We nearly had ducklings ......

2^nd February

RAIN!!!!

As there was no way either of us could go ahead with what we had planned today ... me planting potatoes and sowing root vegetables, Brett banging in posts around the sheep field, we took the day off! Lit the fire early and watched a film, the Swedish version of ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’.

3^rd February

We went into Penamacor first thing, on our way back Mr Louis stopped us; last week I asked him where I could get cheap aguardente (Portuguese spirit) from, he had 5L for me for 20 Euros – I’m going to use it to make fruit liqueurs, starting with orange liqueur.

The ground was good and soft for Brett to bang in his posts; I helped him line them up, then he spent the day banging them in – he managed half the boundary of about a two acre paddock, it gives structure to our land.

Unfortunately it was too claggy for me to plant potatoes or sow anything outside; however, when we were in Penamacor, I did find a packet of metre long beans, some of which I planted in the polytunnel, plus some purple and gold mangetout – I’m very excited about that!

The polytunnel has an awful lot of things planted directly into the ground now; so we should get some very early harvests.
I made some flapjack, to take to Alex and Karina’s tomorrow, which I cooked in the stove and it burnt, so then I had to make chocolate fridge cake – so I was pissed off about that!

Originally we (and Marc & Mieke) were going to A&K’s because we were going to choose our lambs (from their neighbour’s farm) but they won’t be ready for a couple more weeks ... we decided to go to them for lunch regardless J!!!

We watched ‘The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest’ (Swedish version) tonight – the subtitles must have been courtesy of Google Translate, they really didn’t make any sense!

4^th February

Happy Birthday Joyce !!!

Clear bright skies, but icy cold. Brett was happy working outside, but it hurts my ears!

We had rather a distressing time with Alex & Karina and Marc & Mieke this afternoon; after a lovely lunch we went for a walk around the estate that borders their land. We came across a dog that had been shut up in a yard with no food or water – the poor thing was skin and bones. Unfortunately the owner of the land and the dog’s owner arrived and a volatile argument ensued resulting in the dog being taken off in the back of its owner’s car. It was doubly distressing for A&K as it was their neighbours and they live there.

5^th February

Had a very restless night; I just couldn’t stop thinking about the poor dog and trying to think how we could have handled the situation differently.

We bought 100 more posts today, Brett is really into fencing atm, to finish the first paddock and start another one.

Andrew came round to put some of his seeds in the polytunnel to germinate (Pam has some of her pots in there) and I have tomato seedlings through already!

6^th February

Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!,

Brett finished banging in the posts of the sheep field and started on his corners.

I spent the day writing a letter to Alexandra; I took lots of photos of the animals for her.

I love this one of Looby, such a beautiful animal

I tried to do my Portuguese homework ....... I stink at Portuguese!!!!

Portuguese class wasn’t actually too bad; Pedro asked who had done their homework, only Pam said she had (because we have to go to the front of the class and write it on the blackboard and then read it out loud!), so it didn’t matter that mine was rubbish.

7^th February

Flippin’ heck it’s cold overnight; on the bed we have a winter duvet, two patchwork quilts, a ‘fur’ throw and a blanket – it’s very heavy! But I still have to wear socks to bed.

Brett started banging in the posts for the next paddock (Lavender pasture); I helped line them up. Then I planted 25kgs of potatoes; it was jolly hard work, especially making the troughs with an enxada, Brett did some for me but I did a good half and all the planting and covering.

8^th February

So cold .........

Brett was outside doing his fencing – he’s really enjoying being out in the open air.

I stayed inside and cooked, cleaned, washed up etc.
The guinea fowl think they are chickens ....

They're not intimidated by the size of the chickens, they just climb on top of them

They're growing rapidly

9^th February

Happy Birthday Mark!!!
So many birthdays in February!

P & M had a barbeque to celebrate Mark’s birthday; the sun was shining we all sat outside on their decking eating and drinking – a lovely afternoon.

10^th February

Rain is forecast; Chris & Di are panicking about their roof, so Brett went to help them put rubber matting on it this morning.
I stayed at home as we had Wendy and Kevin coming for lunch. W&K have just had an offer on a quinta close to Monsanto accepted; they’re very excited, they’re going to the Algarve to have a break before coming back to all the hard work.

This afternoon I made an orange liqueur, with our oranges, and a lemon liqueur, with scrumped lemons, and the aguardente that Mr Louis procured for me.

The aguardente smells really strong (Brett says like paint stripper); I don’t know how people can drink it neat, it really is ‘fire water’; I really hope my liqueurs work, I’m just a little bit worried!

We’re rapidly running out of stuff to watch, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel now .... we watched the shittest film tonight – ‘Beastly’, it really was rubbish!

11^th February

Today we bought more fence posts and 400 metres of wire – we have spent nearly 1500€ on fencing so far and we’re not even halfway there yet!
I made some lemon curd today; last time I made it I got a scrambled egg effect and had to strain the lumps out, so I looked for a different recipe. This method looks rather weird, but it says it’s infallible, and it worked perfectly for me today.

Classic Lemon Curd

·         3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

·         1 cup sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         2 large egg yolks

·         2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

·         1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, for about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Bottle into hot sterilised jars; it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

Variations

For lime curd, substitute fresh lime juice and zest for lemon.

The polytunnel is getting very exciting now, there’s so much coming up

Seeds in coldframe

other side of cold frame

Peas

and I have lots of ideas for structures to support beans, squashes etc all I need is to be able to access pliable wooden poles (unfortunately we don’t have any on our land).

12^th February

I planted four rows of onion sets and then started weeding the herb bed; I have lots of herbs coming through in the polytunnel – chives, thyme, basil, parsley, coriander, bronze fennel etc.

Pam wants to go into Fundao tomorrow; I said I would drive ... I want to visit the Nespoon building!

13^th February

Wow, I’ve seen the Nespoon building ...... unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough to touch! It is beautiful, the original building is decaying and distressed and her decoration is already discolouring and flaking off – it looks fab!!!

I love the fact that the house occupants have a washing line up in front of the artwork!!!!

She even decorated the waste bin.

Me and Pam spent ages trying to work out how she actually did it – i.e. what order she did it in and how on earth would she make a stencil that big?

Brett spent the day tensioning the corners of the first sheep paddock; next the wire can be put on.

Language class tonight was small, only five students. Last week we had to do an exercise in class then hand in our sheets. Well .... first he asked Lou for her answer to the first question, then after she answered he said ‘no, that’s not the answer .... Sandra what did you write?’ ‘Yes Sandra that is correct’. Second question, Pam what’s your answer? He said ‘no, that’s not the answer .... Sandra what did you write?’ ‘Yes Sandra that is correct’. Etc etc – I was teacher’s pet!!!! Unfortunately after that exercise it got hard again!

14^th February

My Valentine cards seem to have got lost in the post (again!).
I watched a couple of videos of Nespoon doing installations .... the lacy doily buildings are done freehand! Haha and there’s me trying to envision this giant stencil. I’m sure I can do one somewhere – maybe on the bread oven? .... Brett just gave me a 'look' when I suggested it! 

I think I’ve finished my chandelier! I bought some strings of ‘crystals’ from the China shop yesterday and some tiny fake roses – it looks very Miss Havershamish!

It's very hard to photograph

When we put the animals away today Brett saw broken egg shells in the Muscovy shed, so it looks like the ducklings are hatching.

She's very protective

15^th February

Only three ducklings this morning,

but she stayed sitting on her eggs so perhaps some more will hatch.

Brett is working for Annika tomorrow so today we put some batten behind the stove so that I can start tiling the wall.

Brett has been claiming back lots of land around the boundaries; strimmering back all the brambles, broom and other foliage – our fields are going to be a good two metres wider!

This afternoon we went to a festa in a nearby village, Proenca a Velha; there was lots of food available, unfortunately we had had a large lunch! It was one of the good festas; lots of people, live music, interesting stalls and food & drink.

16^th February

Still only three ducklings; so we disposed of the remaining eggs to encourage the mother duck to leave the nest.

Brett continued to push back our boundaries (he was going to work for Annika but the builder’s merchant hasn’t got the roof fixings yet).

I started tiling the stove alcove; it was very fiddly trying to get tiles behind the flue and the stove, in fact I panicked and got back to the house because it was ‘all going wrong’ however he said it was fine and I was over thinking it (phew). I got just over a square metre done (as Andrew came over for lunch), it’s going to look fantastic.

Andrew came to bring some seeds that he had ordered for me from the UK and to see his seeds progress – it’s great he’s as excited as me when he gets in the polytunnel.

We had to light the fire, and sit, in the sitting room tonight; it made a nice change.

Lili thought so too!!!!

17^th February

Happy Pancake day!!!

When I let the muscovies out today there was a drowned duckling in the water bowl and three adult ducks, the other two ducklings had completely disappeared! We can only think that the big ducks ate them L !!!!

I carried on tiling, Brett continued to fence.

18^th February

Still tiling and fencing.

Free range animals

19^th February

Finished tiling!!!!! Lots of tile cutting going on today.

I sowed some of my organic seeds and did some potting on in the polytunnel.

Brett started attaching wire to his posts,

20^th February

Happy birthday Lili – we’ve had her a year to date.

Today I grouted the tiles and, even though I say it myself, it looks bloody brilliant!!!

Look at those parallel lines!

Brett has put wire on half the posts of the first paddock.

A bloody mouse has eaten all my expensive yellow courgette seeds I sowed yesterday!

Only four of us at class tonight; we’re going to change it to a Saturday morning – it will be a lot easier for us with the animals, we had to put them away 40 mins early tonight – they didn’t like that.

21^st February

On closer inspection the mouse (mice) have eaten aforementioned courgette seeds, all of, one type only, pumpkin seeds, nasturtium seeds and then they have dined on the fresh young shoots of peas, mangetoute, butternut squash, capsicum and my metre long beans!!!!! I am furious, what can I do? I have re-sown the seeds and they are now in isolated splendour perched on top of my tallest plant pots, in the hope that the mice can’t climb that high! AND there are mouse traps, baited with chocolate set up on the ground (I don’t like to kill them but if I used humane traps they would just return).