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After the usual morning routine of getting up, you know tea and things like that, I sat down at the computer to check art supply places. I need some better watercolours to work with and bigger paper. I found an art supply in Lisbon that ships, but when trying to get an account, I don’t have a VAT code and they won’t accept my account without it. I have to go down to the tourist place in town and see how to get one. While at the computer and all of a sudden I hear a meow and the black cat jumped into my lap, so sweet talking away to me while I’m trying to type away on the computer. What a little darling he is, as he tucks his head into the crook of my elbow making himself at home.

When the tide comes in the sea it is so powerful it’s almost frightening when you’re close to it. Apparently the currents are really strong and there’s warnings everywhere about that. It is so beautiful. I’ve always been drawn to the sea. I don’t know what it is. My first experience was, other than crossing the Irish sea once, or twice a year as a kid, to go to visit my grandparents with my parents, when we took a trip to Barmouth beach in Wales, and I remember, being fascinated by the waves in the size of them. It took my father 8 hours to drive us there and I recall our excitement when we arrived. We were all clapping and shouting. All six of us in our Austin A30! I was 5 or 6 at the time.

In the evening I can hear the waves much stronger now than before. I suppose that ‘s why this area attracts the surfers so much. The waves are enormous at times. In August the population of the town swells in numbers with a massive music fest, the Festival Sudoeste. Other months it’s the surfers here. For me, I’ve come in the ideal time, the low months where the town is just a sleepy little fishing village.

I haven’t done much today other than domestic duties. I got up earlier than the in last few days, made my tea – it was still chilly in the house. I waited until it was about 10 or 12° outside to open the doors and windows. I did laundry struggling to figure out how to use the machine with the Portuguese instructions. Oh, just put the pile in and wing it!. Didn’t worry about whites & colours. Turn the damn machine on. I did put soap in the drawer of the machine, pressed the start button and it went on beautifully.Wow! I thought maybe I could be hanging my laundry in about half an hour, and be out on the road again. Hahah! An hour later it was still indicating 45 minutes left. I switched the dial to to 15 minutes but the timer was still showing 48 minutes left.??????? It’s lucky that I’m patient with machinery and computer stuff. I turned the machine off. Right? Restart. That’s what you do with computers! ( and sometimes people) and then I reset it for the 15 minutes and pressed start. It worked. After all that time my washing was really clean. I hung it out on the line to dry. Next job – bringing the wood in for later in the day. Sweep the floor. I then made an omelet somewhat scrambled. The eggs are different here, more yellow than at home! I’m not used to gas cooking. The temperatures readings are different than at home and I had no cooking oil so I used butter. All these adaptations!!! I am managing though.

Walking up to the road I decided to go back and stay home today. I plan to get a car in early March. I wouldn’t mind having one now but, not only is it expensive to rent, my initial intention for coming, other than getting away from the cold and snow was to stop rushing around for the first month and relax.

All in all nothing much happened today so I will sign off until tomorrow. Cheers!

Just down the end of my driveway I turn right go on the lane and cross the main road and into the path of the Rota Vincentina and the views are unbelievable.
My intention today is to start teaching myself to do watercolour. Most of you know that my paintings are done in oil & cold wax or encaustic, with a brush the size of a house painting brush, and as you know, I’m also a long time photographer. All that equipment one needs, was too much to think of bringing with me because of the weight, so watercolours and little watercolour pads are what I have.
The views nearby ….beautiful!

Oh I just saw another view that’s probably the next path up. I’m going to have to go back and look at that, as I said, the views are amazing every which way you turn -it’s a spectacular landscape.

OK, starting watercolour today. Any of you experts, please could you send me tips, not that I’ll be able to master anything. My skill level here is limited-I can’t even get the fire started obviously.
Today, I am eating in the Restaurant Odesus ( https://restaurante-odesos.negocio.site/) It’s next to the grocery store where I am going next. And then on to the Farmacia for some sunscreen! The sun is hot here!🤪

️ The restaurant owner’s son started chatting about where I was from in Canada. I said Ontario and he mentioned that a lot of people come through from Quebec. I asked, did they say they’re from Quebec or do they say they’re from Canada? That conversation refers to my long walk in France and Spain 10 years ago when I would arrive at a hostel, and there were many many Quebecers, and when I asked where they from Canada they would say no, Quebec, as if Quebec is not part of Canada. I would always respond to that question, that I was from Canada!
As the conversation went on, he mentioned the number of Indian immigrants in Portugal. I did notice that on my arrival in Lisbon and especially at the bus station. Initially those immigrants learned Portuguese but now there are so many, they can talk to each other and, they don’t have to learn the country’s language. It’s much like in Markham, Ontario today, where even the street names have both English and Chinese not English and French. French is our second language.
In asking this young lad about art supply stores, I mentioned that I needed to get more watercolours. I didn’t check my set before I left, and some colours were missing- the important ones that I would use. The blues are actually nonexistent so I do need something. I could go along to a Chinese store,he said, on the other side of town and they would have them. After my meal I wandered over there but I wasn’t successful. They didn’t have anything in the way of watercolours. They did have brushes and they had a set of oils, not the type I would ever use.

I headed back to the grocery store and then to the pharmacy to get my sunscreen and home.

It’s now an establised routine that as the sun goes down, I close all the windows, close the doors, bring the wood in for the set up of the fire and then I can relax.

I tried to start the fire. No luck so I decided to sit down and have a glass of wine instead. Much more pleasurable.

Finally I did get the fire started. It wasn’t the rip-roaring blaze that Luis managed, but it was a fire! I think I’ll go to bed early. It’s warm under the covers and tomorrow is another day.For all you Ontario residents, it’s only going to be 18 Celsius again tomorrow.

Actually my fire is quite good tonight!

Today was another interesting day.

I had woken up in the middle of the night last night. Actually it was mid early morning around 3am. I checked the fireplace to see if the wood was still burning. I added a little bit to it and then sat down at the computer because I wasn’t tired anymore. I put more in my blog and posted it as you may have seen. I couldn’t get the images on at the time but I did later on.

It was freezing in the house. I put layers on over top of my jammies and then put a hat on and gloves! It’s funny how we can rely on central heating at home. You forget that in a lot of the world, they don’t use it anyway. I tapped away on the computer and checked emails and got myself up-to-date. Somewhere around 4:30 AM, after several cups of tea, I went back to bed keeping the hat on my head, and the fleece over my pajamas. I snuggled down and fell asleep. Next thing I knew it was 9:30 AM. I got myself cleaned up, brushed my teeth, got dressed in layers, had another couple of cups of tea and then, I decided to go outside and walk into town with my walking poles and little fold up bags to get some food shopping. I figured they don’t use plastic here either. Walking up the lane I turned around and came back down to take some layers off. It was hot outside. No, I’m not complaining, but I couldn’t walkif I was sweating already!!!

I walked into town. It was a little farther than I thought it would be but, interesting, and I felt comfortable. First thing was a cup of coffee was a café au lait I used to have when I was last in Spain. It was good but it’s not what I wanted.

After that I walked down the main street to the cliffs and the entrance to the beach. The town is beautiful, so clean, absolutely pristine. And because it’s slow season it’s not busy that’s what I like. After getting a view of my surroundings, I came back up to a restaurant that I thought might be interesting. I ordered the menu of the day.(menu do dia) It happened to be octopus or calamar,i not in the North American style. It was good and I had a lovely salad with it. I skipped the dessert and I also didn’t have it beer or wine with it. I thought I was being really good. I hadn’t eaten in 24 hours so I was thinking I was quite the saint. I paid and left and went over to the Supermercado, that was 2 o’clock in the afternoon and it wasn’t open until 3 o’clock. What a strange hour to open a grocery store! I went back to the restaurant and had a beer losing my sainthood in that choice.

At 3 o’clock I went back into the market and got my food. Prices sure are high! No surprise in that mention. I had so many bags Luís,(my landlord) offered to take them for me later so I could walk home without any weight. I did just tha, left the bags in the restaurant I had just eaten in. On arrival home it was still hot outside.

I sat around, feeling quite sleepy in the sun, and then the sun went down and it got cold again. My ability to light a fire in the fireplace is lacking. I am no firestarter! Several attempts failed. I texted Luís and he said he would help when he got here with my groceries. He didn’t arrive until after 6 PM, not his fault. I feel guilty depending on him. But he did pick my groceries up and they are here now. Well while lighting the fire, we started talking (no, he is lighting my fire-that would take an explosion!) and I learned so much about this environment. By the way, he is an environmentalist. (Coincidence, eh.) He does something down on the Algarve with wind turbines and monitoring how it affects birds. I’ll find more about that later. He is quite the personality, very attractive, probably somewhere around my son’s age.

Around 9 o’clock, his mother called. I think he should’ve been home instead of chatting with an old lady!

To sum it all up, I really like this house, and I think maybe next year this is going to be a holiday home for artist to paint. We could rent both sides of the house and sleep about 10 individuals. The coast line is wild. It’s a Neal Grieg coastline. It would be so great to paint

Tomorrow I will go, the other way up the road to check out the Fisherman’s wharf. Just a brief glimpse of that and I knew I wanted to be there. I’m bringing my camera.

See you later.

I really did have it well organized and my itinerary was printed so that I could follow it!

Arrive in Lisbon.
After getting a new sim card at the terminal, for using in Portugal, I planned to grab the shuttle bus to take me into the city centre bus station so that I could get a bus south down to Zambujeira Do Mar. Simple eh?That’s where it all fell apart. I sat at the shuttle bus station, and no bus arrived. Instead of asking somebody who spoke English, I just sat waiting. A man came up to me, shaking his head and pointing no no no, and then pointed to the sign in the shelter that stated (in Portuguese)that the bus was cancelled permanently??? the lonely planet guide didn’t indicate that! I thought I’d take a regular transport bus into town; by then I was wandering outside the airport with luggage and a backpack! I asked the next driver who opened the door to his bus, if he was going near Sete Rios. No, he said, you need bus 73. I’ll take you to the stop for it. Balancing my luggage in my backpack and my purse at the front of the bus, as he wound around bends really quickly, he let me off at the next stop. No charge! Wait there for bus 73 -within a minute a bus came along 731. No, I need bus 73, I thought, so I waited -buses came and passed. They all had three numbers- was I missing something? Finally I figured out the timetable on the walI of the shelter,waited an hour when the bus number 731 arrived agai,I asked, are you going to the Sete Rios bus station? Yes! Yahoo! I got on! Two euros is the cost to get into the city. Wow. Everybody on the bus was Portuguese. No English was spoken, many talking on their cell phone speakers, phones held away from their faces. Finally at the end of the line I was dropped off at what was supposed to be Sete Rios bus station. Construction just like in Toronto.! The building was being changed. Somehow there was no access. I kept asking people, how do I get to the bus station, Finally I asked Google on my phone and it said I was 6 km away. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t slept on the plane and it was catching up on me. I walked around the construction hauling my luggage on cobblestones.
My phone said I was there. I had arrived, but I could see no opening in the wall to enter anywhere. Buses were parked on the street. I asked one bus driver and he said yes I’ve arrived. It’s there just go a bit farther. There’s an opening and you cross through the entrance to the parking lot And go across in through the door. I had arrived. Finally!
The trip south was interesting. The bus was full and it was Xpress so I assumed I’d get there quickly. (Within 4 hours )We travelled the Coastal Alentejo stopping in Sines, Vila Nova De Milfontes, Porto Cova and then my trip ended in Zambujeira do Mar, my new home for the next two months.

I am writing this at 5 am, Feb. 2nd, at the kitchen table with jammies on, fleece, vest, warm hat and occasionally gloves, drinking green tea. I haven’t had time to shop for food so the last 24 hours have definitely fit into my fasting routine. It is cold and yesterday when I arrived it was warm. Today I will take pictures and post more.

PS… it’s going up to 16 C today!