The local village has an impressive looking house, in a key position, with gardens maintained, but house looking sad and neglected ... depending on taste, it could be described as pretentious, ambitious, verging on kitsch ... or rather elegant ... it has not been lived in for twenty years ... its owners preferring the city delights of Portimao ... the material is concrete, an unforgiving and almost lifeless substance, ubiquitous in villa construction all over the peninsula ... in Portugal, due to building regulations, reinforced with steel, in case of earthquakes ... they still happen from time to time, and the folk memory holds the destruction of Lisbon and surrounding area in 1755 ... the ensuing tsunami worth bearing in mind for those living close to coasts ... entropy proceeds gradually as well, water, mostly absent in summer, penetrates in short sharp bursts in winter ... damp courses not always a feature of building ... evidence annually obscured with a coat of paint ...
Meanwhile, round the corner, camper vans find a winter base, with basic requirements to sustain the house on wheels ... water, toilet, electric plug-in, WiFi ... and a nearby bar, open from 9 am until 2 am ... the editor wittily calls them the Escargot Club ... another form of homeless living and quite popular ... a halfway-house perhaps ...
The question of intentional community comes into focus ... plenty of examples hereabouts. .. at different stages, with different values ... all addressing questions like a yearning for a more connected life, transcending the decaying third dimension reality ( four if time is included, or is that space-time?) ... this imaginal stage has its chaotic phase too ... though pioneer places have long settled to specific forms ... Findhorn, Tamera, Plum Village, Damanhur, Auroville and many more ... all different, with similarities ... none immune to the law of entropy ... the wise ones will embrace and flow with that inevitability ... maybe transcend it?
Specifically, the probability fields are warming up, as resources appear and questions of where occur ... Portugal? England? Elsewhere?
As this year in linear time draws to a close, next year possibilities glimmer ... a couple of weeks taking care of pilgrims in a hostel on the route from Le Puy ( which itself may need walking) ... the editor in nearby Ciblat and the Correze, itself a region full of possibilities, Plum Village for a fortnight of deeper practice Interbeing, Brockwood for a week of volunteering and general visiting too ... back to the present ... it is winter in the sunny Algarve ... the land is drinking deeply while it can ...
Today's duties include a drive to the market in Vila de Bispo and shopping, first at the organic stall, run by a German woman, second a non-organic stall with the Portuguese woman proudly pointing out the best (Portuguese) produce and not blatantly asking a special price for foreigners, which can happen ... probably did in Aljezur, where there was no competition ... then a wander around Lidl for the rest before heading back for some intentional community conversation ... and lunch.
A wander to the village produces pics for today and a visit to the bar to find campers to interview and photograph for you draws a blank ...
As the children head off skiing for a week my continuing presence depends on Ros finding a short break away for herself, in which case the rabbit and chickens need looking after ... not to mention the persistent Puskin, who seemed to be staring into the kitchen this morning saying: he only just arrived, and he's indoors ... that's not fair! The reply is, of course: maybe, but he's not moving in permanently ... and won't be requiring veterinary services, flea treatments or any of that. ..
In any case, the journey continues in a few days or a week ... along the Algarve to Tavira, maybe ...
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