São Bento by Night

Looking down from the wall in front of Monsaraz onto the small lane up to São Bento. Bengt's house is the chimney with the lamp on the right. He got back from Sweden to a collapsed sewer system, poor guy.

Like a zombie until we had our Sunday nap - we tackled the smelly tomcat by allowing him through the catflap, but not back out again. An impressive battle ensued at about half past two this morning, where it managed to knock a load of jars off the shelves - an awful mix of broken glass, food, sugar, liquid, and cat pee all over the floor - and a huge ginger creature growling at us, until Mike managed to corner it in the shower where he sprayed it with water, and eventually allowed it out again. Sincerely hoping it will now leave us alone. The house still stinks in spite of vigorous scrubbing with bleach. We'll tackle the walls tomorrow.

Other than that, our usual Sunday: church, Adega, good conversation at Sem Fim, with a sunset walk round the walls of Monsaraz.

Gratefuls:
- Mike tackling the tomcat 
- beautiful sunny weather
- the Plough, clear as anything, straight over our house, when we got back from Sem Fim

Oh, and a very happy birthday to my youngest brother; I was twelve when he was born, and clearly remember my Dad bringing him straight out of their bedroom in Maués (Brazil) to show us before he'd even been cleaned up.