Blog Dia 30: Seasons in the Sun - A pre-canned holiday in a box change of season special

Sylvie & jc
Nov 29, 2020
6 min read

Updated: Mar 19, 2021

As we take our 4th spin around the Algarve sun this November, it turns out to be what we expected based on prior years. Colder air settles in and it rains often and enough to loosen the land from it's usual tough as rocks grip. Days are often beautiful but consist of 4 seasons in rapid succession with summer being from 11:00 to 17:00hrs. The Algarve is so much about summer there is a bit of it in every winter day.

This is a pivotal time for us. As far as business is concerned this is the dead season. But for the gardens, it's cleaning and planting season. Thing is, as it gets cold ( for us 14-20 during the day is cold, ok) we tend to want to stay inside, light a fire, and cozy into a state of total procrastination. The days are shorter and even if it rarely rains for long, it just doesn't seem worth the misery of getting out to work for an hour here and an hour there.

By the time the fire is lit, odds are the sun is shining and it's warmer outside than in. The slippers are off and the coffee forgotten on the kitchen counter. After moving 10 to 20 wheel barrels of (any combination of leaves, branches, trees, earth, stones, debris, weed) we are down to t-shirts and back to thinking of breakfast around 14:00.

What is amazing is to be sharing this time in the same time zone and hemisphere as say the UK but with totally reversed seasons like say NZ. It's autumn, for sure. But at the same time everything that was burned dead and dry by the endless sun of these past summer months goes green. Everything becomes lush and new growth appears. Like having spring in mid-summer during winter with an undercurrent of perpetual autumn as leaves fall no more, and unfortunately no less, than any other season. Meanwhile those perfume commercials have started spinning on TV cause 'tis the season to be... planting? Toiling land and weeds a pulling Fa La La LaLa LaLa La La.

A Dr. Seuss sort of green Season.

It's also a time when we pivot through seasonal sets of clothes daily: Pyjamas, work grubs, cooler work grubs, clean grubs, warmer clean grubs. Or not. Some days we might just as well go from pyjamas to warmer pyjamas. A real fringe benefit of this business of ours. It can be any day of the week because for us every night is Friday and every morning is Monday. So days have no more sense than seasons. And if we need any other reason, more often than not we have earned it, or are on the verge of valiantly doing so. Indeed this pyjama day on which I'm writing here is brought to you by the pride and joy of work accomplished, ongoing and forthcoming. Now you might think that makes for a lot of pride and joy, or work depending how you look at the state of my pyjamas, but it does in my humble opinion deserve the necessary procrastination time to devise the path of least resistance towards making it happen. Because that's what we do. And it so happens that we have totally redone the little cottage house on the lower side of the property and converted it into a laundry room studio equipped with a pair of Miele industrial washer / dryer machines. No less. So our Guests now have access to a quality laundry room on site.

We also did some work on our part of the Villa. It's not so much about our own comfort than maintaining the owners quarters up to the same standard as the rest. Of course. That's worth 2 pyjama days right there.

It's raining hard as I write but this year the pool will not overflow for sure. It's almost empty. Those who follow might recall we had the pool lights changed from 10 billions watts halogens to 7 and a half watts LEDs, or not. Anyway, only those who came this summer actually saw how bad that job was done. They lit ok, but it's only when I saw the installation on the pool walls with huge blobs of white silicone smeared with black grease (in a pool?).That's when my own 2 watt bulb lit red in my head. Upon investigation, that admittedly we should have done sooner, we decided it was time to part ways with the pool and garden handyman here since the previous owners. Time to find one of our own choosing. And find him we did. Would you believe his business is called "Bougainvillea Garden & Pool Maintenance".!?! No kidding. We were half sold before even seeing him. By the time he said his name is Gentil he was pretty much hired. Now Gentil has drained the pool and will install our lights properly after having done a full maintenance and review of the filtering system to get rid of the constant air bubbles and make sure the salt system is really up to snuff. He's also giving the palm trees their annual trim. He's giving us a lot of good advice and we feel in good hands already.

While we were there we also did some work. Of course. We totally revamped the pool area WCs. Fresh paint inside out. Because this is really the only shared infrastructure apart the pool itself, and the new laundry room, we decided to apply 'Covid' defense measures such as a 'tap on' water faucet, motion detecting lights to avoid touching switches, automatic soap dispensers, paper towel dispenser. Just outside the WCs we installed a automatic disinfectant dispenser with a big towel roll dispenser for use all around the pool area.

Now it's finally raining again, great for cashing in pyjama days, if not for the risk of staining them with fresh paint. Sylvie has decided to take on the task of painting all 14 apartment doors...White. Of course. So half of our living/dinning area is now a door painting factory. No rest for us pyjama clad warriors. Hi ho Hi ho....C'est l'heure du boulot.

So here I am, writing between two coats in my pyjamas. Four hours drying time. I might watch just to make sure. Procrastinate my way to what I'll do next with all this free time. More time than we care for really. It's been a bad year. A good run at the end of summer. We broke nothing more than even at the end. Now the place is empty. Our winter stays have cancelled and new bookings have dried up faster than the paint. There are many pandemics behind Covid. We are in lockdown this week end, on the news they say there will vaccines by year end, then move on to up the death count by ten. Times of uncertainty for sure. And certainly not a time to be unsure. Understandable. Of course. The pandemic will run it's course and until then we can only prepare for the coming new season. Call it what you will, for us it's summer and it starts in April. And this time it's not 2020. The bar is low.

Excuse us for the long notice but that is pretty soon. In the meantime no need to wait for the paint to dry to let you know we keep on making the best of it at Monte-Bougainvillea. We will not raise prices in 2021 and we will maintain year round low prices on our web-site. If you find a lower price elsewhere we will match it and offer 10% better. If you book directly via Facebook, phone, email or messenger we also offer 10%. If you work or have worked at Clearstream we offer 20%. If you have been here at least twice, from the third stay onwards you will never pay more than the standard rate even in high season.

If you are looking for something better to put under the Christmas tree how about a pre-canned holiday in a box change of season special: Discounted, transferable and fully flexible pre-reservation vouchers valid any time in the next 3 years. Book and pay now, set your dates later. You can book a week or two, or more with us at Monte-Bougainvillea at an attractively discounted rate and select the actual dates later whenever you want in the next 3 years. This way you lock in a low season price now for a stay any season you like in the future, even high season. And as always, with the car and transfers included at no extra cost. Why not offer your loved one(s) some Algarve summer this winter with a box full of Seasons in the Sun?