June evening

I am sitting in the garden watching the evening turn to night, feint radio 4 via internet provides a back drop to crickets and night birds, I guess it still defines me as an Englishman abroad. The frogs down at the lake are still talking and there are half a dozen different kind in the fields nearer the house. Its 11 pm and about 18C just warm enough to sit out. The air is filled with the scent of nicotina and the first gardenia flowers, bats flitter about under half a moon and the church bell wakes a few distant dogs.

I have had some American people visiting to help clear the land, soil has been shoveled walls knocked down, rubble carried and a new drive almost completed as well as a good bit of strimming 

 and forest clearing.

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I took them to cliffs and beaches on the way back to their house.

They Went to Vilarrube

and did good swimming out to a sandbank

then did swimming away with the current on purpose

and played American football and did singing and other American things, it was a good time right out of a novel, one I might have been in in the 1970s but wasn't.

I have painted and painted and still there is more painting to do but the outside of the house and the butchers shop look a lot better, photos tomorrow I hope. Most of the inside rooms have been done as well.

Jenny, the boys, Shirley and Derek visited for a week and did lots of cleaning and sorting things and we managed to find time for a few beach adventures including some good pirate kayaking with sandy islands and a whirlpool,  I didn't take enough photos though. Valdovino sand dunes below, one false step and you come right back down.

That is where we were sitting eating and drinking

And below is where else we were sitting, the lawn looks a bit bare but the recent rain has started a lot of grass seed growing so it will green up in a week or two. Where those stakes are next to the brown plant pot is a line of oleander of different colours that will be a hedge and windbreak one day, they are settling in well. Behind the bench seats are 4 flourishing varieties of ginger that will fill the area with scent later in the Summer. Two Brugmansia or Angels Trumpets should be flowering soon, a hairy Japanese fan palm is settling in well and a gardenia is beginning to enjoy its outdoor life. Daphne, rosmary, roses and all sorts of bushes are growing really well. Its kind of like doing part of a painting then sitting back and watching it evolve on its own but it takes years and changes through each year. It also looks a lot better in real life than in the photo.

 Lots of things are changing as spring fades away my last days of properly living here are nearly over, the house will be occupied on a holiday rental basis via http://www.rentalia.com/125628 With the new shower room and other work done on the house along with the work we have done in the garden staring to have an impact the whole property feels like it has become a new place as well.

 I will be leaving on a jet plane pretty soon although I will be back again on and off so the blog will be more intermittent in future. As I sit here uploading photos a cricket starts by my feet and an owl swoops silently landing in the walnut tree briefly then a soundless glide down across the garden a shadow in the moonlight...time for a sip of Hierbas liqor.