Breakfast had been advertised as being at Victoria´s, Poço Barreto, at 09.30hrs. But homework was something the Leader had not done so, when the time came, there was no breakfast. Read on.
A 7 am start and the usual four stalwart ladies plus JohnH.
A gentle stroll uphill past the local German bakery and then we spotted a clutch of eleven pure white eggs beside our track.
.jpg)
No sign of any parent bird; too big for quail eggs which are usually coloured , and partridge and pheasant eggs are usually coloured too. So what bird remains a mystery.
Then Myriam spotted a large discarded snake skin.
.jpg)
Then a bit of hesitation while we searched for the correct track.
which Hazel found eventually.
Myriam then gave JohnH a potted history of Maria Queen of Portugal (1777 - 1816). Known as Maria the Pious in Portugal and as Maria the Mad in Brazil, she lived in Brazil from 1806, raised brazil to the status of a kingdom in1815 upon which she had the title of Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. and in return he took this photograph of her (Myriam that is, not Queen Maria) framed between the twin trunks of an old oak tree.
Steady progress made at not too strenuous a pace, past Quinta Estrela now renamed Quinta Chapim (Chapim is Portuguese for Blue Tit)
and past Yves´ standing stone to which Maria (not the Queen) added another pebble.
.jpg) |
Then back to Poço Barreto along the track where the birds eggs were still lying undisturbed and so to Victoria´s. where we found Yves waiting for us.
To those expecting, nay, salivating at the prospect of black pudding and draught Guinness for breakfast, Yves brought the news that the notice on the café door said that the kitchen opens at 11.30am.
JohnH had not done his homework and had simply assumed that the establishment ran the same catering hours as it had done the previous year. So that´s Victoria´s struck off our list of breakfasting places, not that everyone was disappointed as some of us had mixed feelings about the place and its staff.
Anyway, a quick change of plan and down the road to Poço Frito and Snack Bar Martins.
There we were served with bifanas in papo seco just delivered and still hot from the bakery
tostas in pao caseiro
and a delicious concoction whose name your blogger did not catch.
.jpg)
Not your full English, but very satisfying none the less.
On our way back through Poço Barreto, who made a fleeting appearance but none other than Rod who, of course, was totally unfazed by the lack of breakfast..
5 comments:
Not sure the four ladies would be satisfied with being described as 'stalwart'. To me it has a very masculine connotation.
Some common synonyms of stalwart are stout, strong, sturdy, tenacious, and tough.
I suspect that had I been writing the blog (NO, that is not happening!) I might have gone for 'dedicated', 'devoted' or 'loyal'. 🤔
Doesn't matter what we are called, being there walking, bantering, breakfasting and enjoying each other's company is more important!
One hesitates to debate words, their meanings and their connotations with Paulo a Pe who, after all, features regularly in the Quote... Unquote newsletter, UK´s sans pareil source of quotes real or imagined. And, of course, he is predisposed to judge things largely by sex, male or female.
However, "stalwart" also has connotations of reliability and loyalty and I see no reason for the four ladies to be dissatisfied with being so described. If it were not for them these past weeks, I would have been left looking rather stupid, wandering round the place on me tod and eating solitary breakfasts.
The word itself is derived from an old Scottish word with roots meaning "worth one´s place".
The definition is debatable - if only we had the 'well worth her place' Susie Dent to discuss the topic with at length!. I have never seen you describe either Rod,Yves, Chris or myself as 'stalwart'. Should we read something into that?
How to identify snake eggs : https://sciencing.com/identify-snake-eggs-4866367.html
Anyway the topic of the large clutch of mystery white eggs was glossed over. and even Myriam didn't borrow one for my compensatory breakfast, so I can only assume you positively identified them as belonging to some undernourished escaped bantam or you weren't sufficiently bothered to investigate further, breakfast being a higher priority. Anyway to pursue the matter of Myriam's discarded snakeskin, it may well have been a possibility.
The ladder snake is very common in Algarve, and breeds during May and June laying a clutch of 4-24 WHITE eggs 4-6 weeks later. Incubation can take between 5 and 12 weeks. During hot summers they are nocturnal and seek a shady hide during the day. All depends om whether our intrepid (and stalwart) actually handled the eggs and can report on whether they fitted the description in the url above.
What a shame that no one reas these comments having once read the blog before they are written!
Post a Comment