Happy Easter!

Well, it’s been a while. Tomorrow Mark will be able to play golf for the first time since the middle of January and I will be able to sit on a terrace with three other people and drink coffee. Life is changing. Not that ours has been a particular hardship, we walk to the beach most days and gaze at the ocean and sailboats, fisherman and cliff climbers. It is a beautiful walk on a cobbled street beside a golf course, life is anything but difficult. But we do yearn for dinner with a tribe yet to be determined. We’ve met many candidates on our daily outings and have a few more from our initial days in Cascais. It will be fun to see who comes through as simpatico in the end. But we are fixtures in our new area and that feels good.

Another BIG change is our address, although in reality we are only three doors down from our villa now. A British/Canadian couple are heading off to Dubai, a favorite living place of theirs. He has accepted a position for at least a year and very probably many more. They are just finishing up remodeling their villa here and have changed the layout a bit, managing to add a small room with a daybed, right next to a big window so it doesn’t feel cramped. We would like that little room. They have also glassed in the patio to make it an outdoor room with just one open wall and extended the patio out in to yard. It adds a lot of space which is lovely. Beyond that, it is very modern, not quite the traditional Santa Fe feel of our current home. I will miss that familiarity but have been wanting to try out something more sparse. Mark is looking forward to a US style fridge and ice…a lot. And the bathrooms are gorgeous. It works for both of us and the couple, who love River and prefer to lease to people they know. So that happens May 1st (we are lucky that our current owner is flexible about our leaving with the two months notice). We go Tuesday to see what the new place has and doesn’t have. I’ll post pictures when we are in and settled.

And River gets groomed for the first time since January tomorrow. She is definitely resembling a small Yeti which doesn’t appear to bother her at all. Mark’s hair is to his shoulders and he seems happy with it too. Me, well, mine is probably shorter than usual since my husband is handy with a pair of scissors when it gets too cumbersome for the top of my head. Spring is happening here and flowers are beginning to proliferate again, much missed and wonderful to witness for the first time.

And for the car lovers, a Morgan – if you don’t know them, their website is a treasure trove!