Hot Fun in the Summertime

We have been loving our pool in this hot weather but there is no shade out there, so when we climb out we start to bake.  We've been shopping for a big sun umbrella and got one at the local hardware store.  It does a beautiful job, has 84 kg (185 lb) of ballast in the base to keep it steady, and makes a nice big patch of shade in the late afternoon.  Until a good sized gust of wind comes along and knocks it over.  Good thing it fell the other way from us so we didn't get skewered by an umbrella rib.  Time to increase the ballast or batten that thing down.

We have had many wildfires in the area, including this one just across the Lima river valley which was awfully close to our friends Maayan and Dan. The air has been smoky and sometimes we stay inside huddled with the air conditioning on in the heat.  The firefighters (bombeiros) have been heroic in getting the fires under control.

Our solar panels are finally due to be installed, the second week of August.  Gerrit has been fretting about the sails they will act like in high winds and calculated that we might expect peaks of about 7000 newtons of wind load force (1600 lb) on them.  The plan has been to hold the panel assemblies down with concrete weights, but this is looking less reasonable.  He thinks we will have to anchor them into the poured concrete roof.  We'll be talking that over with the installer shortly.

On Sunday August 3 it was roasting hot.  We had a delicious fruit and smoothie lunch provided by our friends Christoph and Atena, after visiting their almost-remodeled place, and then after some chores we took off for a tour of the countryside in our nice air-conditioned car.  You can see the route here.  We met some free-range goats along one desolate high-altitude road (check out the grampa with the huge horns and beard), and saw some beautiful villages and farms.  Here is a valley view near the little town of Covas.  By this time it was 36 C (97 F).  We began to work our way home through beautiful winding roads and villages we had never seen (even though they were just a few kilometers from home), intent on hopping in the pool.

Did we mention how our solar water heating system can overheat?  Yes, it's unavoidable with our type of system.  When the hot water tank reaches the maximum (75 C, 167 F), the pump which circulates fluid between the solar collectors and the heat exchanger in the hot water tank shuts off to prevent heating the tank to scalding temperatures.  Good for the humans, bad for the collectors.  With the pump off in the middle of a sunny day the collectors can quickly get very hot and there's no way to cool them down.  Gerrit was inattentive one day and they got up to 150 C (302 F)!!  That's like chicken-roasting oven temperature!  We're lucky they didn't blow their pressure release valve.  We are now turning on a trickle of hot water in a bathroom sink on hot clear afternoons, and that seems be be enough to keep the pump circulating and the collectors from blowing their tops.  We are working on finding the proper trickle which we can leave on 24 hours a day during the summer so we have hot water and unexploded collectors without having to babysit it.

We finally found someone who looks like a knowledgeable, reputable, and available contractor for the major projects we have going here.  On Monday August 4 Hugo and his colleague Carlos came by to assess wall demolition, conduit installation for the pool cover, and connecting and fitting out the bungalow.  They grasped the situation quickly, and made some great suggestions for the bungalow and for simplifying the conduit installation too.

We do share our home with a fair amount of local wildlife.  Our housekeeper Inês found these Asian Mud Dauber wasp nests under a sofa cushion, for example.  (They look like like little turds, don't they?)  Good thing nobody sat on them.

(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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Summertime in Calheiros

Here is a view out our back window which Pat captured with a bit of help from the zoom lens.  

Gerrit made up a little story to remember whenever he gets frustrated by multiple word definitions in Portuguese: "He threw a fit because the jacket didn't fit his fit build.  He was fit to be tied."  "Fit" has at least four common definitions in English.  Portuguese is just as messy as any other language, including English.

The heat wave mercifully backed off about July 19; the days became partly cloudy and very pleasant, but here on July 25 we're getting some more heat.  Not as bad, fortunately.

We got the new pool chlorinator cells and they still didn't work!  Same problem as before.  Next thing to try is a new electrolyzer control unit, which Gerrit ordered on July 21.  This better do it.

On Tuesday July 22 Gerrit started taking a sledge hammer to the low stone wall we have along the far end of the pool.  It was built there for the boules court beyond it, but we will use that area for something else (plus clambering over the wall is a shin-busting headache).  After an hour of pouring sweat, only about 1 m (3 feet) of the wall had been partly taken down.  The magnitude of the job was sinking in: time to find someone with a jackhammer.

The following day he picked up our custom-cut granite slabs for building up the pool-cover end of the pool, and learned firsthand how heavy granite is.  He got the slabs hauled up next to the pool with the help of a hand truck and our lift.  He pieced them together and they fit perfectly.  They will eventually be glued onto the patio slabs already there to build up their height, but we need to work out how to get the wiring routed underneath first.

Pat has set up a weekly Tuesday swim get-together with our friend Maayan at the Arcos de Valdevez public pool, about 20 minutes away.  The aquatic center there has beautiful, full size indoor and outdoor pools, where Maayan can swim laps and Pat can get some water-walking exercise.  It's a fun time for them both, and a different swimming experience than our backyard pool.

She is also doing a lot of cooking.  She has bought a Kitchen Aid mixing appliance to replace the one she left behind in the US.  It will be a great all-purpose kitchen appliance, and Gerrit likes that it makes pure ice cream and frozen fruit sorbet too.  She has also made several batches of pastel de nata now, the Portuguese national pastry, and has raised it to an art.

Pat is also taking care of watching for interesting events, pulling Gerrit up out of his git-'er-done rut, and keeping life interesting and fun.  She is also slowly re-stocking our household goods.  And buying way too many herbs, in Gerrit's opinion.  Pat begs to differ: she says she will be adding interest and zip to her vegetable dishes and Gerrit should be pleased about that.

We got our Certificate of Baggage, finally, which is required to allow us to ship our remaining goods from the US here.  But unfortunately somehow our original June 25, 2024 date of entry into Portugal is shown as our start of residency rather than the actual May 2, 2025 date.  That puts us over a year and makes us liable for taxes and duty on our goods.  We're not sure what to do now, but our immigration consultant is exploring our options.  We hope we don't have to restart the entire Certificate process.

The new pool electrolyzer control unit arrived on Thursday July 24.  Gerrit put it in the following day, the job went smoothly, and it began working right away.  So the chlorinator cells have been fine all along!  He put our original chlorinator cell back in and it's got plenty of life left in it.  Oh, well, so now we have two spare cells.

We've made the Saturday farmer's market here part of our weekly routine.  Every Saturday morning we head down there and fill a couple sacks with fresh local produce.  Pat (or Patrícia as she is known here) is getting great at working with the vendors and counting out change, and is becoming friends with many of them.  Last Saturday, July 26, she got a big hug and kisses from one of her favorites.

We are in wildfire season now.  We have had three of them in about the last week, all about 25 km (15 mi) away in a wilderness area east of here, near where the Spanish border jogs south.  The bombeiros (firefighters) have been heroic in getting them all under control quickly.  They are supported by volunteers, and we will be upping our contribution.

(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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First Dip, Craft Beer, and Clean Granite

Wednesday July 9 was our weekly get-together with the expats at the craft beer bar Letraria in the center of Ponte de Lima, and as we left we met four storks strolling through the parking lot.

Then on Saturday we took our first dip in the pool.  The water was 25 C (77 F) so it was a bit nippy for Pat, but Gerrit loved it.  Maybe it's our imagination, but the salt water felt silky.  We thought we felt the same thing in our friends Steve and Lisa's saltwater pool in Florida, so at least we have consistent imaginations.  (Actually the salinity of a saltwater pool is only about 1/10 that of the ocean, so there isn't much difference from fresh.)  It was really great fun, we laughed like kids, and then we sat and admired the view of Ponte de Lima from the best seats in the house.

On Sunday evening July 13 we went with our friends Maayan and Dan to Caminha, a little town north of here almost to the Spanish border, for a craft beer festival.  We each bought small empty glasses for 4 €, which was basically the entry fee, and then beer prices varied.  Many varieties were available, from all over the world.  Everything was cashless -- you just flashed your debit card and within seconds you were enjoying your beer.  We had dinner there too, from one of the many food trucks.  There was live entertainment for most of the festival from an excellent group doing Django Reinhardt style swing/jazz guitar with backup.  We met some English expats there, friends of Maayan and Dan's (and now of us), and had a fun and lively conversation until the festival began to wind down and everyone went home.

On Tuesday July 15 we went to Braga, the third-largest city in Portugal, about 40 minutes away.  We intended to participate in a Quiz Night at a café there with our friends Maayan and Dan and Simona (a friend of Maayan's and a Portugal newcomer).  Unfortunately Quiz Night filled up quickly, so we made our own quiz show by guessing and lying about obscure word definitions, and had a nice dinner at the café.  Here is Pat next to a fountain in the heart of Braga.

Gerrit finally finished pressure washing the black algae off most of the house granite.  It glistens white now, you can see the tiny mica flakes twinkle in the sun and everything looks fresh and new.  We'll see how much algae comes back by next spring.  We're hoping that from now on it will be a relatively quick touch-up job each spring.  We had to do that for tree pollen on the deck at our place back in Seattle too.

Before	After
Before	After
Before	After
Before	After

(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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Portuguese People, Pools, and Provisions

Gerrit's new obsession is our swimming pool.  He's figured out most of how it works from manuals and notes, and the regular maintenance requirements from websites, so look out.  He vacuumed the pool and cleaned the filter himself on Wednesday July 2 for the first time and everything is squeaky clean.  Keeping it that way will be a full time job though, so getting a pool cover installed as soon as possible will really help keep the bugs, leaves, and dirt out.

Unfortunately the saltwater chlorinator is defunct though.  We went to a pool supply center, got some descaler for it, and gave it a good treatment, but it's still not working.  The tech at the pool supply told us that chlorinators are usually good for about five years and ours is eleven years old, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.  Now to find one.  This brand is a little obscure and they seem to be available only in France (if at all).

At least the Google AI (Gemini) was sympathetic and friendly when Gerrit confessed his butane tank latching screwup to it after having asked it what was wrong (see previous post).  Gemini has told him before that reporting actual problem solving helps it learn new solutions to the problem.  But can an AI actually be sympathetic and friendly?  Gerrit is trying to resist the urge to thank it when it is helpful.  He's heard that many gigawatt-hours of energy are wasted by people thanking AIs all over the world.  

Now the grill is going great, and he has slow-cooked a pork roast and a grilled a chicken.  He got the temperature wrong on the pork roast so it was rather dried out, but a little drizzle of olive oil worked surprisingly well to moisturize it without making it taste like salad dressing.  The chicken was excellent, and many more happy BBQs are to come.

On Friday Jul 4 our housekeeper Inês was here doing her normal fabulous job.  We offered her a ride home again, this time warning her a day in advance and definitely not refusing her offer to come in.  Her husband Pedro was there, and they showed us around their beautiful, neat-as-a-pin place.  They have been there for 35 years and the place looks brand new, fresh paint and finishings, everything.  They keep an immaculate house.  They have a small farm with grape vines, a field of corn, and a small orchard of fruit trees.  They invited us to stay for lunch and we had a wonderful time together.

The all-Portuguese conversation flowed freely, believe it or not, with Gerrit handling most of the verbiage and Pat interpreting the non-verbal part.  We talked about our jobs, the political situation in the US, how long we had lived various places, our offspring, and so forth.  It turned out that Pedro is an engineer for Formula 1 race cars!  He travels all over the world for his job.  [EDIT: that was Pedro's son-in-law.  Still not quite getting all the Portuguese!]  We became fast friends, took group photos, and parted on the best of terms.  Boy, it's really not been our experience that the Portuguese are hard to get close to.  They are warm, friendly, and welcoming, they touch and hug readily, and they love to celebrate.  It's quite an honor to be included with their friends and family.

Another language success story was at the local swimming pool supply, where no one speaks English.  We've been in a couple times now, needing to talk tech about chlorinator cleaning and other things, so Gerrit plunged in and mostly got his point across.  It's amazing what you can talk about using only the present tense, with the vocabulary of a six year old, and some mental tap dancing to find words you know to express the things you can't.  The patient and friendly staff there help, too.

We went to one of our favorite local restaurants for lunch, but it was deserted.  There was a note written on notebook paper taped to the door with just one word: férias (vacation).  We had to laugh, it was so Portuguese!  No "sorry we missed you", no return date, just a simple "we're gone".  The sign has been up about a week now.

Here's a new translation we just ran across: to pet an animal is "fazer festas a", literally "to make parties at".  What a sweet image!  Both the owner and the pet, having little parties.

Gerrit decided he wanted to drain some of the pool, because too much salt had been added.  He did some math to determine how low we needed to bring the water line to achieve the desired ppm of salt, strung together some dryer hose for a drain pipe, disassembled part of the plumbing in the pool equipment room, and several hours later had drained the water level down to the target.  Then for several more hours he added  fresh water, enough to bring the pool level up again, and the salt level was now exactly right.  (See?  He's obsessed.  Please send help.)

On Sunday July 6 we decided to take a break from pressure washing and gardening (it was getting roasting hot) so we headed to the coastal city of Viana do Castelo and then north a bit till we found a coastal seafood restaurant.  We really want some more of those Portuguese grilled sardines while the season is still high.  But guess what they didn't have on the menu?  Oh well, clams and octopus will have to do.  Both delicious and a nice way to beat the heat in the ocean breezes.

Picture postcard scene near the restaurant	Clams and octopus, half eaten before we remembered to take a picture
Seafood makes Gerrit happy	Atlantic view from the restaurant

And Pat has had her first conversation with a stranger in Portuguese.  She was in line at a Chinese store (one of the popular variety stores, actually called "Chinese stores") and chatted with the woman behind her, who spoke only Portuguese.  They commented on the weather (hot), their purchases, how we lived in Portugal now and how the woman was so pleased about that, how delighted she was that we were from the US (instead of the UK, which is more commonplace) and other friendly talk.  Pat reports that it was natural and low-stress.  And a milestone!  Not only that, but it was her first solo drive on the exciting roads here.

Gerrit has found the chlorinator which our pool system uses at a distributor near Lisbon, and has ordered two of them.  The water chemistry measures in the acceptable range now, so we are just about to dive in for the first time.  The chlorine level is okay as it is now, so we don't need to wait for the new chlorinator.

Gerrit also completed the engineering drawings for the granite risers we need in order to support the upcoming pool cover mechanism and bench.  There are granite suppliers just on the other side of the valley here (who provided the granite for this house, by the way), so we headed there.  Gerrit was rehearsing the Portuguese he'd need to explain it all, but the very helpful employee spoke English quite well and they completed the order to Gerrit's satisfaction.  Total cost for granite and custom cutting was under $100, and it should be ready in a week or two.

(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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Pools and Anniversaries

We've been trying to figure out when the garbage and recycling trucks come through the neighborhood.  The bins seem to be emptied at random times.  Then it dawned on us that it isn't necessary for them to have a regular pickup schedule.  People don't have to bring their cans to the street on a specific day, they just drop off at the garbage areas on their own, so the trucks can come by whenever.  We think that's what's happening: random drop-off and pickup, no schedule required.  It's a relaxed Portuguese way of getting the job done.

Pat found a European Conehead Mantis while she was gardening.  Saturday Night Live coneheads were a meme when Gerrit was mixing sound for his brother Richard's rock band Mantis back in the '70s, so this would have made a great tee shirt.

On Tuesday June 24 our pool maintenance guy Carlos came out for a thorough inspection and cleaning.  He showed us how to operate some things, cleaned the scummy pool till it sparkled, treated it with a chlorine shock, and left it looking all beautiful.  What was a green pond is now a swimming pool.  He will return in a few days for some further work.  He recommended a pool cleaning robot, too.  

But the following day after the pool pump had run about 24 hours it blew a circuit breaker and wouldn't start again.  Carlos said he'd take a look at it.

On Thursday June 26 we celebrated exactly one year in Portugal with a lunch of grilled sardines at a seafood restaurant Pat found in Viana do Castelo, the coastal city about 20 minutes away.  When we arrived here a year ago we had no idea that sardines were such a delicacy in Portugal (also that they are much bigger here than what you find in a can), or that the peak of their season is in June.  Now we're savvy so we took advantage.  Lunch was delicious, and we can't wait to grill our own.  Here's a photo showing the nice old-fashioned decor in the restaurant O Piscador (The Fisherman), and Gerrit badly in need of a haircut.

While we ate we were reflecting on our incredible year here.  It's hard to believe all that we've done!  We started as babes in the woods in an apartment near Porto, learned the ropes, outfitted the place with basic household goods, rented and bought a car, found and purchased a home, moved, installed a lift and handrails, got our residence cards and health system numbers, made close friends and joined groups, got so we could do some minimal communication in Portuguese, got the pool whipped into shape and ordered an automatic pool cover, ordered solar photovoltaic panels, made a few stabs at building a guest house, and all the while found time to explore the beautiful country and rich culture around us.  All this is in the blog here too.  It's fun for us to review, and we hope for you too.

While we were enjoying our sardines in Viana, Carlos came by the house again.  He fixed the pump motor by replacing the motor-start capacitor (just a couple bucks instead of a new pump, can't beat that), cleaned the pool again, did some chemical adjustments, and dropped off some chemicals and equipment including a new brush and a chlorine float.  He also found that our saltwater pool has no salt.

So the following day, Friday June 27, Gerrit headed to the local everything-store Café Martins and picked up 12 bags of pool salt.  He was very thankful for our stair lift, which hoisted 300 kg (660 lb) of salt up to the pool level.  Carlos came by a third time while that was going on, poured in the salt, did some more cleaning and adjustment, and gave Gerrit some explanations about using the whole pool system.  Patient, slow, and English-speaking he is not, so Gerrit used Google Translate as fast as he could and picked up most of what he said.  The total bill for three expert visits and cleanings, chemicals, accessories and repair parts came out to 240 € ($281).

Looking bleak in January

Pond scum under the cover

Clean and pretty

But the salt chlorinator is not starting up.  That's the device which converts the salt to available chlorine, and as salt dissolves into the water the chlorinator should begin its conversion.  Carlos agrees that we should take the chlorinator out and clean it, a regular procedure which may not have been done for a while.  This requires a special cleaning solution, which is readily available locally.  (There are many swimming pool supply and service places around here.)

We had a brainstorm about a better way to get power from our soon-to-be-installed solar panels down to the conversion and battery equipment and connected to the home power and grid, so Gerrit drew up some annotated photos for the installation guy and sent them off.

Gerrit has been having trouble getting the butane tank for his grill connected.  Try as he might he couldn't get the regulator to latch onto the tank.  (Here in Portugal they use a completely different scheme than the propane tank screw threads in the US.)  After two trips to Café Martins and the purchase of a new regulator, he found to his chagrin that he simply wasn't pushing the latch ring down hard enough!  It felt to him like it was about to break, but it wasn't.  When Nuno at Café Martins showed him how to do it, he was filled with envergonhado (embarrassment).  So now, weeks after getting the grill, he has fired it up and is ready for BBQ season.

And he has his pressure washer back, repaired at no cost under warranty.  He checked the warranty, and that is indeed the way they do it here.  The warranty provides for repair during the warranty period, not replacement.  Sensible, except for the customer being out of his equipment for weeks.  It's been very hot here for a few days, 32-36 C (89-97 F), so the pressure washer spray provides a little relief.

(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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Bullfights, Flowers, and a Country Drive

In much of Spain, and some of Portugal too, they still hold bullfights.  These are sporting and thrilling if you're the one with the knives, not so much for the bulls.  The bulls are effectively tortured and then killed.

Another ancient form of the bullfight is the Tourada à Corda, or "bullfight by rope".  The bulls are controlled (to some extent) by ropes tied to their horns while the crowd taunts and teases them.  It's still a dangerous event which tests the participants' nerve, skill, speed, and luck.  When the event is over the bulls, uninjured, are sent back to pasture rather than being killed.

In Ponte de Lima the version of Tourada à Corda is called Vaca das Cordas, and it has been going on for centuries.  It is an annual event, and was held this year on June 18.  The bull is pulled through three turns around an ancient church in the historic town center (shown here), then is brought down to a sandy area next to the Lima river until sundown.  It is a huge affair for locals all around and tourists too.

We got great seats on a stone bulkhead facing the sandy area at the end of the bull run.  People lined up along the medieval bridge by the hundreds to watch too.  Before long, however, so many people had crowded into our area that it was impossible to see anything.  Our friends Maayan and Dan had joined us by this time.  The late afternoon sun was sweltering and the Vaca das Cordas hadn't yet begun.  Since we couldn't see anything anyway through the dense crowd we decided to bail out.

We got seats at a restaurant near the church which the bull was due to circle.  A throng of excited people had already crowded around the church.  Suddenly a cry went up, and since Gerrit was the only one who could get out from our table he went into the throng to see if he could see anything.

And again he was stymied.  People were on others' shoulders, everyone's arms were stretched high with cell phone cameras, and it was impossible to see anything.  The bull was finally there, judging by people's responses, where their cell phones pointed, and the small panicked stampedes of them, but nary a horn was visible.  Dan came out for a while and had a little better luck, but still only a glimpse.

If we're going to see this legendary event next year, we will have to be much more clever.  This year though, we had to just shrug and simply enjoy our dinner out with friends.  Here are a couple shots of the town after the sun had set and the bull had gone home (with a wild tale to tell his friends at his next bull session).

The crowd there was by far the largest we have seen in Ponte de Lima.  It was more like something you would see in a larger city.  There was also a huge stage and sound system set up, which was playing thunderous upbeat pop and Latin most of the time we were there and into the night.  We could still hear it thumping when we got home, about 7 km (4.3 mi) from the stage.  Not loud enough to keep us awake, but it went on until 3 AM!  Party time in Ponte de Lima.

Here is a great video put together by the municipality of Ponte de Lima of the entire event, so you can see what we missed.

The next day, Thursday June 19, was Corpus Christi, a major Catholic holiday.  It is marked all over Portugal with "tapetes de floridos", or carpets of flowers in the streets.  Elaborate pictures and patterns are drawn on the streets with colored sand, colored sawdust, and actual flower petals.  Then a procession from the same church which hosted the bull the previous night marches right over the carpets, obliterating them.  It's a way to remind yourself that everything is transitory and not to get caught up in your ego.  Other cultures and religions around the world have similar ceremonies of elaborate construction and then immediate destruction.

We had a pretty good vantage point at the main door of the church to watch the procession as it started, but next time we will post ourselves somewhere along the procession route.  It would be a reflective lesson to watch those beautiful carpets being destroyed too.

As we waited for the procession to start, we struck up conversations with some of our fellow procession watchers, including a Portuguese woman who currently lives in Massachusetts but was visiting back home.  Her English was excellent, as you might expect.  We also chatted with another tiny old man, a survivor of the Salazar regime.  His Portuguese was very difficult to understand, but we overheard the woman next to Pat speaking a very clear and distinct version, much of which we caught.  It will be easier to understand some natives before others, just like in any language.

There was much more pageantry than shown in the video below, but much of it didn't come out.  We hope you like marching bands.

On Friday June 20 we girded our loins and set out to get our National Health Service (SNS) registration numbers.  This is the mostly free public health care network which is universally available to citizens and residents.  We will use the network, and we also need SNS numbers for other things like driver's licenses.

We found our way to the Ponte de Lima Health Center, where SNS numbers are assigned.  It took three tries at three different clinics before we found the right department, then dumb luck to find the correct administrator.  Signage all over was pretty sparse.  The secretary pointed to a posted list of documents required, all of which we had except a list of our vaccinations.  Printed.  On paper.  None of that, of course, is specified anywhere and seems to be unique to this Ponte de Lima clinic.  The administrator was friendly but firm, so back home we trudged to dig that information up and print it out.  Or maybe go to another clinic. 

On Sunday June 22 we got lots of chores done around the pool and garden since it was cool and would be hot later.  After lunch we set out on one of our favorite pastimes: driving small country roads with no idea where we're going.  We turned north from the nearby village of Refóios do Lima and wandered through tiny lanes and country roads.  Here are some shots from the drive.

And on Monday June 23 we returned to the Health Center to try again with our vaccination documents included this time.  The same friendly secretary was there, but now we learned that they won't scan our passports and registration cards, we need to provide printed paper copies of them too.  Maybe she told us that last time and we missed it.  Anyway, we went to a nearby copy center, had a delightful chat in mostly Portuguese with the clerk there while our copies were made, returned to the clinic, and seconds later we were on our way.  We will be notified when our actual SNS numbers are ready.  All we had to do was get every one of our documentation ducks in a row and they paddled right through the gate.

(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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Viva Vinho Verde!

Friday June 13 was the start of the three-day Festival of Vinho Verde in Ponte de Lima.  Like we said, they take their vinho verde (a crisp, low-alcohol, slightly fizzy white wine) seriously around here.  About 5:20 we drove down to the historic city center, where a street party was to have kicked off the celebrations at 5:00, but it was practically deserted.  We sat puzzled for a while, then moved to the exposition center parking lot a short distance away where later events were supposed to take place.  We found where the judges were announcing the winners of the vinho verde competition in an open plaza in front of a bold new bronze statue.  A grand piano had been placed there, and a soprano and pianist in formal classical concert attire performed what sounded like a Schubert lied (pronounced "leed").  The judges were all dressed in formal suits and gowns too, a very formal occasion, and they gave long tributes to the winners.  At least we think that's what they were on about.

After a while we meandered over to the equestrian area, still not finding any street party, where dozens of booths had been set up for winemakers and food vendors.  We sipped a few and made a little small talk with the winemakers.  After a while a large crowd trailing behind the contest judges started coming through, as the judges gave the actual awards to the select few proud winners.  We watched as a winemaker whose wine we had just tasted received an award, with congratulations and photographs, and as soon as the crowd thinned we said to each other "we want some of that".  To our credit we had thought the taste we'd had there was "really good" (using the official oenophile term), so it was nice to see that the judges agreed.

With two glasses of Caça Velho in hand (well, actually in these clever little bags around our necks, picked up as we entered the festival grounds), we found some Portuguese street food and sat at a nearby picnic table to enjoy it all.  The crowd was building and we ran into a few friends and made some new ones.  Finally, well before the band at the huge rock stage started signaling Portuguese party time, we left for home.  Night owls we are not.  We planned to come back the following night, resolved to stay up till 10 PM if it killed us.  Oh my.

Saturday morning was a little drizzly and we went for a drive on the way back from shopping.  Here is a picture of a nice little riverside park and fountain in the village of Arcozelo near us.

We had another great time at the Festival that evening and did in fact manage to almost stay up for the 10 PM show.  There was a Brazilian band playing when we arrived (video below), we met many friends again, sampled more wines, and bought a few bottles.  We had a cheese and charcuterie platter for dinner this time, and sat with our expat friends Phil and Odette.

And to round out the entire festival we went on Sunday too.  The events were earlier in the day that day.  We watched a ceremony and performance of several folk dancing and singing groups, in their beautiful traditional costumes.  The music and dancing were wonderful, but the solo singers were not so good.  They were shouting, shrill and out of tune, and way too loud.  They needed a good sound man, Gerrit thinks.

On our way out we visited some of our favorite winemakers and stocked up on a few final bottles.  At the last stop a tiny old white-haired man struck up a conversation with Gerrit.  We told him we lived in Portugal now, how much we loved it, and he wholeheartedly agreed, holding Gerrit's arm and extolling the beauty of the countryside, the food, the wine, and the girls.  We learned the correct pronunciation of our home village Calheiros from several of the bystanders when Gerrit mispronounced it more like "caleiras" (which means "gutters").  The velho (old man) told us he was about to celebrate his 90th birthday.  We had a great time visiting with him for a few minutes and left the best of friends.

We see the occasional tiny Portuguese adults, only maybe 1.4 to 1.5 m (4-1/2 to 5 ft) tall.  They are all older, like our festival friend.  This is a result of poor nutrition when young, and was specifically aggravated by the poverty conditions during the Salazar dictatorship which ended in 1970.  (By the way, J. K. Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter series, lived in Portugal for a couple years and did much writing here.  She named an evil villain character Salazar Slytherin after the dictator.)

Tuesday June 17 was a busy morning.  We had our energetic and hardworking gardeners Rosa and Emília here for the second time, whirling through the rest of the yard they didn't get to last time and taking care of some other things Pat wanted done.  We also carefully took down the weathered old tripod which the ipê tree was lashed to, since it is no longer necessary.  The ipê is now standing free and pretty.  The place is really getting spruced up.  Our handyman Andrew came by too, and continued slashing some weed trees which are invading the lower property.

We also had a technician from the pool cover company come by for on-site measurements.  Pat and I pulled the old cover off the pool before he arrived, and found greenish hazy water, dirt, and leaves under there.  Some cleanup will be required.  The pool cover tech had flown in from Spain and spoke only Spanish, so we made good use of our phone translators along with our pidgin.  He described a way of installing the cover mechanism and bench so we could access the skimmer filter baskets, and also the wiring installation we would need to complete before the cover could be installed.  The pool will probably take most of the summer to whip into shape.

(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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Stitching and Mending

On Sunday June 8 we had plans to go to the cherry festival in the inland town of Resende with our friends Maayan and Dan, but the day prior we all decided it would be too hot there with temperatures expected in the mid-30s C (well over 90 F).  As if on cue our friend Bernardo then invited us to lunch at a cooler oceanside restaurant with his family and some friends.

The restaurant was north of Porto, about an hour's drive south of us.  The weather was breezy and temperate, we sat outside, and we all had a great time and shared some fresh Portuguese seafood.  The main course was grilled turbot, a delicious white fish.  We met another American expat couple there, Sande and Lloyd, from northern California, who have been in Portugal since last September.  Sande lived and studied in Brazil for several years, so she spoke Portuguese quite well.  The conversation was an interesting mix of Portuguese and English, with Sande and Bernardo interpreting sometimes.  We got a good deal of the Portuguese on our own too, which was quite exciting.  Below is the best of four group photos.  Too bad it looks like Gerrit was hurling.

Restaurant scenery

The main course

The happy group (minus one)

Gerrit had the best language experience ever when we went shopping on the following day: he was recruited as an actual interpreter!  At the hardware store (where we are quite regular customers) an English-only customer was trying to work a deal on a lawn tractor with Carlos, one of our favorite employees there.  Carlos caught sight of Gerrit and motioned for his help.  Gerrit told the customer he spoke a little Portuguese and maybe he could help.  He went back and forth between them, switching languages and explaining to each of them what the other wanted, using the simple words he knows.  A deal was struck including a price match, complete with home delivery, and Gerrit left feeling pretty proud of himself.

Then at the checkout line we met the customer again.  The clerk there was not sure that he understood about the credit he had earned on his account with his purchase and her English was weak, so she turned to Gerrit (whom she knew spoke English) and asked for his help.  Gerrit explained the credit to the guy and all was well.  What a thrill!

Later we were at a huge cash-and-carry store, similar to a Costco, for the first time.  We picked up a big jug of a special super-eco-friendly biodegradable detergent, made in Portugal, but weren't sure whether individuals could shop there or only businesses.  At the checkout two clerks were trying to explain it to us.  They were sincerely trying to help but we weren't getting it very well.  They asked if we had financial numbers (NIFs) which we did, but they seemed to need a card showing that.  Finally we understood that they were asking for a business NIF, but it was fine to shop there as individual customers too.  We all smiled in relief, we paid, and then one of the clerks came over to help us to the car.  He carried the big jug and cheerfully wished us a good week.  We thanked him, shook his hand, and left, quite overwhelmed (again) with the kindness and decency we find here all the time.

All this shopping happened in the morning, before it started getting roasting hot.  It got up to 34 C (93 F) in the afternoon and we turned on the home air conditioning for the first time.  Even set to 27 C (81 F) it provides blessed relief, both due to the cooling and the blowing air too.  We are still on conventional electric power, so when we use A/C it pulls from the grid and costs us too.  Soon, within a few weeks, we'll have our own solar panels and the equation changes.  At that point we will actually unload the grid, even when we use heating or A/C, as long as there is some daylight or battery.  We'll be creating our own electricity and being less (or none) of a burden on the grid.  It seems like cheating.  We've always thought "gotta save power", but soon that will hardly ever apply.

Pat has worked up another batch of limoncello, again from our own lemons.  She makes the best limoncello, better than any commercial varieties we have tried.  The peels need to be marinated in vodka for four weeks, agitating them daily, and then the nectar is strained and a simple syrup is added.  The latest batch has just emerged and it is delicious!  Liquid citrus sunshine (which will be the title of our next indie song).

There is a small patch of adjoining land above us which is for sale, but the owner wants a ridiculous price for it.  With the help of our real-estate friend Bernardo we said no thanks, but that the land does need to be maintained and thinned for wildfire safety for us and for our neighbor.  We didn't think anything would actually come of that, but on Tuesday June 10 a crew showed up and started felling trees.  They seem to know what they're doing, tying off the trees so they don't fall on our property, and it will make for a safer wildfire season.  We'll miss having the trees 15 m (50 ft) outside our back door, but the law says they do need to be cleared for fire safety.  And maybe someday the seller will come to their senses and we can buy the land and re-landscape.

Pat visited the big aquatic center in the nearby town of Arcos de Valdevez with Maayan on Thursday June 12, and they both had a good swim in the big pool there.  They are both water lovers, Maayan has been swimming there a long time, and they think this will become a regular thing.

We are on the mend.  Pat has some good topical antihistamine for her mosquito bites, and we have found a good solution for mosquitoes in the bedroom at night: one of those wall-outlet insecticide vapor gadgets.  Pat found one which uses pyrethrin, derived from chrysanthemums, which is not toxic for humans and has no odor.  It's been a few nights with that and we've been bite-free in the mornings.  Ahh...  And Gerrit's knee has been healing nicely with very little pain or weakness remaining.  He is back on the rowing machine daily, resuming his workouts gently and keeping to minimal knee bending, and everything is fine.  It's sobering how fragile you get as you age and how long it takes to recover.

(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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