Swinging in the (Algarve) rain

The Fine art of drowning.

I love rain, it fills my water tanks and waters all my  tree

I hate rain, it fills my lungs and wellies and makes me pee

(2009 anon.) 

Happy Birthday Robbie Burns, 250 today but sadly died at only 37, father of 12 kids. Heck two are difficult enough.

The famous Almond Blossom. Signifies wet and rain to me..

They might have sworn Barak Obama in twice, but am I the only one to guess that he is really Bin Laden, his name is an exact anagram!! I leave it to the CIA and FBI to catch up with this advanced theory. To create an alibi, he has appointed Monica Lewinsky as his Secretary of States cleaner..

My latest article is out today in the Algarve resident, if you follow the links to the right.

What weather! Just as work has started to pick up, instant soup. 36mm of rain in 36 hours. My opportunity with Stephen, my first volunteer of 2008 has been really hampered. A good man, good chat and finally forgiven the fact he is a Manchester United fan (the only one West of India I am reliably told).

Stephen struggled to find a place in Portugal to accept his offer of help, I guess it is a bit too cold and sleepy at this time of the year. Other places seem to want money to allow volunteers to help... If you want a good volunteer, contact me and I will send your e mail to him.

 He had laboured away all day in the rain whilst I HAD to do some shopping somewhere deep in a warm shopping centre. I did get a chance at a warm shower at the new swimming pool in Sao Bras (my local town). Two euros, 700 metres of pain and ten minutes of hot water bliss!

Instant lake - dug two days earlier now 1 metre deep. Please stop raining, I am not a duck.

We have progressed a little, we cut the tipi poles from a wood high up above Sao Bras. At 120 euros for twenty, I think it was a reasonable deal and the seller was impressed we cut just twenty, I think he would allowed me a few more - Mr Honest as usual. I returned to his bar just as he was stripping two of the smallest rabbits I've ever seen. Well it is foraging, but I hope he had plenty of bread.

Breaking the current world record for overhanging poles by  a metre or two,

a big sigh of relief when we returned home "sem multa"

The eco bathroon / kitchen has also been rendered this week. We used a mix of two parts fine sand to one part white tile cement. Whilst I know it isn't that eco, it is a lovely soft material to work with and dries slowly. Unfortunately, some of the render fell of the wall during storms overnight, but it was fixable the next morning due to it being slow drying - try that with normal cement. It looks really organic, and having fitted a couple of bottle windows and rounded all the corners, it feels nice. I have already explained to the girlfriend that I intend to live in the tipi and cook , live and love outside. She sighed and predicts I will last a week before the comfy bed beckons. Watch this space!

Eco shower bottle window. I should have used clearer bottles, looks good though.

On one of the wet days, we took a trip to Calvin and Nadines Tipi Centre and then drove up above Monchique to look at a piece of land for sale. One hectare, sloping with a river at the bottom sounded good, but it was North facing and there were not many trees. There was a good fresh water spring, but that was on a neighbours land. It is a beautiful part of the world, rough, natural and unspoilt, like me!

I will keep looking though, I need year round abundant water, south facing, lots of trees and ideally twin Swedish blondes with a pent for naturalism living next door. See you next week (if it ever stops raining...)