Bartimaeus

Since we had checked into the marina for a month on the 28th of February, I thought I should ring the marina to let them know we needed to leave Bartimaeus there another month. I rang up and did not get a member of staff who was in the know so he said that would probably fine but he would check and ring back. He has not rung back today but I do now know that I don’t have to panic about the 28th as they have got Bartimaeus booked until the 31st. 

We have a cold weather forecast from tomorrow so as it was sunny Shane suggested a trip to the Botanics. We passed by the Archipelago Bakery cafe for lunch which was a flavour sensation on my plate. Don’t go there if you are into bland food! I loved it and was pleased they were open as had tried to interest Shane in it before but found it closed ( a Sunday I am guessing).

The Botanics was beautiful as usual and I really enjoyed some revamped alpine plant displays and one on the history of herbal medicine. I found examples of the scilla and chionadoxa flowers I had been debating about lately.

We had walked there but planned to take the bus back and while using the bus WiFi discovered Rob from Ortomarine had emailed us and said he had been receiving lots of intruder alerts from Bartimaeus and asking “were we on the boat?” Alarming enough as an intruder alert is, Shane was bemused that we had not also got the email alerts. Once home he checked the panel and found a flashing icon on it and 20 alerts from the middle of the afternoon. He is sure that was not there before. I rang the marina again but there was no answer but I have left a message on the machine asking if someone has boarded the boat. Shane has checked the location on the remote console and the latitude and longitude are the same so it hasn’t moved far. Nothing more to be done just now but I will be contacting tomorrow morning.

I got on with finishing a job I had started yesterday. I had thought I had escaped the job of marmalade making with the Seville orange season passed, but a nearby shop  still had them, and Shane had alerted me to their continued sale, so I guessed he was wanting some. Now I am reunited with my mother’s large jam pot, I had little excuse. I made a start on squeezing chopping and boiling yesterday. Just as it was time to put in the sugar, we were invited round for a Portuguese meal…how could I refuse? The marmalade can wait at that stage but tonight I was able to finish the job.

The Portuguese meal was orangey or warm coloured too with pepper paste spreads with starters, a pinkish root veg soup and a prawn, mussel (in lieu of clams which were not available) and pork dish for the  main course. I didn’t actually get the recipe so I am not sure what was contributing to the colourful sauce. No alerts needed though, it was all very tasty. I wish I had taken a photo at the time but it looked a bit like this.