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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