We went into Castelo Branco this morning; we took some marrows I found growing on the courgette plants and left them at the Fonte again; I don’t know how I missed them I pick courgettes daily (that’s why I like to grow yellow courgettes they’re easier to see, and taste good too).
We stopped at the water analysis laboratory and organised our well water testing; Brett conducted the conversation in Portuguese, with a smattering of English thrown in by the staff at the lab – I think the man was using a translation programme on his computer. Anyway he’s going to come out to the farm to collect samples tomorrow and it’ll cost us less than 50€ (they didn’t seem to care how far away we lived they just charge for the tests).
We couldn’t find ant powder; we did find a ‘natural’ ant barrier at 17€ for a small bottle – that would make growing vegetables far too expensive. I’ve emailed the expats who grows vegetables; hopefully we’ll get some useful advice from them.
I spent the afternoon cutting up bottles and making windmills to use as bird scarers. It’s funny you just swop pests when you move country; in Wales we battled the slugs and earwigs, in Portugal its ants and magpies (and whatever is nibbling my seedlings).
Our pool is turning green (with algae); we bought one without a filter (it was the largest pool that was sold without a filter) we wouldn’t have been able to use one anyway as we have no electricity yet. Now we’re going to have to empty it out and refill it (we’ll use the water to irrigate vegetables and trees, it won’t be wasted). How is the water in children’s paddling pools kept clean and clear? Surely chlorine isn’t added to them and I’m sure they’re not emptied and refilled every other day. Or do they go green and slimy over time?
Mark and Glen texted us to say they’re coming to visit on Thursday evening; we’ll have a barbeque, our first visitors!
Rain is forecast for the next couple of days – how exciting is that!!!! We last had rain on the 9th May.
No comments:
Post a Comment