Finding the levels

  Meter by meter the swale begins to curve around the hillside.  Brambles get dug out and anthills disturbed.  Marian has done a brilliant job of clearing cistus and digging out bramble roots.

Marian's hard work.

Inside the elephant!

 I found this tiger moth outside the house the other day.  If you look at it sideways you can see the face of a tiger, leastways I can.  It had a beautiful sunset red body.

 And we have just about finished the first water tank.  It looks more and more like an elephant's backside.  Because I was the nimblest of us I was the one to render the inside.  Two layers plus the final coating of stuff called Nil, which is just cement and water, which makes a very fine smooth paste.  It felt very sensual to smear it on, wearing latex gloves.  I feel I know the inside of the tank intimately, now!
  Marian had read in the rough guid to Portugal that Beja had a museum, so I said lets go there for a day trip.  Catch a bit of culture.... so we went.  The drive was stunning.  The wild flowers begining to paint the hills yellow, and the gentle undulations as we entered the prairie planes of interior Alentejo.  Then we entered Beja with a cold wind and visited the old convent, which has indeed been turned into a museum.  The church bit was rather grand and pathetic at the same time.  The walls and ceiling were all covered in gold-painted wooden panels, carved and covered in saints.  On closer inspection the whole thing was completely riddled with woodworm.  The place really was a holy miracle!  Or should I say holey...
The cloisters are tiled floor to ceiling in beautiful tiles, and the chapter house had a brightly painted ceiling which I enjoyed seeing.  The religious paintings felt creepy and I felt blessed to not have to suffer a religion so heavy, guilt-ridden and cruel.
Upstairs they had some archeological stuff from the bronze age.  There were some large stones with ancient writing that hasn't been deciphed yet.  Very intriguing.
The castle is in pretty good shape compared to a lot of the castles along the border between Portugal and Spain.  I climbed up the stone spiral staircase to the top, feeling myself walking into the past.  Immaculate stonework.
  I'd say it was worth the trip, even though it felt strange to be a tourist in a place I would usually only go to to do very boring burocratic stuff that required hours of waiting in strange waiting rooms hoping that the paperwork was enough....  Ah, Beja.