Happy BIrthday Lily! XXX
We have a kitchen sink in situ; it's not plumbed in yet and the water is still outside but we can now wash up inside (remembering not to tip the bowl of water into the sink).
Well, much as I hate to say it, I'm rather impressed with the new Hoover!!! I hoovered the living room floor yesterday (concrete) usually this creates a choking dust storm, but it just looked clean (and this morning all the surfaces aren't covered in dust) and the kitchen floor definitely looks cleaner between cleans.
We spent the day preparing for Helen (who comes on Saturday) and Vince & Lola (who're coming for dinner tomorrow evening). I made pumpkin soup, the first pumpkin I went to use has been hanging around for a couple of months when I cut it open all the seeds were sprouting!
18th September
We worked so hard yesterday we didn't have that much to do today; apart from food preparation for this evening, the washing, cleaning and hoovering again (we're obsessed!), the daily animal and garden chores, and Brett mucked out some animal sheds - but apart from all that it was a restful day!
This evening's meal was chicken liver pate (made yesterday), followed by pot roast guinea fowl with sausages and apples (the recipe called for brandy, which we didn't have, so I bunged in some miscellaneous unlabelled liquid, given to us by Nicky & Rich, which tasted strong - I think it's some type of flavoured aguadente), beans and saute potatoes; Lola provided pudding, Eton mess (yummy).
19th September
We missed language class today as we had to pick Helen up from CB 😀.
We didn't do much for the afternoon as we were going out in the evening.
Once the animals were put away we went to Alpedrinha festa (via Jeanette's to drop off the wine vat and the fonte to pick up water) arriving at 9.00ish (very late for us!). The festa was very lively and so, so, crowded, the atmosphere was great. There were some fantastic bands, we met a load of our friends, we ate lots of food and left around 12.30 (the band on the main stage still hadn't started) there was masses of people still arriving. We got to bed at 1.30.
20th September
We all felt very sluggish today after our night out.
Helen and I had a fun day printing, stenciling and doing some wirework.
21st September
Happy BIrthday Helen! Xxx
We gave Helen a Spanish shawl and an Indian style silver box with elephants embossed on it.
We had to go to CB as Brett needed the dentist; thank goodness for Nick recommending his dentist - he was brilliant and Brett feels that he did a good job.
Helen and I spent the morning going around all the China shops!
Oh dear, Helen wanted to sunbathe - the chair fabric must have perished in the sunshine!
Sorry Helen I HAD to post this!
Not repairable!
We took Helen to the 'skewer' restaurant (O Fontaine) for her birthay meal - it was good.22nd September
We (Helen & I) are doing a carboot sale this Saturday; we spent the morning sorting out and pricing up the carboot boxes (yawn!). Brett was on the tractor ploughing up acres of land for growing animal food.
In the afternoon I drove into Penamacor (first time since my eye went dodgy),we did a bit of shopping, spoke to Pedro about the carboot sale (it's 09.00 - 19.00, 10 hours!!! Pedro says we can leave when we want to), came home and just outside the gate I clipped something and burst a tyre!😞
23rd September
Our first job was fixing the tyre; we went to Aranhas (where we got the tractor tyres). He patched the burst tyre and put in an inner tube, he also mended a slow puncture (threading a piece of rubber into the hole) and charged us 20€!
Brett is off with Matt tomorrow cycling (Helen and I are going to Spain with Lola); Matt, who is a vegan, is invited for lunch so I made Moroccan carrot dip, refried bean dip, and chickpea salad to go with bought wraps.
The pigs aren't eating; we don't know if they are ill or it's the food, as I purchased a new sack yesterday - their tails are curly, their posture is good but they might be a little bit lethargic? It's very worrying.
24th September
We didn't feed the pigs this morning.
So, while Brett and Matt did a 43 mile bike ride, Helen and I went to Spain with Lola and Joanne (Lola's friend) ...
I bought more fabric (of course I did) four lots, spending the grand total of 6€!
Matt didn't come for lunch in the end, but it was really tasty, so his loss!
The pigs ate their afternoon meal, we didn't put their pellets in it so we don't know if that was the problem.
25th September
The pigs ate a proper meal this morning.
I made some 'kraut' (fermented vegetables).
Hoorah, Brett found the White Crows panel, still no sign of the others.
26th September
An early start ... we (Helen and I) had to be in Penamacor at 8.00 to set up. It was quite a sociable morning, lots of our friends attending and I sold 86,50€ worth of, as Brett puts it, 'tat'! Then it really slowed down so, at 2.30, Helen and I started packing up - this officious woman came up (well two came in tandem) saying that we couldn't go as I had signed the form agreeing to stay until 7.00! Me, being me, stayed and sold nothing more, a complete waste of our time - however we were set up next to Lola so, to compensate, we bought some wine and drank and chatted for the rest of the afternoon.
27th September
Although we didn't have physically active day yesterday Helen and I were quite tired today.
Brett has been cutting down the shrubs and trees around the stream in preparation for fencing off across the stream in order to give the ducks and geese somewhere safe to swim. Helen and I prepared some of the straighter pieces for weaving the herb bed fencing; it was 34 degrees in the shade we tired and heated up very quickly. We didn't get much wood preparation done!
Helen was so hot she lay down on the tiles of the kitchen floor - not for long as Looby found her!
28th September
We were up at 3.00 a.m. to watch the eclipse; we saw 20 minutes of it, but I was very unimpressed with the 'blood' red moon - I didn't think it was even orange!
We went to Fundao to buy chicks (16 frango), went to all the China shops(!) and drove past the Nespoon house for Helen to admire (she did).
29th September
Brett was working at Annika's, Pam and Patricia (Pam's mother) came for a 'girlie' lunch (tortilla and salad, Pam brought brownies).
This afternoon we had RAIN and an impressive electrical storm 😀.
30th September
Brett did a half day at Annika's, Helen and I covered a cardboard box with hessian to store the dvds in.
1st October
We went into CB to take Helen to the station, did a bit of shopping, I fell over (you're right Mark I am always falling over!), broke the new phone (I must have landed on it) and now all my joints ache.
I made some 'Bounty bars' as we are going to lunch with M&M tomorrow; very easy ..... mix condensed milk with desiccated coconut, form into shape, put in freezer to harden, cover with melted chocolate.
2nd October
Great, the tablet keeps switching off and it's more or less fully charged.
Brett and Matt spent the morning riding their bikes.
The Kraut is 7 days old, looks and tastes good!
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