Graham Denby in Portugal: While the sun shines

May 27 2009 by Graham Denby

Ruth tried gamely tried to establish just how much this actually was, as we have limited storage, and concluded it was but a small delivery, maybe 18 bales, due in the morning, Sunday.

There I was quite early on Sunday morning munching on my breakfast muesli when the light from the first floor balcony window gloomed over, as if it was an eclipse! The ‘small’ hay delivery was here, towering off the back of a straining, aged flat-back which looked in imminent danger of collapsing.

Choking down the rest of my breakfast I dashed out on the heels of Ruth, who was asking, via semaphore, if it would all fit in our little store. The only English Fabio knows is ‘no problem’ so we were going to give it a go.

Ropes were cast off while we palletted out the floor area and there were three of us at it with the hay, one old guy (built like Desperate Dan by the way) chucking them off the back of the wagon as if on piece work, muggins here picking them up and carting them into the store with Fabio stacking them, I must admit quite masterfully. When we were done, in my case quite literally, there were 104 bales stacked, at an average of 30kg each, so you can do the sums.

Having paid up and supplied a few cans of beer (cerveja), after Ruth’s offer of water was rejected out of hand, we all sat back and blew out our cheeks. I also blew out my nose as the old hayfever was hitting a good 10+ on the sneezometer!

The new delivery also makes our dog, Bom, ever so happy. There are so many new smells on the hay and so much exploring to do.

For holiday details contact us at Alcaria.alta@gmail.com