“What makes life interesting is the unknown. It is the risks that we take every single moment of a single day.” – Paulo Coelho
“Did you see the snake?” Michael asked.
“What snake?”
“The one you nearly stepped on.”
“Oh.” I surprised myself by remaining calm. “No.”
When we both had a closer look, we saw it again just as it disappeared into the gnarly trunk of one of the olive trees. Michael informed me that it was a ladder snake, and completely harmless. I in return was rather flabbergasted by his knowledge of local snakes, as well as slightly suspicious, as he is known to make up stuff to see my reaction.
Later, on my way back from the bathroom, I had my eyes glued to the ground, suddenly seeing slithering snakes everywhere. Close to the house I nearly stepped on it again, as it was making its way back to the olive tree next to the house where my outside kitchen was set up. Disappearing into one of the holes in the tree trunk. Just great, I thought to myself.
I don’t mind snakes where I can’t see them, but knowing where this one was, harmless or not, left me slightly uncomfortable. For the first couple of days anyway, until I forgot all about it. Thank goodness.
Another evening, as we were sitting with a glass of wine in the house, sheltering from the cold wind, Michael spotted a fox at the bottom of the land, close to the seasonal stream. It sniffed around for a while, but didn’t come any closer to the house, but thanks to a fairly good zoom on the camera, Michael managed to capture him (or her) on film.
The most precious of all our visitors was the mommy cat and her kittens. Michael stumbled upon her one morning early where she was helping herself to a rather large chunk of the sheep’s milk cheese we received from the Shephard’s Wife, and which I banished outside because of the pungent smell.
As we are both cat lovers, Michael fed her generously from his chourizo stash before we could visit the supermarket to buy dry cat food. Skittish and wild, she was clearly grateful for finding such a generous bounty, and a couple of morning’s later she felt comfortable enough to bring her little kittens along. And so we spent many happy moments watching ‘Cat TV’ over the remaining days of our visit. We would have happily adopted them all if we were living on the land, but as that is still just a dream, all we could do was pray that they will be safe, after filling two bowls with water and food when we left.
Our last unexpected visitor didn’t show up during this trip, but rather made a visit to the land during olive harvest season at the end of last year, when we weren’t there. During his November 2018 visit, Michael met with someone in the area who agreed to harvest our olives. We were thrilled that we would be able to taste our own olive oil for the first time, as we were to receive a percentage of the pressed olive oil. He warned Michael that he only harvests in January, later than the local Portuguese do, as he prefers the flavour of the olives harvested at a much later stage.
In mid-January, when we were starting to wonder when he will start the harvest, we receive an sms in which he informed us that he arrived on the land as arranged, but not a single olive, either on the trees or on the ground was to be found. Our entire olive harvest went missing.
When we bought the land and the papers were finalized in November 2017, the lawyer who dealt with the transfer had been asked by the seller if he could harvest the olives, as they were nearly ready. And as he put it, “would like to make sure the trees were pruned so they didn’t go to ruin”. We were just too happy to agree, as we had no intention of going back before April 2018, and thought it would be great if someone could prune the trees, and make good use of the olives, instead of them going to waste.
We asked our friends who live there to please ask our neighbour, the Shepherd, when they were next in the area, if he had seen anything. It doesn’t take just a few hours to harvest 50 olive trees, and as he grazes his sheep on our land, we know that he is very aware of who is coming and going.
And so the mystery was solved when he informed them that it was the previous owner who had harvested the olives, without any pruning done. We were under the impression that we made it clear that he was welcome only to the previous year’s olives. Perhaps it was “lost in translation” or perhaps liberties were taken, as we’ve been told that it does sometimes happen that the locals would harvest olives left on trees, where the owners don’t permanently reside, instead of letting it go to waste.
We are quite sure that if we go visit him we will get some of our oil, but as we are always short on time and we would hate something else to get “lost in translation”, the meeting will have to wait until we have more time and our Portuguese has improved.
June 2019 Visit
Written by: Jolandi
Oh boy. I hope you can sort out that issue with the previous owner.
I think we were more disappointed that we didn’t get to taste some of our olive oil than upset with him or the practice, Corlia. And we always have the option to pop around to his place and introduce ourselves, which we haven’t done yet, and may not for a while to come, as we always run out of time with still too many things to do. And sooner or later we will get to taste our own oil. 🙂 – Jolandi
I am sure you will be able to come to an agreement with the former owner of the land. He probably finds it difficult to stop feeling responsible for the trees after many years and was worried in case the fruit went to waste.
I love those visiting cats! I don’t mind snakes either as we have them in our garden.
I guess it takes time to extract oneself from one’s land, Clare, especially when the new owners are not permanently living there. It must seem like such a waste. We do hope to one day meet him, as he did give us his contact details through our solicitor at the time, but we really haven’t had time to introduce ourselves and I have to admit that our Portuguese is still in a ghastly state. We love our little visitors and cannot wait for the day we can welcome humans too. 🙂 – Jolandi
Jolandi & Michael in Portugal this happens often when the owner does not reside there.
So we’ve been told, Paulo, and I think there is no need for something this wonderful to go to waste. We were definitely taken aback at first though, as we didn’t know about the practice. But now, at least we are forewarned. 😉
When you and Michael finally decide to settle there permanently, I’m afraid you won’t be able to keep chickens, unless you’re willing to share them with your furry neighbors! 😉 The olives may be another matter. It sounds like you’re dealing with a combination of local customs and maybe a misunderstanding on the part of the former landowner. I hope you’ll eventually get a bottle of olive oil out of this, though it strikes me Former Owner owes you more than that. I don’t know what the going price of olives is in Portugal, but in California they’re selling for $500-$1000 a ton, depending on the quality and the type.
I’m a sucker for kittens and feral cats in general. I hope they’ll stick around for your next visit.
We are suckers for kittens and feral cats too, Hangaku, and we would definitely have adopted them if we lived there permanently. It will be wonderful if they are still around. I suspect we will have to start saving up for all the food and neuterings we will have to do once we live there. 😉
It is great to know the price of olives in California. We have no idea what it goes for in Portugal. I think people in the area simply press for their own use only. According to our neighbour, the Shepherd, our olive trees produce excellent eating olives, so I will have to learn all about that process sometime in the near future. And of course we can’t wait to have a taste of our own olive oil. Hopefully one day soon. 🙂
As for the chickens . . . We will definitely have to prepare ourselves for losses if we choose to go that route. I am not too keen on keeping them, but then I think of all those lovely fresh eggs . . . Let’s see. – Jolandi
Jolandi what delightful photos of visitors to your land. I too am not keen on slithery ones and have on my walks also come across newborn 5cm puffadder, my heart seized as it was the pattern that caught my eye amongst the corn coloured grass. Am sure Portugal has not got to many poisonous snakes at all and that little fox is too adorable.
Love reading these snippets of your settling in.
all the best
Nanette x
Thanks, Nanette. We will definitely have to get used to living with all sorts of ‘unwelcome’ critters too, that is for sure. I certainly hope there aren’t many poisonous snakes around! I far prefer furry visitors than the slithering kind. 😉 – Jolandi
Ahhh! I hope your previous owner leaves you your joy or at least enough oil. The cats and the fox are marvellous, as for the snake, luckily you are able to forget about it. 🙂 To happy and harmless visitors.
To happy and harmless visitors, indeed, Manja! 🙂
Adorable fox and cat/kittens, and I’m impressed the snake slithered right out of your head after a few days! I imagine my husband would get his back up about the former owner helping himself to the olives, but I’m kind of with you; I’d be more bummed about losing the chance to try my own olive oil. But I’d also want to smilingly introduce myself at some point and sweetly inquire about the harvest while making it clear (somehow … unconjugated verbs + pantomime?!) that next year you will take care of that yourselves!
I secretly amuse myself by imagining placing a sign on one of the olive trees to tell him to leave our olive alone, Lex, for him to find when he sneaks onto it for another harvest. 🙂 We will most probably get one of the locals, who do this for a living, to harvest the olives and prune the trees for us. That way it will be done during ‘regular’ harvest time, and we are in with a chance. Although truth be told, I don’t think he will do it again. Plus we are not sure that there will be much of a harvest this year anyway. We will see what we can arrange during our upcoming visit, but I definitely like your suggestion. We are becoming quite good at the ‘unconjugated verbs + pantomime’ charades we play with our Electrician and the Shepherd, so we should go test it on other unsuspecting victims. :):) Thank goodness the Portuguese are not only patient, but really good at making a huge effort to communicate despite the language barrier, as it is really hard to learn a language when nowhere close to the source. – Jolandi
All part of wonderful adventures for a book eventually!
We secretly love these little incidents, Gwen, and referred to it as the “curious case of the missing olives”, until the truth was eventually uncovered. And at this point in time a story is worth more than a couple of liters of olive oil. We will have plenty of time in the future to enjoy our olives. – Jolandi
The picture of the kittens peeking out from behind the rocks was absolutely adorable! And I adore the fox. The snakes 😱, not so much. I can learn something from your laid back attitude. I would have probably exploded over the missing olive thing but really, that would have just been a waste of energy in the end. Acclimating to a new culture takes time, calm and composure.
I also think those kittens are adorable, Lisa. They were as curious about us, as we were about them, and it turned into a game of who is watching who. 🙂 We are doing our best to focus our energy on where it matters most at any given point in time, and as we are the strangers in a new culture, we take these incidences, which really are harmless, as experiences and stories enriching our life. And like you say it takes ‘time, calm and composure’ to settle into a new culture. We have a lot to learn. – Jolandi