Country Matters

RETURNING FROM a visit to Britain, where temperatures reached new highs and jelly fish swarmed into the shallows as holidaymakers sought refuge in the sea, it has been all go.

By MARGARET BROWN JUNE IS the month when money goes out and very little comes in. Cars must be taxed, and this is the first year it has been possible

LIVING ON the edge of the Monchique foothills, our dogs have a freedom about which suburban pets can only dream. Until such time as there are no more castaways, and

WHEN WE came to live in the Algarve many years ago, being country people, one of the first things we noticed was the earliness of hay time and harvest. The

By MARGARET BROWN SUMMER’S HEAT is beginning to bite, and the levels of lakes that remained low after the winter rains are falling again, which does not look good if

IT HAS been a memorable Easter week from Palm Sunday through Easter Day and, to judge by the size of its congregations, the Barlavento branch of St. Vincents Anglican Church

WHEN WE bought a small farm in 1986, the near neighbours were Portuguese with a few British expatriates living on the periphery, an arrangement which suited us very well. Our

RUMOUR AND gossip are dangerous, infectious and spread faster than they can be denied. Word of mouth has as much power to frighten as the reality to which it refers,

IMPATIENT BY nature, it has taken me 20 years to finally accept the laid back approach to getting things done in the Algarve. An appointment with our local doctor takes

WITH ITS paws clenched into fists, a small dog spun round and round on the eastbound carriageway of the EN125, having been hit by a car. A young woman dragged