WAGS 12.04.2023: Things Ain´t What They Used To Be, or Plus Ça Change....

 

Those of you with particularly retentive memories will maybe recall that the previous blog included a wee quiz:-

"What´s the connection between these four items?"

 There was only one answer sent in, and that was from Maria who correctly answered "I know nothing"

The American Party was apparently a political party in the USA in the mid-1850s whose members were required to say "I know nothing" when questioned about it. This peculiar political philosophy still thrives today among the senior membership of of the Scottish National Party.

Last Wednesday, when we gathered at Poço Frito, it was to hear the sad news that our junior associates, the AWWs, had cancelled their walk "because of the heat." Well, I never.......

 Rashly or otherwise, we decided to carry on regardless.

There at the meeting place was this guy whom Yves photographed, his climbing gear having something to do with the installation of fibre optics.

Yves titled his picture "Christophilo Bonningtonno" although I suspect that that is not the gentleman´s real name.

The Starters: Yves, Chris, Rachel, Myriam Ingrid, Maria, Hazel and JohnH.

Off we went through the village where building works of a modern sort still continue

and then out into greener parts, passing under this magnificent tree.

That reminded the Leader of a splendid cork oak nearby which we regularly used to visit and we decided to go and pay it our respects once more. But things ain´t what they used to be.

This is what its mighty bough used to look like...

Now only a sad stump remains.

Things ain´t what they used to be.

On we went and soon turned into a promising track which we followed for some distance but then it came to an abrupt end at the gate of a private property. In the old days, there would have been a "Dead End" road sign, but now "things ain´t..." 

A pause for refreshment, Ingrid having a second, or is it a third? banana.

Nespras now, or prickly pears next month?

A little bit further along our route, we came to the strawberry plantation whose development we have been following for some time.

This was the field in  August 2022 when they were demolishing rows of stone terraces and ploughing the soil

and this was the field in September 2022 ready for planting. We asked the lady then where the stones from the terraces had gone and were told that, since nobody had wanted the stones, they had all been buried in the field.

and this was the planted field in November 2022

and this the field in January 2023

and this the crop in April 2023.

Ingrid could not resist buying a whole box

and then had to have a third banana

or was it a fourth?

The Track and the Statistics

Arriving back at Snack Bar Martins, we were able to appreciate some of the changes a new management team have brought to it.

Previously, the side patio was open to the road, e.g. in May 2022.

Now it is a pleasant shaded area

.

a far quieter place to eat than inside the restaurant where in the past conversation noise levels had been measured at 85 decibels, which is not a healthy sound level.

AND the new team also got one highly important thing right, after the previous week´s anomaly in Silves

They served Yves FIRST ! Not all things change for the worse.

Beef can´t remember what it´s called . Let me know please

Arroz de pato

Omelette

Pudim

Apple tart

The restaurant indoors was extremely full and busy but, even so, the new staff were up to it and we were served reasonably promptly. Definitely a change for the better.

Only one possible choice for the closing music. Duke Ellington with Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone.