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Sunday 4 November 2012


3rd November CASTELO BRANCO

I don’t know why we were worried, the camper van got down the track quite easily! Which was a great relief; but I was very emotional leaving the quinta (home).

So now we’re parked up at the campsite in Castelo Branco with not a lot to do, and it's raining. Brett has had a shower, but I’m not enthusiastic, it's very cold and dank in the shower block.
 
Mark (and Glenn) turned up at the campsite this afternoon - he'd come for a shower!

2nd November FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


The new citrus trees have been wrapped in fleece, to protect them from frost, and all the gardening equipment has been packed into the shed. So that’s everything ready for us to leave.

This afternoon we took our valuables across to Pam and Mark’s; we met Mr Luis on the way, he said he will keep an eye on our place while we’re away.

Pam and Mark invited us for dinner and ‘film night’; we watched ‘Frida’ about the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, very enjoyable.

Tomorrow we are planning on moving the camper van out; the track is rather muddy where the ditches have been cleared out and we want to get the van out now rather than leave it until the last moment and then find out we’re stuck – we’ll stay at the campsite for a few days before we leave.

1st November FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Lots of tidying up today; we cleared all the stuff out of the camper that we don’t need to take home, and stored it in the bedroom shed – the camper looks very bleak.

The olives are due to be harvested 2nd/3rd week in November, which means we’ll miss it, so unfortunately we won’t be making oil this year; but we did harvest some for brining/curing to eat. They are picked (actually they are ‘combed’ off the tree), and then put into very strong brine (enough salt to float an egg), left for several months, then soaked in water to get rid of the salty taste. We have so many olives it seems such a waste to just leave them on the trees, but this year we have no choice.
We have severalof different types of olives, all sizes and colours - they look like beads

It took less than 1/2 hour to pick a bucket of olives, as we have over 200 trees we're thinking of getting help for next years harvest - volunteers please!

31st October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Today’s Portuguese class was ok; Pastor Allen tried to conduct it solely in Portuguese, but that didn’t last for long! We’re now learning past and future tenses; which is fine on paper (when you can see it) but trying to hear the difference in tenses is hard.

30th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

It rained quite a lot throughout the night which really tested our newly concreted ditch; we were relieved to find that the only leaks now should be fixed by the addition of guttering around the roof and rendering the outside of the building.

We planted the fruit trees we bought last week, all the rain we’re getting should help them.

We went for a walk to the river; Brett, of course, had to cross it via the (4½’ high) stepping stones – I didn’t even think about it!

We came across a snake which we haven’t managed to identify (about 1 metre long).
Mark says it's a 'smooth' something, but we can't remember the rest!

29th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Brett obviously was worried about the water getting into the gym/studio as we spent today concreting the ditch he dug the other week; we were at it for nearly six hours, but (if it works) it was a really worthwhile job.
A very useful ditch!
It started raining a couple of hours after we had finished the concreting so we had to sacrifice one of our tarpaulins (by cutting it in half) to cover all our hard labour.

We started watching ‘The Red Violin’ but I couldn’t stay awake and was in bed by 9.00 (real time 10.00 as the clocks went back on Saturday).

28th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We expected to be woken up by the hunters, but they didn’t come onto our land until about 12.00; Brett was outside cleaning out the truck when a hunter walked past, he didn’t even say “Bom Dia”.

We’ve started organising ourselves for our trip back; today we sorted out the bedroom shed, so we can strip out the van and leave behind all the stuff we want to keep here. We’ll be leaving our Portuguese gas bottles; which means that we won’t be able to cook (not even a cup of tea!), or have a fridge, or be able to heat water on our trip back (we won’t have cutlery, crockery or cooking pots either (there’s no point in taking them back to UK then having to pay for them to be returned to Portugal). Our (portable) valuables items (like generator and strimmer) and our truck will be stored at Pam & Mark’s, which means we won’t have to worry about them whilst we’re away.

We had a very jolly evening; the choir that Pastor Allen sings with was in a concert tonight singing Gospel songs and Allen was singing some solos, he invited us (his class) to come along. It was a great evening (we don’t get out much!). The first choir up sang traditional Portuguese music (a bit dismal); but they had a lady who walked (actually sometimes she skipped) around the stage twirling this large flag, occasionally she had two flags, she was very serious about it; but then she got a huge round of applause and she was so pleased. Then there was a younger group who played folk music (someone said it was Irish music, but it didn’t sound like it to me), they were very good. And finally Pastor Allen’s choir did their ‘Sister Act’ performance; it was brilliant, we clapped and sang and gave them a standing ovation so they did two encores.

After the concert we, us, Pam & Mark and Matt & Anji (their workawayers), went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Sunday 28 October 2012

27th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Hoorah the gates are hung; and the posts have been filled with 6½ mixes of concrete; which Brett had to mix by hand, in a wheelbarrow with an enchada (the wonder tool), he said it was much easier than mixing it with a shovel. We spent ages with bits of string dangling down the centre of the posts trying to position and attach bits of metal to the hinges (to set in the concrete thus increasing the strength of the posts and hinges).

Our entrance looks very grand now; unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to paint the gates before we leave as more rain is forecast for much of next week.

Tonight we watched a harrowing film ‘Emotional Arithmetic’ about the meeting up, after about forty years, of three of the survivors from a holding camp, near Paris, from which Jews were shipped off to concentration camps during WW11; it wasn’t a very cheerful film, but it was very well acted (Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Gabriel Burn).

26th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY Lawrence!!

Wow what a horrendous night; we had torrential rain, at least 2” in eight hours. Brett is now busily working out where he’s got to dig ditches. The studio/gym shed has leaked but we’re not too worried as it has still got to be rendered on the outside and the ditch Brett dug will be concreted; the bedroom shed seems to be completely dry and the kitchen only has a little seepage along the back wall, which again can be fixed.

We didn’t get a lot done this morning, as it was still raining; but this afternoon there was blue sky so we decided to hang our gates. It took quite a while to transport everything, tools, generator, gates etc. We got one hole drilled out for a hinge and the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched and that was the end of that little venture. It continued to rain for the rest of the day and we are starting to get ‘stir crazy’ being in the camper continuously.

But on a good note our wells are filling up pretty rapidly!
And so is the river, which was completely dry a couple of weeks ago!

 

25th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS



We were up before the crack of dawn to meet Mark in Fundao; first stop was to go and look at the windows and doors he’s having made (we’ll be having ours made by the same people when we come back). We had originally decided on green windows and doors (there’s a very limited palette available) however Mark has had some burgundy ones made up and they are really rather nice, so we might be having a bit of having a rethink – we’d just need to choose another colour to the yellow ochre we had thought of for the house, which is quite traditional in this area.

Then we picked up (well Mark did in his big truck) our kitchen beam; it’s very chunky 240cms x 160cms x 7m, and is going to look great with lots of stuff hanging from it (hams, pots, washing!!!! etc).

This afternoon it poured and poured; we didn’t want to leave the camper, it was very miserable outside which makes us look forward to coming back to the UK more.

24th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


An absolute nightmare of a Portuguese class today; Pastor Allen had written some sentences, with gaps in, up on the board and then proceeded to conduct the whole class in Portuguese; people were chiming in with answers and he would occasionally write these up in the spaces. I had absolutely no idea what was happening and, according to Brett, he nearly walked out! It definitely wasn’t a class that was appropriate to people who have had a mere twelve hours of tuition – I think he forgets that this is supposed to be a beginner’s class. We take a bit of the blame on ourselves as we have been less than diligent between classes; in fact we only look at our work if we have homework. So we have made a resolution; when we are back living in the Barn we will have a language lesson (probably 10.00-11.00) everyday; we have several books and CDs, so hopefully we won’t fall behind the rest of our group.

I couldn’t get blood, fish and bone meal, I don’t think they have it; there are lots of proprietary brands of fertilizers and feeds on the shelves but not the basic ingredients to mix yourself – so I’m doing without! We have lots of compost from the chicken and donkey sheds, I’ll use that.

We’ve booked our ferry back to the UK, Santander to Portsmouth, on 10th November which means we leave here two weeks tomorrow, how exciting. We now have lots to do to organise ourselves before we go.

How frustrating, I’ve been reading a James Patterson book on the Kindle and I’d got to 86% of the way through it; the lead detective’s suspected murderer had been killed, she was being congratulated on a ‘job well done’, when she discovered the dead guy didn’t have a tattoo so couldn’t be the murderer and .................. the Kindle changed to a completely different book (about baseball) for the concluding 14% - so I’ll never know if her father was the murderer or just a ‘red herring’. And I can’t complain to Amazon as it was an illegal copy of the book!!!

23rd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Today Brett finished rendering the studio/gym which means that we now have somewhere to camp out when we come back, while we get the house habitable. Our solar should have arrived by then too, we should be able to put together a basic system so we can have a few lights and perhaps a couple of other electric luxuries (fridge, gadget (mobiles and computers) charger etc).

I dug holes for the fruit trees we bought yesterday; I didn’t plant them as I want to get some blood, fish and bone meal to mix in with the soil, hopefully I’ll get some tomorrow.

And I did some weeding in the vegetable garden; since the rain the vegetables have all shot up, but unfortunately the weeds have too!!! It all looks very green and lush.

Wednesday 24 October 2012

22nd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We went into Fundao and paid for the beam for our kitchen (215); Mark (and Glenn)’s going to pick it up for us on Thursday.

Then we went to the market to buy some fruit trees; we bought three cherries (black, red and white varieties- 5 each), two lemons (20 each, we were extravagant we went for the more mature, three years old, more expensive trees as we want fruit asap) and a lime (10, there wasn’t a choice) and because we’d spent some much money the lady on the stall threw in and apple tree. We want to get lots more fruit trees but we’ll see how these ones survive first (especially as we won’t be around to give them any TLC). I’m very excited about having my own lemon and lime trees. While we were at the market I bought some broccoli plugs which I planted in the troughs that I created the other day – it looks just like a proper Portuguese vegetable garden!
We propped our gates up to check the height of the posts - I think they look fantastic
We watched ‘Witness’ with Harrison Ford; it was quite nice as he was hiding out with the Amish, their lifestyle is very similar to ours no electricity, television, phone, washing machine etc.

21st October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We were reminded that it was Sunday as we were woken to the sound of gunfire at 6.45 (it was still dark!); the bloody hunters were back.

Brett did three mixes of rendering; he’s only got another day down the gym/studio.

I started tidying up outside in preparation for returning to the UK.

We watched ‘The Artist’, a modern black and white, silent movie; it was an easy film to watch -I liked the dog!

20th Oct FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Brett went off to dig his ditch around the gym/studio as more rain is forecast next week; and, as the sun was out, I did the washing.

Washing clothes by hand is not much fun anymore! I have to wash them in the van with hot soapy water; then take them down to the water tank, where we have filled a barrel with clean (jolly cold) water, which has to be decanted into another vessel, bucket by bucket, for rinsing the clothes in. It took me an hour and a half to do the washing, and it was only one line full.

On Wednesday we’re going to book our ferry crossing back to the UK; hopefully for the first week in November, so we’ll be rather busy for the next week or two organising our move.
Our new cooker

19th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Our sixth Portuguese lesson; and I did have to read a sentence out loud in class! But it wasn’t as bad as all that, and I was no worse than anyone else.

Before we went home we went to pick up our new cooker (‘Rayburn’ type); it was put into the back of our truck by a fork lift truck – it’s jolly heavy. Mark (& Pam), Matt (workawayers) and Gary came to help us lift it off the back of the truck; it all went very smoothly and much easier than I thought it would and I love my new cooker!!!! I can’t wait to have a proper kitchen to put it in.

It didn’t rain today; but it was very cold this evening, we put an extra blanket on the bed.
Weird cloud foundation tonight!

Friday 19 October 2012

18th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It rained all night and continued to rain all day. Poor old Brett had to force himself to go over to the damp, dark gym/studio to carry on with his rendering. By lunchtime he had finished the studio; so he’s only got the high part of the gym left to do.

I stayed behind in the camper to do my Portuguese homework; we have to learn five new verbs and ten new nouns and then put them into sentences. I made mine pertinent to me by looking up all the verbs relating to gardening - cultivar (to grow), colher (to pick), plantar (to plant), semear (to sow) and regar (to water); the nouns I chose were also gardening related – mangericão (basil), salsa (parsley), tomilho (thyme), hortelã (mint), erva (herb), culinária (culinary), medicinal (medicinal – obviously!) fava (broad beans, as in ‘Silence of the Lambs’), ervilha (pea) and semente (seed). Unfortunately I have no idea whether these verbs are regular or irregular so I’m just guessing at how to conjugate them (a few weeks ago I didn’t even know what conjugate meant, so I’m actually learning English too). And I really, really, hope I don’t have to read any of my sentences out loud, at class tomorrow, as I find the pronunciation so hard – but of course that’s how you learn. I have to force myself not to let Brett do all the talking when we go into shops; he’s really getting the hang of the language.

17th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Happy Birthday Dee!!! XXX

It rained nonstop today; it was proper heavy rain, like we get in Wales! And this is forecast for the next ten days minimum – I can’t see us being here for much longer, it’s not much fun living in a campervan in the rain.

Brett was back to rendering the gym/studio today, he’s determined to have it finished before we return to the UK.

I pottered in the camper; washing up from last night, cooking lunch (French onion soup) and attempting my Portuguese homework.

I walked down to the gym/studio, to take Brett a flask of tea, and got soaked even though I had an umbrella and wore a cagoule – it was very heavy rain!

When he came back from the gym/studio he wasn’t very happy as water is leaking into the building at ground level, so he’s now got to dig a ditch around it before we go too. There’s all this work that he’s having to do as I’m not physically able to do it; the rendering because I’ve never done it before but he has rendered and plastered two buildings back in Wales, so he’s good at it, and the ditch digging is with a pickaxe into rock which I just haven’t got the strength and stamina for – so I’m feeling a bit useless at the moment; especially as I can’t even garden as the ground is to wet and claggy.

Tonight we went to Pam and Mark’s for dinner; they have moved into their middle room. They have tiled the floor, put plaster board on the walls and insulation on the ceiling so it looks like a house rather than a shed. And they have a wood burning stove and a lovely rag rug (which I helped to choose)!!!!! It was so snug and cosy with the fire lit and candle light and it was so relaxing listening to the rain outside while we were warm and comfortable inside – I’m so jealous, but we will have a home like that next year.

 

 

16th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Happy Birthday Malc!!! XXX

Brett didn’t need any help constructing the gate posts, occasionally he would come and get me to help him measure, but apart from that it was a one man job. So as Pam and Mark were coming to dinner I spent the day cooking.

I thought I had devised a simple menu: Mixed olives with sweet pickled garlic and lemon for nibbles (made up recipe, but it was rather tasty), Pesto tagliatelle with salad, and quince fool. I started with the quince fool (one of the recipes Joyce sent me in her letter); it seemed straight forward quarter and core quinces, steam until soft, sieve, add sugar to warm pulp when cold fold in cream. It was the sieving part that took so long, I’m used to using my food processor for everything, and it made my arms ache! I didn’t know what to expect of the quinces as I had never eaten them; they were a nice surprise, their flavour is very like apple while their texture is more like pear – they would work in a crumble and for making chutney, so next year I’ll do lots of experimenting.

Then it was onto the pesto; I have so much basil, growing in the garden and in pots, which is why I chose to make it; but once again I would usually use my food processor – it took me two hours to chop all the pine nuts and basil!!! I could have used a pestle and mortar but the one I have in the van only holds about ¼ pint. It made me realise how much I rely on modern appliances and electricity.

We had a nice relaxed evening entertaining our friends in our living room (shed!).

Rain is forecast from tomorrow for the next ten days – that’s as far as the forecast goes. We’ve started to look at ferry crossing to return to the UK; it’s getting quite cold now and daylight is getting shorter and we both feel we’re ready to come back for a while.

15th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


After all the hard work he’s been doing Brett needed a day off today so we had a trip into Castelo Branco. I went into the Post Office and asked (in Portuguese) for five stamps for England (I had worked out exactly what I was going to say, and practised it so that I was word perfect); the woman behind the counter had turned away and was reaching for the stamps before I had uttered the first couple of words – but at least I got five stamps for England, so I got that right!

The ready mixed emulsion paint in the stores here is in vile colours; very bright, loud, pinks, green and yellows, not shades or tones that Brett and I would chose for our house. However today we came across a paint shop where they mix paints (like in B&Q) and they had just the colours we wanted for a price, between 60-90€ for 15L, but I’m happy that we don’t have to compromise on colour otherwise we would have probably gone with white.

While we were in the paint shop we looked at ‘Hammerite’ paint for our gate; it was on special offer reduced from 28€ to 15€ so we bought the traditional green colour. Hopefully I’ll be able to paint the gate soon; we’re going to start the gate posts tomorrow.

 

Monday 15 October 2012

14th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We were woken up about 7.00 (it wasn’t even properly light) by gunshot – hunters; we couldn’t tell exactly where they were until about 9.30 when I saw men with guns and dogs walking a couple of metres from the camper van (there were about a dozen men in all walking around our quinta)!!!! In Portugal hunters have an automatic right to hunt on your land unless you have notices up, all around the property (as they can approach your land from any boundary not just the entrance), which state they need your permission to hunt (like we have, but they’re are old and faded) though most of the time they just ignore them or, when challenged, say they didn’t see them; so you have to have high (over 4’) boundary fences which deters them a bit. We’ll make sure we’re well fenced next year once we have animals, and register that we don’t want hunting on our land. One of the most annoying things about the hunters is that they just throw their spent cartridges down on the ground and the land gets littered with bits of green and blue plastic which we have to collect up.

So today it was back to concrete mixing for the foundations for our gate posts; we did seventeen mixes today. All the time we were doing it we could hear the hunters shooting in the quintas around us, it was rather unnerving.

We watched the ‘A Team’ tonight; it wasn’t the same as the series we watched when I was younger – I’m sure there was never any killing in it and it wasn’t so frenzied.

13th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Today has been a good day!! The wine is absolutely fine, with not a hint of vinegar; as it’s still young it obviously isn’t ready to drink but we had a taste test and it’s quite fruity and already dry, but there’s none of the harsh tannin taste that I associate with red wine (it’s quite a light red, but darker than a rosé). We now have around 135L wine; we had about 15L of sediment (bottom) and scum (top), but the wine itself looks quite clear.

Pam showed me how to dig the troughs in the vegetable garden with the enchada; so this afternoon I had another bash at creating some and I have to say they were much better than my first effort, I will crack it, the idea is that you flood water into the trough and it penetrates the soil, rather than sprinkling it on the surface and then having it evaporate away.

We’re constructing our gate posts tomorrow so Brett spent the afternoon digging the foundations for them; he had to dig an 18” x 18” trench the width of the gates (10’) plus two gate posts, hard work as the track is very compacted.

I’ve been reading my “Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain” book and to give it it’s due there is some useful information on planting dates; for instance peas and mangetout are planted late autumn/early winter (rather than spring) – so I shall get some in before we come back to the UK. And another thing I’ve learnt from it is that you don’t water watermelons at all and don’t need to water melons much – which is not what I would have expected, I quote (this is about melons) “If there is no rain, water moderately every two weeks while the plant is growing. The less watering the sweeter and better keeping the fruit.”;  so that’s all good news.

12th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Brett was off early this morning, with Mark and Matt (workawayer), to go and load the lorry with the telegraph poles we’re buying. It was jolly hard work and the lorry could only carry 21 poles which was fine until the driver wanted paying; we’d been quoted between 50-60, he wanted 150 (slightly more, well two and a half times more). But he did manage to drive all the way to Pam and Mark’s which was brilliant as we had thought that he would dump them at the start of their track (unfortunately he also managed to nudge one of their gate posts, which now needs rebuilding).

I spent the morning with Pam and Angie (workawayer); first of all I was down on my hands and knees sponging grout off the floor tiles in their middle room, it’s getting very comfortable in there now – I’m jealous! Then we went to explore the Termas and it was open; we conducted a conversation in French (Pam) and Portuguese (receptionist) and concluded that it wasn’t a luxury Spa where we could go to get pampered but a Spa for medical treatment. It was full of (sick) old people and apparently you had to make an appointment to consult with the doctor before you could have any treatment.

We went into the Post Office to check for mail and I had a letter from Joyce; it was so nice to receive it; I wish more people would write to me! Joyce sent me some recipes for all the quinces we have so next time Pam and Mark come over I’m going to make some Quince Fool; it should be interesting, I’ve never eaten quince before.

The broad beans, garlic and onions have started to germinate; hopefully, as grass and wild plants are starting to grow now, the rabbits won’t be as destructive as they have been through the summer when the only lush growth is in my vegetable garden.

Tomorrow Pam and Mark are coming over and we’re racking off the wine; I do hope it isn’t vinegary!!!

11th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It was very cold and overcast this morning I put on tons of layers which I had to strip off as it warmed up and I started dripping!!!

Brett continued to render the kitchen whilst I weeded in the vegetable garden.

It rained this afternoon, which meant we didn’t have to water the garden.

Pam texted to say my gardening book “Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain” had arrived; so we went straight over to pick it up. I’m so disappointed; it’s more or less a beginner’s guide to growing vegetables with a couple of pages that are relevant to growing vegetables in Spain AND it obviously hadn’t been proof read I’ve found so many errors in it – perhaps when I’ve been here a few years and learnt how to garden in this climate I’ll write a book for vegetable gardening in Central Portugal aimed at expats who already know the basics of gardening.

10th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Our fifth Portuguese lesson and the hardest one yet, obviously: I’m actually convinced that we’re attending an intensive course and not a beginner’s!

After class we helped Pam and Mark buy rugs and throws from my favourite shop in Castelo Branco ‘A Loja de Gato Preto’ (The shop of the black cat); I’m actually quite good at helping someone else spend their money, especially as they have such lovely things in there.

Then we went to look for a ‘Rayburn’ type cooker; all the shops seem to have them in at the moment but they are mostly rather tinny, flimsy and poorly made. Last week we saw a couple we rather liked in Bricomarche but they had both been reserved; Pam said there were some in Agriloga so we went to look and were quite taken with one that cost 1500 (which is a really good price, but we didn’t really want to spend that much). We went to Bricomarche, and the ones we had liked were gone but this assistant came up to us and said (in Portuguese) that they would be having one or two delivered in the next couple of days so if we wanted to pay for it we could reserve one (how did he know? I think he got us mixed up with Pam and Mark as they had enquired when new ones were coming in – we don’t look alike but we’re often seen together) – anyway we did, 599€ (approx. £480) and a saving of 900€ on the one we had been contemplating (that was decisive, no mulling it over, we just went for it!) and I’m so excited.

We went to Mark and Glenn’s to pick up some scaffold tower, so Brett can render the top of the walls; we stayed for dinner.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

9th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It was jolly hot in the night and we didn’t sleep well; at the moment there are these tiny gnats type insects that can get through the mosquito netting and they spent all night irritating us and keeping us awake too.

I took the bottles off the radish seeds to water them this morning and they are already through – 3½ days, the bottles worked a treat (now they’ll get chewed off overnight by the rabbits!).

Brett continued rendering the kitchen and, as I was so bored, I cleaned the camper; it really is physical labour when you haven’t got modern tools like vacuum cleaners etc, I had to beat the carpets before I brushed them and I was down on my hands and knees washing the floor – it was sweaty work!!

Pam texted to say they were going to ‘Moviflor’ (a bit like Ikea) this afternoon, to shop for a sofa bed and quilts, and did we want to come too. We did and we watched in awe as Pam bought a sofa bed, within minutes of entering the shop, followed by duck feather quilts and throws – she was so quick and decisive, not like me I “hum” and “ha” wondering if I can get it better/cheaper elsewhere.

8th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


When I go to bed, if I don’t sleep, it’s often because I spend the night with problems going round and round in my head; last night was such a night, I was trying to think of ways to keep the rabbits off my vegetable garden. By this morning I was convinced I had come up with a solution; suckers grow around the base of the olive trees which need to be pruned, I could weave these suckers making low fences around the vegetable beds and the rabbits wouldn’t be able to cross them – rabbits can’t jump very high, at the farmers markets they are just put in cardboard boxes without lids, they never seem to escape. In my head it all looked very ornate and neat – I was so excited! In reality it looked a mess; the suckers have branches all the way along them (and they were really hard to prune with my secateurs) and when I wove a trial hurdle it wasn’t tight and compact, a rabbit could just push its way through it – so that was a couple of hours wasted! We’re going to look at chicken wire/pea netting next time we’re in town.

Brett started rendering the kitchen; he moaned a lot because the walls weren’t very flat (someone appears to have haphazardly thrown render at it at some point!), but he still managed to make a very good job of it.

I’m feeling rather dejected at the moment; Brett is all fulfilled doing his rendering, which is going really well, and all I’ve got to do is the garden, today I planted out seedlings (oregano, sage, thyme) to start a herb bed, which I enjoyed but I know it’s pointless as the rabbits are going to destroy everything as it grows. Brett said I could help him by preparing the walls before he rendered, chipping off the bits of mortar that are sticking out – yeh, thanks that would really give me a sense of purpose!!!!

I was in bed by 9.15; oh yes, and it’s gone really hot again (36°C)!

7th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We, along with Pam & Mark, went to visit Nick to see his solar set up, water tower, bore hole i.e. all the stuff we might be doing in the future. We’ve now ordered our batteries, charge controllers and one of our inverters (we’re going to try this one out on my kiln before we purchase a bigger more expensive one, Nick seems to think this will do the job). The solar system all seems pretty straight forward – well Brett seemed to understand it all.

This afternoon we went for a long walk down the track past Joao & Ilda’s; we crossed a ford with 4½ft high (in the middle) stepping stones, to cross a river which is dry at the moment, but we walked up the river bed for a bit and found some water with fish trapped in it. Brett held my hand while I crossed the ‘river’ via the stepping stones; considering most Portuguese are quite short the stones were rather far apart (I wouldn’t have liked to try it without Brett’s assistance, it was even quite scary with it!).
Stepping stones viewed from track
Viewed from the 'river bed'

When we came back we continued to construct our wall and then I sowed 154 broad beans – thank you for the seeds Pam! They should be growing whilst we are back in the UK (hopefully there will be some rain here!!).

Tonight we went for a walk around our land and a snake wrapped itself around my foot, twice (Brett says I trod on it, but I don’t think I did) – I squealed quite a bit!!!! It was too dark to see the snake properly, Brett went back with a torch but it was long gone.

6th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Today we went to the new supermarket at Penemacor; Brett wasn’t as impressed and me and Pam (until he found the cheap beer, 99 cents a litre, about 80p!!).

As we have now purchased our gates we spent the day shifting stones (well Brett shifted and I advised!); to make the approach to the quinta more appealing we’re constructing a bit of a stone wall, it’s looking rather impressive (it’s a ‘work in progress’).

We watched ‘Clash of the Titans’ tonight – it was quite entertaining, if you like computer generated monsters!

5th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Brett continued to render the gym/studio and, as I’m writing this blog in retrospect, I can’t remember what I did!! I know I sowed a half row of radish (which are covered with 2L plastic bottles, cut lengthways, to deter the ants)
It doesn't look pretty but it could help!
 
and a long row of carrots (which aren’t protected as just the short row of radish used 14 bottles);  I picked a large bunch of carrots,
Straight carrots
French beans and courgettes (I had started making courgette fritters for dinner); then we got a text from Pam & Mark “Pizza tonight?”, so of course we went there (we took the courgette fritters with us as a starter).

4th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


 Brett continued rendering the gym/studio while I did some gardening. I tried to use the enchada (hoe thingy) to dig troughs to plant into – I was absolute rubbish at it. Manuel (Pam and Mark’s seller) can prepare a large area for them, to plant cabbages and lettuce in, in minutes – I want to go and watch him next time he’s working in their garden. So I ended up planting onto a flat bed; about 115 cooking onions, 90 red onions, 60-70 white onions, 24 shallots (I bought 2 bags but lots were rotten, I’m going to take them back), 60 garlic cloves and 20 lettuce, which are wearing plastic collars to, hopefully, deter the rabbits.

 
My next job will be potatoes and broad beans – the seasons here are so different to Wales.

3rd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Our 4th language lesson and it was hard!!!!! We learnt er and ir verbs, irregular verbs and reflective verbs – which I don’t understand at all. For a beginner’s course it’s progressing really fast – far too fast for me; Pam has ordered a language course from Amazon, Michelle Thomas, she said she learnt Spanish really well using it – unfortunately her parcel was sent to Germany, so she hasn’t received it yet.

We bought our gates; only 199 (about £160), they’re 10’ wide (2 x 5’) and 6’ high. We’re really pleased with them.

Brett dug over a large area of the vegetable garden with an enchada (the hoe they use around here for everything, he’s actually using one to mix his render) so that I can plant onion sets, shallots and garlic.

2nd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Brett continued rendering the gym while I cooked.

Today was one of the workawayers’ birthday so Pam gave him a surprise party; I made some savoury tartlets and she made a chocolate cake and we all sat around drinking beer in the afternoon sunshine.

1st October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Girl’s day out: Today Pam and I had a trip into Castelo Branco; ostensibly to buy a wheelbarrow, find some tiles for their bathroom and measure wood for the platforms for their tepees – but we still managed to do some girlie stuff! We tried on and bought some clothes – I bought socks; Pam did a lot better than me (skirt, tops, socks and necklace), I was egging her on – I’m good at helping other people spend money! We had lunch out and did a supermarket shop; we were shattered by the time we got home, but it was a good day.

Brett started rendering the studio; I knew he’s done a good job as he wanted to take me down to see his work when I got home – it’s brilliant it makes the building seem so much less like a shed now.

Tonight Pam and Mark came to supper in our sitting room; it was very cosy and quite pretty with lots of candles for lighting.

30th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It doesn’t get light until gone 7.00 nowadays and it definitely feels autumnal; we’re starting to think it’s time to return to the UK, we just want to render the inside of the studio/gym first. So this morning we went into Castelo Branco to get ‘render mix’, stuff you put in to render to make it waterproof. While we were in Bricomarche we noticed the gates we look at last month for 250 are on special offer for the next fortnight at only 199, fantastic!

Although it’s cool in the mornings it still gets quite warm in the daytime; we went for a drink, and sat outside in the sunshine at the club, with Pam and Mark and their workawayers this evening.

29th September FONTE DOS CLEROGOS

Today Pam and I went to explore the Termas (Thermal Spa) at Aguas; first of all we went to Penamacour to check her post box – unfortunately the Post Office was shut as it was Saturday. But while we were there we found out that the new supermarche, Minipreço, was open; what excitement, we’ve had to travel to Castelo Branco or Fundao for supplies now there’s a supermarket just down the road! While we were there Pam saw this woman who she said looked English so she says “Hi” to her, the woman just smiled, I cracked up – you had to be there it was quite funny at the time.

We went to the Termas; it was also shut! There was a notice on the door which we translated as saying it was open every second Saturday, but Pam took a photo of the notice too so we could check.

Meantime Brett continued to fill the holes inside the gym/studio.

This afternoon we decided to go for a walk and explore; we were going to investigate the path that goes  past Joao and Ilda’s but there were people in their garden and as we didn’t want to get into conversation with them (perhaps when our Portuguese has improved) we went the other way but, low and behold, Mr Luis was at his son’s house, so we had to turn around again, so not much of a walk then.

 

Sunday 30 September 2012

28th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


And it continued to rain all night and all day; it’s very cold, today I’ve been wearing leggings, leg warmers, slippers and a jumper – it’s just like being back in Wales!

This morning we filled all the holes on the inside of the gym and studio building; I packed the gaps with stones and Brett cemented over the top. When we come back we’re going to set up home in this building while we reroof and make the house habitable. Our job this week will be rendering the inside of the gym/studio so that no creepy crawlies can live in the walls.

Tonight we watched “Everybody’s fine” (Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore) a bitter sweet film that made me sad.

It was still raining when we went to bed; it’s supposed to improve tomorrow afternoon.

27th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Mark (& Glenn) was in the village early (8.00 a.m.), to pick up the mixer from Mark (& Pam); he came to see us too, to explain the calculations he’s done for the roof timbers for our kitchen. According to his figures if we want to use the telegraph poles we would need to put in at least eight poles; so we’re back to buying beams at 30 a metre – shame!

We decided to take a day off today and explore Corvilha, a town just past Fundao; we’d been told it was worth a visit. Well it wasn’t!! We drove in and headed for the historical centre; there was nothing there, or we couldn’t find it. We drove up and down narrow cobbled streets for ages, following signs; then we parked and walked around, we couldn’t find anything of interest.

On our way home we saw an awful lot of smoke ahead of us, it turned out to be a fire in a warehouse (full of straw), fortunately it was well under control by the time we reached it and we didn’t have to turn the car around.

This afternoon it started raining again and continued on and off for most of the evening – it’s doing the garden a lot of good and hopefully refilling our well. Also it’s shown us that none of our roofs leak.

26th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It rained all night, quite heavily at times, and the plants looked all the better for it; I swear the lettuces were more upright and the leaves on the orange trees looked more hydrated this morning.

I planted out leek, spring onion and onion seedlings – hopefully the rabbits won’t obliterate them.

Brett spent the day digging out the area where the donkey shed used to be; we’re going to build a bread oven there, tile the floor and make the retaining wall into a seating area which I’m going to mosaic, strongly influenced by Gaudi’s serpent bench in Gwell Park.

This evening we watched “Philadelphia”, a film I have always avoided watching as I thought it would be rather harrowing; it was, but it was also an excellent film and Tom Hanks, as usual, was thoroughly convincing in the role, I had tears in my eyes at the end.

25th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It was cold today; really cold, I had on three top layers and my boots and was still chilly. Before class we, along with Pam & Mark, met up with Pastor Allen to start sorting out the telegraph poles. Mark used his Landrover with straps attached to the tow bar to pull selected poles out of a huge pile of discarded poles (which, of course, I was worried might roll apart and crush one of us!).

We then went to see Augusto (the salesman who sold us the truck who now works for VW); for some reason he had our documents, why didn’t they get sent to us? Anyway they were in the correct name, so we could now pay for our road tax, and be legal, we were happy ........ for a while!

We had our Portuguese lesson today, as the Pastor and his wife are away for the next few days; it was so much better than last week, we learnt about adjectives (which are gender sensitive) and adverbs (which are gender neutral) and I think I understood – how I wish I had taken more notice in my English language class all those years ago!

After lunch we went along to the Fiscal Office to pay our road tax; the good news was that it had the correct name on the computer, so we could pay the tax; the bad news was that we could also pay the fine we had accrued for late payment of road tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times did we go to that bloody office to try to pay our road tax? And every time their computer said “no”; and unfortunately there was nobody we could appeal to, to right the unfairness of it all – it wasn’t the actual fine, of 25 (50% of the actual road tax), it’s the principal that makes me so cross. Brett says I’ve got to forget about it now, but it bloody well niggles – shitty little bureaucrats!

It started raining this afternoon and carried on all evening; about an inch was forecast. We started watching “Transformers” after about 40 mins, with nearly another 2 hours to go, we abandoned it – I couldn’t tell who were the good robots and who were the bad (apart from the ice cream van – good and little ‘gremlin’ type robots – bad). It was still raining when we went to bed, about 9.30; it’s dark well before 8.00 now.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

24th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We still haven’t received our car documents; so tomorrow we will have to try to sort it out, again!

We went to watch Steve, Mark & Pam’s builder, rendering their building as that is our next job; it’s getting the mix right that’s the key.

We didn’t have much focus today; we’ve done the jobs we set ourselves to do before we return to Britain and there’s not much else we can do without our tools, Brett did some tidying up around the outside of the house.

23rd September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


It rained quite a lot in the night and we woke up to grey, cloudy skies and more rainfall – it was just like being in Wales! But as we haven’t had rain for nearly five months (bragging again) we actually welcomed this weather; apart from anything else it meant we didn’t have to water the vegetable garden today.

We took advantage of the inclement weather and watched another film this morning, “The Big Bang” (Antonio Banderas); we’ve worked extremely hard for the last few weeks, concreting, we felt we deserved a bit of a rest.

This afternoon it got really, really windy; the gazebos tried to take off and some of their poles bent and came apart, so we decided it was time to take them down. It was really strange with no outside space; it made us realise how small the camper actually is, so we’ve moved the van nearer the house and utilised the space in the ‘living room’. It’s great, we’ve set up the outside cooker, table and chairs, we’ve piled up blocks (to use as side tables) and put candles on them – it’s almost like living in a house!

After we had finished all our manoeuvring we had a text from Pam and Mark “Our gazebo just blew away managed to rescue but it needs (she actually put offer but she doesn’t proof read her texts!!!!) repairing how is yours?”; so it was sensible moving when we did.

22nd September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We had a relaxed morning doing our washing.
This afternoon we took the mixer to Mark and Glen and introduced them to Pam and Mark.
Then we met Pastor Allen and Barbara (his wife) and off we went to look at the telegraph poles. We’re terribly excited; there are poles there that should work for the roof beams in our kitchen and little sitting room (we had worked out that we were going to have to pay around 450-500 for roof beams) and these cost 17 each!!! Which will save us absolutely masses of money. The poles could also be used for building structures outside, as gate posts and, as Pam pointed out, it’s actually cheaper to buy these poles than fire wood (which for some reason is very expensive here). Pastor Allen phoned one of his many contacts and arranged transport to our village, for ‘a load’, for 60; some of the poles are 8 metres long so they need a big truck. Our only dilemma now is how far can the truck get towards Pam & Mark’s (no chance of it getting to ours!) and how are we going to move the poles once they’re dropped off – Brett and Mark reckon we can drag them behind the Landrover.
We watched a film tonight, “Precious”; it was very disturbing, about a young, illiterate, girl (16) from Harlem, who had been sexually assaulted by her father since she was three, and was pregnant with her second child (the first one was about four, a little girl with Down’s syndrome call Mongo – short for Mongoloid!) – fortunately it had a kind of positive ending.

 

21st September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Brett wouldn’t let me help with the concreting again; I was feeling a lot better so I spring cleaned the van. Everything gets so dusty here because it’s so dry.

Hoorah the concreting is finished!!!! And tomorrow we take the mixer to Mark and Glen, for the weekend, then Pam and Mark get it (we all own a 1/3 share in it).

It’s starting to cool down a bit; this is particularly noticeable when taking a shower, outside with solar heated water – it’s not very nice!

Friday night means pizza night at Pam & Mark’s; we met their new workawayers, who are very nice especially (this is where we really sound like expats) as they brought us a huge box of English teabags (PG Tips), one for Pam & Mark and one for us (the lovely Pam had organised it).

We’re all (the four of us) meeting up with Pastor Allen (our Portuguese teacher) tomorrow afternoon; he’s taking us to see the telegraph poles that are for sale.

20th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

As I was still feeling ill Brett let me have the day off, while he carried on concreting the gym/studio; he did 28 mixes, which makes me think he doesn’t actually need my help as we don’t get much more done when I am helping. It should be finished by tomorrow and that will be the end of concreting floors (apart from the old chicken sheds which will become the laundry and battery rooms, but we’re not in a rush to do them).

Tonight we watched “Riddick” and ate chocolate.

19th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Our second Portuguese lesson and I’m already finding it hard; today we did irregular verbs, articles to the nouns and conjunctions – I don’t understand any of this!!! Our homework is the translation of a piece of text; so far my literal translation reads: ”you what are in the shop is carpenter” – what on earth does that mean?

On the positive side they did let us use their washing machine so we have a nice clean patchwork quilt.

I’m not feeling well, I have tonsillitis, so Brett didn’t make me mix concrete today!

Pam and Mark invited us around for drinks; to discuss the purchase of 100 used telegraph poles at 17 each, of course we stayed for dinner.

18th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


I have to admit when it looked like the mixer was broken and we might have to wait for it to be fixed a part of me thought “oh goody I can have a rest”! Unfortunately, thanks to Mark and Brett that didn’t happen; in fact it went from bad to worse. Brett said that today would be setting up for Thursday, as we have our Portuguese lesson on a Wednesday, and he needed to order more sand and cement before we could do anymore work too. So we went to the builder’s merchant and instead of saying he would deliver this afternoon he said “Agora” (now). Which meant that this afternoon we were down the gym/studio and tried to finish the studio floor (the step down 6’ x 18’); it was one of those horrible days when nothing goes right. We couldn’t level the floor, the concrete set to quickly and it all looked a mess; we put in 13 mixes and ended up scrapping it all flat so that we can cover it with a 2”-3” screed. So having learnt our lesson we mixed up another two wheel-barrowfuls and constructed a couple of rows of level mounds so that the gym floor will be easier to level.

Hoorah, we had a text from Pam and Mark “Drinks down the bar?”; they came back to eat with us (after going home to pick up their cute little puppy dog). They have more ‘workawayers’ arriving on Thursday.

17th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Happy Birthday Lily!

We had a day off today; well I did, Brett helped Mark and Glenn this afternoon. We went into Castelo Branco, via Mark and Glenn’s to pick up the receipt for the mixer; Mark and Brett played with the mixer, bypassing the ‘on’ switch (so it’s permanently ‘on and has to switched off via the extension lead)) and now it works – I’m just hoping they haven’t invalidated the guarantee (they assure me they haven’t done anything that can’t be reversed) – but at least it’s working!

We went to a ‘seconds’ tile place, where Pam and Mark bought their tiles last week; there were masses of tiles. We think we know what we want; they look like reclaimed quarry tiles (1‘ x 1’).

Mark and Glenn were ready to install their roof timbers and asked Brett to help them carry the biggest beams up to their second floor – oh dear, I didn’t have a camera with me for the first beam when Brett fell backwards up the stairs, Mark nearly castrated himself on one of the metal plates and Glenn looked like he was getting a hernia as the beam was so heavy! The second beam went up quite smoothly; which was annoying for me as I now had Brett’s Ipod!
A piece of art

Very heavy art

"Ouch"!!!

 

Monday 17 September 2012

16th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We finished the plinth and then tried to fill some of the holes, on the inside of the shed walls, with concrete; some of them are pretty big holes, for some reason they build a shed and then, purposefully, knock holes in some of the blocks, no idea why – to let the vermin get in? Anyway the concrete didn’t want to stay in the holes, we were tired, and so we just gave up! We even threw away a wheel barrow full of concrete.

The mixer switch is also completely knackered; it doesn’t turn on/stay turned on; so tomorrow it’s going back to the shop where it was bought, it’s got a two year guarantee but I bet it gets taken away to be repaired for the next few weeks rather than replaced.

Hoorah, today I planted my cabbages (in the furrows I dug the other day that were no good!); tonight they are wearing plastic bottles, to keep the rabbits off.

We had a text from Pam and Mark saying they were going to the restaurant for a drink; we ended up eating there too. While we were there this little (stray?) puppy came up and slept at our feet; it was really sweet, Pam (with a little bit of encouragement from me!) ended up taking it home to join her ever increasing menagerie – she now has 3 dogs (one, with a collar, on turned up a few weeks ago and has been staying longer and longer, now it doesn’t actually leave much anymore), at least 4 cats, 6 chicken and 2 ducks. I’m so looking forward to the time when we can start getting animals too.

I found this beautiful feather, Mark says it’s a Jay’s; the blue colour is shaded, it looks like it’s been painted on.
Jay feather

15th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


The living room floor is finished; it took another 17 loads (so 48 in all).

After lunch we did 2/3 of the kitchen plinth; it was an absolutely impossible task. The area we were working on was 30” wide by about 16’ long and (as we can’t use wood) the shuttering was made from a bit of Gary’s metal roof and the floor of an old wardrobe, both about 30” high; we had to lean over the shuttering to tamp down on the concrete which was only about 3” from ground level – I couldn’t even reach the back of the plinth. We were both tired, the concrete wouldn’t level out and, to top it all, the ‘on’ switch of the mixer has started playing up. We didn’t finish working until 6.00; when we went down to the Bar do Clube for a very well earned cold drink, and sat at a table while all the locals turn around in their seats to look at us! I don’t think they mean to be rude; it’s just their innate curiosity, obviously as children they weren’t taught “it’s rude to stare”.

Pam came to Portugal with lots of films on her computer, she downloaded some onto our hard drive the other day (we reciprocated with Kindle books, thanks Steph those books have been a godsend); so this evening we watched ‘Chasing Amy’ the lead actress, Joey Lauren Adams, looks very like Renee Zelweger but I don’t think she’s related. It was pleasant to just relax and be entertained.

14th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


And we’re still concreting .................. today the living room floor; we’re hoping not to have to screed over the concrete to level this floor, it’s a smaller area than the last few floors we’ve done; we managed to do about 2/3 of the area (31 mixes).

We didn’t have to cook tonight as it was Friday and that means ‘Pizza Night’ at Pam and Mark’s; unless they’re too tired, like last week, and then we just go out for a meal. Yesterday we learnt that the restaurant will be shutting up shop for the winter, probably at the end of this month, where will we eat then?

Pam and Mark are still sleeping outside in tents, though not for long as their room is nearly habitable, it only needs the floor tiling; last night Mark heard, and saw, a wild boar snuffling round the tent, he said it was quite scary knowing there was only a bit of canvas between them!

 

13th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


We went to the Post Office today, on our way to the Builder’s Merchant to order more sand and cement (we’re still concreting); the documents for the car still haven’t arrived, the cover note, for the road tax, runs out in a couple of weeks – this is getting beyond ridiculous.

I was going to put the cabbage seedlings in today; around here all the cabbages are grown in furrows. So I decided to do the same; I couldn’t do it, my channels were rubbish, old Portuguese men of 80+ can do it easily (and quickly), I’m going to need lessons – needless to say the cabbages didn’t get planted.

Brett continued cementing floors; he had lots of fiddly jobs to do that didn’t need my assistance.

We had a lovely evening entertaining Pam, Mark and Rowan (their son); we ate courgette fritters (a brilliant way to use up an excess of courgettes and by varying the dipping sauce they go with practically any menu) with a chilli sauce and a Thai curry (which included more of the courgettes).

And, of course, there was another beautiful sunset.

12TH September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


So we had our first Portuguese class today: Brett says it’s exactly what he needs, I understood most of it at the time, but it’s retaining it that I find difficult. It was all very friendly and relaxed; a good teaching/learning environment. We were given homework!

We went around to Pam and Mark’s this afternoon and saw their ducklings; they’re so cute, still at the yellow down stage, they only cost 225 (about £1.80). P & M have a water mine (barragem) that they’re going to live by and swim in.

And yet another lovely sunset tonight.

Sunset

 

Wednesday 12 September 2012

11th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


Happy Birthday Gilly XXXXXXXXX

I’m so so tired; we worked until 6.00 and most of the screed is done. The kitchen is looking very big.

Our lovely friends, Pam and Mark, invited us round for supper, after drinks at the bar; it was the perfect way to end a strenuous day, it was so nice not having to cook a meal.

Pam and Mark have bought a new car which they picked up today; it’s a Renault 4, it’s fabulous and so retro, it’s in really good condition as nothing rusts out here.

Tomorrow is our first Portuguese lesson; we’ve bought new notebooks specially!

10th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS


The Bee Eaters have gone!! Migrated back to Africa.

A tiring day; 28 mixes and the kitchen floor is 80-90% covered, it just needs a screed, which we will do tomorrow. And then all that will be left is the raised plinth at the back of the kitchen; this is needed as there was a slope that couldn’t be dug away because of the foundations of the building. It will hardly be noticed as it will have a large fireplace built into it, then steps up to the living room and the welsh dresser on the other side of the steps.

Yesterday in the supermarket the cashier gave us a free DVD; we have no idea why, we hadn’t spent much money and Pam and Mark were shopping at the same time and they didn’t get one, so don’t know what that was all about. Anyway we decided to watch it tonight; we didn’t know what it was as the cover was in Portuguese, we were so disappointed when we put it on, it was ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ and we’d already seen it (I didn’t understand it the first time round!). We ended up watching ‘The Green Hornet’, what a load of rubbish, but it gave us something to do.