A Wider-Angle Lense

It's not all about cob... Especially when it is 40 degrees and there is nowhere to hide...

I have been nursing my left shoulder and crocheting. My cob house stays about 26 degrees, which feels frigid if you come in from outside, but with the windows and doors shutting out the heat it gets a bit claustrophobic. Anyway, I have survived and made a pair of slippers and a tea cozy and a rabbit with clothes. Oh, I have also managed some cobbing, having this great, crazy Irish girl come and swing the pick-axe and muck in.

A week ago we had 'As Montras' in Sao Luis. It is a weekend of music and local artists and artisans and all sorts of other things, organized by the transition group of Sao Luis. (I know, this is the Totness of Alentejo!) Anyway, it's all about showing what people do in our neighbourhood, using the shop windows (as montras in Portuguese) of the shops in the main street leading up to the church. My daughter and I got invited to participate so we filled Hugo's shop window with an iron bed covered in quilts, bunnies, knitting, spinning and some paintings. It looked really cozy. My granddaughter took off with my camera and took lots of photos, a set of which are when a horse and rider dance to a fado singer and a guitar player.

Me and my beautiful daughter outside our 'Montra'.

Every month for the past 12 years there is a market in Sao Luis on the third Sunday of the month. Myself and Renate and Jurgen started it and it has grown into a real social hub. People come out of the woodwork and buy, sell, share stuff and news. This Sunday it was busy! I brought a bunny and Renate put it on her stall where she sells lovely creams, soap, home-made bread, yoga mats, and other good things, alongside her man who sells guitars and percussion instruments.

Figs and almonds from the Algarve and other goodies.

I did some tie-dye the other day. Then made a dress with some of the stuff.

So on we go, keeping busy but trying to stay cool. It's August in Alentejo!

Big Gratitude

You know that feeling when you are half way through a project and you think... OH OH what have I started? Well, I have waves of feelings like this, but then I trot round to the back of my round house and enter the kitchen-to-be and get excited again. It is a lot of work but I have been so lucky and blessed with volunteers who have loved to make cob.

I have reached the bedroom floor level and started to put in the upstairs windows.

And we built the stairs! They are so lovely. Solid cob, except for where we made niches. When you build niches with arches they are so strong. Putting the 'arch' back in architecture.

I hope to have a small balcony in front of the upstairs opening window. The room will not be full height as it is 'mezzanine'.

Marion did some plastering and tried bas relief work. I think she has done a lovely job.

I couldn't have got so far without these lovely earthy airy people. Big gratitude.