Of course, that one too. It seems we won’t be spared much from January 27th onwards (1). And what’s happening? The wind is blowing very hard, it’s pouring down from time to time, and it won’t stop until tomorrow morning. Then we’ll get a day’s respite, and on Sunday it’ll be back. They say.
Is that the effect of Friday the 13th?
I don’t know what’s wrong with those weather gods, but I think they need to take their pills. It’s been going on since mid-January, with that lovely Kristin hit on the 27th, and it seems like they won’t stop.
Wind has the effect on me of producing an unnecessary amount of adrenaline. I find that a very unpleasant feeling. The thought that a few of our roofs are still only held together by old roof tiles, plastic, and construction foam doesn’t exactly calm me down either.
There are storms in the winter sometimes. Of course. Usually annoying, nothing more. The next day it’s over. In 2013, we had a severe one, which also lasted a long time, but it was still limited to a night and a day. In 2017, we had Hurricane Leslie, which was frightening but only lasted a few hours with a fierce wind on either side. Then you can quickly start the recovery work, and that also has a healing effect on your psyche. Now we’re counting down the days. 18 days already, counting from Kristin.
I’m trying to wipe away some remaining water on the bathhouse floor; it’s subsided quite a bit by now.
I’m sweeping here and there, glance outside, and see the rooftop of the balcony of the ElephantHouse by the door, half-rolled up and flapping. And the solar panel above it too. Oh dear! A support had broken. Yesterday it was almost windless, but I didn’t think about it for a second. Busy with ceilings in the White House, and counting broken roof tiles for the insurance claim.
I knock on Broes’s door – he’d gone back to bed because we can’t do much anyway, and because of the new storm, things had gotten a bit restless last night. “Sorry, Broes, we have another little thing. Part of the roof of the Elephant House has blown off, and it’s flapping, but worse: the solar panel too. We have to go up on the roof.”
The wind isn’t too strong, for Friday the 13th at least
I think: I’ll go up there, because the fact that that bit of roof has blown off is actually a good thing. I’m the lightest, and it’s not far this way, so … but Broes pushes me aside: “No way.” and steps onto the ladder. At the top, he suddenly lifts a few roof tiles… “What are you doing???”
“I’m not just going up on that roof, I need some footrests, right? Here!” And he pushes the roof tile towards me. Of course, I come up too, with a long rope, which – of course – is tangled. Ropes and cords always get tangled, especially at the most inopportune moment. They’re nasty little characters.
Luckily, Broes has a knife with him. Ha! We tie the panel securely with five different pieces of rope. If one scrapes on those sharp edges, the others have to take over. Hopefully. The broken roof gives up easily, we tear the rests down, and tie the rest of the remaining pieces with rope as well.
And all the while we’re working, the sun is shining. Still windy – the wind can’t get enough of it. Go blow off some steam somewhere else, wind, then we can do that too.
Completely fed up, blowhard. Leave us alone, thank you
(1) In the night of 27/01, Kristin passed, with a real bad temper, and blew everything away. We’re getting off lightly, compared to other victims. Thousands of people have been evacuated, entire roofs have been blown off, Leiria looks like a war zone. Montemor-o-Velho is flooded, and a dike near Coimbra has collapsed. Before we had a visit of Ingrid, and after Kristin Leonardo came by, and Martha, and Nils, and Orlana.
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#friday13th #stormsPortugal #Kristin )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.