Melon-choly

Another day, another quick morning veggie harvest which I would have preferred to have lasted all morning because the task to follow was more weeding, yeah!!  After working the veggie patches for a couple of days now I had learned where the Daddy Long Legs hung out, I am so glad I had observed these spiders at Varzea da Goncala and learned how they all huddle together in their thousands, otherwise I may have been that pathetic little girl who would have been screaming and freaking out every few minutes as there were thousands of them here too, they seemed to love the Olive tree and the shrub in the centre of the plot.  Todays weeding didn’t seem as bad as Wednesdays, perhaps it was because we got to see the end result, a cleared out bedding plant and a nice new layer of mulch. Just when things couldn’t get more mundane it was time for our cleaning task and after sweeping and mopping I was so unmotivated all I wanted to do was take my well earned siesta…….but no, Olof wanted memory cards so we must go to Lagos, after a couple of refusals the wanted turned to a needed and then a must.  After lasts night dinner I guess it would be nice to go out and have a decent lunch and nice coffee and some chocolate cake?

 

The afternoon didn’t really get much more exciting, we planted some Ko-rabi and Leeks and I was so grateful when the task was completed as all I wanted was to head back to the dorms for my missing siesta.  When I got to the dorm there was a sign on the door asking to be quiet as healing was in progress, when I entered it looked like I had just caught the start of the session.  With Renee on the bed, a guest visitor sat in a meditative position closed her eyes and said.  “close your eyes and think only happy thought’s.” I lay on my bed, wanting to go to sleep but also wanting to find out what would happen next, but nothing else happened –  apart from the fact that Renee started snoring – some 40 minutes had passed, no other words were spoken, and that ladies and gentleman was the healing session!

I had struggled with the pace and tasks of the day and was starting to get itchy fingers which meant only one thing, the lonely planet, it was time to research and plan our final week in Portugal and with Olof moaning even more about his tooth ache I took it upon myself to compile our final weeks itinerary.

Thankfully dinner was much better tonight and Gonçalo had made a sweet, sweet pear crumble which meant seconds were an absolute must, it was a great “pick me up”  and just as I was thinking about hitting the sac – with the lonely planet – Mirka announced that she was making bread if anyone wanted to help and I couldn’t resist.  Outside by the bread oven, Mirka was waiting with five large bowls, we were going to make up five different batches of organic bread.  We made Rye, Carob, Whole Grain and a couple of other mixes using Mirka’s home grown sourdough starter and left the dough to rise overnight, Ricardo had volunteered to place them in the oven early in the morning, it was a lovely way to end the evening.

Anna Conley Written by: