What is happening.......................

The weather here in Portugal is as screwed up as a Manchester City fan before injury time and we are into the back end of May when it should be nice pleasant sunshine.

January to March was fantastic, the windows and doors were open for most of the day. Then April arrived and it persistently rained it down all through the month, just like the UK without the floods though.
Only last week we didn't bother to go outside because it was too hot in the mid C30's and while playing golf we needed around 5 litres of water to keep upright.

Today it’s thundering, raining, blowing a hooley and freezing, I’ve even put the shorts away and had to resort to putting trousers back on and at this rate, I'm gonna have to put the heating back. 
It is so bad that I have cried off golf and decided to stay indoors with a hot chocolate and an Irish Whiskey.

Eddie the Lizard

Last week it rained every day, this week its as if someone has reminded the weather department that its May and its time to throw the heating switch.
Today was a blistering 33 degrees in the sun and the forecast is hotter for the weekend.

As I was opening the windows down stairs, I noticed Eddie the Lizard on the inside of the shutters. Look at how he has blended his skin into the same shade as the shutters. How fantastic is that, when I saw him in the garden last week he was green, well I think it was him.

Which reminds me, I must give the shutters a wash down, better wait until Eddie disappears first, wouldn't want to roll up the shutter and squash him in the process.

The lawn mowers came to visit

A few hundred goats and sheep with Parque da Floresta golf resort in the background

We had a visit from the local shepherd this week, he brought along a couple of hundred lawn mowers and weed munchers, all taken care of by some fantastic dogs and a few strategic whistles from the shepherd who made sure that they didn't stray too far.

Nice man the shepherd, always asks permission for the animals to graze on our land. 

As there are no fences or walls around the land, it is classed by  Portuguese law that they have the right to roam anyway, but at least he asked and who am I to stop anything that keeps the weeds down.

It was an ideal opportunity to practice our language skills, now that we go to Portuguese lessons every week.  We gave up after 30 seconds after he saw the difficulty we were having and spoke back to us in perfect English, what chance have you got, even the shepherd speaks English? Still only been going for three months, another 20 years and we should have it cracked.

And don't forget Maddie

It was 5 years last week years since Madeline went missing from her apartment where she was staying whilst on holiday here in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve. At that very time, I was enjoying an evening meal in the village which was only a couple of hundred yards away when it happened.
I was reminded today, that it is also 5 years since the current Vicar and his family arrived in the Algarve to take up his new position as Vicar at St.Vincent's Church in Praia da Luz.

When Father Haynes arrived he apparently knew nothing of the previous weeks events as he and his family were in transit on route from Canada (where they are originally from) to Portugal.
The situation then had to be explained to Father Haynes as he was collected from the airport and driven to Praia da Luz to take up his new post.
Welcome to Portugal.

Two Newcomers

The last thing that you would expect a bloke to blog about are babies, but spare a thought for these two.

Danny and Sarah are my wife's brothers son and daughter in law, they had been trying for a baby for some time and then Sarah became pregnant.
After a difficult pregnancy which went the full term Ellis was born last month at 8Ibs 13 oz.

Sarah and Ellis

Unfortunately for little Ellis, he has failed all his hearing tests and so far he is totally deaf, but as you would expect, he is still very precious to Mum and Dad.

It's hard to believe looking at these pictures, that both these babies were born in the same week.

Alice and Bailey

Like most men, to us all babies seem to look the same, except this one. This is a picture of my best friend from school days, daughter Alice with Bailey.
Alice gave birth a couple of weeks ago at 24 weeks, which even I know is a bit early.
Bailey weighed in at an unbelievable weight of 1Ib 12 oz, amazing.

Alice incidentally is a fantastic singer who needs a break, so Mr Cowell hit the play button and listen to Alice's demo tape.

Alice's cover version of, "If I ain't got you" (original song by Alica Keys)