Digger!

Definitely the most exciting part of today.

We were delivering Advent gifts in a village the other side of the Lake, when Ermelinda suddenly called to say the digger was coming. We raced home, and came up behind it on our road. Thrilled to see it was Ana Cristina's husband, Manuel Espadeiro. He saw us and let us up the lane (featured yesterday) first; thankfully, we made it (don't usually attempt it when it's rained).

He first dug the 2x1x1m hole for our cesspit, and then five holes for us to plant more trees in. We'd marked six, but he gave up on one -solid rock. Look at the size of the rock in this photo - it's why I am very glad Mike doesn't have to dig it out by hand. Quite scary watching the digger's wheels leaving the ground with the effort and the sloping ground, but guess he knew what he was doing.

For the record, our Advent bags contained:
bottle red wine
salmon
chocolates
my orange, ginger and whisky marmalade
dates stuffed with walnuts (traditional here)
cheese selection
apple and cinnamon candle
roses and rosemary from our garden
Christmas themed pasta 
Part of my resolution to celebrate Christmas here with the people around me. We were going on Sunday, but suddenly realised we're not allowed to leave our municipality after 11pm tonight, until after the weekend. Put the bag on the doorstep, stood well back, masked, and chatted for a bit, checking how folk were. Gave me a lot of joy.

Gratefuls:
- Julia organising an online Secret Santa for the family - impressively efficient
- Ermelinda organising the digger for us - for free!
- the joy of giving