24th June CASTELO BRANCO

Yesterday we left the tap open on the smaller water tank (watering the onions); so our first job this morning was to clean it out. Brett got inside it and shovelled out all the smelly leaves and gunk and then we refilled it with fresh water; seven little green frogs came flying out of the water spout and had to be rescued, as the water come out so fast and powerful – our water pump is fantastic, it filled the tank (5’ x 5’ x 4’) in about 15 minutes. And now we have a clean ‘plunge pool’! Though we are really waiting to use the big one near the house as we’ll be able to swim in it (or at least float); I’m using the water in it as quickly as I can (it’s a sacrilege to waste it), today by watering the fig and orange trees. We think that Mr Luis must have taken a lot of the irrigation hoses with him as we only have a couple of short crappy hoses fitted to the tanks; so to water anything I have to take the hose as far as it will go and then use it to fill buckets and watering can and walk with these to the trees – which is rather tiring in 39°C.

Brett spent the morning digging out the walkway behind the animal shed (I did offer to help, but he said it was in full sun and I would complain all the time, which is probably true).

Around 11.00 a joyous Gary came whooping into our quinta to tell us that Betty was back. He was cycling into Fundao and she was walking along the road, just imagine if he had decided to go to Castelo Branco today he would have missed her. She seems none the worst for her adventure, she’s a little bit thinner (but she was a bit tubby) and very thirsty, but she appears to be fine; I think she might have puppies in a few months, Gary still thinks she was taken from his quinta – perhaps we’ll never know.

Gary had come with his pruning shears and offered to do a couple of hours on our vines, so of course I had to accompany him and learn how to do it; it was bloody hot work (in 39°C).

Gary stayed for lunch; we always bring a picnic with us, but it wasn’t suitable for Gary (he doesn’t eat cooked/prepared food) so he grazed on about 30 fallen oranges, I said he could pick some fresh from the tree, but he was happy eating the windfalls. He actually did a good job clearing under the tree (it was one of my jobs today anyway), so all I had to do was rake the leaves and rotten fruit and that area looks much tidier.

Thank you Steph for identifying our mystery fruit as Quince; we did think it might be that as Mr Luis said it was used for conserve – can you eat it raw? Gary identified our other unknown fruit tree – Persimmon (Sharon fruit). We going to rename our quinta ‘The Garden of Eden’ there is so much growing here; today I munched my way through oranges, loquats, apple (not ripe yet), fig (nearly ripe), peach (hard, but sweet and tasty), plum (one that the birds had pecked, so ripened early – delicious), and we’ve got so much more to come – we’re so very very lucky!

These are the bastard birds that eat our fruit - Magpies

Azure Winged Magpie or as Brett calls it a flying rat!

This is what our Golden Oriole looks like (photo from internet)

We didn’t get to use our plunge pool today, Gary was still pruning when we left (we think he’s lonely, he was with us for 5 1/2 hours); I did sit on the edge and dangle my legs in (and got very wet shorts), it was lovely and my shorts dried very quickly in 39°C!.

As we drove back to the campsite we watched a helicopter dumping water on a fire close to Castelo Branco – we’ve seen three fires in the last three days, it’s a little bit worrying.

Tomorrow is going to be 40°, so we’ll definitely be using our plunge pool.