Spring

It's distinctly chilly today, overcast and windy, and the sun is struggling to show through. We lit the fire about one hour ago and have resigned ourselves to a "make and mend" day. It rained heavily during the night and the forecast is for more rain today but it hasn't appeared yet.

Yesterday we drove down through Penalva da Alva in weak sunshine. The mimosa trees are all in bloom and look glorious. So is spring officially here? The festa period has started again this week. We saw people in fancy dress costume, and we are meeting friends in Coja tomorrow to see the carnival floats, then at 1900 hours there will be a firework display on the bridge. Let's hope it warms up a bit, and stays dry.

We are a bit stir crazy to be out walking and exploring the mountains a bit more, but our car isn't four wheel drive, and we daren't risk going up those winding steep mountain roads unless we know it's safe. It's deceiving that while in the valleys it is relatively mild, the Serra da Estrela is swathed in snow.

A look at the Manteigas webcam confirmed our decision to stay low was the right one.

This is Manteigas just before 1300 hours today.



Yesterday we cooked ourselves a romantic meal for Valentine's Day and generally spoilt one another more than usual. There is definitely a feeling of love in the air. Spring is so sexy.

Pneus Tyres

Today the weather has been glorious sunshine. Not sure what has happened to the forecast. Last night the forecast for today was mostly rain, and this morning it had changed to say it would be cloudy mainly. And yet, it must be 15 degrees Celsius or more. It feels like a beautiful May Day in the UK. Our washing that only went out at about 10.30 this morning was bone dry by 13.30 hours.

We had to get a couple of new tyres for the car. We tried a place just off the N17 down a side street, opposite the main turn off for Oliveira do Hospital. The garage had been recommended to us by a friend.

They were already busy with changing tyres on another car when we arrived, so we just loitered in the entrance way until someone came over to see what we needed. The lady spoke a smattering of English, and with our smattering of Portugese we managed to understand one another. We had been told by someone that it comes a bit of a shock to them if you walk straight up to them and begin explaining what you want. Play it cool, be patient, and when they can they will see to you.

She asked us if we wanted new or remoulds. We explained that we wanted new, mid range cost-wise. Then she checked the tyre size, went off for a few minutes, came back and had written down the options. We could go for an Asphalt at 39.50 per tyre, or for another make, for 50.00 euros per tyre. We chose the 39.50 ones. In the UK we usually pay about £30 per tyre so we were quite content.

They instructed us to pull the car in, put it up on a ramp, and within 20 minutes we had paid up and with a friendly goodbye, we were on our way. All in all, a very painless experience.

One thing to take into account is that most of these places seem to shut down entirely over lunch. So we knew that we would either have to hit them mid morning or sometime after 1430 hours to be on the safe side.

We had been procrastinating about changing our tyres because we were a bit worried how we would get on without speaking fluent Portugese. But judging from some of the used tyres discarded at the side of the garage, ours could have lasted another 12 months! Some of them were really bald. And considering the way some people drive over here it's worrying.

While we were driving up the N17 we spotted an Express coach heading in the opposite direction, towards Lisbon. This was just after 11.00 hours. We think they were just about to do a pick up at the next village on the N17 where quite a crowd was gathered (Beira, by the turn off for Galizes). We don't know whether this is a weekly trip, or a daily one, but thought we would record it here for future reference.

Muddy Walkers

Generally the weather has grown a bit milder, but there seems to be a return of rain. We checked the weather forecast yesterday and it looked very promising, only 20% chance of rain, so we set off for a 16km walk SW of Tabua (that we found from a link posted on Expats Portugal ie http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/home.do)

But after only a few miles light rain had started. So we were unlucky there, but unthwarted, we donned our waterproof coats.

Another mile or so along the forest tracks and we came to a stretch that was virtually impassable. Okay we could have done it in thigh length wellies! The forest track had been churned up by some heavy vehicle and it looked like a scene from Glastonbury. Even if we managed to wade through, we didn't know how much more to expect further on. So, a bit disappointed we retraced our steps. We wouldn't even attempt to come back and do this walk until it has been dry weather for a few weeks.

We returned to Tabua, popped to the Post Office to post a birthday card to Shannon, and then we went to the Farmacia. It's been a revelation to be able to buy some drugs over the counter here that in the UK are prescription only. It was one of our worries that we were only able to bring 3 months supply of our prescription drugs from the UK. So we have to pay for them, and they are not cheap, but it's only for the short term. When we move out here permanently we will try and get onto a local doctor's books, and with a Portugal prescription the cost will be way less.

On our way back we stopped off at a little picnic spot at Covas to eat our packed lunch. The sun was out by now and all we could hear were bleating sheep. We were quite amused to see a herd of sheep following a few naughty goats to fresh pastures. The poor old shepherd was blissfully unaware of the exodus until the last few stragglers started running down the hill to join the escapees. We have to admire goats really, even though they ate all our veggies, as they're quite anarchic.

Plug Plants Available

The rain promised yesterday probably appeared after we had actually gone to bed as we never heard it, but the ground was wet this morning. We drove over to Arganil to visit the market. The plant sellers were there with healthy plug plants; cabbages, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, and lettuce.

We bought some vegetables off the market; a huge bunch of fresh watercress and another huge bunch of flat leaf parsely, six juicy vine tomatoes, a lettuce and about half a dozen turnips all for about 5 1/2 euros. Then we had a lovely cafe meio leite in a cafe and treated ourselves to fresh doughnuts. Delicious.

While the weather was overcast, there were glimpses of sunshine, and overall it felt very warm and there was a happy bustle. A lovely morning. Back over towards Oliveira the sunshine was more sparse and now it is raining and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon. Time to light the stove.

Photos taken in February 2010

February photos link

Mata do Desterro - River Alva Walk

We have had three frosty nights in a row. But today it hasn't been the usual endless sunshine we have come to expect following a frost. It's rather overcast and cool, and the forecast suggests that there is a high chance of rain by 1600 hours.

It's now 1530 hours and we have not long lit the wood burning stove. The landlady came over today to sweep the chimney earlier, so hopefully the stove will burn more efficiently. When the stove gets stoked up it puffs smoke back into the room so you have to open all the windows and doors. Last night we just gave up on it as no matter what we did the fire just languished, there was no heat, and the radiators failed to warm up. Even Twig is cold. She tries to get on your lap to warm herself through and it's a bit difficult to type with a laptop and a cat on your lap!

Yesterday we were out walking again, and at the risk of being repetitive, we chose a walk that ran through the Mata do Desterro again (circular route from Senhora do Desterro), but this time the walk continued up into the valley and then ran back down above the River Alva.



It's hard to believe that the water in this river, unless it gets diverted in the meantime, will run past the cottage we are renting (about 20 miles away).

It was fantastic weather, the sunshine was wonderful. We had calibrated the map of the walk onto the gps and though there was a discrepancy of about 20 feet, it served us well. The only problem we had was near the end of the walk where we had to cross a water course that forms part of the hydroelectro works. The path across the water course was blocked by a locked gate. We have notified the site in the hope that they will rework the route so that it prevents others experiencing the same problem. This walk (12km) and other "Percurso Pedestre" are at the Turismo Guarda.pt site. The link also provides routes for cars. As our Portugese is still "muito pobre" we use Babel Fish to translate either words, sentences, paragraphs, or the entire Web page.

Water Supply Fixed

Our water supply is all back on and connected to the mains.

However, it wasn't as straightforward as we had thought it would be. It turns out that the owner of the property is responsible for providing the box, or structure, to house the Council's water meter equipment. That meant that before the council could come and reconnect, our landlady had to sort out a new location for the box to sit, and get it built. Obviously the bank where the box used to be was no longer feasible (eroded), so she arranged to have it sit up against the wall of the house next door so the foundations are solid. It's only a simple structure, nothing too sophisticated.

Once the box was sorted the council arrived, on Monday (1st Feb 2010). There was a gang of about 4 people. They had to dig down to find the main pipe then alter the length of it to fit snugly into the new box. They also reconnected the original meter. The only trouble was we only found out they had arrived and started working when we turned on the tap to find we had no water.

However, within two hours they went, job done. Only they don't connect the water to the house again. That was another job for the owner.

Eventually, we got our water all connected back on, and the meter in situ working perfectly, all in the same day. The water is coming out of the taps cloudy, but clears after a while. It's probably perfectly safe but we tend not to use it for drinking unless it's boiled first.