Glorious Green

As where we lived in the semi-arid NE Brazil, when it rains, it's astounding how quickly everything goes green and starts flowering, almost as though they know they might not have long to complete their cycle.

This is the view from our front door - the fragrant four o'clock flower that self seeded in front, the oranges that will ripen around the end of the year, the pomegranate that Padre Luís gave us behind that, and then the purple fig tree.

Gratefuls:
- an excellent meeting with Luís, our architect, who brought along his small nephew, João (who wants to be a fireman, but by his drawings of the castle and the church at Luz, might well follow his uncle into architecture)
- Mike managing to cement in six fence posts for the expanded fence round the North Wing and the caravan
- beauty all around at the moment and relief from the drought and the heat

Not so great, finding out that the new battery we bought for the car hasn't totally resolved the problem, and we need a new clutch as well, but grateful for Duarte, our honest and capable mechanic.