Spring has arrived again on the island, but that doesn’t mean sunshine and rainbows everyday. We went from windy, wet, and cold to sunny and dry and back again over the course of the month. Just for a comparison, the high temperature here was 55 yesterday (and grey and windy) while southern Michigan had a high of 79!

Power Blackout

For those who are following the news about the power outage across Spain and Portugal, rest assured that Raymond and I (Lukus) are OK. One of the benefits of living on an island is that Terceira has its own power grid which was not affected by the blackout on the mainland. It is hard to imagine the chaos it must have brought [is still bringing] to people stuck at airports, train stations, non-working traffic lights, inside subways, elavators…

Working Life

Raymond got the job that he applied to at the end of March and has been working in Angra as a bartender / waiter at a restaurant. Above: Raymond dressed for his interview, walking along the pier with Monte Brasil in the background and Right: the backside of the cathedral, across the street from his restaurant. I applied to a few hotels to no avail but had a great interview with a large local restaurant and start this Friday at their ice cream shop at the marina / beach in Angra. In the meantime I have been studying more Portuguese in preparation of communicating with coworkers (I am looking forward to speaking to tourists in English, German, or French when the opportunity arises).

House Trim Painting

The corner blocks and door & window frames on the north side are now all the same sky blue and the house is looking very uniform. Please forgive the as-of-yet-unpainted north side walls – this is an ongoing project complicated by their height and the difficulty of cleaning the green algae funk from them (power-washing does not seem to remove it).

Garden Bounty and Spring Flowers

We have been blessed with some beautiful carrots lately (with leek, above). After last year’s paltry crop we enriched the soil and, importantly, allowed the white clover bordering the rock terrace wall to infiltrate the garden bed. Oh my, what a difference it has made for the carrots! The low-growing clover leaves shade the soil from the sun thus keeping it cool and moist, protect the soil from water and wind erosion when it storms, and provide free fertilizer due to the nitrogen fixation that their roots provide (along with other legumes like alfalfa and black medic). Far from being weeds, these plants create a holistic ecosystem wherein they shelter beneficial insects and enrich the soil as their leaves decompose. I am a true believer now and have transplanted clover to nearly every garden bed we have.

We have been eating some delicious homegrown salads. They include green lettuce, baby beets and greens, sorrel greens (above with red veins), borrage greens, clover greens (yep, you can eat it, too!), carrots, and young leeks. It has been a real treat.

Moving into the orchard, the raspberry we planted last Fall is doing better. It had a rough time with the winter storms but it has a lot of new leaves and a few leaf buds on last year’s cane. The dill we planted next to it is also doing well. The black fig is now at least 5 feet tall and will soon overtake us in height and the little cloned yellow fig is already approaching 2 feet tall.

Lastly, some of the wild (though technically invasive) flowers in the yard: the beautiful and fragrant Crinum flowers of unknown species and some Cala Lillies. Fun fact: the Azores are home to 39 endemic species of land snails, all very specific to each island or even a particular ecosystem within that island. Here is one species that we have in the garden:

Unfortunately, we have found slug and/or snail damage on the collard greens so I tend to remove them from the garden. This one was moved to the lower stream side near the new retaining wall.