TE19 Iberian Adventure

Passing Time in Portugal

The post-war generation took pride in home maintenance, custodians, faithfully stewarding their corner of the world.

The workshop was tucked behind a wall of conifers and housed the irrigation controls. Each tool hung immaculately against a stencil outline.

“The irrigation can be temperamental – Vitorino’s grandchildren messed with it last time.”

But that summer Grandfather had something else to contend with, the presence of the insidious Palm beetle, reaping havoc across the region. Grandfather held the bucket while I sprayed a cocktail of insecticides into the palm.

“I’ve nurtured them from knee high, I’ll be damned if I see them go.”

After a lunch of salads and cold meats we retreated to the veranda. Judy periodically looked up from her gossip magazines to relay some celebrity announcement, moving only occasionally to retrieve icy water from the kitchen. She just wanted someone present in the moment, someone to sit with and savour the twilight years. But there was an ocean in between the waves; my Grandfatherwas a restless type, always on his feet, always looking far off over. The afternoon passed, pottering around the house, and picking fruit in the garden. *** On the terrace Grandfather surveyed the brown hills, blue in the lunar glow. What was it that we shared, this unifying angst 153