Well, it's been COLD!
We are not used to this kind of cold. For so long. Usually it gets cold for a few days, not weeks, and it feels hard to get a room warm, let alone a house. The wood burner works away but to little improvement of temperature... and I have just put the last few logs of old, seasoned firewood in the fire... and madly sawing up bits and pieces of anything that burns to just keep from feeling really cold. The best thing at the moment is the big beach pebble that I warm up on the stove in the evening and put in my bed at night. Bliss. Even the dog knows where to lie on the bed now! Maybe I need two pebbles!
I have also got a new (to me) computer, (thank you Universe!) so it's challenging for a dinasor like myself.
The swallows have not yet returned. I am glad for them due to the temperatures, but I hope they are all right.
I have dug over some of the vegetable garden and two of the long thin terraces on the hill. I put in some broad beans in the terraces and dug up some stray new potatoes which are delicious. The carrots and cabbage seeds all germinated earlier, before the cold set in, and seem to be doing fine. I will plant potatoes in the next few days. Now we can pray for rain.
It is Carnival time in Portugal. Sao Luis is getting a reputation for it's politically incorrect displays. Mostly it's the men who dress up as women and get very drunk. It is quite fascinating and a bit weird. Maybe I could dress up as a man and behave badly... but I'm not sure what that would entail... And would it be fun? Probably not. Seeing them get such pleasure out of wearing tights really makes me wonder. We live in quite a separated society here. There are cafes which women go to and there are cafe/bars which men go to. Some overlap a little. In the evenings, women don't go out. At least Portuguese women don't. I certainly don't as I'm a home-loving person, it's hard to go anywhere after the sun has gone down.
The pizza oven is just about done. Photos to follow when I've learned how to put them onto this computer...
Roll on Spring!
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