Summer starts...

Capoeira Pals.

International children’s day started the month, Silves had been balloon bombed, shops and cars had pink and blue balloons attached to them before dawn, what a lovely thing for some to do. The boys had a day trip to Zoo Marine with school then their Capoeira group had the class outside, Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music, its great to watch and an excellent way to get the boys moving. 

APAA shop in Silves.

I have been volunteering at the Association for the Protection of Animals in the Algarve (APAA) charity shop for some months now one day a week, its in the centre of Silves on a pedestrianised street paved with the traditional Portuguese stone paving calsadas. Keeps me out of trouble and I can bag some bargains at the same time as helping raise money for the charity.

Not himself...

Ryan had an accident at school, jumping over a handrail to the ground which was lower than the level he was jumping from. Unfortunately it was third time unlucky, he clipped his foot, back flipped and landed with a bang. The school called me and the fire service who operate the ambulances, I arrived to find him pretty spaced out and surrounded by concerned faces. It wasn’t long before we were in the emergency waiting room in Portimao hospital, it seemed that his arm was the issue, however, when I asked him about the ambulance journey to hospital and the sirens he could not remember, after further questioning we soon discover he could not remember anything at all of the day. Confirming what hurt we found out he took quite a bump on the head, taking this into account we had to stay in the hospital for 6 hrs. 

Back to normal.

After getting and x-ray and his arm in a cast he nodded off, thankfully he woke up his normal joyful joking self. Phew!!! I was very relieved as were the doctors. We went home. Such experiences are tiring and I have to say all in all it went pretty well. Ryan slept with me for a couple of nights as it was painful to move is arm and to be honest after taking such a bang on the head I felt it was best to be near him, this had an added benefit I could look at him while he slept… 

Angelic!

Ryan is as tough as an Ox, he was back to school the next day (to show off his plaster mainly). Now, how will we get on at the beach with 4 weeks with a cast…?!?!? Thanks to a Bloccs cast protector which I would highly recommend it was swimming as normal!! 

11 years of marriage to celebrate, gifts were simple and homemade again with a family day on the West Coast.

Foil Flowers.

Bulgarian Sunflower.

The Patstones.

West Coast Sunset.

The boys knocked of school for the Summer and their end or year treat was the Benagil Caves Boat Trip, it was pretty awesome. The woman who takes the bookings was very informative and when I asked advised us to go at mid tide otherwise some caves are not accessible due to too much or not enough water. We zipped around the coast and in and out of caves in a very organised yet exciting fashion, we really did shoot into one of the caves which caused a bit of a wow with all of us riders. Such fun!!

Praia Senhora de Rocha.

I had a quick trip to the UK to belatedly surprise Mom for her birthday which was back in May, I didn’t go in May as she was on holiday, at less than £50 return it was ideal. We organised for the boys to be talking to Mom on skype when I rang door bell, this didn’t quite go to plan as Neil sent Mom to see what was outside, which was nothing. I was actually still saying my thanks and cheerio to the lovely Anne Birch who dropped me off; funny. Anyway, within I few moments I was ringing the door bell and Mom and Dad were over the moon to see me, we had a lovely four days of shopping and dining out at our leisure, without distraction or interruption.

Mom and Dad at the Chinese, always good!

The month as usual had many trips to the beach plus other lovely locations...

Eager to cool off.

Merman.

Hey Dude!!

Barragem do Arade (Dam of Arade)

Silves is a City of Storks and I love them, everything about them and the wonderful thing is they do not fly south. I love their bill-clattering (they do this thing with their beaks which I have never heard before), I love the way they grace the sky when soaring, the gangly awkwardness with which they come into land with amazing precision on their nests. I love their huge nests which often house many other species of bird.

The Storks of Silves.

Silves Stork Community.

NOTE: this video does not play, the problem is being looked 

into by the blogger support team.

A Mish Mash...

Silves Yarn Bombed.

 Silves has been Yarn Bombed... Nice!!! 

 
The RC car was swiftly built after Mattys birthday, it was pleasing to watch Neil and Matty do a real project together, not sure who was enjoying it the most. I have always had the ‘stickers’ job so this time I found myself promoted to painting too… It was on the road in no time really, boy did it move, its fast and Matty is an excellent ‘driver’. These cars are not cheap (even the cheap ones) but the good thing is they are repairable thankfully as it wasn’t long before it was in the garage (dining room) and easily fixed.

A day out in Albufeira was fun, and Ryan found one of his favourites a stick of rock, the steep rock faces make access to many of the beaches tricky along the Algarve, there is escalator and a lift here to get you to beach level which is awesome!!

Greetings from Albufeira.

Finally, Ryan had a visit from the Tooth Fairy, his front teeth has been holding on in there and at 7 and a half they are out… two over two days. This is quite a mile stone and his ‘littleness’ will quickly start to disappear.

An invitation to friends meant we could all enjoy their hot tub. The boys were in like a shot and for a few moments looked like they were under a spell, totally ecstasy. They got out looking like prunes after hours of bubbling up and bobbling around. Very relaxing for us all with a BBQ, a few glasses of Sangria (for me), great tunes and lovely company! 

Happy boys.

Nice and relaxed.

Quite a random thing happened, back in March we visited a local farm, Quinta da Figuerinha for a Spring Plant Fair organised by the Mediterranean Gardening Association Portugal, while there we all completed a quiz, it turned out the boys were the youngest entrants and also winners (in their category) and they were to be presented with prizes. We were invited for a guided tour of the new garden and lunch, they had a ball and felt very special. A big thank you to Rosie and Rob Peddle of the MGAP who made it all happen and took very good care of us all, the day was super; the prizes, the food and the tour. 

 Beautiful Centaury.

Bold and Bright.

Pale and Light.

Big Prickly Pear Cactus.

For me the highlight of May for me was the three days I spent at the amazing space of  Ceratonia Herbal Gardens, a centre for healing and education in the Algarve​ taking part in a workshop presented by the most beautiful Rocio Alarcon, Shaman and Herbalist from Ecuador. Wonderful people, superb food, all incredibly enlightening, we learned about Limpia – the use of plants to energetically cleanse and clear space for ourselves and others to heal. Truly an unforgettable experience. One of my goals now is to now create a herb garden with an abundance of aromatic plants for just that…

Palo Santo to uplift and balance.

Ready for a feast.

Rocio preparing the herbal bundle for Limpia. 

Colourful Quinoa. 

FINALLY!!! Our Architectural plans have been submitted and we had our first hiccup, it was actually only an admin issue with signatures thankfully, with that easily dealt with the plans were submitted to the technical team, lets keep our fingers crossed all goes through without too many more delays. Until this stage is approved its impossible not to be a little anxious, this after all is the most important part what everything is hanging on…

Someone Has A Decade to Celebrate!

Happy Birthday Matty!!

Our first visitors of 2017 came to help celebrate Mattys first decade!! Yes, 10 years old, more on that later...

The house provides us with plenty of rooms so we decided to let the boys have a bedroom each, on the condition they bunk up together when we have guests. Its easier to keep your own space tidy, right?!

Ryan space.

Mattys space.

A skating event took us to Lagos, as we all have (very under used) skates we do enjoy skating, this event had me gripped, the kids whizzed around the track like lightening and WITHOUT PROTECTION…. They wore only helmets with a couple of knee and elbow pads dotted around but in the main none, not sure if this is responsible (for kids at least), there could be a lot of damage done at those speeds and if everyone wore them surely they would still all be skating from a level playing field. There did seem to be quite a few ambulances there with medics attending to knees and elbows, hopefully nothing more than scrapes and bruises. Anyway, it was a very thrilling and enjoyable event.

Residency documents.

Congratulations to us, we have residency!! Took longer than planned but we finally managed to register from the land so we are now legal. On the document front we also submitted the architectural plans for our straw bale house, lets hope this first stage is speedy and uncomplicated, we have been told by many that it could take years…

We have been making a point to visit different beaches, there are so many to experience it would be rude not to...

Our first visit to Meia Praia, (half beach), Lagos, was at the least bracing and actually quite uncomfortable, the powerful winds picked up the sand and gosh, from time to time it came quite sharp, for a contact lens wearer this kind of beach condition is not ideal!!Sheltering was essential. Still a great time had enjoying the sounds of the enormous waves and constant spray the sea drizzled over us. 

Shelter designed and built by Matty..

Ryans solution.

Praia dos Três Irmãos.

‘Praia dos Três Irmãos’ (three brothers beach) has been the most enchanting so far. As you walk along the through the rock tunnels coves open up surrounded by lush green cliffs and crystal clear water, it was nothing short of paradise!

Tunnels.

Rock pools.

Cooling off.

Coffee with a view.

Morning walk.

Praia do Vau and Praia da Rocha. We had a morning walk that due to the full moon and the sea being out further much more was bared to us than normal bringing with it a wonderful calm and peaceful energy. The coffee was good too!!

Morning sun Praia de Rocha.

Baring more than usual.

Inviting.

Beach Heart.

Every month our outside space brings new colourful blooms and/or fragrance; for at least a month the Orange Blossom was heavy in the air which my nose and brain enjoyed very much, this month we have a splattering of Red.

Jose gifted us some of the biggest oranges I have ever seen, he explained that they are actually too big to sell as people want more that two oranges per kilo, I am not complaining as we had some of the most nectareous juice ever.

Half a kilo orange.

Mom and Dad arrived for Mattys birthday, how wonderful!! We had the obligatory days out shopping, dining and to the beach plus fun and games. 

Blustery.

Loving Nana

Loving Grandad.

Ooooo treble twenty!!!

With Mom and Dad here Neil and I had a chance to get a night out, we were fortunate enough to be able to catch the Afro Beat Latino artist Beto Kalulu, a night out full of song, rhythm and friends. As it happened the next day at lunch time he was playing again so I took Mom and Dad along, although it was a little loud they too had a chance to enjoy the energetic performance of him and his musicians.

Matty thought about his birthday gift requests carefully this year and took plenty of time over it and totally loved all three main presents; a Lego castle, a (real) remote control car that he/we had to build and paint from scratch and a watch that he had the joy of choosing for himself. 

Watch.

Tamiya RC Car.

Lego

His party was local and with the help (yet again) of Sarah, the cake was exactly what he asked for. A great time was had by all.

Besties.

Burgers

Boys.

Batatas (potatoes) instead of  ' say cheese'...

Matty misses his friends and teacher Bobi from Bulgaria, and she did an amazing thing, she arranged a skype call with his class, it was a surprise for them and they all screamed when they saw him, the tone of their voices said it all, full of excitement they asked questions and sang Happy Birthday. OMG... Mom and I could not hold back the tears!! Talk about going the extra mile, the world could do with few more Borislava Ivanova’s that’s for sure, even across all of those miles she finds a way to bring him and his old friends a few moments of joy and happiness, an Angel for sure!

Happy Birthday to our son, a tender boy filled with love, kindness and compassion, bursting with enthusiasm for life and all it offers, old and new. 

We shall enjoy watching the next 10 years unfold...