After 6 weeks of uninterrupted hot sunshine the skies darkened and there came what can only be called a tempest. Very strong winds and rain one night and the roof at Faro Airport collapsed causing total mayhem. The arrivals hall there is now a tent! At times we wondered about our roof but we came through unscathed.  This is what it looked like one day through the window to put paid to any ideas we are here in never-ending sunshine!

 The day before the storm we took a stroll along this empty river bed. The sheep casually grazing:

 

 The next day it looked like this:

 

 

The weather is still unsettled and stormy and it looks like continuing that way until the end of the month. We drove to the reservoir the other day and the level is pitifully low so we console ourselves that the rain is much needed. It has been the cork cutting season and here a pile is being loaded up.

The bark on the cork trees is stripped every 7 years and the stripping year and the owner's initials are marked on the tree trunk as a record.

 

 On a walk nearby recently we saw that several acres have been planted up with sapling cork trees each with its rabbit guard. The mystery is why are they investing so heavily in cork which will not be harvested for at least 10 years when the cork market is so uncertain?  Similarly with orange trees, acres of them have been planted - all with irrigation - and there will not be a return on them for at least 10 years as well and will there then be that much demand? It sniffs of EU grant somewhere.

We have been putting in lettuce and cabbage plants which we have bought at the market and we sowed broad bean seeds in early October.  We should be eating them in April/May'

This is the vegetable garden or horta in Portuguese

 

The chickens now gather at the door at feeding time

Sunbathing

And making friends!