Feb 10

So beautiful and green. But also much cooler than I expected (at night
anyways.) I am I'm SB Messines, or 'Mayseenish' as it it pronounced. I
am living on a small hilltop 15 minutes outside of town, staying with
a lovely person named Susan. She is 65, born in NYC, emigrated to the
UK at 30 (her passport was taken away in the process and she has never
had one since) and has lived I'm Portugal the last 8 years. Her place
is called the 'Kindred Spirit' in honor of her late husband. Let me
say that she maintains a healthy attitude about his passing, the
magnet on her fridge reads, "It is better to have loved and lost than
to spend the rest of your life with that psycho. "
The property is sprawling and includes the farmhouse (which she lives
in), the recently-built guesthouse (where I am staying) a variety of
sheds and tons of vegetation. Part of my WWOOFing will be to take care
of the orange and lemon trees, the grape vines, and the rest of the
garden. But first we had to move her art gallery. Today, Susan and I
started to dismantle the "Off the Wall Galeria". The gallery is in
nearby Alte. To reach Alte from SB Messines, we drive 15 minutes along
hillside roads, which overlook lush valleys. The landscape is spotted
with white stone houses. Some are new and immaculate, luxury
destinations. Others are old, and crumbling under the cool, moist air.
Alte is 45 minutes off the coast and is almost a tourist trap. Which
explains why the gallery opened here two years ago and is closing
today. Susan is an inspiring woman, full of energy and ideas and sheer
will power. She just designed and then built the second house on her
property to let out to visitors. She runs a gallery for a dozen
artists and contributes her own work. Since the gallery isn't
flourishing in Alte, Susan is transforming her garage into a new
showing space. She is writing a grant that would sponsor an 'art tour'
-an opportunity for enthusiasts to travel along the south of Portugal
and discover original artwork along the way. And on top all that she
is the mother of nine!
The gallery has paintings, enamels, photography, tiles, hand carved
frames, and jewelry. The artwork is good stuff and all of it a bit
pricy. Taking down paintings is interesting work. It's like going to
an art museum where you can touch everything. Whenever I tire of
carrying things, I can break and enjoy the gallery. Susan doesn't
seem to mind my wandering attention, in fact I think she does her best
to encourage it. The other day we took a break to enjoy the
accomplishments of a couple of her many daughters. [Susan is the
mother of seven girls and two boys. Today their ages range from 29 to
45]. We listened to the latest album by Electralane, her daughter is
the drummer. We looked at tour posters from various stops, including
Russia, and at a magazine featuring the band. Then Susan brought out
some more magazines, these with pictures of her daughter who is a
model. "And she doesn't mind taking off her kit either." said Susan. I
flipped through the Vogue and some other fashion catalogues and it was
quite clear that she didn't mind.
Both of her daughters are beautiful, almost in a manly way. High
cheekbones, a square jaw, and sharp almond shaped eyes. With a look
that says, "I will fight you. And I will win." Her children live
around the world, some in the States, some in the UK, Greece, France
and I lost track after that.
Susan has introduced me to many of her friends (largely ex-pats): Aud
(sp?) the very friendly yet shy to speak Norweigan who helped us TONS
while we emptied the store. Peter and Hazel came by to say hello and
invite us to dinner. Both work in Scotland but keep a vacation house
here. "Where did you find him?" asked Hazel when I met her, even
before greeting me. Then lunch with Paula (English) and Ursula
(German). Ursula was especially nice and invited us over to her house
for lunch later in the week. We went and dined with another Brit.
Lunch was 'Arroz de ... duck" and absolutely delicious. We sat and
talked for hours, although to be fair I mostly listened as the main
topics of discussion were house & property maintenance in southern
Portugal and marriage within & across different cultures. Everyone was
smart and funny and pleasant - so I did enjoy myself. One last
interesting note. Ursula had some kind of "ridgeback" dog that
sometimes hunt lion in Africa. I intend to look up that breed - very
badass.

Sent from my iPod