Another brick in the wall
Another three weeks, another giant leap forward. Despite most of our photos showing blue skies it has been quite rainy this month, with some torrential downpours. Fortunately, these have been mainly over the weekends so the workmen have been able to crack on. And summer rain, in case we need to remind ourselves, is one of the reasons why we moved up here. So this was the last blog stage:
And now? Well, Richard has made this nifty vid of the house showing what it originally looked like earlier in the year, the various building stages, and how it is today (there is no sound):
He also climbed onto the top of the roof before the tiles were put on and shot the view we can see:
So quite a difference. I have a feeling though that there will be fewer dramatic changes now that the roof is on as so much will be going on inside instead. The workmen have been great which is just as well because our builder, the main bloke, has had another medical issue. It seems that he has had another emergency trip to the hospital. We feared it was his heart again but there was something wrong with his stomach this time. After an operation he was home again and, amazingly for us, the builder blokes tell us he still comes every morning and tells them what to do, as well as checking up on their progress, despite the fact he should be recuperating at home. So once again we wish him a speedy recovery.
Meanwhile we have been driving back and forth to Casa Azul. We are still battling with the council about the necessary paperwork that needs to be available to sell the house. It’s impossible to say how exhausting this has been, not just the effort of the journey (with Betty of course) and the awful bureaucracy but also the emotional side of packing up all our stuff. And deciding what to do with all our things: something to keep? throw away?? give to charity??? We plan to go down again soon, for one final big push as it were, and then Richard will go down for the day with a van and collect the big things that won’t fit in the car. And then, fingers crossed, we plan a final trip for the sale. Great though to enjoy the courtyard again and have a barbie.
Other than that Richard has been having golf lessons, I treated myself to a new sewing machine and we have been out and about. Summer arrived on Friday with temperatures soaring to the mid thirties. So we decided to walk along the Cávado estuary and do some bird watching. Amazingly we saw an osprey fishing, very unusual for this time of the year. Some of you may have spotted yet another article in the Guardian extolling the virtues of Portugal, this one suggesting favourite spots away from the crowd. They certainly could have added the nearby beach at Fão, if only we had brought our togs with us:
