Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

Three days have literally melted away in a blur of rain, sunshine and a bit of a breeze scented with orange blossoms. Absolutely nothing to complain about! First off, if you haven’t noticed, my blog has a new logo, thanks to my talented friend and graphic artist, Mahmood Reza Jafari. He lives in Tehran and has a Masters in Civil engineering and is currently working as a graphic artist. If you would like to see more of his work as a graphic artist, he’s on Instagram : iammahmoodreza .

Some of my time over the past three days has been spent on learning how to play a replica of an ancient wire strung Irish harp. The strings are struck with the fingernails and it’s a completely different affair from playing keyboard. Thanks to the patience of my teacher, Ann Heymann, I am slowly learning this art form. The harp is a modern reconstruction of the historic harp currently housed at Trinity College University in Dublin, Ireland. The version I’m using was realized by Gary Dover of Vaudreuil-Dorion. I managed to bring it with me thanks to a custom made case constructed by Glenn Cronkite Custom Cases of Minneapolis, MN. USA. The harp weighs 10 kg with the case. The list for baggage with the airline was 23 kg. So, I had a 20 kg oversized piece of luggage to move around. Should have installed wheels. We all arrived in good shape with nothing broken.

Enough of the plugs! Weather wise we had really good down pour of rain on Friday evening. The result is the orange trees are bursting into bloom filling the air with their sweet fragrance. It actually permeates the laundry drying on the clothesline meaning the bed sheets and towels are redolent with the scent. Here are a few images from the past three days:

Sunday in the Algarve, if not all of Portugal, is truly a day off. Businesses and government offices are closed. People spend time with family and friends . Sometimes restaurants are open, sometimes not. Monday comes in with a bang. Everything begins again. For me, it was laundry day, a walk around the Pousada gardens, impromptu afternoon tea with Randy and Marc chez moi and dinner with them with Louise and Michel chez eux. It was wonderful. Here’s a few photos. Oh, and I also saw several storks flying about while I was meandering around in the Pousada gardens.They must have a nest close by, will have to check that out.

Throughout the past week , I have been very aware of the hundreds if not thousands of swallows diving and swooping through the air, slicing the amazing vast blue sea of the Algarve sky. I realized that some of them are nesting in the neighbourhood under the eaves of an abandoned house. I counted carefully and came up with 36 nests. Should be interesting to watch over the next few weeks.

And thus, an end to a marvellous few days. All I can fervently say is obrigado!