Ha Ha, bloody cicadas kept me awake most of the night! No bird noises (or barking dogs) though, so it must have been the lights at the campsite that made the birds sing all night.
I had finished my watering by 8.00 a.m. The second lot of radishes are coming through, and some carrots and flat beans; so I’m a little reassured that I’ll be able to grow vegetables now.
Our first job was an absolute stinker; cleaning out the big shed with the concrete floor (which will become our bedroom, bathroom and larder). On Friday I had cleared the beams of 30 years of cobwebs, which were black as they used to have a fire in the corner of the room which must have filled the whole space with smoke. I used an old broom and a stick – it was a bit like making candyfloss at the funfair (the technique not the end product). Brett brushed down the walls and then we both swept the floor (wearing masks!) we brushed up a whole wheelbarrow load of dust and grime. It was a filthy job but the shed looks far more salubrious now. We want to render the walls and put 4”-6” of concrete on the floor (to level it off and make a sound base for tiling) before we leave; then when we come back (after selling the camper) we’ll live in there while we make the house habitable.
Then Brett carried on digging his trench; while I replanted all the vegetable seeds that hadn’t germinated, this time putting them in seed trays and covering with polythene bags to retain the moisture – I hope this works.
Gary turned up carrying two buckets; he was on his way to the builder’s merchant to get some sand. He invited us to the cafe for a house warming drink (he wanted to go at 12.15; we suggested 4.00 so we could get some work done first).
By afternoon it was very hot so we relaxed on our loungers and read until it was time to get ready to meet Gary; Brett had a solar shower (it works quite well), I had a wash out of the bucket as the water in the shower was too hot! We had a pleasant drink in the cafe.
Our nearest supermarket is 20 minutes away; which is about the same distance we had to travel in Wales, unfortunately there isn’t a Siop Laria close by to here, in fact we’ve yet to find a food shop of any type in the village. We bought food for three days; two lots of frozen food in the hope that it would stay frozen in the cool box over night (and perhaps cool our drinks at the same time).
After dinner we went for a walk; Gary had said the quinta at the bottom of our vegetable garden was up for sale (so we were being nosy). This quinta (and Gary’s) is not accessed from our track; we had to walk back towards the village for about a mile and then turn off. It was a lovely walk though we never did find the farm for sale as there is a maze of tracks and paths leading to small plots of land and quintas; we were just walking randomly making up the route as we went. After walking for another mile or so it was starting to get quite dark and our way back was the way we’d come, we’d been walking for over a hour (the track doesn’t intersect our track); so we looked for Gary’s quinta (which fortunately we found) and took a short cut home. Next time we go for a walk we won’t leave so late.
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