bright bolt was immediately followed by an enormous clap of thunder.  It must have struck just a couple hundred meters (yards) away.  The bedroom clocks stayed lit, though, and there was nothing we could do but drift back to sleep after the storm had passed.  In the morning we were relieved to see that the power was still up.  But on closer inspection of the solar system data, the power grid had failed during the storm and was still down!  We had been running on batteries since midnight, and then on direct solar power as the day dawned clear.  We're off the grid, as long as we get some sun!

On Sunday May 24 we saw an exotic hoopoe bird perching right up on our back garden wall.  It was flexing its magnificent crest a little.  By the time we got a camera up it was just turning away to leave, but it was a nice treat to see.  See this post for a little more about hoopoes.

You'd think good old Johnson's Baby Shampoo would be the same the world over, right?  Babies are, why not their shampoo?  Well, there is quite a difference.  There are ingredient restrictions and even cultural adjustments to fragrance and feel, viscosity, the way it foams, and how easily it rinses off.  It even stings the eyes over here!  Gerrit gets blepharitis (red eyelids) occasionally, and when he used the old remedy of washing the eyelids with Johnson's Baby Shampoo over here it smelled funny, felt funny, stung the eyes something fierce, and took a long time to wash off.  Gemini the AI to the rescue: there are indeed differences in Johnson's Baby Shampoo worldwide, this decades-old baby shampoo treatment is no longer recommended, and there are many excellent over-the-counter compounds for blepharitis treatment in Portugal.  Gerrit will take his now thoroughly bloodshot eyes into the pharmacy and try to convince them he's not a wino.

The cherries (which Pat says life is a bowl of) and strawberries are in full bloom in the markets, and Pat's zucchini and cucumber vines are producing by the basket.  She's been harvesting them while they're still young and tender (no bowling-pin zucchinis allowed), and they are so delicious.  We also have a few strawberry plants of our own, and we get a nice ripe one every couple of days.  

By the way, there are roadside stands appearing about this time of year with signs saying "há cerejas", which literally means "there are cherries".  Not "we have cherries", "get your cherries here", or "cherries for sale", but "there are cherries".  So many things don't translate word-for-word.  To say "we have cherries" in Portuguese would be "temos cerejas", but that would sound funny to a Portuguese ear.  Just like "we have cherries" would sound to them as they learn English.  "You have cherries?  Who cares?  Are there cherries?", they might ask.

On Sunday May 24 we had a rain shower late in the afternoon which resulted in this beautiful rainbow, seen from our balcony.  Not to get all picky about such a lovely scene, but why would the region under the rainbow be lighter than the rest of the picture?  It looks like a glowing snow globe bubble.  Maybe the rainbow marks the boundary of a critical viewing angle to the sun, below which the light is refracted differently.  Or something.  Or maybe we shouldn't have selected "Hallmark card" for the photo effect on the camera.

Gerrit took the season's inaugural swim on Tuesday May 26.  It was about 28 C (82 F) and Gerrit was beginning to roast by about 6 PM.  MO (our cleaning robot) has been keeping the pool nice and clean, so Gerrit retracted the cover and jumped in.  It was heavenly, and within minutes his feeling of being a human roast beef was gone.  The pool cover is doing a nice job of absorbing solar heat into the pool.  The top 30 cm or so (1 foot) was significantly warmer than the depths below.  Running the pump automatically for four hours a day mixes up the warm and cool water to an average of about 23 C (73 F) right now, which is perfect for Gerrit but a little chilly for Pat.  She'll be in there in another few weeks.

(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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Late May at Casa da Rocha

 OK, just to justify our existence over the past few weeks, here are some highlights: 

• Caulk showers and replace door gaskets 
• Organize and clear out closets in anticipation of unpacking 
• Fix sticking slider doors 
• Order power supplies for US voltage & frequency conversion where needed 
• Keep track of developments in the garden 
• Repair a broken granite paver in the patio 
• Get a new mattress and start design for a wall bed in a guest room
• Tether the thermometer and chlorine float in the pool by drilling the granite 
• Do weeding and garden maintenance 
• Coat the ipê wood pool cover bench with teak oil 
• Daily physical therapy appointments for Pat 
• Order and get the pool cleaner robot, configure and test 
• Start spring pressure washing the granite 
• Order a new pressure washer when the old one died for the second time 
• Order and install a little railing up a step to the pool 

Not really much to elaborate on, but if we can make it entertaining we will.

We are both practicing Portuguese every day and slowly getting better.  We can both understand about a third of normal speech now, Pat is getting bolder with her exchanges in shops and Gerrit is too, even making small talk sometimes.  When messaging or emailing, Gerrit usually comes up with the Portuguese in his own words, slowly and incompletely, typing it first into the DeepL translator to check that the resulting English is what he intended.  He is sure it isn't fluent native-quality text, but he's getting better and quicker at it.

Here's a bucolic scene of the neighborhood sheep grazing on our middle property level.  The shepherdess is off to the left, out of sight.  Every few days they all come through, and we wave hello.

And here is MO, our new scrubbing pool robot, shuttling across the pool bottom and up a wall.  It does that wall trick by suctioning water in from its underside.  We sat and watched MO's maiden voyage for far too long, hypnotized.

Gerrit now has the main components for producing real US electrical power (120 V sinusoidal, 60 Hz) for use with some of our appliances we brought with us, notably Pat's beloved sewing machine and serger.  He needs to get a few more assembly parts and tools and soon Pat will be stitching again.

On Thursday May 21 we went to the little beach town of Vila Praia de Âncora, about an hour northwest of here, way up in the very northwest corner of Portugal.  We had been invited to an expats lunch with about 20 people there at the Casa dos Caracois restaurant.  We had grilled swordfish and sardines, both excellent, and sat next to some folks from Portland who have been here in Portugal for about three years.  We enjoyed their company, made WhatsApp connections, and will see them at another expats lunch soon.

The town itself is a little fishing village with a large fortress, the Forte da Lagarteira, probably built around 1650.  There are sweeping long sandy beaches, with hardly anyone on them on this lovely May day.  You can see some Camino de Santiago pilgrims or walkers here, on their way to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (northwestern Spain).  We saw many of them passing through town, and we see them in Ponte de Lima too.  They are each on one of the many routes to the cathedral.

Entrance sign at the town center

Detail of the intricate laser-cut iron fisherman

What, you expected a "before" picture?

(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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Our Domestic Adventure

More home improvements are underway here at Pat & Gerrit's Domestic Adventure.  We have our garage door on a battery backup system now so we'll be able to get into the garage even in a total blackout, and we ordered a keypad to mount on the outside so workers can get in there any time too.  We ordered a pool cleaner robot to liberate Gerrit from that big vacuuming job.  It is a little rotary brush tread-driven thing like MO (Microbe Obliterator) in the Pixar movie WALL-E.  MO's favorite expression was "foreign contaminant!" as he scrubbed furiously, and it's what we're naming our robot.  It is battery powered, and crawls around on the pool bottom (and walls!) scrubbing the surfaces and scooping up junk.  And we have our painter and construction guy Rui lined up to replace skylights and re-do a low part in the roof.  That will happen late this summer.

We were so busy nesting that we forgot about the Feiras Novas 200th anniversary celebration in Ponte de Lima on Tuesday May 5!  There were fireworks and a live band, and we slept right through the whole thing.  Here is a post about last year's actual Feiras Novas festival, a huge party and the 199th anniversary, and we plan to attend this year's event this fall too.

Rachel, our furniture sales contact and interior decorator, paid us a visit on Thursday May 7 to take photos and measurements for a couple more pieces of custom furniture.  She did a great job with the main beds, which are now installed, so it will be great to see what she comes up with for the bookshelf and fold-up beds.  We drew up some sketches and dimensions for a couple chests of drawers too.

Pat has had a bad right knee since a serious mountain climbing fall in high school.  She's been putting up with it and reinjuring it ever since, but now she is preparing for a knee replacement procedure this winter.  She went to our favorite hospital in nearby Viana do Castelo on Thursday May 7 for an MRI and X-rays.  High quality modern imaging equipment, both knees, both exams, total €180 ($212) out of pocket, paid for there at the hospital with a credit card just after the procedure.  Health care done right.

As of the 12th it has been rainy and cloudy for most of May.  April was beautiful and clear but May so far has mostly been wet and dark.  We're eager to get to our projects outside, but not in the rain.

On Wednesday May 13 we celebrated our anniversary at an elegant Ponte de Lima restaurant called Pimm's.  (We've never been very good at celebrating our anniversary on our actual anniversary.)  The restaurant is in a renovated farmhouse with thick dark timbers, a huge fireplace, and thick stone walls.  The grounds are beautiful, tasteful and park-like.  They have an extensive Portuguese menu and an even more extensive fine wine list.  We ordered Pernil de Porco no Forno (roast leg of pork) for two, with a bottle of Touriga Nacional wine (a Portuguese grape, a favorite of ours).  The pork was carved at our table by one of the friendly and attentive wait staff, and it was delicious.  By the time our mixed fresh fruit dessert arrived we could hardly eat another bite.  We went home happy.

Earlier that day we had heard a chainsaw nearby, sounding like it was in the grove of eucalyptus trees which our property borders on.  We were hoping the owners weren't cutting the grove down; it's a lovely part of our view.  After a couple dead trees on the end came down, the logging stopped.  They had removed the only obstacle to our view of the medieval Ponte de Lima bridge from our living room!  It was our anniversary gift from the neighbors.  The photo here is the new view from our living room, zoomed 2x, and you can see the bridge and the river Lima serenely off in the distance.

(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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A Gallimaufry of Miscellany

It's pretty easy to take things off the wall so you can paint, but much harder to put them back.  Drywall anchors get damaged during take-down or start to spin on reinstallation, things need to be checked and adjusted for levelness, and mounting hardware gets lost or mixed up.  Gerrit was chipping away at all that for six days after the painters finished, in addition to disassembling beds in two rooms and moving the parts out of the way for the new furniture.  We're all back to normal now, except with new paint.  And it is beautiful!  Our embarrassing wine stain on the ceiling and walls is a thing of the past.

On Thursday Apr 23 the delivery truck from the furniture store arrived, right on time, and a couple energetic young men carried several packages of pieces for two storage beds and two bedside stands upstairs and into the bedless bedrooms.  In about an hour they had them all assembled beautifully, and we now have some lovely new beds with nice storage under them.  Any day now we will start digging into the boxes in the garage containing all our stored Seattle stuff.  We haven't seen the stuff for over three years.  It will be interesting to see the stuff we thought we couldn't live without.

With the help of our intrepid handyman Andrew on Friday Apr 24 we got the disassembled beds and a large heavy bookcase hauled from the house to the garage.  Andrew can use one of the beds himself, the bookcase will work nicely as storage right where it sits in the garage, and we'll find a good home for the other bed.  Andrew also hauled a few of our boxes from the garage up to the front room and we broke into a couple of them.  Gerrit's crowbar!  Pat's Tupperware!  It's like Christmas in April.  Now where are we going to put this stuff...?

Day after day of unbloggable life.  Honest, we're quite busy, but it's just not the kind of stuff that makes exciting copy.  A photo of the newly-mounted vacuum cleaner on the wall?  A blow-by-blow account of Pat's email finally working again after three days and hours of frustration?  We'd lose our dear readers in droves.  Well, there are a few photo-worthy things, like the new beds and Wall Clock 3.0 with its special Summertime Mosquito Fumigator accessory.  You can see a little of the new bedroom paint colors here too.

Makes you wish it was bedtime all day long	Wall Clock 3.0
Bare naked storage bed	Look at all that space!

And yes, it does rain here now and then.  Tuesday Apr 28 we had some thundershowers and drenching rain for a little while.

Pat and our landscape designer Alex continue working on the garden.  The irrigation is almost all installed and is working fine.  Alex has proposed a beautiful plan for what used to be the lawn area next to the swimming pool, and he and Pat have worked out what should be a stunning arrangement of shrubs, vines, and plants there.  Alex roughed it out for us while he was here, with cobblestone markers so we could visualize the paths and flower beds, and it will look gorgeous.

On Friday May 1 our friend Maayan was part of an art exhibit we attended in the big city of Braga, about 45 minutes away.  She showed three drawings she had made, and many works from other artists were shown in the gallery too.  It was well attended by dozens of people, and we had fun seeing her work on display.

Pat and Maayan next to Maayan's art

Her drawings and collages: Woman, Man, and Child

You may recall that our garage cannot easily be entered, in any way, in a total power failure (meaning that the power grid is down, it's dark out, and the solar batteries are empty).  This makes shopping for groceries (or getting to a hospital) difficult.  We decided that a battery backup UPS for the garage door only would be a way around this.  Gerrit bought a UPS a while ago (which was the easy part) and finally got around to actually installing it on the weekend of May 2 and 3.  He used Portuguese (European?) wiring techniques so it looks very professional, and it works great.  No longer will we be trapped here during extended total power failures.

As of Sunday May 3 we have enough home-grown lemons for another batch of Pat's famous limoncello.  She peeled lemons and started the elixir brewing, and in a month we'll be sipping that liquid sunshine.

Our long-staggering bungalow project has finally done a face plant.  In mid-January we engaged a real estate lawyer to see whether we could actually build on our lot, what with fire regulations and zoning, and months later we still don't know.  The lawyers point to the Municipality of Ponte de Lima, who still haven't responded to them, but we're sure the lawyers have not exactly been proactive about this.  We do know that land in Ponte de Lima has recently been re-zoned, and it seems like it's now a snarled mess with nobody willing to take a stand.  If it's this bad to just find out if the construction is possible, think what actually getting a building permit would be like!  We're giving up.  We have two bedrooms in the house we can prepare for guests, and for big crowds we can even put them up nearby.  The 50.000 € ($58,000) cost of a completed, fitted, and plumbed bungalow would buy a lot of Airbnb time for our guests.  We do want a little pool changing room where the bungalow would have been, but that is small scale enough that we can just build it.

(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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