A Miracle in a High Vis Vest

Before you read this I feel the need to tell you -  it is only my opinion so don’t be offended.  I realise that there are many schools of thought out there and my research has come from various online sources. 

Portugal sees many modern day pilgrims making their holy way to Fatima and in May the number of pilgrims making this trip swells to thousands.  The history of why people bother to walk miles to Fatima is intriguing:

Back in 1917 three children (Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta) saw a series of ‘apparitions’ in Fatima, delivered by the angel of peace, you can read about these here.  I won’t comment, I don’t want to offend!

Like any good story, the story told by the angel to the children was told in a number of instalments (kind of like Lord of the Rings I guess).  These stories were revealed to the world over a series of stories written by the then Sister Lucy (one of the children).  The vision confided three ‘secrets’ to the children, the first two were revealed by Sister Lucy but the last one has never been publically revealed and in 1960 Sister Lucy was forbidden to reveal the secret by the Pope – I smell a cover up!  And good stories need some intrigue, the children were kidnapped, 70,000 people witnessed a miracle, anti-Russian politics came into play and the church seem to be covering up the final secret !

I smell a Dan Brown novel!

Since this time, thousands of people make their way to Fatima to give thanks and generally throw themselves on the Lord’s mercy.   The modern day pilgrim has a hard time of it, not only do they have to adhere to the health and safety rules of the European Union by wearing their high-vis vest, but  they walk miles along  main roads with juggernauts speeding by, and to top it off, this year it has rained every-day for the past two weeks (but maybe it makes it better – more penance or something?).  All this so you can be at Fatima pushing for your space behind the crowd control barriers!

It would also appear that the mighty arm of commercialism has stepped in to make the romantic pilgrimage image fade into oblivion.  For example, you can buy all your Fatima goodies here - I’m particularly enamoured  by the Our Lady of Fatima Window Cling

All in all this modern day pilgrimage does not invoke the images of walking across the countryside with god in your mind and the sense of community in your spirit, to me it seems sterile and a slow way to ruin your love of walking – but then I am faithless, I’ve already been told by a local man that I’m going ‘straight to hell’’ because I’m not a Catholic.  Well that maybe true, but for me hell would be a walking along the main road from Coimbra to Fatima in a high-vis vest and rain pouring onto my weary head.

The rain came

After an absence of 3 months the rain returned last weekend.  Most of the country is in drought and a significant percentage in ‘severe drought’ despite the brief rainfall at the weekend it looks like we’ll be having a summer with water shortages and high fire risk.   Today we’ve returned to cerulean blue sky, really I should not complain too hard!   What is it about the weather, we all end up like Goldilocks, it’s always ‘too hot, too cold’ and never ‘just right’.

But, Spring has certainly sprung.  From the mimosa in full bloom in the woods, causing people with allergies to cough and splutter to the killer caterpillars..(processional pine caterpillars) and the butterflies dancing around the garden.   Lord has already cut his face searching for lizards in the bushes, a sure sign that things are waking up in the garden!

  

Spring means we wake up the garden, the plants are starting to grow again and Peter’s been digging in our home made compost (where the mice have been nesting over winter).   The veg patch is starting to look good with the promise of veg to come.  The Jersey Royals are sprouting, the broad beans are thriving.

The frosts have claimed a few victims, our bounty of south African daisies has been hit hard, with a hard prune back we have come from a glorious display to twigs sticking out of the earth.

From this

 

To this

The home made greenhouse has come into its own, even if we’ve killed a couple of things off because it’s been too hot in there

 

 

I’m already wondering if I should mow the lawn. 

The lack of water is a big issue, the short sharp rainfall of the weekend will not stop the massive problem Portugal will face if more rain does not fall.   It’s not only the lack of water and the promise of water cuts and communal taps, the real worry is fire.  Without the land having its annual soaking the fire risk increases, the tinder of the bracken and leave debris gets dryer and dryer, it only takes one idiot with a discarded cigarette to start a fire.  Having experienced a fire close at hand last year, I dread the thought of it happening again.  

Rights to the community water, which flows through the ‘lavadar’ system will once again be disputed this year if there is a water shortage.   Many streams and underground streams flow through this area and villages have tapped into this abundance of water by building a system which collects the water and transports it down into the village.  We have a pool in our village where the ‘lavadar’ pipes bring the water. Rights to this water are hotly contested, only a handful of houses have a system in place to transport the water to their gardens (we are one of the lucky ones), but other people think it is communal village water and everyone is entitled to it.   I can see that a water shortage will only increase the risk of these disagreements to the water rights.  It is not helped that our pool is cracked and water escapes quickly from the holding tank.  The local council have told us there is no money to fix the problem, despite the fact that three more round-a-bouts are getting a makeover at the moment with gangs of people working on the ground planting plants and creating sculptures to ‘brighten up’ the roadway!  

Peter continues to believe that my Portuguese lessons are a waste of money.  While I go to a lesson every week, do my homework (sometimes) and practise what I’ve learned that week with neighbours and shopkeepers.  He disappears off to the social club for hours, drinks wine and beer and chatters away to the old men at the bar.   He sometimes gets more than he bargains for though and last night he came hope a little bit squiffy and three just shot ducks in a carrier bag!   So this morning he’s been plucking them and very grossly squeezing their chests to emit a quacking sound!   Queue Donald and Daffy Duck gags here...

Getting out and about

When you live somewhere you never seem to make the most of the benefits of being there.  In London I never really went to the museums or galleries, they were always there so always something to do another day.   Now we live in the mountains, with time on our hands we don’t seem to make the most of the opportunities for making the best of the benefits the area has to offer.  Almost two years ago when we arrived we were out and about every day, exploring, walking and swimming in the local praia fluvial’s every day.  

Peter promised himself that every morning he would walk to the top of the hill our garden backs onto and run down to the stream and take a swim.   It has never happened.   We promised that every Sunday we’d walk up to Coentral, about a 2 hour round trip uphill, stop for a coffee at the cafe at the top then walk back for a lovely hearty lunch.  It happened once!  I said I’d sit outside, learn my Portuguese while looking at the landscape, it’s normally too hot/windy/cold to do that.  Last year we must have swam in the local praia fluvial just a handful of times.

We got the dog, I had images of us taking long walks through the forests, exploring areas inaccessible by car and off the beaten track, taking our lunch with us, sitting under a tree with our feet cooling in the stream.  We got a dog that cannot really be off the lead, and dog walking has become a daily chore!  And while he loves his walks he also loves sitting in his bean-bag bed.

But, on Saturday we changed that, just for the day, but changed it we did.   Packed up our sandwiches, harnessed up Lord (!) and off we went into the forest.   We took a route through the area devastated by the forest fire we had at the end of the summer last year.  It is strangely beautiful, the charcoal of the trees, no dead bracken on the ground, opening up vistas that normally wouldn’t be there.   

 Lord found a black squirrel and chased it up a tree, he took a paddle in the stream and we even sat on a large rock and ate our sandwiches while Lord sat in the water (far too cold for us).

All of this had a motive though, we were heading up to our friend Ferrie’s house to welcome him home after a few months in Holland.  He has a B&B up in Sarnadas and very lovely it is too, with a pool fed directly from the stream and small waterfall his property backs onto.

Being served three strong dark beers while sitting on this terrace in the heat of the winter sun made me think ‘we really should do this more often’!

Read the signs

In 2009/10 there was a brief outcry in the UK about the amount of unnecessary road signs on British roads.  The consumer group called Civic Choice submitted information that there were tens of thousands of excess road signs and that too many signs were confusing and distracting.  

The AA results of a survey can be found here and the Campaign for Plain English also supported some of the findings.

I think this problem has ‘gone global’, well at least ‘gone European’ OK maybe just ‘gone Portuguese’.  There is certainly a road sign disease spreading on the IC8, one of the major highways in Central Portugal.  This disease seems to have reached its peak in the area between the turn off for the IC3 and Castanheira de Pera.  The disease is spreading, the spores of signs scattering along the roadside and new signs growing all the time.

 

In this short distance, it takes just 10 mins to drive, it has been reported to me that there are a whopping 400 plus signs.  I tried to count them recently, I gave up at 234, it got too confusing...had I counted that one before, does it count if it is not on the road but visible from the road etc etc... 

Needless to say, there are plenty of signs, all telling the driver to slow down, turn right, put lights on, turn lights off, I could go on, but this short (and possibly the most boring bit of film ever) video will show you just one small section (sorry, camera on it's side when I took this, but you get the idea).

So, are the signs useful or does someone high up in local government own a sign making business on the side?  Disclaimer - this is a joke by the way, I certainly am not suggesting that this is the case and no one should assume that this is the case. In my opinion, there are just too many signs, each unnecessary one disfigures the landscape just a little bit more, but I do hate to get all preachy about this! 

But, with Portugal having one of the worst road accident death rates in Europe - twice as many people are killed in their cars in Portugal than in Italy, per head of population, and four times as many as in the UK – maybe these signs perform a useful function, maybe Portuguese drivers need the extra help, the added stimulation to keep your mind focused?  Maybe looking at the pretty signs all shinny and bright help to punctuate a drive across country with lively way-points and stimulate the mind into thinking ‘I must slow down, I must turn left’ just maybe we'd be lost without them?

In the end I’m just not sure, but 400 plus signs on a section of road that takes less than 10 mins to drive is surely just a little over the top?

Oranges and lemons

It’s orange and lemon season here in Portugal, so here is a recipe to try out.

If you are using oranges just replace them where I have put lemons.

Ingredients

For the cake

Zest of 3 lemons (from your local tree or supermarket, whichever is closer)

Squeeze of lemon juice

Splash of vanilla extract

6 ounces butter at room temperature (sorry when baking I work in ounces)

6 ounces of light brown sugar

3 medium eggs (from your local hens or supermarket, whichever is closer)

6 ounces self raising flour

For the syrup glaze

Juice of 3 lemons

4 ounces of white sugar

Method

Line a loaf tin.

Put on oven at 180 degrees.

Check out the size of this lemon

Cream together (in a food mixer) the butter and sugar, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the vanilla extract.  Finely grate in the zest of 2 or 3 lemons (more zest more zing to the cake, but I wouldn’t use more than 2 orange zests). 

Add the eggs one at time and mix together.

Add flour and mix (don’t over mix, just do it until it looks like all the flour has mixed in)

Pour into your loaf tin and put in the oven for 25 to 30 mins (check after 25 mins, insert skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean it’s ready, if not then try again in 5 mins).  Don’t open the oven in the first 15 mins of cooking or your cake will sink.

Be careful if you taste it, it'll be hot

Meanwhile, make your syrup glaze,  juice your lemons and put in a saucepan with the sugar.  Heat gently until the sugar has disappeared and the mixture is slightly thicker – so it coats a spoon – bring it to a boil and watch it that it does not boil over.

 Once the cake is cooked bring it out of the over and stick a skewer in it lots of times.   

 Bring over your syrup glaze and pour slowly over the cake, it is amazing how much the cake will ‘drink’.  If  the cake cannot ‘drink’ anymore, leave for a couple of mins for the syrup glaze to soak in and then go back and pour some more over (any left over syrup would be lovely in a vodka and tonic).

Leave the cake in the tin for 20 mins then lift out using the paper to hold it together onto a wire rack.  The cake should have a lovely sheen to the top and be very moist inside.  Serve warm with a cup of tea or posh it up a bit for a pudding with some crème fresh and lemon zest.

Enjoy.