Pages

Tuesday 31 December 2013

BOAS FESTAS E FELIZ 2014

13th December
This morning I had a text from Will "Update your blog" so I did!!! We have had very 'iffy' internet for the past few days, but it seems to be back now.
Today it rained, more or less the first 'proper' rain since Debbie & David's visit! It makes a change for us to say "it'll be good for the garden", but it will definitely help the vegetable plugs - they are starting to look stronger (I didn't realise it would take so long, I don't often use bare root plants). Unfortunately rain isn't good for the electricity, so we didn't put on our Christmas tree lights tonight.
Brett has succumbed to the dreaded sore throat and cold, so we spent the afternoon huddled in front of the stove; P&M took the olives to the mill for us, as usual it was running late they had to hang around for over 2 hours before they could unload - as Pam says "this is Portugal"!
Oh yes, a little piece of coincidence ........ Astrid was on a Permaculture course, in
Portugal last year, we said we knew someone who had written a book on Permaculture (Looby MacNamarar) and she was one of the lecturers on the course.

14th December
Brett was feeling rough, so we didn't do much today. I took Looby for lots of walks, and then tried to make a chandelier from sticks, the metal lids from 'Chinese shop' candles (you have to come to Portugal to know what I'm talking about!) and tiny glass jars (mousse type desserts we bought in summer when we had guests and I couldn't be bothered to cook! but knew I could reuse the jars!); I couldn't find my wire so tried to use twine to attach everything, it didn't work so now I need to buy wire.
We tried to teach Looby to fetch a ball; she's very enthusiastic running after it, but she doesn't get bringing it back (Winnie taught Molly how to do it).
The vegetable plugs are looking much healthier today, after yesterdays rain (unfortunately so is the grass in the vegetable plot - so it needs hoeing). I also have to find the enthusiasm to plant peas, radish and more garlic.

15th December
It's very easy to forget what day of the week it is, as we have no structure to our lives, but we always recognise Sundays as it sounds like war has broken out! Fortunately today the hunters weren't too close to our quinta. I can't think what they are shooting at we haven't seen any game around here at all this year; we had a partridge on the quinta last year but she seems to have disappeared L and we haven't seen any rabbits (and of course we've never managed to see wild boar, though we know lots of people who have).
We went into CB to start our Christmas preparations but as we were both feeling a bit rough we weren't really in the mood for it.
We had said that next time we went into CB we'd go to the rescue centre and look for another dog, unfortunately it was shut.
We were all (us and P&M) supposed to be going out for a meal with Mark tonight in Penamacor, but his truck has broken down just when he's about to drive back to the UK; hopefully he'll get it fixed tomorrow.
P&M  had us round for dinner tonight, we planned Christmas day (they're coming to us) and Boxing day (they're having 'open house' with 30+ people coming).

16th December
Brett spent the day tidying up the olive prunings, we need to buy a shredder so we can use the chippings (waste not, want not!!!) on the compost etc.
And I cleaned the house; I am becoming more and more fed up with the cement floor - I don't know if it's dust from outside that sits in all the pits of the floor or dust made from walking on the cement­­­­­­ but it's horrid to sweep, it creates this huge dust cloud which lingers in the air and then settles over everything, so then I have to wash down all the shelves and surfaces and everything on the shelves and surfaces - anyway it makes me very cross!!! And it made me all snuffily and coughy.
This afternoon I planted two (long) rows of peas and a row of radishes, so I'm feeling virtuous, of course the garden is pretty dormant at the moment so I'm not getting any results for all this labour (the only thing growing is the grass!) but come the New Year everything will suddenly take off.
Nick came with a new inverter for us to test for a few days, all being well on
Thursday we'll swop back to our original one (the one that's been working since we returned from UK) and then .......... we're going to be allowed to put our fridge on!!!! I'll be gutted if it does blow the inverter, I'm sure it won't it's just Nick that's put doubt into our heads.
Tonight we watched 'Hairspray', a jolly film that was easy to watch; Brett said he thought it was far better than ;Mama Mia', I have to disagree - with 'Mama Mia' you know the songs so you can sing along! But I did like the Christopher Walkin and John Travolta characters.

17th December
And now I have a chesty cough!!! It kept me awake most of the night, I got up as soon as it was light and made myself some hot lemon and honey and then 'googled' homemade cough mixture - it's made with lemons, honey and OLIVE OIL!!! You can also add onion and garlic (that sounds 'yummy' - not!). When I was young I remember we used to have a cough medicine made with an onion, cut in half, sprinkled with sugar and left overnight, then the syrup produced was used as a cough syrup; so it could work, after all onions and garlic do have antibacterial properties.
We went into Fundao to do some Christmas shopping. A lovely practice they have in Portugal at Christmas is that the shopping centres, and some of the shops, have 'wrapping stations' - they provide wrapping paper, sellotape, ribbon, bows etc. so that everyone can wrap the presents that they have bought there, for free - of course you do see people abusing it, stuffing their bags full with unused paper, ribbon and bows (human nature, always wanting more!).
Still feeling rough so watched two films today 'Spanglish' (Adam Sandler) and '72 hours' (Russell Crowe), both very watchable though I did get very tense at the end of 72 hours.

18th December
I had a good night's sleep and Looby didn't wake up until 8.00 J.
Our storage box indexing system is rubbish! Practically every time I try to find something I look it up in the 'Contents of Packing Boxes' document, find it, go to the shed, find the box number and what I'm looking for isn't in the box!!! It's so frustrating and I can't think why it should be happening, we thought we were being so organised. Today I couldn't find the cutters, slicers and graters for the food processor; we're making more fermented food, so the vegetables had to be processed by hand which took forever and grating onions makes my eyes water! it would have been really quick with the processor. We did three experimental recipes; cabbage, carrot and onion (a fermented version of coleslaw), mixed peppers, courgettes, onions and garlic (my recipe), grated carrots and turnips (Brett's recipe). This is all in preparation for when we have gluts of vegetables from the garden.
Poor old Mark is still having problems with his truck, it could be ready (if he's lucky) by Friday, but that doesn't leave him much time to drive to Calais (2 or 3 days) to catch a ferry to UK and then drive to Stoke in time for Christmas.

19th December
We went to the Post Office in the village today, there were Christmas cards, and even a birthday card, for us/me there; and still I don't feel Christmasy yet!
We haven't had internet (again) for a few days, we think it's a case of someone resetting the server! But it's jolly inconvenient, I wanted to make some crystallised clementines today - I had to make up the recipe!
I bought some wire, when we were in Fundao, so I had another go at making my chandelier - I'm happy enough with it (very hard to photograph though) as I've said in the past I'm into 'rustic'!

Nick came this afternoon ................ our fridge is on!!!! But I'm not getting excited, now I'll just worry every time we leave the house that when we get back the inverter will be off; if it's still working in a week's time, then I'll start getting excited.
I bottled my orange vodka and used the vodka seeped oranges to make a cake, I do this every Christmas using Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake recipe, it's very moreish.
I think I've 'broken' our dog!!!! Since last week, when she had two other dogs to run around with, she has been very boisterous, jumping up with her huge paws, whining to get attention, she's also started nipping at our hands, not hard or aggressively, but one day she could catch us; most of this was aimed at me. Brett said I was to smack her when she did it, so I tried ......... I can't hit my dog when she's so obviously pleased to see me!!! I tapped her and said "no", she continued to be boisterous and nippy. However today she caught me unawares, I slapped her (reflex, not even hard but it shocked her), she squealed and ran away from me and has been 'polite' ever since; I feel so guilty and cruel but Brett says I'll have gone up the doggie hierarchy several steps today.

20th December
Pam and I went Christmas shopping to CB; it was a long shattering day but I managed to buy presents for Brett (he's very hard to buy for!) and Mark (another male so therefore difficult to buy for) - I bought Pam's presents last week and could have carried on and on with her (see female = easy to buy for!).
I also started on the Christmas food shopping, but I lost the 'will to live' after a few hours so we came home, we were exhausted - I don't like crowds or queuing.
Looby is still being very civil around me, Brett said she was very well behaved all day.
Mark has his truck back, he's bringing his caravan over to P&M's in the morning then setting off for Calais - I think he's cutting it rather fine.
Our internet server is still down which means that I haven't been able to send Christmas greetings (I've written the yearly update letter) to all the people I usually send cards to but didn't manage to this year.

21st December
Happy Winter Solstice

Well, the fridge is still on ......................
Looby is still being good .....................
All's right with the world ..................
We had a visit this afternoon from Claire, a British expat who lives in a beautiful stone house near P&M, she's a numerologist. And for the first time ever I made Welsh cakes, they tasted just like the ones from Siop Laria!
And still we have no internet, it must be getting on for a week now.

22nd December
We were woken up at 7.30 by loud and frequent gunshot! - the Sunday before Christmas and the hunters were out in force, not a good start to the day, especially when, several times, we heard lead pellets sprinkling down our roof!! ? I still want to know 'what are they shooting at'? there's nothing there no animals, no birds, nothing at all to shoot at - they seem to be shooting up in the air, over the olive trees (Brett reckons they're shooting the sparrows). Funnily Looby has no reaction at all to the noise, maybe she was a hunter's dog?
I've solved the sweeping the floor/dust cloud problem - I 'hoovered' the floor today; only problem is/are (1) as the vacuum cleaner is turned on a HUGE cloud of dust issues from the machine (what's that all about?), so it has to be turned on outside (ridiculous) and then brought inside without turning it off until the job is finished (or it has to be taken outside again to start it), (2) as the beater bar can't be turn off (again ridiculous, who designed this machine?) when I use the tubes I have to stand the vacuum on a sheet of plywood. But it did clean the floor without leaving a layer of dust on the furniture.
Today was dedicated to Christmas preparations (about time); cleaning the house, present wrapping, food making (cheesecake, spiced nuts etc.) - because tomorrow is my day off!

23rd December
Happy Birthday ME!!!!!
A miserable day, drizzle and fog - rather like Debbie's birthday!
Brett did very well with his presents (I'm easy to buy for!), he bought me some beautiful wine glasses and a lovely ornate box.
My Mother rang up and sang 'Happy Birthday' (it's a tradition!) and then read me the message she had posted on Facebook which starts 'x years ago (for x read my age) I gave birth to ........' so now ALL my facebook friends know my age, and I can't even get on facebook to comment!!!
We had lunch in Penamacor with P&M and Chris & Di at this very posh looking restaurant, the Menu de Dia was only 7€ a head; but it was so cold in there, we all kept our coats on! I had some lovely presents and cards.
We spent the afternoon watching Ghost and Splash - it was my birthday after all!
And this evening the internet came back on, I had masses of happy birthday wishes.

24th December
Absolutely awful weather today, constant rain, strong winds and, of course, no sun, so the solar wasn't being topped up at all. We couldn't have the door open as it was too draughty, so we had to use candles to see by (no point in wasting the solar we did have). And Looby was going 'stir crazy', it hasn't been 'dog walking' weather for a couple of days, we did go out a few times but got absolutely soaked and Looby is frightened of a towel!
I made my 'sherry' trifle and found out that I had bought Croft's port instead of sherry! So we have port trifle tomorrow - I wonder if anyone will notice. I had a BIG sulk earlier in the day when I couldn't find a glass bowl to make the trifle in (stupid cataloguing system!) but Brett saved the day and found me one.
Nick told us that the Christmas bonfires were lit at 7.00 on Christmas eve, we planned to go to watch the one in Penamacor being lit, then go back to see the one in the village. At 4.30 we got a text from Pam, the Penamacor fire had been lit earlier and was still alight (what???), we raced to the village our one had just been lit - so much for a 7.00 lighting Drove to Penamacor, the fire was burnt low, very unspectacular, (in fact it turned out that it had been lit on the 23rd and had been burning all night!), back to the village and our one was actually looking quite impressive.

So much rain, the ditches were overflowing, the roads were flooded, it was not nice to be outside.

25th December
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
It rained all night and continued throughout Christmas day ......... didn't we come to Portugal to get away from the Welsh weather? And of course, just when we needed it, we had limited solar (we turned the fridge off over night) which had to be rationed.
P&M came round for the day, we ate (smoked salmon on rye bread, beef wellington with roast potatoes, sprouts with bacon and chestnuts and glazed carrots, etc) and drank (champagne cocktails, our wine, beer) by candle light. Then Chris and Di arrived we ate (trifle, cheesecake and orange cake) and drank (Baileys, orange liqueur, Pedro's summer fruits aguadente (very disappointing it tasted like slightly sweetened flavoured water) with ice from the still working fridge) and played Jenga. Then I went to bed!

26th December
Pam and Mark hosted a big Boxing Day party, we met some lovely new people and, again, ate and drank too much.
Got home and Looby had chewed up my slippers, bloody dog!

27th December
Happy Birthday Megan!
And still it's raining!!! On the positive side we haven't actually run out of solar yet, we have to ration it and turn the fridge off overnight, but so far we've always been able to turn on a light and charge phones and computers (and watch films).
We had a phone call from Jamie (at the olive mill) our second batch of olives (480 kilos) made 102L of oil!!!! (our first batch of 603 kilos made 86L) and is ready to pick up.
We watched 'Wedding Daze' tonight - it's very weird!

28th December
Yay, the sun came back and the solar charged.
Today we started making a chicken house, actually I held bits while Brett made a chicken house; Brett has strimmered down a large area of scrub for them which we'll put an electric fence around. So next Monday we might be able to go to the market and buy some POL hens - then we'll start to feel like real smallholders.
I HATE the vacuum cleaner, it blows out more dust than it sucks up, horrible bloody thing.

29th December
We had a really good day today; first we went to pick up our second batch of olive oil, we were told that our olives had given the highest yield of oil at the mill this year, 4.6 kilos of olives gave 1L of oil (it's very variable between 5 - 10 kilos/L is what's usually quoted) so 4.6 is exceptional!!!! (our first batch was 7 kilos/litre, which is pretty average), also the quality was graded as .4 which apparently is jolly good too - we can't take credit, it's nothing we've done, we just happened to buy a quinta with good olive trees. This oil is also much greener (in colour) than the first batch, which is the opposite way round to what we'd read on the internet: a mine of misinformation!
Then we went for lunch with Nicky and Rich (the people with pigs, who live near Fundao), they gave us goat stew with homemade bread. They have a proper smallholding with pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and geese; they also try to grow all the food for themselves and their animals, they've planted over 2000 broad beans this year!

30th December
The weather forecast for the next nine days is horrendous, rain and strong winds. So first things first we did our washing (haven't done it for over a week and won't have another opportunity for another week). But of course it's not sunny or warm enough to dry it so .............. I made a 'Sheila maid' (clothes airer), out of olive branches and twine, to hang over the range; we'll make a less rustic (prettier?) one when we have the materials but this is working well the time being.
Brett continued making the chicken shed.
We also popped over to P&M to borrow some films for when we're house bound!
Tomorrow we've been invited for tea at Phil & Claire's, the people with the lovely stone house near P&M, we're very excited about seeing inside the house.
And then in the evening Josh and Jamie are having a New year's Eve party.

31st December
So it's raining again!! And we're back to rationing the solar (turning the fridge off overnight and using candles to see by). But we lit the range early so we were all snug and cosy; the washing we did yesterday is practically all dry, thanks to my Sheila maid!
And I decided to update my blog as it's the end of the month and I still have internet. Actually we shouldn't run out any more as one of P&M's presents to Brett was their village wifi login details, they can't get it from their quinta.


Friday 13 December 2013

OUR OWN OLIVE OIL!!!

29th November
It's nearly the end of the month and we still have village internet, so I posted my blog (might as well get my 'money's worth'!).
It must be nearly Christmas I saw my first ever robin here this morning, it perched on the chair outside the door and I swear it was chirping at me!
Our walking tractor's faults just keep coming ......... first we had the cables (clutch and reverse gear) back to front, then the tines hitting the housing (had to remove the inner tines), the pins that holds the wheels/tines onto the axle were impossible to take out when the tines were on as the tines have been assembled wrongly (so Brett had to put spacers in ) and now the plough doesn't fit, we think they gave us the wrong one, it has a completely different sized fitting! however it's still making a fantastic job of the vegetable garden, which is expanding daily.
Nick came round, to borrow our little inverter! And while he was here he told us something I can't believe is true ................... it's illegal to drive a foreign plated car in the UK on a UK driving licence, why???? It's exactly what we were doing when we came back to the UK in the summer. And it's very worrying if it's true as it means we can never drive back again - we couldn't even hire a car to come back (as it would be foreign plated if we got it here). I've 'googled' it and got conflicting information (ha ha, this looks like a job for Will and Steph!!!!).

30th November
And still he's cultivating!!!! I'm starting to get seriously worried, it must be an acre by now;
it looks fine at the moment but how will I keep it weeded once it has vegetables in it ( I can hear Debbie & David saying "with your new hoe"!!!), it'll be a full time job.
Oh dear, on Thursday we went into Minipreço and decided to try the Portuguese speciality Bacalhau (salt cod), we've eaten it in restaurants and it's very tasty. I looked up recipes on the internet (there's absolutely masses); bottom line it would need soaking for 24-48 hours and 1.5lbs would feed 4-6 people (I had 700g); so we invited Mark and Chris & Di round for dinner tonight. This morning I took the cod out of the water to remove the skin and bones and it was then that I found out we had bought cod's head (actually mainly the jaw)!!!! There was hardly any meat, it was practically all skin and bones (goodness only knows what it's sold for, all I can think of is fish stock)! The recipe I had chosen Bacalhau com natas (Cod in cream) is basically Dauphinoise Potatoes with a layer of salt cod in the middle - I padded it out with slices of hardboiled eggs and grated cheese, it was rather good even though I say so myself - it all went.

1st December
Flippin' heck it's nearly Christmas.
We went for a walk this afternoon and found some more stepping stones across the river, they're really close to our quinta (about a field away), we've never noticed them before because usually there's lots of vegetation in the way, and no river!
Mark phoned this evening to say our oil was ready for collection, he doesn't know how much we've got. We're meeting them at the mill tomorrow on our way back from Fundao (vegetable plugs and fruit tree buying). And then tomorrow afternoon Nick is taking me and Looby to Corvilha to the vet (he thinks she won't be car sick in his car as he has an estate).

2nd December
Today was a busy day. We got up early to go to Fundao market. We bought masses of vegetable plugs (which I will have to plant tomorrow - I'm already feeling tired at the thought of it!); we got cabbage, onions, broccoli, strawberries and something the lady said I had to have as it was 'the best' (I think it could be turnip tops) plus a couple of lemon trees, an orange tree and three kiwi plants(two female and one male). We could have bought a lot more if we'd had time, but we had people to meet for coffee (Nicky and Rich) and then were meeting P&M at the olive mill to pick up our oil.
We got our oil back, our 603 kilos of olives made 86 litres of oil, 20% is kept by the mill as payment, so we got back about 79 litres (enough for us for a year!). We had it with fresh bread dipped in it for lunch, it's yellow (I thought it would be greener) and peppery - Brett says it has a grassy/apple taste to it, I don't get that but it is nice so we're very happy with it.
 This became ................
This !!!!
and this!!!
Nick took me and Looby to the vet; she has done a test for mites and a test for fungus (she'll phone me in a few days with the results), she put a spot-on on Looby for parasites and worms (internal and external) and we have a calming lotion to rub on her sore bits. But .............. she says it could still be a food allergy and we wouldn't see results for 4-6 weeks. Oh yes and Looby is also lactating!!!! Why? She's been sterilised; so now I have to bathe her belly with warm salty water. She was sick twice in Nick's car too - fortunately we had put down a tarpaulin and I had kitchen towel and plastic bags with me.

3rd December
My back aches but I have planted all our vegetable plants, they're all looking a bit droopy but I've watered well so hopefully they will all survive and be standing up by the morning.
Brett carried on making the vegetable garden BIGGER. We planted the trees on the terrace below the house,
we'll erect a trellis for the kiwis to climb over and it should make a nice shady area to sit.

4th December
Brett thinks that Looby seems better 'in herself' today, she's still scratching but not as much; hopefully the vet will call us tomorrow with her results (I'm almost hoping it is mange - at least we would be able to treat her for it).
We took the plough attachment back and they swopped it for one from another machine as the plough we had fitted the other machine - our pin still won't fit through the new plough but we will be able to attach it with a bolt and it should work fine.
Our vegetable plants still look droopy, I hope they pick up soon.
I finished making and writing our Christmas cards today, we're not sending many this year (close family only, sorry) as they cost nearly a euro to post!!!!!
Tomorrow I'm going round to P&M's to help Pam make gingerbread men, and other shapes, for the Christmas market in Penamacor this weekend. Pam has said I can take our washing tomorrow - pure luxury, a washing machine; washing by hand is not fun in this weather and it's hard to wring it out well enough for it to dry as well.
I keep reading about fermented food which is supposed to be really good for you, and be quite tasty, so I decided to make some sauerkraut, one with red cabbage and one with white - it's literally shredded cabbage and salt. I did one full kilner jar of each.
Brett took a photo of a Portuguese Peasant Woman sewing outside her quinta!

5th December
We posted our first batch of Christmas cards this morning, I feel so organised! And Brett's chainsaw bits had arrived at the post office (thanks Steph), so that was Brett busy for the day; he chopped down some dead trees and sawed some logs - he was so happy with the new chain (said he hadn't realised how blunt his old one was).
Pam and I made over 100 gingerbread biscuits ......... people, hearts, teddy bears and frogs (!!!). We only managed to decorate about 50 of them as we didn't have proper equipment (and I was being a bit intricate), we had icing nozzles but not bags so we tried using plastic bags - it all got very messy.
The sauerkraut has started to work, it has shrunk to about half a kilner jar and has made its own brine.

6th December
I offered to go back and help Pam, there was too much work for one person to do. We finished decorating the gingerbread,
made 20L of mulled wine and decorated labels for the stall - it took all day!
Brett and I watched 'Brave' tonight (it was toastie warm in front of our stove!) brilliant animation, it looked 'real' .

7th December
The sauerkraut is looking like sauerkraut now, it's shrunk so much, I had to really press to get it all into the kilner jars, now the red one is about 2/3 full (shrunk by 33%) and the white one is only about a 1/3 full (shrunk by 66%).
Looby definitely seems to be on the mend, she's not scratching so much, she seems far more lively, her coat is looking better and she has no new raw areas. The vet phoned yesterday, the test for fungal growth was negative but she didn't see any mites either, though she said, as Looby is improving, it probably still is mites (she gave Looby a 'spot-on' for mites); we're taking her back for another 'spot-on' next week (we hate taking her in any vehicle as she's always sick, poor thing).
Pam didn't need my help at the Christmas market, as she had Mark and Astrid (another expat) helping her; we went along in the afternoon, to show support, and it was 'dead', there were hardly any customers, it was a real shame as there were lots of stalls that you could see had put in a lot of work (like me and Pam!) making their goods - Pam's hoping tomorrow will be livelier. I did buy some berry liqueur, aguadente flavoured with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, that Pam was selling for Pedro (a Portuguese friend of hers), he makes the aguadente (a spirit made from what's left after you make wine, the skins etc) himself then flavours it - it was only 7.50€ (less than £6.50 'real' money!) for 75cl.
Tomorrow is Mark's (and Glenn) birthday, we're treating him to a pizza in Penamacor; a whole group of us are going as it Keren's birthday too. This evening I made Mark a birthday cake, Clementine and Olive Oil, from our own oil and clementines unfortunately the stove is not very controllable and the top got a bit burnt, so I cut it off and iced it!!!!
Around 6.30 we got a call from P&M they were going to the Christmas 'wood festival' (it's a local tradition where they gather up wood to burn, on Christmas eve, outside the parish churches) with Josh and Jamie, and did we want to come? We met at J&J's quinta then drove down a track for several kilometres to a church where there was a massive bonfire and FREE wine!!!! There were masses of tractors and trailers with huge tree trunks on them, JCBs were loading wood onto the bonfire, it was all very jolly (and slightly pagan) 
but nothing much seemed to be happening ........... there were barbeques waiting to be lit (we were much too early as usual) apparently this festa lasts all night and then in the morning all the, drunk, tractor drivers drive their tractors around the district distributing the wood. We left after a couple of hours as we hadn't eaten, next year we'll eat first and arrive later.

8th December
Happy Birthday Mark.
Another cold and frosty morning, 
but bright and sunny too.
When we took Looby for a walk it was like having a new dog, she was so spritely it was lovely - she must be feeling better.
We cut down an olive branch for a Christmas tree 
(we're being as smallholderish/green as possible) - it was one that needed pruning, so we didn't remove anything that wouldn't have been cut off anyway.
When we went into Penamacor this evening the road to the restaurant was blocked with tractors and trailers, piled high with wood, waiting to unload outside the church. When we came out of the restaurant we walked up to the church to have a look, the bonfire was HUGE 
Mark & I being used for 'scale'!
we're going to go on Christmas eve when it gets lit, it should be very impressive.
The meal was very jolly, there were eleven adults plus Gypsy (4 years old) we all had pizza, pudding, coffee and as much wine as we could drink, the bill came to 85€.

9th December
We had Mark's birthday cake for breakfast, it was actually really good; very light and not strange tasting - I was worried the olive oil might over power the flavour, but it didn't in the least.
Brett and I started on the second olive harvest (P&M are going to help over the next three days), we picked 74 kilos.
Tonight we tried bacalhau again, we made sure it was fish fillets! P&M and Astrid came to dinner - they admired our 'Christmas' tree and are going to do the same thing, we'll look for a branch when we're picking tomorrow.

10th December
Looby was shattered after today's olive harvesting as P&M brought Olive (dog) with them, they spent ages running round and around in circles, chasing one another, and then dug a deep hole together to lie in. We picked another 121 kilos of olives (195 total), so another two days, with four of us picking, we should easily get 400+ kilos.
We spent the evening in front of the stove watching 'Friends' and eating chocolate; I've got a horrid cold and just wanted to relax in the warm!

11th December
We had five pickers today - us, P&M and Astrid, we picked 186.5 kilos (381.5 total). We ate the sauerkraut at lunch time, it was really good so I'll be making that again, Brett says next time we could try cabbage, onion and carrots - like a fermented coleslaw.
Tonight we watched 'My Fake Fiancé'; it is one of the most awful films I've ever bothered to watch to the end (probably because I was feeling too ill to move!), the story was formulaic, the 'funny' bits weren't funny, the romance was nonexistent,  the characters had no charisma so I just didn't care what happened to them, it was rubbish!

12th December
Our final day of olive picking (we're getting bored with it now!), there were only four of us today (no Mark); we picked 96 kilos so have a grand total of 477.5 so, as we only need 400 for a private pressing, we are happy. The olives go to the mill tomorrow, when they'll be pressed depends on how busy the mill is now. I've worked out that, if we get the same ratio of oil to olives as last time, we should get back around 55L of oil this time; but Pam reckons that it could be more as wrinkled olives give up more oil (I think that's still the same amount of oil per olive it's just that they weigh less because of water loss, therefore bulk weight yields more).

13th December
We took Looby to the vet this morning; this time we tried with me travelling on the back seat with her - she was still sick ....... twice! but I managed to catch it, both times, in plastic bags. The vet gave her another dose of 'spot-on' for mange; we're convinced that's what it was, so we're now reintroducing normal food, whilst monitoring her closely.