Projects ...

Having returned to Stanhope and the third cottage of the row of seven to have provided a peaceful haven over the past five years, projects pop up and patiently await ... the one that tempted the return, a retreat centre on the main street, perhaps parallel now with the Graceful Ageing Centre at the still empty residential home on the road out of town updale ... long imagined and now maybe timely ... other properties suitable locally ... the need clear, as temporary places for folks discharged from hospitals and supported living as a lifestyle choice ...

Patience being the third of the treasures of Tao and the toughest for your blogger ... Compassion and Simplicity come naturally now ... all appears to be unfolding in perfect timing and mutuality is the indicator and guide ... in the new world coming, beyond greed, envy and competition, projects are mutually beneficial ... Wheels to Meals being an example as well as a thread of the next project with the elders of the Dale ...

Meanwhile, another role, developed this past year, house-sitter, elicits an invitation from a very old friend from leftist times in London ... now living in west Wales and offering a three month stay while he is away touring Europe ... gratefully declined, since the role is secondary and aligned with other projects now ... which may themselves provide the simple shelter required ...

Shelter at its simplest is re-imagined in the new world coming ... away from houses as investments and buy to let ... away from excessive space to be filled with stuff ... towards experimental forms, like co-housing ... inter-generational models embracing mutual benefits ... ethical time-shares ... and shelter as a basic human right ...

Ironically, resources to support these models arrive via traditional house builders and excessive land values in the south ...  maybe something that will change if London sheds its financial services in the wake of the retreat from European unity ...

The surreal politics is harder to ignore now ... and tricky to maintain perspective ... to discern when the ludicrous is best ignored and when it is necessary to act ... it is clear enough, however, that where our attention goes, energy flows and our precious energy is better focused on building the new world we want than the old, decaying one we don't ...

From Brockwood Park arrive invitations to events this year ... always a joy ... just have to find a cat-sitter ... the house can take care of itself  ...

Return to the known ...

Brief blizzard having reverted to damp greyness the test for equanimity is weather related ... the joys of English winter ... sometimes other seasons too ... the hospitality in Durham is warm though and wonderful to catch up with a dear friend ... and a lovely daughter ... the other working all week ...a bus trip to Stanhope feels like returning home and after catching up with friends, a message arrives from Spain ... friends and erstwhile neighbours having rented their riverside cottage to a dodgy tenant are seeking a reliable house sitter ... sounds like a job for someone with recent experience in the art ...

Other reconnections in Durham, along with wardrobe expansion thanks to various charity shops and a more expensive visit for boots ... the others having worn out after good service on the many hundreds of miles in Spain and Portugal ... items best not skimped on ...

Plenty of energy for Stanhope projects, long gestating and now wanting to be born ... but that's for next week ...

North ...

Warm farewells from Joana last night, Diana this morning ... John and Rosemary apparently the last two customers, though that may change ... Rosemary, from Edinburgh, writes under the name Eliza Earsman, has several books published, working on another here ... calmly convinced of the literal truth of the Bible, though not concerned to proselytize ...

Since the flight north is this evening, since the sky is clear, Sun warm, breeze cool, and since legs are eager, the plan is three hours west to Fuseta for lunch, train to Faro, final 5km walk to the airport ... Ecovia providing off road route along the coast ...

Restauranta Alota for the third visit and friendly greeting, wonderful meal and early enough to miss the Saturday rush ... the doubling of the weekday price paid without blinking ... equanimity maybe assisted by spare euros ... and at the airport the most expensive coffee in Portugal at €1.60 ... airport staff get 25% discount ... airports being more like shopping centres ... with a great scam of denying passengers the right to bring water or other liquids through security and charging exorbitant prices for it on the other side ...

Rob, our pilot, tells us we are passing Porto and will be over Santiago de Compostela soon ... which feels slightly surreal ... it's ten days walking. ..

And so, uneventfully, to a wintry Newcastle, a walk across the road to the hotel ...equanimity mixed with weariness, since after midnight is long past bedtime ...

Mind shifting ...

These days in Tavira pass pleasantly enough, the mind in transition between the adventure past, the adventures ahead ... daily gentle exercise ... around town ... yesterday along to Barril and a chance encounter with Andre for more warm conversation and clarification ... his field not psychodrama but trauma ... his wife not Dora but Dory ... though still unsure of the spelling ...

Jon, not John, reveals his role as a writer and shares his magazine, Reconnect, along with his dream of community in Andalusia. .. and identification with Jewishness and homosexuality ... reflecting on the power of these identities, to what extent they define the person, neither feature apparent in the initial conversation where common themes of community and spiritual growth were resonating strongly ...

This morning the legs fancied following the river upstream on quiet roads through orange groves ... an hour North to a river crossing, an hour return ... another long conversation with Joana ... then John, who arrived yesterday ... his Brazilian wife unable to live with him in England, thanks to immigration rules in that benighted land ... other EU countries would allow her to stay with her EU English husband ... for now, anyway ... the conversation turns progressive ... more and more folks waking up it seems ...

Another full day in Tavira before wandering across to Faro, maybe some walking ... and the evening flight ...

Tavira, Teeth, Hair ...

After sorting the teeth problem it was time for the hair, untended since Sarria and the €8 barber. A quiet back street unisex salon called, three staff, no other customers and a leisurely trim followed by a wash, normal procedure to remove the bits of hair ... and happily anticipating a slightly dearer cut ... though visibly shaken when the young hairdresser said €75 ... perhaps she meant €17? Actually it was €7.50 ... lost in translation along the way ...

More hostel customers appear ... Keth from New Zealand, a Finnish woman and her German boyfriend, Diogo, a young Portuguese from Porto, working as a chef here and all round the country ... John, from Totnes, travelling in his camper van and finding the nights a little cold ... and a deep conversation continued at a bar ... hitting the same frequency for an hour or so ...

Another warm and sunny day ... snow forecast for UK and some winter clothes required soon ... another few days with the winter dodgers first ...

Return to Tavira ...

Look, Jane, Ollie and Chico head off early for a beach walk before Jane's continuing appointment at the hospital in Faro ... putting the toothache into perspective, though it will want sorting soon, meaning an ever widening gap ... a wander along with Andre for the promised chat, though details of psychodrama not revealed ... more touching story of the mid-childhood traumas which led him to psychotherapy as a practitioner and expert in the field of psychodrama ... feeling drained of energy in the daily exchanges, despite some topping up with status validation from peers ... a fan of Krishnamurti ... always a positive reference point here, though understanding a fraction of his message ... ongoing study and, more important, ongoing application of the principles expounded the key ... a warm exchange of energy, hopefully mutual, and maybe more in Tavira this coming week ...

An hour to Luz and another to Santa Luzia, with chirpy "Bom Dias" met with a variety of responses ... sometimes ignored, sometimes returned, not always in Portuguese ... a Nepalese bloke, waiting for transport to the orange picking, responds with the word he associates with a Caucasian walking with a rucksack: Trekking? Orange harvest in full flow and the increasingly affluent locals decreasingly keen on the work ... EU citizens from lower income countries recruited, along with Nepalese and others on 3 month working visas ...

A light lunch in the sun ... rather hot today and the reason for the retired couple from Penistone in Northern England, since relocated to Condom, the unforgettably named (for those of us with a puerile sense of humour) town in South West France, to spend two months here each year ... the winter dodgers also in evidence at the Pousada de Juventude ... Rosemary from Edinburgh, Chris from Leeds ... early retired teacher ...

A warm welcome from Diana, who has been on holiday from her job at the hostel, from Paolo and later from Joana ... making this place feel like the Tavira home ...

Finally addressing the teeth question, the first place visited offers an appointment in ten days with a call if a cancellation appears ... popping in to see Geoff produces five more books for the hostel and directions to Joaquim, the dream dentist, who explains the options and offers the solution by tomorrow, along with a prescription for drugs to enable a full night's sleep ... plus advice on avoiding warm food and placing the painful side on the pillow ... heat, he says helps the pain producing bugs to prosper ...

Tomorrow? No plan ... some mooching around ... see what turns up ...

Sao Bras ...

After a very quiet day yesterday, resting, reading and a short stroll round the block, 3 or 4 km ... today was the New Year Tea Ceremony with the Almond Blossom Sangha, and a trip by car to a very plush property near Sao Bras de Alportel ... Quinta de Pombal, owned and run as a centre for Japanese style Zen Buddhism by a German woman ... rented to the Interbeing style Buddhists for the day ... Buddhists in general being tolerant folks, though there have been exceptions historically and recently in Myanmar with persecution of the Rohingar Muslims by mainstream, so-called Buddhists ... labels being only marginally helpful ... know folks by their deeds, not by their words or religions ...

Fairly formal style after the silent sitting and walking, with ritual tea pouring, passing, bowing ... reminiscent of the Soto Zen monks at Throssel Hole tucked away in the North Pennines of England ... all meals taken in the same manner, meaning mostly cold food by the time you get to taste it ... good training in equanimity and especially for gluttons ... the Theravadans up by Belsay have another method. .. fasting from lunch until breakfast next day ... allowing one big bowl, into which goes as much as you want, and if you want dessert, it goes in the same bowl ... well it all goes together into the stomach after all ...

After tea and cakes, each person invited to offer a song or reading ... which was nice ...

Forms for practising the spiritual life are interesting ... often helpful, as long as they are seen as practises and not as of sacred significance in themselves ... well not anymore than any mundane thing anyway ... the formless seems the purest way, yet where to hang your hat? How for seekers to find their Sangha? And how to pass the time enjoyably ... uplifting entertainment ... why not?

Reflecting this morning that in another week it will be Newcastle and Durham ... and for some folk a week's winter break on the Algarve counts as a holiday ... no need to wander far now, though Aljezur briefly considered ... a wander along the coast to the Tavira Pousada de Juventude seems most likely ...

Fuseta ...

Since stores are required for the next 3 days, fasting or accepting an oats and rice diet the perfectly possible alternative, three locations about the same 5 km distance from the elusive Casa are on the list ... Fuseta wins and hopefully a new path is found, heading south and west ...that's the easy part as Fuseta is a place and by the coast ... roads asphalt and sandy want to go there ... the Eco-Via picked up again at the shore ... the return is trickier since the destination has neither name nor village attached ... although note has been made of nearby settlement for reference and landmarks such as garishly painted houses and particularly barky dogs ...

Meanwhile, the bigger return is booked for a week from tomorrow, mind having settled on Stanhope, an aeroplane is required to accelerate the trip ... just over three hours for a journey that might otherwise take more than a month ... and a boat ... which was considered ... younger daughter's announced adventure to the Philippines the trigger, older settled daughter another heart tug along with friends ... the Hopi message speaking clearly of things already considered in the solitude of the walking ... and a little excitement now for the renewal with the adopted home in the hills, by the river ... whether it is reverting to familiar patterns or accepting the flow and where it wants to go, who knows?

The mind and legs were ready for another long walk, but the right foot is grateful for a rest ... perhaps still feeling the effects of the fall in San Vicente, perhaps the shoe not quite fitting right ... anyway it all feels fine ... another week around Tavira, then back for the joys of winter in the North Pennines ... on a sunny day with a blanket of snow on the fells, there is nowhere better ...

Before all that, this morning's Sangha sit in the yurt was good ... 20 minutes sitting, two circuits of slow, mindful walking, 20 minutes more sitting ... some bowing to the Buddha and Thay on the altar, joined today by the image of a Sangha member from Holland recently passed over and whose funeral ceremony is today ...

Then a chat with new guests Dora and Andre, coming to the last week of a month long holiday to mark Andre's retirement from his work in Psychodrama (for those who are thinking they have experienced a few of those, it is actually a particular method, of which more may be learned in the next few days). Dora works in the field of pre-school education and, like many women from Northern Europe at this time, has had her pension postponed by several years, thanks to demographic pressures, financial mismanagement, political choices and so on ... still grateful every day for the income without working here, though not expecting it to last ...

Lunch in Fuseta is fish again ... that's what they do here ... the lady is invited to choose and produces three different specimens, all with bones to slow the eating, due to three missing front teeth, and all with eyes to test the mind and open mouths as if to say ... really? Elder daughter says, if it has a face she won't eat it ... or she did once ... anyway, here is the photo so you can share the dilemma. .. and a rather lovely sunrise this morning before meditation ...

Hopi message ...

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered ...

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."

Then he clasped his hands together and smiled, and said:

"This could be a good time!"

""There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.

"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

Attributed to an unknown Hopi Elder.
Hopi Nation,
Oraibi,
Arizona.

The time is now ...

At the chanting last night a reading from an un-named Hopi elder's message for the New Year ... the time for renewal is at hand ... time for the lone wolf to rejoin the pack ... time to leap fearlessly into Life's mid-stream flow, away from the security of the bank, to stop taking things personally, especially oneself ... a message for the world strongly resonating ...

Buddhist readings today reaffirm this metaphor of the mid-stream flow, away from the shallows, where the water often goes in circles ...

Meanwhile, the brief period of cloud and showers gives way to Sun ... yet the weather, in the end, is not the most important thing ... building on social capital earned over years, revisiting relationships more established than the interesting but transitory encounters along the trail ... all pointing to Stanhope again ... when, the only real question ...

Moncarapacho, Fuseta, Luz, Lost ...

The railway along the Algarve, from Lagos to Vila Real, was built before much of the development on the coast and inland ... roads are fairly flexible ... added to the network as necessary ... the train folks found a cheaper way to connect ... rename the station and hope no-one notices the alarming distance between Albufeira proper ( or, to be more precise, improper) and the station with its name ... Fuseta is named on two stations ... Fuseta A and Fuseta-Moncarapacho ... both are close to the pretty fishing village, but Moncarapacho is 5 km away ... nice work for taxi drivers ...

To be clear for readers who know the traditional winter retreat style, aligned with Nature, nestling in Noble Silence, recharging ready for Spring ... this retreat is more about studying and resting in the tranquil setting of the Casa ... joining in the activities ... this evening some chanting ...

That said, legs like a stretch, and since this is self-catering, a wander to the shops is necessary ... Look suggests an off-road route for the 5 km, North-West to Moncarapacho, which is delightful and fascinating to see the mixture of select villas and alternative settlements with their yurts and caravans ... Casa Nirvana is intriguing, possibly tempting fate ... others have the doggy deterrents, thankfully fenced off ... which may be a cause of their aggression since the freely wandering ones are mostly friendly ... the rucksack takes on ballast at the shop and, loath to return the same way,  South is selected and Fuseta for lunch ... octopus and red wine to wipe out tentative resolutions in one good meal ... another shop, more ballast and some difficulty locating the house, since there is no place name to offer eager passers-by, wanting to help ... re-setting to Luz and recalling landmarks passed in the car yesterday solves the problem before dark, overhanging orange trees offering refreshment and legs and feet appreciating an unusually long stroll ... for a day off ...

Lots of fresh ideas bubbling up and a separate post gestating ... the creative process pulling from the realms of possibility, shifting to forms fit for the coming world, with its new tools for collaboration ... the dying, decadent, rotting forms of greed, the compost for the better world we make together ... but that's for tomorrow ... tonight is for chanting!

Almond Blossom Retreat ...

Leaving young backpackers Gerry, Ahn and Andrew comparing trips over breakfast, it was a short wander via Santa Luzia to Luz de Tavira to meet Look for a lift to the Almond Blossom Retreat ... not so far to walk, but tricky to find ...

Plenty of reading material and WiFi less easy to access, so conditions right for studying ... a week here to start the New Year ... clean up the operating system ready for whatever is coming next ...

And just to show you that there are sometimes clouds in the sky in the Algarve, photos of the house and the view of the sea lacking the usual blue background ...

2017

The hostel, having almost filled with revellers, returns to usual low season rates and occupancy levels ... the four bedded dorm only had two, though Lee decamped to Lagos this morning and has become a single room for the very reasonable price of €11 b&b ... still time for a new room-mate, but that's fine too ...  it has been interesting communicating with a Silicon Valley computer programmer ... a question followed by a very precise and detailed answer, leaving little space or energy to further explore the question ... options mainly to risk another question or close the dialogue ... this style a notable strand of human evolution, though not the only one ... and not always helpful to label it, since in certain fields it is well within the range called "normal" ...

The New Year arrived noisily at midnight with an impressive firework display ... the visual impact apparently matching the aural, according to folks who turned out for it ... pondering the coming year has not been high on the agenda ... the next week is known, with the self-organised retreat ... after that the next step will become clear ...

An afternoon wander to nearby Cabanas kept the walking parts in trim ... most of town is closed down for New Year's Day ... a few bars and restaurants open ... sufficient stores in the kitchen for tonight and a glass or two of wine before a self-imposed dry week ... probably ... seems a helpful element in a retreat ... maybe coffee too ... standby for reports on that one ...

In a delightful synchronicity, or co-incidence for readers trapped in a rational version of reality, Anh, from Vietnam, arrives ... her mother a fan of Thich Nhat Hanh ... and Ahn's boyfriend, Andrew from Australia ... they escape for a meal in town before further investigation ... 

Joana, on evening shift, is still exploring inner space and yearning for a breakthrough ... fear the block, as usual ...

Gerry, 30, from North Carolina, arrives in room 101 ... seeing some of Europe in the quiet season in agricultural work ...

This morning's photo shows the rather surreal tower of the Residencial, first visited in the 70s and again in 2011 ... now closed and showing no signs of re-opening ... happy memories ...