7th June CASTELO BRANCO

Another day without Mr Luis; it’s so much more comfortable doing all the tidying up without him around. We don’t want him to feel that the work we are doing is a reflection on his housekeeping – even though it is! We’ve realised that although he is a lovely man he’s also rather slovenly; today I was clearing up rubbish that had just been dropped on the ground, there was masses of: disintegrating plastic, lids from tin cans, tin cans, sweet wrappers (he obviously has a sweet tooth), batteries, baler twine, whisky bottles (hidden in the vines!), broken glasses, jumper, old shoe, bits of plastic pipe and electrical cable (there isn’t even any electricity there).

Brett mucked out the ‘Donkey shed’ floor while I mucked out outside the shed – we half filled the compost bin. The muck is very dry so Brett is peeing on it to get it activated (it’s a recognised accelerant for compost heaps); and I’m pouring on buckets of water.

Compost bin

Wood from 'Donkey shed' and other pile around farm

We ate some of our loquats; we’ve got to get in quick before the birds eat them! They have a sweet and sour flavour, with four large pips  in the middle (a bit like a lychee) and a thick skin (which I spit out, but Brett eats) – they are rather fiddly to eat but they can be made into jelly (maybe next year). The birds that are eating the fruit are not a British bird, so I looked them up on my Kindle! They are shaped like a magpie but with different colouring; a black cap, and a blue back (pretty) – I think they are Azure Winged Magpies, unfortunately the Kindle is only black and white but I’m pretty sure that’s what they are.

When I first started gardening in Wales I bought lots of unusual vegetable seeds one of which was Tree Spinach (Chenopodium giganteum); Brett absolutely hates it as it seeds everywhere, any patch of bare earth (it loves plant pots and seed trays) and it’s covered in these pink tipped seedlings. I like it; it’s edible (like spinach, it’s lovely in a quiche with cheese and onion!) and it’s fairly easy to weed, but it grows quite tall 6 – 7’ if you leave it (chickens and pigs eat it). Brett said I was not allowed to bring any seeds to Portugal! All over our new vegetable garden we have an edible weed growing, Fat Hen; it’s Latin name Chenopodium album, it’s just a shorter, less pretty version of Tree Spinach!!

Our evenings are spent picking the grass seeds out of our socks and boots! Brett more so than me as he is still wearing his walking boots, I abandoned them after one day in favour of my best boots (they’re longer); they really are my favourite boots and they are being ruined which I’m not happy about.