Goodbye RWB.. AKA Dave Stroller

I returned last week from two weeks in the UK on Granny duty and took time out to go and visit my old college friend Roger, who was then slowly fading in a hospice near Henley on Thames.

Hard to reconcile the effect of that visit. Hard even to write about it. Here was one of my most lovable, talented friends, music and so much humour in his soul, refuter of the benefits of all things technical that weren't related to music or motorbikes..... looking so fragile and lost.

Yet he was lucid enough then for a few seconds at a time to know who I was and I recognised pleasure in his eyes at seeing me. It just about broke my heart. 
We spent the afternoon together with very little said but it didn't matter.
It was hard to say goodbye when I left his bedside...so I didn't.....I kissed him and told him I would see him again and he took my hand, kissed it in return and I walked away.

At college in the sixties he managed to enroll a 'mythical' student he called Dave Stroller, who over the years, cropped up now and again in conversations, letters and even sent Fraser and me a telegram at our wedding in 1995. No more now though.

August 1995..my wedding day

He was the first person to take me fishing and I actually caught a fish...no idea what it was...but it was a fish.
I left wildflowers on the dashboard of his Metropolitan, which stayed there for  a while. He wrote a poem about them once upon a time.

I should have been in touch more often, taken more care to stay in contact. Still no regrets.... just fond and happy memories.



So now it is time to say goodbye. He died peacefully yesterday 29th July at 14.10 leaving a huge gap in the lives of his family and so many of us who knew him.

We will miss his friendship, talent, jokes and his passion for the river, the blues and motorbikes.
And here for all who knew him.....no more tears let's celebrate his life, love and music.

June, Mow weeds, repeat.

A surprisingly cool summer - so far. A fair amount of rain and all, which has meant some extra mowing as everything is growing at an impressive rate. Lots of flowers as well as weeds so lots of butterflies too.

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Along with keeping the wilderness in check, a bit, we’ve continued doing things to make the place more des-res. First up was an actual gate on the entrance to our water mine

Hopefully it will keep any lost ungulates from committing suicide in our drinking water...Most of what we've been up to have been things  that have languished unfulfilled on our to-do lists for (ahem) a while. A useful, if not beautiful addition was a hatch in the fence behind the log store -     

OK, a bit of a trashy effort, but it works and will make lugging wood into the store a bit smoother than either lugging all around the back yard or poking it through the roof - necessitating the temporary removal of a few tiles...     

The cool mornings are ideal for walking Scraps and Bugs down to the Lake, nicely still full due to the ongoing rains. Bugsy enjoys herding schools of fry and swimming while Scraps argues with things like tree roots (well it might be a deadly eel, eh?

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And here at the end of the month we woke up to discover that our solar water heating storage tank has, um, problems. This is bound to get expensive, watch this space…

 

 

May Doings

Olive blossom

We decided a couple of months ago to put the quinta on the market but it has taken till now to actually get that achieved.

Why are we selling up? Well, we really do love it here but over the past 20 years of moving from place to place we have always quit while ahead. As we get older we realise that we need to do so without so many stairs, aching limbs and maintenance in our lives!!
We have put our hearts, hands and souls into the quinta over the last 10 years and made it a special place to be. We realise just how lucky we are to live here. We don't want, however,  to be in a position of suddenly and without preparation (for whatever reason) having to sell up and move on and  we don't want to live here alone when one of us pops our clogs.

So there we are. I have made a website http://qtamosqueiro.wix.com/qta-do-mosqueiro for prospective buyers, and we have three website agents on the cards at the moment. We don't expect miracles and realise it could take anything up to 3 years to sell...so if you should her of anyone interested in a little spot of peace and beauty then please send them the website. If you have any ideas or know of host websites that we can pay to advertise on then please let us know.

Also we are happy to reward any friend who finds us a buyer so there is a financial incentive too.

We have been really busy tarting and painting and weeding and repairing stuff all over the place. The attic has had a bit of a facelift and is in the process of final painting. 
Weeding and trimming and strimming is still happening since the weather turned from spring sunshine to winter rains, then back to sunshine and a growing frenzy.
James and Adela came over to help out and have a bit of R & R. While the girls sorted and painted the verandah

the boys re-built our log shelter. 

                The cane, plastic and builders net really did us well for 3 years but the winter rain and winds just consumed it.



 So Fraser and James did a pucker job and now we have a solid structure with corrugated roof and guttering. Now we need 12 cubic metres of firewood and we are ready for the winter with dry wood!!!

 

 A Great Job!!!!

James and Adela took a day off and went kayaking, Fraser did the first leg of the journey with them. I couldn't join them sadly as I managed to damage a knuckle joint so would not have been able to paddle.

A spot of hammock time

It was great having them here though and we were really grateful for the help and some quality time spent with J & A too.

They got to meet two of our regulars...Little Red who comes to play with Bugsy if he is in the mood and Dude who is looking very thin these days but always happy to get a head rub!

Fraser has now gone to the UK (traveling back with James) to work with friend Alan doing diverse weird and wonderful constructions and creations for a project of Alan's. 
So I'm holding the fort. 

One big adventure for Bugsy was that he managed to put a young fox at bay right next to the river where we couldn't get to him through the dense uncleared undergrowth. So Fraser had to wade along the shoreline up to his crotch and then his tum to get to Bugsy before he attacked the fox. Scraps went with Fraser but couldn't swim so Fraser had to hold her afloat and snag Bugsy at the same time. Artist friend Diego in Argentina sent this wonderful cartoon of the event. Although he is holding Bugsy aloft instead of having him swim beside him but it is a lovely cartoon.

Bugsy then had another go at the poor thing a few nights later in the next bay to us and he actaully attacked the young fox before I got to him and dragged him off. The little fox was really scared and slunk away limping slightly. We think that Bugs must have done him some harm. It was just rather scary to see him actually attack something though.
I know that it was a natural reaction but it helps me remember that you can never be sure about your dog's temperament when instinct takes over.

OK This Could Be It?

So maybe this is really spring now....stuff is coming up in the garden everywhere including the grass and weeds but the sun has started to stay for longer than 5 minutes so here's hoping that it is here to stay.

I got back from granny duty the UK on 6th April much to the dogs and Fraser's delight, and we had our first bout of sunshine for a week after nearly another month of rain. Poor Fraser was down with another cold and cough but the sunshine helped. In London the weather had been really pretty good the whole time I was there so Lexa and I managed to go out and about most days.

Dinosaur vertebra

Let's go up again Granny!!!!

We had a special day out at the Natural History Museum along with school parties from the rest of London and the world it seemed. But we had a lovely time being intrigued by dinosaurs, bugs and going up into the lava filled middle of the world three times because it was so scary.
 
  Actually managed to be around for Mother's day so had lunch out with Rich and family and Jo's Mum and sister. James and Adela were away that weekend though which was a shame, but managed to have lunch with them both on arrival in London and caught up with James the following weekend just before I flew back to Portugal.

But now that I am back it has been full on..spring cleaning, garden, land and general sorting ready for the summer. And boy there just seems to much of it to sort and clear or clean. Ness and Steve helped with strimming the terraces but they are hairy again after yet another week of rain, fluctuating temperatures and we have even had a few nights where we lit the log burner in the lounge.
We have decided to paint the place this year since it has been at least 5 years since some of the rooms were done. Still waiting for slightly more stable weather so we can keep the doors open to dry quicker.

Easter came and went with little impact on us both apart from an increase in chocolate consumption and we went out for dinner on Fraser's birthday.

I spent this last weekend at an Arts Fair in a local town centre with a large  number of other expats and some Portuguese in collaboration to show what creative talents we have between us. It was a fun weekend where we got to know what other people were doing and we celebrated not only material arts but other talents such as poetry, music, singing, dance and displays of Aikido and Tai Chi. We exhibited some canvases and wall hangings and got to meet some new people.

Last weekend was the local Gardening group's first flower festival in Tábua where I was selling Bric a Brac again for Lili's dog shelter (made 84 euros) as well as putting some entries into the home made liquor, jam, photographic and watercolour competitions. I was also judging entries in the fabric art category..only one entry though and early spring vegetables. Fraser also entered two photos for that category.
It was all good fun- I got third certificate for my jams and for my watercolours and a first for my Limoncello and sloe vodka. Shows where the focus has been,  right? And Fraser got second prize in the photography category.

The food storage shed at Lili's shelter is now up. Thanks to friend Margaret for buying it and for the team that managed to put it up. Lili now is registered as a shelter. All good news

And in the meantime the sleeves are rolled up and it's elbow grease time.
James and Adela are coming over on 14th May to lend a hand which will be much appreciated...gonna leave all the messy stuff for them :)

This is the latest pan of the front entrance and a few close ups below.
Closing with a few shots from out gardens which are just gorgeous at the moment. 
The perfume of jasmine coming in the front of the house and honeysuckle in the kitchen and out back the little orange tree is full of blossom so we are perfumed from all sides. 
And everything seems to have grown because of the rain.

 

Yoyo Winter

It goes and it comes and then goes and then comes..... it's really difficult to sort anything really. But we have been making the most of days that look like they might actually be almost but not entirely unlike winter!

Fraser valiantly completed sanding down the bathroom ceiling and then painted it with a heavy duty waterproof paint that still is stinking the place out after 3 weeks, but at least it is done!

The diverted water channels helped abate the flooding but caused landslips on our terraces as a result.

Not too drastic on our land but our neighbour had  quite a big slip on his land and the water is still running!

But we did have some several days of sunshine which motivated us to get out and about and start clearing up after the winter. Lots of blossom on the fruit trees but not sure if they will come to 'fruition'....:))

Fraser got on with more kennel building for Lili's dog sanctuary.......

 His model of the schooner - Scottish Maid - was painstakingly completed too and is now resplendent in its case.

I did some re upholstery for friends Judy and Geoff, a rocking chair which I really enjoyed doing and we were all pleased with the result.

before...during and after

 Then over the weekend of the Tábua Cheese Fair I had a Bric a Brac stall to raise funds for Lili's dog shelter and managed to raise 177 euros. Elaine helped out. It was knackering but well worth the effort.

The stall and workers

 

Every time one of us goes out, the dogs have a howl, Bugsy invariably starts it, then Scrappy joins in the Harmony... Sylvi is in the UK on Granny duty this week. Bugsy goes and sits by the garage looking up the road...

We have had some sunny days and, of course the dogs make the most of it - so do we.I could do with a decent warm dry spell as I seem to have another cold and my head feels like a lead balloon.

 

We need some more of this!