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Tuesday 25 February 2014

PUPPY!!!!!!!

14th February
Happy Valetine's Day!
Brett likes Bacalhau (dried salted cod), slightly more than me, so yesterday he put some in to soak and this afternoon he cooked it, and then he went to train ......... leaving me to flake the fish off the bones and skin; it's a horrid job your hands get all sticky with 'fish glue' - I washed my hands several times and couldn't rid them of the stickiness (they probably smelt fishy too, so there is a benefit to losing the sense of smell?).
Brett cooked dinner tonight, Bacalhau in a spicy tomato sauce with olives and mashed potato, it was very tasty.

15th February
Hoorah, no rain today.
We have three tomato seedlings through in the cold frame and the leeks are sprouting too. I sowed lots more exciting seeds today, until I ran out of compost: including physalis, red Welsh onions, garlic chives, melons, winter squash, courgettes - the cold frame is looking pretty full already and soon I'll be 'potting on', I don't know where I'll put everything (we need to put the polytunnel up).
Typical, we had a frost tonight; I covered the cold frame with a duvet!

16th February
I don't believe it!!!! I was told the hunting season had finished last Sunday, well it didn't, we were woken well before 7 a.m. by gunshot followed, six seconds later, by the sound of lead pellets raining down onto our roof and this continued relentlessly until we were driven from our home at about 10.30 - we went to CB to do some shopping, but most of the shops we wanted to go to were shut. At least I was able to buy some compost and we bought some draught excluder ................... for what???? To use instead of hotspot tape (which is very expensive) on our polytunnel which we are going to erect this week - I'm so excited.
I sowed more seeds this afternoon .......... and the forth tomato seedling is through! I'm so relieved that they survived the frosty night under their duvet. I couldn't find any type of seed trays to buy, it doesn't look as if they are used here; in fact there's quite a few gardening accessories that I haven't been able to find like a Dutch hoe (Debbie & David kindly sent us one), a garden fork - you'd have thought that was a given, but, no, here the enxada rules it's used for everything (unfortunately I'm not very good with one!).

17th February
Another frosty night but my tomato seedlings survived snuggled under their duvet.
The ducks are so funny; when we had a fence around them they tried to escape, now we've taken the fence away, so they can roam anywhere, they stay put just outside their shed - Brett thinks they look depressed!!!
We spent the day working out how to erect the polytunnel, of course we've lost the instructions, we bought it fourteen years ago; after a lot of head scratching we got the frame up and stable,
now we just need, door frames, doors, a trench dug around the sides (to bury the polythene in to anchor the cover to the ground) and then some help to put the cover on (and a windless day).
We had a grand total of seven tomato seedlings through by nightfall, plus the leeks, Florence fennel, bronze fennel - exciting times!
Debbie and David are coming back to visit us in June, this really made our evening! And this time (fingers crossed) we're practically guaranteed sunshine.

18th February
Thank goodness I covered the cold frame last night, even though it was raining, there was frost on the duvet this morning; but the sun was shining when we got up (yay!) and ................... 16 tomato seedlings through now (I planted 76 seeds so quite a few to go!).
By 11.30 there were 23 tomato seedlings!
Washing day always takes a lot longer than expected, especially when it hasn't been done for a couple of weeks (down to the weather not laziness); so we didn't get much done today.
The other day, in the supermarket, I noticed dried olive leaves for sale, to make into tea; so I looked it up on the internet and apparently olive leaves contain oleuropein and elenolic acid  and have a multitude of health benefits including: antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, reducing blood pressure etc. so I thought I'd give it a go - NO I didn't buy the leaves from the supermarket, I picked fresh leaves straight off the trees outside the house; it tastes quite weak but not unpleasant, I'm drying some leaves to see if it intensifies the flavour - no it didn't!
26 tomato seedlings by their bedtime!

19th February
29 tomato seedlings when I opened the cold frame this morning.
We went to the builder's merchant and bought a roll of concrete wire mesh, I'm going to use it to make tomato cages and bean, pea etc (basically anything that needs it) supports. It will add form to the garden and I like the look of it, it's a rusty metal grid.
Brett attached  the door frames to the polytunnel and concreted them in place - I held things and gave my opinion!
The ducks are beginning to explore now, they like to sleep up outside the chicken run.
The ground is still too wet to work properly but I managed to hoe the broad beans  plant over a hundred cloves of garlic (in addition to the 150 which are growing well - we eat a lot of garlic!).
{35!}

20th February {37!}
Bloody hunters at it again, not on our land (in the season they are allowed to hunt on Thursdays, Sundays and Public Holidays), but we have only ever had problems with them on Sundays and that's fortnightly not every week (but I still don't like them, they're killing all the song birds for sport).
We went into CB to buy all the things we couldn't get on Sunday and came home with a dog. Actually she's a puppy, about three or four months old. She was in a cage with two other dogs and she was shaking from head to foot, tail between her legs, every so often she'd dart over to sniff our hands, then the more dominant dog would push her out of the way. She looks like a long legged, short haired Jack Russell. 
She has the eyes of the cat in Shrek/Puss in Boots, 'don't hurt me I'm only a puppy' eyes (We found out later it was all an act, she can stand up for herself!). So we chose her, Brett is a sucker for the 'under-dog'!
She was sick three times in the car coming home, I caught it all in plastic bags! And she pooed once in the house; Looby has never messed in the house (well just a little wee when we were having to give her injections). Looby is very accepting of other dogs, she just plays a bit rough - she doesn't realise how big she is. But they seem to be getting on fine, they play chase (puppy in front, Looby behind)
until Looby manages to step on the little one then she (puppy) squeals and comes and hides behind me or Brett.
We went to dinner with P&M tonight, we took the puppy with us, we thought it was a bit mean to leave them alone together so soon after just meeting. It was a lovely evening, though P&M's dog weren't as keen on the puppy as Looby, poor old Tooby had to be locked in the kitchen.
When we got home there was a text from Sarah to say that she, James and Joyce would like to visit us for a long weekend the end of March/middle of April - I'm so excited.
Brett walked the dogs to the gate and back without leads, we've had the puppy for less than 10 hours and she already walks to heel!

21st February {41}
Brett let the dogs out as soon as he heard the puppy wake up, 7.00 a.m., and the puppy did her business (no mess in the house overnight), so we were very pleased with her (lots of 'Disney voice' praising!).
Alexandra has named the puppy, she's called Lily; it suits her and she responds to it.
Brett started the trench for the polytunnel; fortunately we managed to buy a spade yesterday or it would have been an impossible job. Lily followed him to the polytunnel and just hung around for a couple of hours while he worked - she wasn't on a lead, we had had her for just 24 hours!
I prepared some sweet potatoes (cut in half, placed in water, and put in cold frame), to grow 'slips' from, which will then be planted to grow sweet potatoes; they belong to the same family as morning glory and have the same purple/blue bell flower, so they will be rather attractive (and the leaves are edible). I sowed more seeds in my cold frame, it's practically full now we need to make another one.
I made kiwifruit jam (the kiwis were half price!),
Brett says it's the colour of pond water and because of the pips it even looks like frogspawn!!! It tastes good though (I think a bit like gooseberry), sweet and sour, I might try it in Greek yoghurt for breakfast. Hopefully this year we will have our own crop of kiwi fruit, then I'll need to have lots of ways of preserving the excess - I think they would work rather well in a relish too.
Lily has taken over poor old Looby's bed
and Looby is too nice to push her out (but she definitely isn't happy about it, bless her). The 'under-dog' is going to be bossy!
No accidents in the house today, we've been very vigilant with our toilet training.

22nd February {44}
Lily was good overnight (nothing to clear up), we are letting her out as soon as she wakes up, 7.30 this morning.
I had so many plans for the garden this morning and it was raining! And it was jolly cold too, 11C in the house. So the best I could find to do was the housework!
Looby and Lily have started playing together, Looby is still too boisterous (we forget she's still a puppy herself, probably about eighteen months) and now they sleep together -

Looby wasn't given a choice!
Brett carried on digging the polytunnel trench; he took Lily with him - the independent creature turned up back at the house about 1/2 an hour after they left; she was very pleased with herself!
Meanwhile I made scones
as we're off to visit Karina & Alex tomorrow.
Poor old Brett was reduced to watching the Rugby (Six Nations), via the written word, on the internet (refreshing the page every few minutes), I think he was a little jealous of Will who was watching the match live at Twickenham!!!

23rd February
Sunday morning and we weren't woken by hunters!!!! So the season must be finished, hoorah!
Lily doesn't want her food, she wants Looby's! Looby is very good about it but it's not fair on her; so this morning I kept Looby in the kitchen and put Lily outside with the barrier across the door - she climbed up and through it!!!! She has very powerful front legs and she just pulled herself up, 2', and wriggled through the gap, little minx.
We left the dogs in the shed while we went to Karina & Alex; we thought we'd be a max of four hours, we were six!!!!! But they were both alive and well when we returned.
We had a lovely afternoon with Karina, Alex and Sean. They have a very pretty piece of land about ten minutes from us with fabulous views of Monsanto and the Spanish mountains. Karina cooked a lovely savoury pastry that she told me the name of, but I've forgotten, made with a bread dough stuffed with mashed potato and onions then fried. We took our seeds and did a seed swop (I'm going to try to grow peanuts), and took out hard drive and did a film swop. And suddenly the time was gone and it was getting dark so we had to rush home to put the animals away, fortunately the chickens and ducks had put themselves to bed.
We had a very uncomfortable evening with streaming eyes and ticklish throats; smoke was seeping out of the stove door, we're going to have to sweep it tomorrow.
It rained this evening; there was a Fire Salamander
outside the house, they look very impressive.

24th February {57}
Masses of soot came out of the chimney, nearly three bags full; I looked up 'uses for soot' on Google and it can be used on the vegetable garden as a fertilizer (it shouldn't be used fresh as it will burn the plants). The stove works so much better now!
Pam & Mark came around this morning and we tasted the white wine (it didn't taste very good at Christmas) ................... it's really nice, Pam says like a Savignon Blanc! Now we've got to bottle it, we have over 90L each!
I spent the rest of the day sowing some of the seeds I got from Karina, the cold frame is full to the gunnels.
I got some exciting things planted though, like peanuts, loofah (which I didn't realise was edible if you harvest it fresh), okra, lots of different melons and cucumbers, sunflowers, pumpkins ........... the list goes on.
Lots more is coming through in the cold frame now - peppers (no chillies yet), courgette, melon, garlic chives, butternut squash; it's all very exciting (well to me it is!).

Brett finished digging the trench around the polytunnel, now we have to wait for a windless day to get the cover on - I can't wait.


Friday 14 February 2014

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY ............

1st February
Happy Birthday Steph! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Oh dear the puppy has taken to following Brett and Looby home after their last evening walk, he then whines and paws at the door asking to be let in, we're having to steel our hearts, this is the time he should be with his sheep.
And after Looby's walk, this morning, he came back with us bringing another dog with him! Brett managed to chase it (the other dog) off - three dogs equals a pack and then we'd have real trouble. He spends most of the day with us, he's bored on his own and he's only a baby. Oh dear we've broken the shepherds dog, it's no longer a fierce guard dog!
Brett started making the duck and goose sheds and I made a very simple cold frame, balancing a sheet of Perspex on wooden joists. Then I planted a whole load more seeds: fennel (bronze and Florence), strawberries, leeks, gigantic chives, and coriander.
This evening we went out for a meal with P&M; Pam is off to England in the morning for two weeks.

2nd February
Our new friends, Karina and Alex, came to afternoon tea, they brought Alex's dad (Alex) and their friend (Sean) who is living with them; I made tomato tarts, with the olive pastry, and lemon (free lemons) and olive oil cake and Karina brought homemade doughnuts, so we had quite a feast.
K&A are a lovely couple; Karina is Russian and she knows, first hand, homesteading skills I've only read about like root cellars and Kvas (which I've learnt should be made with bread), I'm going to learn a lot from her - especially as she likes to cook. Alex is British? or is he? His father was brought up in Hungary (so maybe he Hungarian, I'll have to ask) and they've lived in Thailand - a well traveled group.

3rd February
It rained a lot over night; which meant the ground was too wet to weed or plant up (just when I'm all enthusiastic); although I did have to replant some of the escarole that had been dug up by something overnight - I blame that pesky puppy!
Talking of which, the sheep have gone (and so has the puppy) which means we can walk around our quinta with Looby off the lead. This afternoon we gleaned a whole load of hay that had been left behind (it probably came from our quinta originally) for our chicken sheds.
Brett has nearly finished his third poultry shed (it just needs a door) soon we'll be able to pick up our ducks.
It rained again this evening and the weather forecast predicts rain for the next ten days (again!), so tonight we were back to turning off the fridge overnight.

4th February
Happy Birthday Joyce!
RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, oh yes and snow on the mountains - however the long range forecast for March is beautiful bright sunshine every day (and that's when I'll probably be replanting all the seeds that are in the cold frame as they're not getting any heat at all and will probably rot in all this moisture!).
We didn't have any sweets for a 'video & sweets' day so I made a chocolate cornflake cake, but I'm now panicking as I've nearly finished the golden syrup and I haven't seen it in the shops here. We watched 'Safe House' (and listened to the rain); it was a fast moving action thriller with Denzel Washington, easy viewing.

5th February
It didn't rain much today so Brett was able to finish the duck shed, hopefully we'll be able to pick them up soon. Brett thinks they'll be able to swim in the stream at the bottom of our land, which is flowing quite rapidly at the moment, I think they'll get swept away and won't be able to make their way back home!
Chris and Di came to dinner, we had butternut squash and goat cheese lasagne (a Nigella Lawson recipe) - I found it a bit bland.

6th February
Happy Birthday Alexandra XXX
It's raining, it's pouring .................................. it was a really horrid day, not a nice day to be outside, so we stayed inside. Well we went to the font to collect water first and then called in at the post office - I had a parcel from Helen and a letter from Joyce!!! What lovely surprises, thank you!
Today I had a yearning for Heinz type baked beans; you can get them here, in the big supermarkets, but they are more than 2€ a tin and I'm not paying that! So I made my own version,
they actually tasted quite authentic and next time I might blitz the sauce so there isn't lumps of onion in it; total cost about 1€ but, as it made the quantity of a good two tins, that makes it less than 50c a tin.
The duck's house is finished
and we've arranged to pick them up on Saturday, they will be completely free range as the chickens have the poultry netting.
Typical the big hens prefer the little chicks house to their own!

7th February
Another dull day, so I played with some of our brine cured olives. I made some into a vegetarian tapenade, the last lot was very popular. I flavoured one jar of mixed olives with oregano and parsley and another jar with garlic and chillies then filled the jars up with olive oil - I love all this free produce!
from left to right: Tapenade, Green Olives with Herbs, Black Olives with Garlic & Sundried Tomatoes, Green Olives with Garlic & Sundried Tomatoes
In the UK I would have bought just small tubs of flavoured olives for £'s a tub, now I have large jars full.

8th February
We have ducks, a trio of Pato Mudo (which look exactly like Muscovies); they spent the first few hours huddled at the back of their shed,
but it wasn't long before the white female started exploring. She was the first out of the shed, the others followed, she was the first through the fence, the others stayed put! She was very easy to get back in, we just walked slowly towards her and she pushed her way (quite forcibly) through the wire netting - the male is far too big to fit through so the females will hang around near him even if they both get out. Or so we thought .................... about 5.30 p.m. I went out to check on them all three had disappeared - they were halfway up the track on their way towards the other sheds!!!!
It must be frog mating time; when we go out in the evening the air is full of the sounds of croaking frogs, funnily we haven't seen any!

9th February
Happy Birthday Mark!
Atrocious weather, it was raining all night and still raining in the morning but, in spite of this, the hunters were out in force - hopefully it's the end of the season today (we have been told it's the 2nd Sunday in February). And it's not nice rain it's icy cold, I spent the day in copious layers including two thick jumpers - and that was indoors!!!
One of the ducks has laid an egg!!!!
Pam is in the UK, so we invited Mark (the birthday boy) around for lunch; chicken pie, which was fun to make (not) square plate (no baking tins small enough and round pastry (bought because I have no rolling pin); so it looked rather rustic. but it tasted fine, jacket potatoes and the first harvest of  our own broccoli.
I made Mark a recycled glass jar chandelier for his present, 
I think he likes it, I know Pam definitely will!

10th February
Hoorah, the sun came out today so we actually got some work done.
First we moved a ton (a real ton in weight) of wet logs from outside the house into the wood shed, to dry out - we had to load them all into the truck by hand (one at a time), drive over to the shed, then unload them by hand. Then Brett did some chain sawing while I was supposed to be shredding the olive prunings, but they wouldn't fit into the shredder opening; so I spent the afternoon cutting and sawing the olive wood into more manageable pieces - very boring! (and they've yet to be shredded!).
Our white duck is dead; we don't know how or why, we just found her lying in the back of the duck house this morning - we're thinking it could have been the stress of the move, the other two seem to be fine. They kept escaping and wandering off a long way from their shed, so Brett put another two runs of fencing around their run - so now their fence is three stock wires thick, that put pay to their escaping! We're only going to keep them shut behind a fence for a few days, so that they get used to their duck shed and come back to it in the evening - we're feeding them just before dusk to get them into a routine.
I got Brett to cut nearly a foot off my hair today!!! It was getting very straggly at the ends but the worst thing was I was getting dreadlocks!!! It was a real struggle to get a brush through it; that's what happens if you wear your hair in plaits for days on end and frequently wear a hat!

11th February
I'm getting really fed up with the rain now!!! We've had yet another day where we couldn't go outside the door without getting completely drenched. So nothing else to do but ........... a 'video & sweets day'! We watched Smokin' Aces - not really my cup of tea, but it passed a bit of time.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!!! Tonight we had a Moroccan Chicken Tagine (actually it was in a Le Cruset casserole dish!) using the lemons I preserved a few weeks ago, they are absolutely fabulous, really, really delicious, the whole thing is edible (even the skin and pith); I'm going to make more tomorrow.
We had a really strange light this evening; it was a full moon, but it was misty - very eerie! (unfortunately impossible to take a photo).

12th February
Damp
Drizzly
Misty
Morning!
I made a big jar of preserved lemons,
Sunshine in a Jar!
it made the kitchen smell fabulous (even I could smell it a little!).
There truly is nothing much to do in this weather, it's too wet to work outside, it's too dark to work inside - I am starting to get thoroughly bored now. I did a bit of craft work, I copied a design I liked on an internet site (Dottie Angel Ltd) for a hanging heart with lace (she had posted the instructions so she wanted people to copy!).
I've been making quite a few hearts recently:
Foil Hare Heart
 
Wire Heart with Red Heart detail

Embossed Foil Heart with Beads
And I've even been asked if I will sell the Hare Heart!
The weather in the UK sounds horrendous, Brynaman is without electricity, trees are down, roofs blown off - hope the Barn is OK! Just realised if Brynaman has no power our tenants will have no heat, lights, way to heat water or cook ....................

13th February
Sunshine!!!!! At last it looks like we have a break in the weather, tomorrow we have a bit more rain then it's turning nice for a while (according to the forecast).
It was a very good day today; we built our cold frame (2m x 1m) at a cost of less than 30€, which I think is a bargain.
And ........... my first tomato is through!!
You need good eyes to see it!!!
So exciting, now the seeds are in a warmer frame they're going to popping through like nobody's business (what a strange phrase, I wonder where it came from?).
It felt so good actually accomplishing something today, but give me a few days of good weather and I'll be moaning about working too hard!
Our daft dog sleeps in some really weird positions.

14th February
Valentine's Day; now did I get a card or not? ................ (Brett did!!!).
Moist
Miserable
Pissy
Precipitation!
But hopefully this is the last of it for a while.