Most mornings I get up an hour or so before Brett; I sit outside drinking coffee, reading, checking emails, editing the blog and enjoying the scenery – it’s ‘my time’, and I really enjoy it. This morning I used some of the time to skin the tomatoes; they’re getting a little bit ripe now and need to be processed, I’m thinking of making some chutney.
We went into Castelo Branco to do the errands we hadn’t managed on Wednesday – it was a far more relaxed day. At the moment all the hardware shops are selling wine making equipment and fruit presses; we want a fruit press as we have copious amounts of apples (cider) and pears (perry). They also sell stills – I still can’t believe it’s legal to distil your own spirits here. It’s all very tempting and not excessively expensive; the machine we bought for crushing grapes from Mr Luis for 40€ retails at 160€.
Hoorah, Pam & Mark have completed today; they must be so relieved, when they texted us this evening they said they were - sitting out under the stars, pinching themselves and drinking wine!
Mark and Glen have moved onto their quinta; we went to visit them on our way home, they looked quite settled, caravan up on blocks, awning erected, kettle boiling. They said it was quite a wrench leaving the campsite.
Brett and I had a bit of a disagreement today when I started to cook chutney in the campervan; the temperature was already 45°, but it was too windy to cook outside. I was worried that the tomatoes would go off and have to be thrown away; Brett was worried about the heat we would have to sleep in! We came to a compromise; I boiled up the ingredients (so that they would last the night) and will cook it down tomorrow, outside hopefully if the wind has dropped. I’m having to make the recipe up, as I have no cookery books to hand and the internet isn’t working; the ingredients are tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilli, wine vinegar, sugar and salt.
We’re feeling rather guilty (and a bit foolish); after harping on and on about not wanting to go to our Portuguese neighbours for food tonight, we turned up at 8.30 and were given food – bags and bags of it - spinach, onions, okra, aubergine, beans and parsley. When they said “come round for food” we assumed that meant a meal (you would, wouldn’t you?) but it was meant literally, to be given vegetables, from their very prolific but not very large vegetable garden – it makes us all the more determined to learn the language. They said when we had finished the vegetables to come back and pick more (more or less “our vegetables are your vegetables”). They really are very generous; it will take us a while to get used to how friendly and straightforward they are, especially after Gary’s experiences. Oh yes, they also said we could use their swimming pool!!!! And it’s not a crappy blow up job like ours, it’s a proper, dug out of the ground, one that you can do laps in.
There’s a festa (festival) in the village this weekend; they’ve been setting up over the last few days, in the same place as the monthly market, which probably means that tomorrow we’ll have to go the narrow way in and out of the village. The music was playing well into the early hours of the morning; we’re planning on going to it tomorrow evening with Pam and Mark (our new ‘best friends’).
No comments:
Post a Comment