APAPS 22.9: The Signs They Are A-Changing

 

Before we get on to discussing  APAPS walk 22.9 at Poço Frito, there is some “Housekeeping” to attend to, boring although this may be to some of us. (You can skip this stuff if you don´t want to plough through it)

In the Comments section of APAPS Blog 22.8, which was the one about alfarrobas and arrobas, Paul a Pé had waxed lyrical, or at least lengthily, asking several questions and challenging me to check the facts.

This is what he wrote:

First:-

As Google did not seem to know of the real APAPS, I delved into Blogger and saw that the Blog I was reading was entitled WAPAPS 2016 - 2022. Not sure when the 'W' was dropped, but I went back to the first one I could find, APAPS 1: What´s In A Name ? or APAPS begins again. which can be found at https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/preview/3695417294945570434/6137167831772377736
There I discovered the Meaning of APAPS,and why John was not fazed by the replies he received to his mention previous walks. Over to you to fact check, John.

I was confused by this. What facts and why?

And then Paul again:-

Facts! Why should they get in the way of a good blog?. No, as far as the comments go, we must be factual accurate and fastidious. I was merely asking you to confirm that what I wrote was true, and not something I had imagined. Also, the first blog from August 2016 mentions 'resurrecting' the WAPAPS. Were there any previous walks under the WAPAPS Banner, and were they blogged? If so, where?

And another thing: why was the last blog post on this 2016 blog about the Christmas lunch on 9.12.2015 at Bistro Rainha which I don't recall, posted almost exactly 6 years after the event in Dec 2021, consisting of these two short sentences
"18 walked for 2 1/2 hours; then 24 lunched at Bistro Rainha. The scribe´s thanks to Yves for some very professional photos."
And where were Yves´ very professional photos?”

Still Confused? I bet you are. I am. Anyway, here goes.

The explanation of APAPS, which started 94 WAPAPS blogs ago is “Amigos dos Pequeno- Almoços Peripatéticos de Silves.” Probably not grammatically correct but hey! Let it be.

We started our breakfast walks on 29^th July 2014 but it wasn´t until the start of the third breakfast season that we started to blog them. This was because up until then Blogging , be it AWWs or whatever, had been very much Paul´s personal territory onto which  we did not dare trespass even if we had known how to do it, which we didn´t. Then, gradually, he had begun to admit some of us into the esoteric secrets of Blogging and let us try our hand at it. In APAPS seasons 1 and 2, we had contented ourselves with taking silly photographs of participants´ legs and we had the odd clandestine breakfast, (identities redacted for the sake of prudence). 

Guess whose?

So APAPS Blogs did not begin until 2016.

The Christmas lunch at Bistro Rainha on 9.12.2015 was an AWW lunch, nothing to do with APAPS. There was a walk from Casinhas that morning which I don´t remember particularly although it´s possible I was the Leader. -here are the Starters - 

 and here are a few of Yves´ photos from the lunch. Paul was not there, nor were Myriam and Hazel.

The only explanation that I can give of why the blog of that event now consists of two short sentences and no photographs, and why it now appears to have been published in December 2021, is that the AWW blog is now open to a lot of different contributors, one of whom may well have looked at the original blog and then have mis-edited it and re-published it in the wrong place. Thus history gets re-written and distorted.

End of “Housekeeping” spiel.

A lot to read in all of that, so I will not need to write so much about our latest walk but, first, an explanation about the title to this week´s piece. For the past couple of years, I have been referring to the establishment at Poço Frito as Café Martins. Not very observant of me, because in fact, for the past year or more, after it had a make-over, it now refers to itself as Snack Bar Martins. It´s a wonder that some of us have not got lost trying to find a place that nominally no longer exists. In the old days, the place was a bit shabby, but spruced up, it looks much better.

Then

Now

Presumably, a Snack Bar , on the Michelin Scale of things, is one grade above a mere Café, so I shall have to be more careful with my description of it from now on and pay attention to the signage.

More signage. Poço Frito now has one of those new bus stop signs that are appearing all over the place

and the sign for Caravela is still pointing determinedly 90 degrees out in the wrong direction 

Who pays for a café upgrade? Not the tenants, I suppose, who are at best temporary. Maybe the coffee suppliers do? And who is, or was, this Martins fellow and what did he do to be commemorated in this way? The present tenants are the third lot we have known since eating there and their name is certainly not Martins. Was he a Local Hero or a Resistance Fighter? Rod will know.

And now, at last, we can come to the walk. A coolish and overcast morning. The Leader, as ever, had to possess himself with patience, waiting for the ever-talkative group to join him for the Starter Picture.

The contents of the numerous beer bottles behind him had not been consumed by him while he waited, although they could well have been given the time it took for people to get organised. In the words of the song, "Oh, when will they ever learn?" But I mustn´t start being provocative, must I ! No, the Snack Bar was still shut at that stage of the morning so no coffees to start with, nor beers neither.

Picture duly taken, before we set off, Yves gave us an update on Terry Ames´ medical situation. So we were a sombre and very thoughtful group as we began our walk.

An uneventful walk it was too. Familiar tracks, with some minor variations. 

Good to have Janet back with us after several months absence.

Fertile fields and their farmer.

Some animal life. Goats and their fierce watch dog.

Are they pets, with their red collars round their necks ?

A static rocking horse

The photographers then took a sudden interest in old trees, to good effect.

And Yves took his life in his hands to photograph a speeding train.

The Track, and all the Statistics you could possibly wish for

Back at Snack Bar Martins just before 10 .00, we found Paul and Rod already there, eager for their breakfast and/or coffee.

Compared to the previous breakfast there, there was more food on our plates this time, thanks to Maria who had had a quiet word with the proprietress about quantities.

After the noise of the various conversations had reached record decibels, things quietened down a bit and we were treated to a full scale Chinese Tea Ceremony with dry flowers magically growing in the tea pot.

Tea, not red wine.

Tea, not white wine either

Myriam was presented with a portrait of herself by Yves.

And he had the last word in T-shirts.

Shurley shome mishtake?

To conclude, here is one more in our musical theme these past few weeks, which has been that of the moon. This week it has been the Sturgeon Moon. Nothing whatsoever to do with the uncrowned queen of Scotland but apparently an excellent time to catch the fish of the same name. A difficult image for us amateurs to photo but there are some excellent shots available on the net for which our thanks.

And that theme reminded me of this week´s tune which was one which my mother had on a 78 rpm shellac record given to her along with an old fashioned wind-up gramophone by an aunt of hers. The sound came out of a His Master´s Voice type horn, and the needles were little chips of sharpened bamboo. If you wanted to increase the volume, you could substitute metal ones for the bamboo needles and, if you wanted to increase the volume to the maximum possible, you would open two little doors at the front of the gramophone´s wooden cabinet to let some more sound escape. Technology as it was. More moon music next time. Meanwhile.....

 

APAPS 22.8: How To Know Your Alfarrobas From Your Arrobas.

 

This week´s walk got off to a rather slow start, for various reasons. Myriam had arrived first but then had disappeared into the boondocks and didn´t reappear for some time  And Our professional photographer had paused enroute to photograph storks and (I think) the Silves Roman Bridge in the sunrise and turned up a bit late. Etc etc.

( I am not sure if this is the correct one -this looks like a sunset but no doubt Yves will clarify. Never mind, it´s an excellent picture).

So there we are, despite a scheduled start of 07.00,  the Leader is looking at his watch at 07.04 wondering when we can get round to doing the Starter Photo, if ever.

07.04

But then Maria needed to chat with Hazel on WhatsApp but could not locate her on her mobile, and this required the convening of a sub-committee meeting to try to solve the problem.

7.10

7.12

(Quite why Maria wanted to WhatsApp Hazel when they were standing next to each other, we do not know. Let´s just say it is one of Life´s Little Mysteries and leave it at that.)

Sub-committees etc, etc,over, the Starter Photo is taken, at 07.15.

07.15

Then Myriam finds that she has forgotten her hat and has to retrieve it from her car.

07.18

The Leader graciously offers to retake the Starter Photo complete with retrieved hat but his offer is equally graciously declined. We probably eventually set off at about 7.20. After all that excitement, not much really happened during the walk worth reporting.

Terry and Yves walked well ahead of the rest of us most of the time and were very patient waiting for us to catch up. We all did it in 1 hour 45 minutes moving time. They two could probably do it in 1 hour flat.

Then, the Leader, in trying to introduce new tracks for variety´s sake, made a mistake as a result of which we found ourselves facing a choice of either climbing a very steep upward slope or of negotiating a tricky and steep downward gully, off-piste. We chose the gully. Nobody fell, luckily.

Trickier than it looks

Nevertheless, the early morning sunlight was pleasing to the eye.

At the Old Farmhouse, some mobile campers had rigged  a sleeping tent on top of their vehicle.

Must be a delicate balancing act if one of them needs to get up in the middle of the night.

We passed the area where the Camara had being doing a lot of tree planting and it was good to see the successful results. Not all the new saplings have been eaten by deer.

Later on, we came across a couple of men collecting alfarroba (carob) pods and Yves and Myriam engaged them in conversation. 

They said that they were harvesting the pods with the permission of the landowners, a rich Silves family (Maria knows the details). Probably so. There have been several reports recently of people being arrested for stealing carobs, but these two guys would been daft to be so open about it if they had not got permission, nor would they have been happy for us to take their pictures.

Among other news reports, Observador reported recently that the GNR had seized 15 tons (15000 kilos) worth Euros 28,000 from one presumed thief, and said that the price has increased tenfold in recent years. 

The unit of measurement for alfarroba is the arroba, a weight measure used in Portugal and Spain as well as in Latin American countries (and also in Macao.) The weight of an arroba varies between 10.00 kilos (Uruguay for example), 11.5 kilos (Venezuela and Spain), and 15.00 kilos (Portugal and Brazil). (By the way, a Macanese arroba weighs in at 14.688 kilos - I wonder why it differs from the Portuguese measure.)

As to the rise in price, apparently four years ago the market price of carob in the Algarve was 5 euros per arroba and now it is between 40 and 50 euros. No wonder thefts are increasing. Difficult to fence in and guard carob tree areas. But we have also recently seen carob tree areas being destroyed to allow for more avocado planting. Good move or bad move?

A little further on, Yves was seen attacking a tree trunk with a large piece of stone. Such was the vigour of his blows that it was the stone, not the tree, that broke. 

We did not stop to ask him why he was doing that. But later it could be deduced that he was smoothing a surface for his model to pose on.

Near by, Rest and Be Thankful was as smooth a seat as ever.

The Track and the Statistics (as many as one could wish for )

Walk over, we returned to Para e Fica for breakfast. When we were last there at the beginning of July, our waitress was Georgette, an old friend from Casinhas days, but she is now no longer there. Personality clash with the redoubtable proprietress, no doubt.

But the breakfast was good as ever. Para e Fica must be in the running for the “Best Bacon of the Year” award”

I don´t know why Myriam´s hand is trying to grab my breakfast

She didn´t mean to.

Extra bacon for the men

"Enjoy your breakfast.... or else"

Some serious eating and light hearted conversation. Attempts were made to contact Paul, to no avail. Probably difficult to carry a mobile when one is on a nude beach.

There was only one contestant for the captioned T-shirt contest. Perhaps that particular conversation has run its course.

For those not in the know, Tartiflette is a dish from Savoy in the French Alps and the Aosta valley in Italy. It is made with potatoes, reblochon cheese, lardons and onions. A splash of white wine can be added. "A gooey, creamy baked casserole of potatoes, cream, cheese, bacon and onions is true French mountain food."

And now referring back to Yves´ picture of Silves Roman Bridge. Not to be outdone, here is one of mine, of the same bridge, but taken from the other side.

 Why do I bring this up?. Because I took mine at moonrise, and that of course brings me neatly to our recent theme - music about moonlight.

So to close, one more classic from, need you ask, Billie Holiday.