Another New Route

For those of you who have enquired, yes, Lenora the Lizard continues to live in our kitchen. She doesn’t stray far from her hiding place during the day BUT, she obviously comes out at night as I believe I heard her in the recycle bag one time plus, there haven’t been any bugs in the kitchen since her arrival and I doubt they go to her! She’s come out a few times when we are in the room and I think I’ve seen her eyes following us however she doesn’t really move much.

A gorgeous day, registering 22 degrees as I write this! We have had all the doors and windows wide open since getting up this morning which gives the birds reason to compete with our classical music!! An early morning trip to the grocery store, an impromptu laundry as I decided to wash all the car windows inside and out, lunch, and then, a lovely walk with one sole purpose, to see if I could find any new flora since our last walk.

It’s interesting to me how things work out. Today as we headed down a familiar route we wandered down a side road that I’ve wandered before but we went about 10 steps more than I had usually gone before turning back and there, right beside us, an old farm road I had never noticed. Off we headed and ended up on a side of the mountain we had never been, in what looked to be an old abandoned orchard. Decrepit old fig trees, long past their prime and so wild that they probably don’t produce fruit any longer. (If they aren’t trimmed from time to time they stop producing). Several large carob trees, again, wild but still bearing fruit. Quite enjoyable to explore and yes, a few new things to be found.

At the base of our driveway there is a small property, that for all intense and purpose looks abandoned but from time to time somebody has been around to clean up a few things. Today I stopped and looked in the gate and although still fairly savage looking, there was such beauty.

The earth right now is very dry and quite parched as we have not had much rain since November. We could use a few days of downpouring but sadly nothing in the forecast. It won’t be long, at this rate, before Portugal is desert!

Loads of small lizard out today, basking in the sunshine no doubt. Also saw a couple of field mice scurrying away from us and a small snake. All these things are much to quick to photograph so you’ll simply have to believe me!

As we climbed to the top of this old field I thought perhaps we might find ourselves back out on the familiar mountain side road however it was a bit circuitous and didn’t seem to get up that high plus there were dogs barking and in the distance what looked like a fairly high stone wall, both motivated us to turn around and head back down the same route, which wasn’t a bad thing as it was enjoyable to see the view in the other direction…..the sea glimmering off in the distance.

Graffiti here is quite common, much of it interesting and detailed. Today we noted a house, one that is occupied and has been in need of a paint job for some time. It seems that they decided to be creative about the wall that goes along the road and is exposed to all the traffic.

I’m delighted to see the fruit trees are starting to produce flowers. In just a couple of weeks the sweet pungent smell of lemon and orange flowers will be making us drunk with happiness.

Also, the almond flowers are just about done for another year and it truly takes no time at all for the fruit to form and grow. This year I am going to pick and enjoy a bunch of young furry green almonds.

And then, when I arrived home, I found this wild flower growing on the terrace.

And, one of my favourites from the walk…….poking it’s little face through a wrought iron fence begging to be in my blog today. How could I say “no” with this beauty.

What a marvelous way to segue into our weekend. Tonight, a lively game of Dixit with Pat and Gary, which I’m certain will provide a few giggles, and as of this moment, no real plans for the next couple of days but that, without doubt, will change.

Fique Ligado