Our Lady of the Tom Tom leads us to Our Lady of The Snows…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Once again Our Lady of the TomTom is proving that she has a mind of her own… (or than again, maybe nothing in her little brain at all).

Our tour around this part of Northern Portugal takes is into a tiny village on a very steep hillside. After one wrong turn and a dead end and no other apparent exit to the village than the road we came in on,   we decide to go into the centre of the village to ask for directions.

Talk about serendipity,  because two corners later we stumble upon some fabulous buildings and a market in full swing, clearly something special is taking place here and wow, there are even a few tour buses so even though we feel like we are in the middle of nowhere, we are clearly “somewhere” worth visiting, (even if we are at present ignorant as to what that might be).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We know that we are in Portugal’s northern National Park,  the Peneda-Gerés National Park, and what we are about to find out is that this village houses Our Lady of the Snows.

(Seems like Our Lady of the Tom Tom lead us here to see a kindred spirit of hers…)

There is an information board close by and via this I learn…

The patron saint of this sanctuary is Senhora das Neves (Our Lady of the Snows), an explicit reference to the local climate and whose image, according to tradition, was found long ago in a cave.

In her honour , there has been a pilgrimage here for many years, at the beginning of September.

The sanctuary is an example of religious architecture of the north west of Portugal from the 18^th and 19 century.

The church and it’s associated buildings rise up majestically on the right bank of the River Peneda, in an area of great geomorphological interest. Marked by an impressive granite outcrop, known as Penedo da Meadinha.

We happen to be visiting at the beginning of September, hence the tour buses and market (although it’s clear that some of the shops are permanent)

Let’s have a look around…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dogs who play Chicken, and ones who don’t….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Long before I was attacked by a German Shepherd aged 15, I was a cat person.

Dogs never thrilled me, and after getting accidentally between a brainless yap-machine Pekingese that our visitors had left tied to a tree near the farmhouse and an encroaching viscous German Shepard that strayed onto the farm, I ended up with the lasting sight of the big dogs teeth as it came at me and nine stitches in my back after I turned away just in time.

I’d only been wearing a sun-dress, and remember the pain, blood, growls and shouting as my screams bought out the adults in force. The dog was pelted with a large length of fallen pine branch and didn’t want to back off even then. I looked up in time to see him advancing for another go before my parents could cover the long distance between us and then I heard the gunshot and the short half yelp as the beast fell in a heap, dead.

Our neighbour Lex was  the local Ranger and had followed the dog up the road after reports that this dog had a go at a man camping by the lake, the man had beaten the dog off and reported the incident to Lex who happened to be checking  that the boaties camping there had sufficient life jackets for occupants of their boats (after a near miss incident the day before).

Lex had already warned this owner about this dog’s aggressive and viscous behaviour before today.

Following  close on the dogs trail Lex arrived just in time to see the whole attack take place and retrieved his shotgun in time to prevent the second round.

I was removed swiftly to the local medical centre and it’s taken all these years to start to overcome a swelling fear ever time a dog even looks at me. I’m better, but far from cured, I keep my distance with dogs.

So… there we are, on a tiny alleyway of a Portuguese road , a dead end as it turns out since Our Lady Of the Tom Tom was, with her wicked sense of humour leading us up the garden path again, and there appears the dog.

I was out of the car, taking photos of the grapevines strung artfully across the road, making practical use of available space since this village perched on a very steep hillside, when I became aware of deep growling and instantly I started an almost involuntary retreat towards the car.

Then I saw the dog,  it was small (phew) but wow was it noisy, it growled constantly and what’s more, car or no car it stood it’s ground in the middle of the small road. I got back into the car and we tried to beat a retreat, the way we came in was the only way out. The Dog planted itself in the road and refused to budge.

Himself  edged closer and the dog continued to growl loudly and didn’t move. Eventually we reached a standoff situation where the wheels of the car were so close to the dog that Himself dared go no further. So there we sat… and sat and sat… Himself tried the horn and shouting at the dog,  and eventually an old man emerged from the house next door.

In a manner as brisk as the dog, he  waved us on in short order and snapped out a terse  instruction in Portuguese that translated as hurry up and just drive on.  Himself looked twice at the old man but inched forward… the dog shifted himself to safety at literally the last second.

I have had very weird experiences of dogs, but this is the first one that I’ve ever seen that plays Chicken.

Rural Portuguese Traffic Jam: Only means One Thing…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This isn’t meant to be a funny post, just a cute and reminiscent one…

One of the BEST things about rural Portugal is that things haven’t changed much…  we round another corner into a small village  deep in the hills and we are almost out the other side when we discover that there’s a traffic jam.

Not a Dutch style traffic jam, with cars, but a New Zealand style one… i.e. SHEEP  blocking the road.

For me it’s a direct reminder of the same situation Himself and I found ourselves in 15 years ago on our Portuguese honeymoon.

Back then it was a different village of course, closer to the Douro Valley, but still,  it was us taking in the joys of  tiny roads around northern Portugal and waiting patently for shepards and their flocks.  I love that rural life goes on today as it did then,  the same as one hundred years ago and hopefully for a hundred more.

We smiled and let the lady know that we were in no rush, she smiled and waved back, clearly appreciating that. The flock trotted along quickly and it took only a few minutes for them to rush past our stationary car.

As the last of the flock of sheep disappeared around the corner of a little alley off the road between two houses close by, the lady waved a last time and we moved on…

Oh Just Shuddup and Navigate…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m usually the Navigator when it comes to long road trips.

Actually these days I’m usually relegated to holding Our Lady of the TomTom and  checking if the “Right Turn Ahead” instruction  necessitates taking action on our part  3 seconds further up the road or 14 minutes away.

Is it just us, or do you also hate that dreadful attachment that attaches Our Lady of the Tom Tom to the windscreen? You know the thing, it’s a detatchable ring with a suction pad that you then clip Our Lady into.

The annoying thing  is that we have been advised to detach it all from the windscreen every time we leave the car to deter possible car thieves so it’s not just a matter of getting it right once and leaving it there for eternity (our preferred option).

The curse is that we often have any of  the following things happen;

(a) the suction thingy that’s supposed to sick onto the windscreen won’t suck, it just refuses, you try and try and try…. and try and try and try to keep your blood pressure from rising in the process. You fail on both counts.

(b) it sucks and sticks nicely to the windscreen but several minutes ( or 20) later it falls off , and Our Lady hits the floor or slides the length of the dashboard … if you are in the middle of turning out of the street or passing someone on the motorway it’s a dangerous and alarming distraction.

(c) The gadget sucks itself to the window successfully,  but once you have informed Our Lady of your intended destination you try and place her gently into the other section that is successfully on the windscreen. In doing so, you accidentally turn her off…and turning her off appears irritatingly easy to do, the slightest touch of the touch-screen does it …(frustratingly, resetting her requires removing her again from the stuck-to-the-windscreen part of the gadget)

(d) you clip the suction clip to Our Lady, inform her of your destination and then try and put the whole kit and caboodle onto the windscreen in one hit,  … and accidentally turn her off,  ( you are seriously trying to refrain from throwing Our Lady out of the window at this point, and frustration is now at a level that  means that you don’t even care if said window is open or closed)

(e) you actually mange to get everything onto the windscreen, it remains up their successfully AND you manage to not turn her off in the process, Result!!!

(f) or you give up completely with the suction gizmo and place Our Lady on the passenger seat or in the lap of your front seat passenger.

(g) or multiple combinations of the above.

We prefer to think that it’s a design flaw in the gadget rather than our lack of technical expertise, it’s easier to cast blame on the stupidity of an inanimate object rather than ourselves after all.

So the Navigational part of our travels remains only partly resolved to our satisfaction. Of course, finding yourself entering a Portuguese village, arriving at a “T” intersection and wanting to get back to Valença , requires a far more simple form of navigation: just read the sign.

Hmmm… left, right, left, right…. hey let’s just toss for it  shall we? Interestingly Our Lady was silent until after we had made a decision ourselves and turned the corner, maybe even she was confounded by the stupidity of a sign that points both ways.

Or maybe she was busy stifling laughter that she’s finally met humans who are clearly even more  stupid navigationally challenged than we are.

Whoa!, Pull Over, I feel the urge to Dance!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We decided to take a look around the area of Northern Portugal close to where we were staying, so piled the family into the car and let the little Portuguese lanes lead us in a meandering journey of the local vicinity.

We rounded a corner , just outside one of many small villages close to Valença  to find ourselves overlooking beautiful rolling countryside, fields and vineyards and then to look to our left and see an amazing statue of a couple dancing, situated on the side of the road.

Not surprisingly, Himself know me well enough to be already applying the brakes and pulling over before I could even finish my squeal of excitement at our find and tell him that I’d love to get photos of this.

It’s not a lay-by,  just a small paved area surrounded by a low wall. There’s a stone water fountain with a tap on the side, and the statue of the dancing couple are in the middle.

The figure of the man appears to have what are castignettes in his hands so are they flamenco dancers?  Their costumes remind me of gypsy costume.

S0, are they gypsies passing through?  Locals celebrating a successful harvest?  Do they commemorate a  specific event? or a tradition special to this area?

Who knows?

In the end it doesn’t matter, they make me smile and delight me…

Don’t they make you feel like lifting your feet?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I found a plaque with some information… but naturally enough, it was in Portuguese…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Detail… attention to detail …

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dance On  little friends, Dance On….

Onions and Churches… Sigh, Someone had to Do It…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Finally I’m getting to grips with my new camera, I’ve discovered a few of the manual settings even if I haven’t yet mastered the best focal lengths or any of the other technical bits that go with them.

I have one camera chip that has gone missing… I know what photos were on it but can’t find it anywhere and have been going crazy looking for it.

I’m annoyed with myself because I know I had more photos of the local artisans taken in one of the side streets…  and some of some amazing statues.

Unless I can magically find that chip this will be my last piece on the Medieval Market, …  my recent Bread post reminded me that I had taken other foodie photos in the market and also there were so shots of the church and some of the banners that I really liked too.

Therefore this means that this post ended up like the junk drawer in your kitchen,  Yes, You must have one of those, ‘fess up…. the drawer that houses stubs of old birthday candles, pieces of string, elastic bands , the scissors that are so blunt (as my Mother was fond of saying) that  “you could ride bare butt to London on them and not get cut” .

In short … various odds and ends,  their purpose undetermined but  with possibilities of usefulness that it would seem wasteful to throw them away.

So ergo.. Onions and Churches anyone?  Odd mix I know, but someone had to do it and I’m certainly crazy enough.

The big question is …. Will this kind of mix-and-match catch on?

 

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

… and this one, just to confuse you even further.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ants… like you’ve NEVER seen them before…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I think that the artisan at the Medieval weekend of 27th August 2010  in Vila Nova de Cerveira,  who made the biggest impression on Family Kiwidutch was George… 

George makes puppets. not glove puppets or rod puppets but Marionette type of puppets.

And what’s special about  George’s marionettes? Well, they are special because they are all Ants.

George hand-makes all his puppets himself and they are a very colorful array of eccentric looking characters.

What’s more they can produce an amazing  amount of movements… and George is an expert when it comes to demonstrating their possibilities.

We had seen George and his wife the evening before, but photography was impossible as it was seriously dark by the time we discovered his stall.   By “we” I mean Kiwi Daughter and I, since Little Mr was rapidly tiring  and fraying around the edges so preferred to sit  with Himself by the restaurant we had eaten at whilst daughter and I had a quick scout around the remaining stalls.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Kiwi Daughter loved the Ants. so I said to George that we could come back for a proper look the next day to check them out in daylight, and  when I said mentioned this he probably assumed that such a comment was a way of a passer-by to escape  buying something.

When we turned up next morning  he remembered us and was delighted that we had returned as promised.

We got talking, and from what I gather, George worked in the field of  Entomologist in a former career, and has a fascination for ants. In fact he expressly asked me to mention in my blog that most people would not know that ants make up 20% of the earth’s biomass and are very very important  creatures in the world ecosystems. (and No…I didn’t know that, either)

George also asked me a question: Do ants work or survive? I said that they work… “wrong!” he replied,  “people work, work is done for money, ants survive because that is their simple instinct”   So… I’m learning a lot about ants today, as you are too, I assume.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I personally love low-tech toys that use imagination so I was immediately drawn to the Ants.. and so were my children, they fell in love immediately and yes, I was most happy to buy some to bring home.

Now, even if I do have to blow my own trumpet here, my dexterity skills in maneuvering these is better than that of my children.

But when it came to making a small video to show you, it quickly became clear that operating the puppet and filming it at the same time was never going to be a success, so I roped in the kids …  the results are ok, but I can assure you that you can make these walk and dance with a very smooth movement and it looks wonderful.

I can do it “OK” ( better than the kids, but still just “OK”).

Georges did it brilliantly and if I had any sense I should have made the video with him whilst we were at the stall.

Needless to say that at the time I didn’t have any sense. Now I only have 20/20 hindsight.

There is a trick to winding these up and storing these and Little Mr. hasn’t mastered it yet, resulting in me sitting untangling his puppet a lot, but Kiwi Daughter has it down to a fine art and delights in showing off her skills.

We hope in time to get as skilled at working these as George is… Ah ha.. more practice is needed, and with  each practice I can assure you are many squeals of laughter and delight.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Rymthic Tap that Rings though the Ages…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One of the most rewarding parts of the Vila Nova de Cerveira medieval festival is that some of the artisans were on hand  in the streets so that you might actually see them working their craft.

This gentleman was sitting on a very low stool, rhythmically tapping away at a piece of metal with  little hammers,  shaping and embellishing by tapping out patterns with additional little patterning tools.

Passing members of the public stopped to look and asked questions (in Portuguese) and he chatted away, answering them as he worked.

He had a stall close by where examples of his work were displayed for sale.

Like all the other stall holders he was dressed in medieval style clothes and with what he was doing he probably looked much the same as artisans did for centuries before him as they crafted items of beauty like these.

The dexterity of his hands showed years of practice and a true love of  handcrafting the metal.

I can only hope that these aren’t dying arts.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s no secret that I adore the taste of Portuguese bread.

Not only does it taste amazing but it also is very photogenic.

I do have a secret that you might not know though…

and that is that I simply adore photographing all bread…

Bread is a favourite topic of mine, the crustiness, flouriness, the contrast between the textures  just captivates me.

And surely you will agree,

That these fine examples of the Baker’s Art show…

Portuguese bread is beautiful…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

sigh…. so basic a commodity, but heavenly simplicity….

Yea or Nay ? Are these Tiles “Style”… or not?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

There is another other sort of  Portuguese Azulejo (tile)  that don’t get the same publicity as their regular blue, white and yellow tile cousins.

These poor relations often appear  in more than one colour,  but  feature the added bonus of being three dimensional, so they have an embossed sort of look.

When I first saw these kinds of tiles I have to admit that I didn’t think I liked them much, because close up the detail is often rather crude, even rather sloppy looking.

(and like any good detail fanatic I have to look close up). sigh, I was critical of the apparent lack of finish, but I’m learning that even detail fanatics have to take a step backwards some times, and learn to see the bigger picture.

They look so much less “crafted” then a lot of the regular flat tiles that Portugal is famous for and they definitely can’t compare with the delicate detail of the tiles that fit together to make stunning tile paintings.

But,  over time these “different” tiles have grown on me.

Why?  mostly because I’ve seen many buildings where these tiles look kind of strange, and rough when viewed close up and on their own, but when seen from a distance as a “whole” they can look amazing.

Add a little sunshine and shadow and these tiles show off their personality…

Actually when the sun shines on these they don’t just come to life… they party!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)