After this latest hiatus in our activities, we plan another re-start in this month of February.
Concerts
We have already held a concert on Sunday 6th February, which was both well attended and of the highest class, and we plan to hold our next concert on 3rd April. It will be the traditional spring concert of multiple hands at the keyboard. This year, thirty fingers not forty.
Lecture Meetings - Tavira
In the month of February, we plan two talks in the library at Tavira. The first on Monday 14th at 18:00 will be by Henry Work, who will be speaking on The History of Barrels. In it Henry will discuss barrel making (coopery) and make reference to the importance of barrels in the Voyages of Discovery.
The second will be on Friday 25th February at 11:00 by me, and I shall be speaking on Álvaro de Campos, aka Fernando Pessoa. I shall be showing how the Tavira Library came by its name, and I shall also quote from some of the poetry of both men.
The dates we have in March in Tavira are as follows. On Monday 14th March at 18:00, Stephen Powell will present his Walking the Edge of Europe: Reflections on Portugal. This presentation has been held over from last December, when the appearance of Omicron caused us to pause our activities.
On Friday 18th March at 11:00 I shall return to the rostrum to present The Carnation Revolution. We approach the 46th anniversary of this momentous event in the history of Portugal, and it is fitting that we should pay homage to the heroes of that day.
The Librarian in Tavira has indicated that there is a maximum attendance of 30 in the auditorium, and that face masks must be worn. We very much hope that these rules will be relaxed in the near future. Because of the restricted numbers, we think it right to have a system of reservations. We shall treat all applications to attend on a first come basis, and to make a reservation, you should email Lynne on lynne.algarvehistory@gmail.com.
Lecture Meetings - Lagoa
The rules in Lagoa for attending events are more rigorous, and it seems to us less desirable to be checking the certificates and mobile phones of those who attend. For that reason, we have chosen not to attempt presentations at Lagoa in February, and we hope that conditions will favour us to return to Lagoa Library in March.
Guided Walks in Tavira
I propose to hold two series of guided walks in Tavira during the coming weeks. There are three different walks, and I shall guide them in two cycles. The first cycle will be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 15 / 16 / 17 February; the second on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9 / 10 / 11 March. The first of the walks covers the Walled Town; the second covers the Later Medieval Town; and the third covers the Suburb to the North of the River. Each of these tours will be limited to a maximum of fifteen people, at a cost of €5 per person. A complete walk lasts for around 90 minutes, and each will begin as usual at 11:00. If you wish to attend, you should contact Peter by email at peterbooker1347@gmail.com.
British Cemetery in Lisbon
I have been in contact with John Pead who is engaged in cataloguing the graves in the cemetery. He has given me valuable help in constructing an article on the cemetery, which appeared in Algarve Resident, and may also be seen on the website of Algarve Daily News under the headings Features and History. John has also included one of my articles on the website of the British Cemetery, and livened it up (if that is the right phrase) with pictures of the gravestone.. The article describes the downfall of one of the richest British merchants in the eighteenth century. This article first appeared in the BHS Annual Report for 2016. It is available on https://www.britishcemeterylisbon.com/periodic-articles.
We look forward to hearing from you, and to getting our lives back to some kind of normality.
