We wanted rain.
Portugal has been dry since last years horrible fires and worries about water reserves and droughts are rightfully gaining political attention.
We've been here since the end of last November and maybe saw a cumulative 15 minutes of showers since. Endless blue sky and starlight. Until this past week. Now It is pouring hard at best, simply showering at worst, be we are getting water, lots and of it. We are high enough to often be in the clouds. Cool, but not as in Comfortable. Yet Cool because we asked for it and are very happy to be getting it.
We are now indeed in the region's rainy period. A time many are busy preparing for the season to come. and if what we are told unfolds we will soon see the sun settle in for a good 9-10 months, shining for the Algarve to bloom for the delight of it's patrons. We are getting more and more excited at being part of it.
The renovations are moving fast now and we start to focus on details and timing. As in "We have less time and more details". We were very fortunate in our timing to start the renovations when we did because it is becoming harder to find good people to do the jobs and time lines begin to slip. The country has been doing incrementally and sustainable well these past 2 years, leading a boom record tourist season last year, so I suspect the business activity is now even higher as many will hope for an even better 2018. But we are near completing our works and we've been very fortunate to have Yves Van de Loo and his crew at Urbidynamic Lda, Yves drops by for coffee 3-4 times a week and we hope he still does well after the job is done. We would fully recommend him already.
What remains is squarely on our shoulders. Soooo many things to do. Soooo fun to be doing it :-)
Having guests means higher standards and regulations. The up most being safety and here it's all about fire prevention. So we are also busy, as required by law and echoed all over the land, tis' the season to trim and cut and clear and...ironically...burn green waste, cuz there is not anywhere else to put it and it's illegal not to get rid of it. And it all needs to be done by March 15th thank you. Business aside this is something we would have taken just as seriously in any case. But this surprise law is challenging to say the least. The rain now gives us a needed break, it's hard work. But the deadline looms and we aim high.
Somewhere between the drops we were please to receive a visit from a past colleague of ours sharing many years of our careers, and his lovely family. I suppose you can say there are 2 seasons in Portugal, they saw one, hope you see the sunny one next time :-) A very big thank you for coming.
Also through the drops Dixie was spaded and had her tail amputated. Tail and ear trimming for dogs is illegal in all of Europe of course. Dixie had an issue with it, for a reason we do not know she would nibble at it aggressively to the point of drawing blood. Now close your eyes and imagine blood spewing out of a the end of a happy dog's tail in a white room. So it is that with an according second opinion from a dog behaviorist (yep), it was considered lawful to have her tail cut as it was medical and not aesthetic.
She has already taken on a few quick kilos since she's been with us. Fluent in french with notions of Portuguese and has fully integrated 1 command per week on average. We, no, She gets compliments where ever we go. I'm not just sayin' it. Really. Sylvie agrees. She draws looks and affection. People on the street stop to ask and pet her. Complete strangers accepting a good face licking. She is turning out to be a better dog we wished for and is providing us a lot of fun a joy. Is hard to see he in convalescence having to wear this collar to prevent her biting at her wounds. The cats on the other hand are still not cool. The dog will lay on it's side in front of them, play dead or cry in total submission, unknowingly wanting only to make contact that may be beyond what the cats consider playful. But there is clearly no aggression from the dog. Rather the cats probably think this dog is foolishly young, ill behaved (as them watch us trying to make her obey) and well, stinks like a dog :-) Yet we still all spend our evenings in the same room, until Dixie decides it's time for bed. She gets up and simply goes to her assigned space near our room at the other end of the tower. That's where she spends the night. She doesn't wait for us anymore, she just goes when she's cooked.
As I'm sure she's the more reasonable of us, and she's gone to bed a while ago, I think I leave this at that for now and turn in too.
(on his knees and praying by his bedside)
Oh my network. Our official open is in a matter of weeks. And we are happy to have a healthy 12% of our season already reserved. This of course is all due to you, our family, friends, colleagues, and contacts. While it is very nice to see we are being found on the internet by people we do not know, the majority of bookings comes from people we know. Although this is ideal we cannot assume you being our single source of clientele. We'd love to have all of you come for a week each year! But i'm sure we agree some might, most won't, a few always. And that is just normal and fine. So while we'd love for you to come, and strive for you to come back, if you can't, you can easily support us at no cost:
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