By the time you read this, we will have been in Portugal for three weeks, which is a lot of book-reading, nursery-rhyme singing, rocking to sleep, playing in the park, magnetile construction (and destruction), puppet shows, craft projects, serving on pirate ships, and not a huge amount else. (Not that we are here for a huge amount else, to be honest.)

 I haven’t even managed to get my regular daily walk with Lua, who seems to have lost her enthusiasm for walking with me. On several days, after I let her off the lead at the start of the path off the road into the forest, she refused to go any further, whereas normally she relishes her walk. I must admit that the weather, even relatively early in the morning, has been oppressively hot, so I can’t completely blame her.

On the last couple of days she has spent a few minutes just standing looking at me walking on. She is completely unmoved by any amount of calling or whistling. When I gave up and attempted to walk back towards her to put her on the lead again, she simply turned around and trotted back home. So, I have lost the external incentive for my morning walk, and now it is a question of whether I have the discipline to go out anyway, by myself. I might try one more day with Lua, much earlier in the morning, although, to be honest, on the one morning I suggested that, she gave me one of her: ‘Have you completely lost your mind? It’s the middle of the night’ looks.

We did all go last Sunday, en famille, to a dammed-river reservoir ‘beach’ about a 35 minute drive away, which was very uncrowded (it did not officially open until 1 July), quite beautiful and great fun. There was a small children’s playground, a sand mini-football pitch, a huge clean sandpit, grass and vegetation, picnic tables, and a very pebbly beach, as well as a cafe-kiosk (that was not open yet) and clean toilets (that were). The river bed was equally pebbly, but the water was clear and cool. We all thoroughly enjoyed two or three late afternoon and early evening hours there, including a delicious picnic, until the sun set and we headed for home.

Apart from that, it’s been the usual cycle of playing, shopping and cooking. A week after arriving, we did our second big shop, going to Castelo Branco this time. This actually qualified as a day out for Bernice and myself, without the kids. We combined it with a couple of other errands – a guitar string for Micha’el (which we got right), a phone cover for Tslil (which we got wrong), and lunch at our favourite vegan restaurant, which every day offers a full set meal at lunchtime, including a main course comprising a tasting platter of four small portions.

This time, since the waitress spoke no English, the chef came out to explain the dishes. One of them was what he described as a traditional Portuguese dish comprising a cooked leaf in a dressing. He did not know the name of the leaf in English, but he explained that it is, in itself, quite bland, and the dressing makes the dish. The Portuguese name he gave sounded to me like ‘shparkosh’, and I tentatively asked if it was asparagus, but he assured me it was not. When it arrived, Bernice thought it looked like spinach or kale. In the dressing, it was very tasty.

A few days later, the kids’ near-neighbour, a very sweet, elderly lady who constantly brings them produce from her land, arrived with a huge bag of shredded leaf, which we realised was what we had been served at the restaurant. She explained that she has a special machine for shredding it very fine, since the leaves are very tough, and that it is cooked by boiling in water and used as the basis for a national dish, caldo verde, a soup or ‘green broth’ that often includes, in addition to onion, garlic and potato, a spicy pork sausage. Some research online convinced us that what we had was collard greens, which I see made their way to the Southern states where they were originally boiled in a broth and eaten by African-American slaves.

What is puzzling is that online, the Portuguese translation is given as ‘couve’, which is a (semantic) root that is used in cauliflower (couve-flor), brussels sprouts (couve de bruxelas) kohlrabi (couve-rábano) and so forth. I cannot find anything that sounds like what the chef told me was the name. I can only assume that it is a regional name.

The same neighbour who brought the collard greens, incidentally, has been plying us with figs (as well as plums and a couple of aubergines) since we arrived: large, ripe, sweet, bursting figs. Since only Tslil, myself and, we discover, Ollie, enjoy them, I am having a field day. They certainly add another layer of flavour and texture to my morning fruit salad and granola.

Back to our Castelo day. At the supermarket, Bernice and I divided, as usual. I shopped for the fresh fruit and vegetables, the nuts and dried fruits I use in making granola, and the fresh fish, while Bernice took on everything else. She covers more mileage than I do, but my cart is more fully laden at the end. Not that it’s a competition, you understand!

Just as I was finishing, Bernice came over to remind me that the last time (the first time) we had used this super, we had discovered at the checkout that we should have weighed, and printed out labels for, all of the items that we bought from dispensers (the loose nuts and dried fruit). It was quite embarrassing when we discovered this, and had to wait in mid-checkout while an assistant took these items and weighed and priced them, as the queue grew inexorably behind us.

Warned by Bernice, I now had to dig out these items, which were, of course, at the bottom of my very full cart. I then had to retrace my steps to the dispensers, and, for each item, find its particular dispenser, memorise the four-digit item code displayed there, go to the electronic scales (one on each counter), place the bag on the scale, punch in the code, then take the price-tag printout and stick it to the bag.

As I was finishing this for the six relevant items, I noticed, on the next counter, that all of the loose fruit and veg needed to be priced in the same way. This meant that I now had to juggle 90% of the items in my cart, praying that I didn’t miss anything buried under a mound of produce, then remember where the tray was that I had chosen the produce from, memorise the four-digit number, find the nearest electronic….you get the picture.

At some point in this process, I started musing whether the supermarket was offering its customers a service in this way, or exploiting us as unpaid labour. On the one hand, this method allows you to keep track of just how much each item is going to cost you. In addition, your checkout time is significantly reduced, and cashiers do not need to memorise dozens of codes.

On the other hand, even if you remember to weigh your items as you buy them, printing out your own price tags takes some time and effort. I genuinely cannot decide whether I regard it as a cunning ploy or a reasonable business policy. I will probably have to wait until our next trip, when, I hope, I will remember to weigh as I buy, to see how much of a bother it actually is, if you get it right the first time.

One way in which our shopping has been made easier is that I have discovered a list of kosher fish with their names in various European languages, produced by the KLBD (Kosher London Beth Din). Until now, I have had to google translate all of the names written (often barely legibly) on price stakes at the fish counter. This has often proved frustrating, for example when I do not recognise the name in English.

Bizarrely, the KLBD list is printed in alphabetical order of the English names, which is not much use for looking up Portuguese names. However, it was the work of only a few minutes to copy the list, paste into Excel, sort by Portuguese name alphabetical order, scale down the font and print out a list of 28 kosher fish that I can carry in my wallet. Of course, we have never seen more than four or five of them in any supermarket in this part of Portugal; however, we are now ready for any contingency. (If it is of interest to you, the list offers names for most European countries, and some destinations further afield from Britain.)

Which brings us more or less up to date. Meanwhile, our video chats are now with Raphael, for a change (and Esther). We see that his walking has come on, he is getting taller, and he says “Bye bye” when he’s had enough. All healthy developments.

And one more thing. All three of the boys enjoyed the sunshine and water in their garden(s) this week.