30th May CASTELO BRANCO

Well today has had it’s ups and downs. We had a lazy morning then at 1.00 we went to Mark and Glen’s place; it’s a lovely 5.5 acres of, mainly, olive trees; half the land is completely enclosed by a six foot wall built from huge stones. Their house isn’t big, but it’s got room for two floors and again it’s built from huge stones – they’re in the process of putting in the second floor and reroofing. Brett helped them lug out the old roof joists, then they took us for drinks and cake at their local cafe; they go there daily and have the same order every day (coffee and a slice of chocolate cake each).

We took them to Fonte dos Clerigos; Mark is an engineer, he knows how to work out what size beams are required for what span of roof, and the bad news is that it looks as if we’ll have to have a pillar in the middle of both the large buildings, if we don’t want to partition them up. We are only allowed to work with wood – if we wanted to use concrete beams or RSJs we would have to employ an architect, a Portuguese builder and apply for planning permission. The good news is that he agreed that one of the roofs looks fine and shouldn’t need replacing (it already has concrete beams).

As we were showing them around our land we spotted a man, in the field next door, who turned out to be our English neighbour, Gary; he only moved in four days ago. He invited us all in to have a look around his place; he literally lives in two small sheds, with tin roofs and concrete floors. One shed has his bed, a bookcase and toilet (a bucket with a, cut off upside down, traffic cone in it – for a seat) and in the other shed he stored his clothes, food and bottles of water; as he only eats raw food he doesn’t need a kitchen!

He told us he’s been broken into two days running; things are missing and his possessions have been strewn around but no entry appeared to have been forced and the doors and windows were still locked. He thinks it could be the family who sold the place to him, as they could still have keys. He’s reported it to the police but the local policeman happens to be the son of the people who sold it to him (so he would be investigating his own family); the policeman suggested it could have been gipsies. By now a worried Mark and Glen had left; they had travelled to the village in their open truck, containing all their building equipment and tools, which was parked half way along the track to our farm (it was fine).

As Brett was locking up the buildings I was standing by the tank near the house, (which is no longer going to be a plunge pool, well not until it’s been cleaned out and is full of completely clear water), and I saw what I think was an adder swimming in it – it was about a foot long, brown with a diamond pattern running down it’s spine. How cool is that? And scary! Apparently their bites are seldom fatal!