Olive Oil is so versatile ........................

20th January

As we were leaving the village, to go to Fundao this morning, Mr Louis stopped us and asked if we wanted some eggs - he gave us a bucket full (33 eggs). We told him we were off to buy some laying hens and some meat birds, he said don't buy the white ones (meat birds) and grabbed hold of his throat and waggled it - what on earth did that mean?

So we bought six laying hens and ten brown meat birds - no reason other than he's coming up to advise us soon (on the garden) and we didn't want him to think we didn't take notice of him!!!

We came home via the people who are giving us the muscovies and they gave us a dozen duck eggs (I'd forgotten the bucket of chicken eggs when I said yes 'please'!); so tomorrow I will be making cake, Spanish tortilla, orange curd, mayonnaise, meringues - basically any recipe that uses eggs, olive oil, potatoes and oranges!

The new laying hens are slightly bigger than last week's hens, but that didn't stop the ones from last week bullying the new ones (they obviously feel at home), they'll soon settle down.

The eating chicks are only three weeks old, so they are living on the kitchen table in a cardboard box.

The sheep dog puppy follows us home now when we take Looby for a walk, it even tried to come into the house - it would be so easy to steal .................. it's so cute.

21st January

The chicks were in with us last night as we didn't want Looby investigating them - they chirped all night, tonight they'll stay in the kitchen!

Whilst I was feeding the chickens the puppy came to call, it wanted to play with Looby and it kept trying to come into the house - it takes all of our (my?) will power to shoo it away, Brett says if we don't it will be punished by the shepherd.

Can I come in please?

 

Today was wet and miserable so I cooked; I used my free oranges and eggs and my 1/2 price butter (from Lidl's) to make Orange curd - it makes a perfect breakfast stirred into Greek yoghurt and mixed with whipped cream it makes a lovely quick syllabub - I could add some of my orange liqueur too (yummy!).

I made mayonnaise with the free eggs and olive oil - I'm working on free lemons too, I'm going to try bartering them for olive oil with Claire. And I made a chocolate cake, which I couldn't use the eggs in as it's for our vegan visitors on Thursday, but I did use our olive oil! So all in all a pretty thrifty day.

We were very disappointed when we got water out of the Cleric's fonte, it's brown (Brackish?), so we won't be drinking that! Unfortunately we can only get the surface water, it's not like the village fontes with an ever flowing pipe, it's probably fine a few feet down.

22nd January

I spent the whole day doing housework, I did a proper 'spring clean', it was boring and exhausting and I really hate the vacuum cleaner! Worst thing is I know it won't last long, and then I have to do it all over again.

Brett finished the (duck) house for the chicks, so they are now outside; it's much quieter inside!

The puppy is becoming a regular visitor! We don't allow him in the house or feed him, in fact apart from a bit of stroking we try to ignore him so he goes back to the sheep. He followed us back to the house this afternoon when the shepherd's wife was outside sitting under the tree, so she knows he comes to see us.

23rd January

Karen, Jamie and Gypsy came to dinner today; I cooked a vegan meal -  spaghetti with a sauce made from olive oil,  the Greek style olives, onions, garlic and lemon juice served with a salad, the vegan chocolate cake for pudding, all washed down with our red wine or freshly squeezed orange juice.

24th January

Pam and I had another 'sewing day', at hers this time; I made a top and she made a skirt.

On our (Brett came to pick me up) way home we saw Claire and asked about swopping oil for lemons, she was more than happy and is bring a bag to Pam's tomorrow (2nd day of sewing).

Brett rotorvated the vegetable garden and got rid of all the grass that was growing through; it looks good. While he was doing it Louis (shepherd) arrived and called him over, he'd brought a lamb (dead) for us, he kills the male lambs quite young as, as he put it, they don't make milk so he doesn't have a use for them.

25th January

Pam and I had a very productive day today; I made a nightie, I bought from a charity shop, into a skirt and a jacket (with the addition of lots of lace) then I 'tea' dyed them along with the top I made yesterday. Pam had a pair of trousers, that looked like a skirt, which we transformed into a skirt with ribbon ties up the side - it looks so pretty; so we were both very pleased.

Claire brought me a lovely big bag of lemons which I will make into lemon curd (with our free eggs), lemonade, Moroccan preserved lemons and Claire suggested lemon flavoured olive oil - I can zest some and add them to a bottle of oil.

Louis (shepherd) said now was the time to prune the vines and showed Brett how to do it, which was very useful as it is one of the jobs he's been wanting to learn how to do.

26th January

Sunday, bloody Sunday ......... we were woken at 7.00 a.m. by the hunters raining lead shot down on our roof, it was impossible to get back to sleep (thank goodness there's only a few weeks left to the season). Brett asked one of the hunters, who was on our quinta by the chickens, what he was shooting at, he showed him - thrushes, sparrows etc. ........ why? is what I want to know.

The garden is drying out nicely so I decided it was high time I hoed the vegetable bed; grass is growing through the plants like crazy.

Brett tidied up some of the vines down the bottom of the vegetable garden and he got talking to one of our Portuguese neighbours (he doesn't live on the quinta it's his vegetable garden and he has a few chickens) who we haven't spoken to before as there is usually dense foliage between us and him, but it's winter so we could converse quite easily albeit across the boundary stream. He's really nice and of course he is an expert in vegetable gardening in Portugal. He told us we should plant tomatoes and peppers now, under plastic, so we're going to make a cold frame. He gave us cabbages, leeks and some seeds - the Portuguese are so generous. He also said it was too early to prune the vines, he said we should wait until February/March time.

P&M came around for a 'proper' Sunday lunch; lamb roast with rosemary and garlic, roast potatoes, broccoli (P&M's garden), cabbage (neighbour) etc, our wine followed by meringues (free eggs!) which we had to eat out of bowls because the whipping cream (UHT it's practically impossible to get fresh, or fresh milk) doesn't whip up to stiff peaks however long it's whipped for, it stays soft so there's no way it can be used in cakes - very annoying!

27th January

We went into Fundao; we had two coffee engagements - Nicky & Rich and a couple we hadn't met before. While the weather was bad, and there was nothing much to do, I did quite a bit of 'googling' ....... self sufficiency and Portugal was one of the searches I put in and I came across this interesting blog of like minded people (Karina & Alex) who it turned out live only a few miles from us, so I contacted them. They are lovely, completely on our wavelength, hopefully they'll come and visit us soon.

Bloody soddin' hunters not only do they leave their rubbish on our land, they poo on it (right out in the open) and leave it for us (Brett) to clear up. Brett was furious, I was too busy gagging to speak! He says he's going to confront them next week.

I'm all enthused about the vegetable garden so this afternoon I started off some seeds - 76 tomato (12 varieties) 18 aubergine (2), 36 chillis (6) and 54 sweet pepper (2), then I ran out of seed trays!! If I have too many plants I can always give them away or swop them.

28th January

What a disappointing start to the day, it was supposed to be sunny and I was going to finish hoeing the garden and plant a load of plugs - beetroot (bought from market yesterday) and the lettuce, escarole, onions, leeks and chard I have been meaning to plant out for a while ............... but we woke up to rain!!!! I forced myself to plant the beetroot plugs (60 odd), but the ground wasn't breaking up nicely (too wet) so I don't know how well they'll do.

Our track is really rutty, because of all the wet weather we've been having, we nearly get stuck in four wheel drive and ordinary cars have to park just inside our property. Brett filled in the worst ruts, but more rain is forecast so he'll probably have to do it again.

The sheep are no longer grazing our quinta, but they come back to be corralled at night, however the puppy is left on the quinta all day (his guard duty is a night time job), so he just follows us about all day and whines at our door when we go inside!

An absolutely horrid afternoon = video and sweets!!!! We watched V for Vendetta, it was OK, and ate chocolate sitting on the sofa in front of the stove, it was cosy.

29th January

It was cold today, not frosty, but cold enough to warrant wearing hat and gloves. We noticed that the tops of the mountains are, again, white - what fell on us as rain must have fallen on them as snow.

Well I've had quite a productive day; I spent the morning cataloguing all my seeds, cross referencing with a Spanish gardening book and a Portuguese gardening blog to work out a Portuguese vegetable gardening calendar - I will update it as the year progresses and it's been trialed and errored; (I ended up writing it on the computer, so it will be easy to edit). I put the potatoes, the shepherd gave us, to chit in the wheelbarrow, we'll cover them up at night. Then this afternoon I, at last, planted out the escarole etc - the soil is still very claggy and not easy to work with, fortunately (for the plants) it's raining tonight so they should get well bedded in.  And I still have garlic to put in which is sprouting and all their roots are tangled together!! I want to put in more radish,  peas, broad beans, mange toute, lettuce, spring onions and leeks in the main bed as soon as possible (i.e. when it dries up a bit). Then in the cold frame (which hopefully will be constructed by the end of the week, we're buying the bits tomorrow) it's time to start coriander, parsley, tomatillo and, with a view to the future, rhubarb, and asparagus.

Then next month (February) it all kicks off and most vegetables and herbs can be started off in the cold frame.

30th January

Ha, it didn't rain, we woke up to a cold and frosty morning; fortunately my plants look ok.

The best laid plans ............ Cesar (the woodman) emailed last night to say he would be delivering the wood for the next phase of poultry houses Brett wants to build (duck, goose and anything we buy on the spur of the moment!), he didn't say when (we did email back and text to ask but we didn't get a reply) so that meant we had to hang around all day, so no trip to CB! And then when Brett finally got hold of him he says he's coming tomorrow.

I did weed the herb bed, the soil is lovely; and while I was there I found baby new potatoes - I put some potatoes in the middle of the pea wigwams in Oct in the hope for new potatoes at Christmas (I used to do it in the Polytunnel back in Wales), but the frost killed off the tops and I forgot about them! We ate them with dinner, small but perfectly formed!

31st January

We went into CB and bought all the stuff off our list and then we went to the dog rescue centre; we came away with .............. nothing. They were either missing limbs of had their legs in plaster; Looby is far too boisterous for a physically impaired dog, which is a shame as a couple of them were really cute.

This evening I made pastry with olive oil (I'm finding so many uses for it); my goodness it's so easy - 7ozs plain flour, salt, 6 tablespoons (90mls) olive oil, 1/4 cup cold water, bung it all in the food processor and whiz up, takes about 10 seconds, wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour in fridge (I haven't used it yet but it looks good).

It's the end of the month so I'm going to use up my internet allowance posting my blog (I don't want to waste it!).

SHEEP ON THE QUINTA ..............

15th January

Brett has designed (in his head) a 10' x 10' mobile cabin we can use as a summer house /bedroom; it'll be on skids (like the chicken shed) so we'll be able to move it with the truck, he will clad it with the same planks we used for the sleep platform rather than the bread oven wood he used for the chicken shed and it will have a Onduline roof (which is lighter than tiles).

Oh dear poor old Looby was shocked by the fence this morning and I should think most of the village heard her shriek!!! Now she takes a very wide berth around the chickens.

When we got the hens home on Monday and took them out of their box we noticed that one of them was rather hunched up (the typical sign of an unhappy/ill chicken); the woman on the market just grabbed them out of the crate and stuffed them in the box we didn't get a chance to inspect them. She's been a bit hunched ever since but has been eating and drinking along with the rest. However today we found her in the water bucket, she was very wet and cold; so I dried her off, as best I could, with Looby's towel and we put her in the drawer of the stove to warm up. Initially she didn't look very hopeful,

she stayed very hunched up with her eyes shut, but after about an hour she started to become quite vocal, then she started moving around, eating and she even pooped on Looby's towel;

so we put her back outside with the rest of her flock and are keeping our fingers crossed.

Brett went outside this afternoon and there's a large flock of sheep under our olive trees, the shepherd and his wife were out there with them; we didn't even hear them arrive.

It means poor old Looby will be walked on a lead again; she was very good about the hen in the kitchen though, I told her "No!" so she just curled up on her bed and ignored it.

The shepherd corralled his sheep as soon as it got dark (5.00ish) and left a dog to guard them - it's a Serra da Estrela and it can only be about six months old, it's so cute I'm going to take a photo in the morning.

It's been dull and raining for the last few days so we had to turn the fridge off over night again; it's been on for five days so we feel quite lucky and we should have a few more days out of it if we ration it.

16th January

Callooh! Callay! all six chickens came burbling out of the pop hole this morning and drowned hen is looking quite spritely.

The sheep were still corralled at 11.30 this morning and the puppy was still there keeping guard, it was out all night in the rain, good job it's got a thick coat.

This afternoon the sheep were outside the house eating my peas (in the herb garden, I hadn't shown them to the shepherd) so I shooed them off, they're really laid back not in the least bit skittish; it's a very pretty flock.

Ha, Brett's turnip and carrot fermentation is working well, but my Kvass has mould growing on it!!!

17th January

We need a shredder for all our olive prunings, then we can use it in the compost toilet. So we met up with Jamie and Keren in CB with a view to purchasing one between us (and P&M), well the good ones were 900€+, so that didn't happen! And we didn't get to look at dogs either as we suddenly realised that as we were going to P&M's for dinner we would have to leave it with Looby for several hour having just introduced them to one another (not a sensible idea).

When I was walking Looby back from her shed I came across Louis and his wife tending their sheep (I tried to avoid them but didn't manage it!!!), so I stood there while they spoke at me in Portuguese! One thing I did learn (because I asked) the puppy guarding their sheep is only four months old and it's a he, not a she as I had thought.

We had a lovely evening at P&M's, very relaxing and warm.

18th January

Brett started building a duck house, some people we met on NYE offered us some ducks and we found out last night (as they had given P&M a drake) that they are Muscovies; just what we wanted, as they're not as aquatic as ordinary ducks, so don't need a pond.

Louis came calling with a bucket of potatoes and a bucket of oranges for us - the Portuguese are very generous. He showed us where the Cleric's fonte is, just beyond our boundary (about 5m) at the bottom of our front garden (i.e. about 50m from our house). It was built by the Romans and is a public fonte and he said 'a agua e muito boa' (the water is very good), it was used by the churches and the rich people as it's the best water around;  this means we don't need to drive to get drinking water anymore.

I 'googled' mouldy Kvass and it's merely a yeast fermentation and just needed skimming off. So we tried the Kvass; it's salty, slightly sour, nothingness - I don't get it, it's not unpleasant but I wouldn't drink it through choice, as it's not particularly nice either! But people rave about it, why?

At the beginning of December I put some of our large ripe black olives in salt

to try to make Greek/Turkish style olives - the shrivelled ones you get in jars without brine or oil.

We tried them today - they are absolutely brilliant!!!! They're just like the expensive ones you buy in the shops and these are free! I'm so pleased, we used them in our pasta sauce tonight. And I drank a Portuguese version of Sangria made with our wine and Louis's oranges.

I don't know why but I've always gained enormous pleasure from eating and drinking for free; I used to love collecting hedgerow bounty in the UK - elderflowers for wine and champagne, elderberries for port, crab apples, damsons, sloes, blackberries, horseradish, field mushrooms and the absolute joy of finding a giant puffball (we had quite a few of these when we lived in Warwickshire). So having a quinta where we can produce our own olives, olive oil, wine, fruit etc is wonderful for me, I get a real kick out of it.

19th January

Sunday ................... and we could hear the hunters way off in the distance, it was so nice not to feel under threat of being shot when I was out with Looby!

There's snow on the mountains,

but it was sunny and breezy today, so that means wash day. One of the nice things about wash day is the stove gets lit early (to boil the water on), so the house is nice and warm and snug, the less pleasant thing (in the winter anyway) is having to do the washing, as it gets done outside and when it's windy (like today) your hands get awfully cold; but the wind does help dry the clothes and my Sheila maid finished them off this evening.

I resolved yesterday to do some drawing, so over the last two days I've tried sketching the hens

and Looby,

Brett says this looks like Santa's Little Helper' (Simpsons)!!!

but they won't stay still for more than a few seconds; I don't know how long it will last but I thought I would try to sketch every day to try to improve my observation and speed.

Tomorrow we're off to Fundao again to buy more chickens and on the way back we're going to visit the couple who offered us the Muscovy ducks.

LIVESTOCK AT LAST ..........

5th January

Not so much rain today, but still dull and not much solar being created - we're starting to get a little 'stir crazy' now, there's so much that we want to get on with; Brett wants to get the chicken house finished, so we can get some laying hens and then start on the pig run. I want to get on with the garden - I have lettuce, escarole, and chard that I've grown from seed that needs to go in and, of course, I need to hoe the weeds.

I had a lovely 'talk' with Hen and Claire on Skype today, (they're still in Thailand), it wasn't a brilliant connection but I could see them (albeit mainly in silhouette and pixelated!) so I'm happy as I haven't spoken 'live' to them for quite a while.

6th January

Drizzle and heavy rain today ............................... but somehow we've still got some solar for the, one, light and charging laptops and phones, but nothing else; the fridge is completely thawed now so we're having to eat everything from it (or throw it away, which is a waste but one can only eat so many thawed brussel sprouts!!!!).

I'm fed up with this weather now, I've got so much that I want to do; I do have some 'wet weather' projects (or so I thought) but I can't get on with them because, when I was naive about solar, it didn't occurred to me that when it was wet I wouldn't have any electricity or light!!! Pam and I bought material in CB and I'm itching to make some clothes.

I'm trying to find as many different ways of preserving food as I can, ready for when we have a glut in the summer. I know I can bottle some of the produce and make jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys etc but the jars are expensive (and take up an awful lot of room) and although I save every jar I buy (and get Mark to save all his for me) I never seem to have enough; we even looked into getting a canning machine from America, but the cans are ridiculously expensive, so where's the sense in that? Unfortunately freezing isn't an option so I need to find other ways to keep our harvest edible; we use an awful lot of (at the moment tinned/bought) tomatoes through the winter so we're going to try drying tomatoes this year which will save space. Today I experimented with some of the lemons that Claire gave us - preserving them in salt, if nothing else they look really nice;

years ago I tried preserving runner beans in salt - it didn't work they went slimy!

OK I have a gripe (or two) ............. why do manufacturers put stiff, scratchy labels at the back of the neck of clothing? I put on one of my new tops tonight and it was awful, I couldn't stand it, I had to take it straight off and cut out the offending label but of course I couldn't simply unpick the stitching because it was sewn into the facing and, while I'm on the subject, why do they sew white labels inside black lacy clothes? And what's with the long loops that always stick out of the neck of tops and dresses, why don't they stitch them to face the other way so they naturally stay inside the clothing (ribbon bends so it would still do its job, for those with the luxury of a wardrobe and hanging clothes!!!!!), I had to have them out as they were scratching me too.

This evening Looby was barking, as she had heard a noise outside, it was a ewe and her two lambs; somehow they had wandered onto our land. It was too dark to herd them back to their flock, not that we knew where it was, so we've got to wait now until the morning and just hope they don't discover our vegetable garden.

7th January

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY, COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY!

We've had enough now thank you, the wells are overflowing. Every one of my vegetable plugs is standing up straight and tall (unless the sheep have had them in the night, it's too wet to go and look) even the strawberry that I thought was dead is alive, so the garden doesn't need it.

The man on the quinta next door is trying to drain his vegetable garden by cutting channels in it, he's out there, in the pouring rain, with his enxada and an umbrella, bless him.

I made a sage oil infusion with some sage leaves, that I had in the freezer, chopped up and mixed with olive oil, I'll use it in cooking; if I could make the essential oil it's good for colds, sore throats, oral thrush and apparently Alzheimer's! But I need a still for that, I don't think my infusion will have any medical benefits, it's merely a flavouring.

OK Looby is in the dog house;

"Who? Me? ......"

we decided we had to brave the weather and take her out for a long walk, she chased the sheep (they're still on our quinta, but haven't been near the vegetable garden, phew!)) and then wouldn't come back when we called her, well obviously she did in the end, I made Brett take his belt off so we could put her on a lead.

Everywhere is so flooded, fortunately we seem to have the highest land around here so we're not too bad, but the river (which we didn't even know about until a couple of months ago) is way over the stepping stones and has burst its banks. The ditch around the bottom of our property is moving very fast and is several feet deep. And don't let's talk about our track ......... all I can say is thank goodness we have a 4x4!!!

8th January

We had a little bit of sun today and no rain; hopefully we'll get some charge on the solar.

Looby was put on her lead for her morning walk, just in case the sheep were still around - there was one lone lamb, how are we going to reunite that with its flock?

We went into CB for a quick shop but didn't manage to get to the animal rescue centre as it doesn't open until 1.00 p.m. When we got back there was no obvious sign of the lamb but there was a ewe on our land - where are they coming from???

Poor old Looby has been on a lead for all of her walks today, which isn't fair as she likes to run.

Oh dear Louis, the shepherd (o pastor,) came while Brett was training.

Here's how I think our conversation went (bearing in mind it was all in Portuguese):-

·         he asked if he could bring his sheep to eat our grass, I showed him my vegetable garden and said I didn't want his sheep eating the plants

·         he said he would fence off the vegetables (or did he say we should fence them off?)

·         I said he needed to talk to Brett, as he understood Portuguese better than me

·         he said he would come back tomorrow (hopefully to talk to Brett not with his sheep!)

·         I told him about the lamb that was on our land this morning

·         he went off to look for the lamb

So now I realise I need to get back to learning Portuguese in earnest; I was pathetic, I have absolutely no confidence in my ability to converse in a foreign tongue, we need to find a local teacher.

9th January

Today I made Kvass, a lacto-fermented beetroot drink (Russian); drinking it twice daily is  supposed to have a beneficial effect on the digestive tract, you can also use it in recipes in place of vinegar which is how I will probably use it.

Brett really enjoyed his fermented turnip and carrot, we're going to make more as it's all been eaten.

Louis came (without his sheep!) and said that our vegetables will be fine as someone will be with the sheep at all times when they are on our quinta (unless they are corralled, which they will be overnight, I'm sure that isn't what he said to me yesterday)  but that's what shepherds do here they spend all day with their sheep, it could be in an unfenced field or the verge at the side of the road, the shepherd is there keeping control of the flock.

Yesterday Brett saw an ambulance and a Bombeiros vehicle driving down the track that goes passed Gary's (our nearest neighbour, but  a different access track), Louis told us that a man had drowned in the river, how awful.

10th January

The fridge is back on for the time being as we have full batteries, I do love the sun!

P&M came round for dinner, we had a lovely evening and I'm really getting into our red wine (which is just as well as we have rather a lot of it!!!). We had a Thai chicken curry (my take on Jamie Oliver's fragrant green curry) and I made crepe suzettes (with our own oranges and the orange liqueur I made for Christmas) with Chantilly cream, jolly tasty they were too (even though I say it myself!). And, I'm so excited, tomorrow Pam is coming round and we're going to have a sewing day (yay!).

11th January

Brett finished the chicken shed, which looks absolutely fabulous - I want a big version for a summer house! We will probably go into Fundao on Monday to buy chickens, how exciting.

Pam and I started making a dress each, we took a pattern from my 'Magnolia Pearl' dress which I practically live in, by the end of our session we both had smock shaped garments that Brett said only needed a slit up the back to look like hospital gowns!!! The material is very stiff, we hope that a good wash with some fabric softener will help.

Pam brought over her hard drive which had masses of films and TV series on it; we spent the evening watching 'The Good Life', one of the classics; funnily enough we had been looking for it on Ebay last week but it was too expensive for us!!!

12th January

We were woken at 7.30 by gunfire - we had forgotten it was Sunday.

Pam came back, we finished making our dresses, washed them in hot water with lots of fabric softener in the hope that we can get rid of some of the stiffness. This afternoon we both made ourselves a top which we dyed with a Dylon hand wash French Lavender colour - they came out bluey grey!! But it's an OK colour.

Then this evening the rains came back, it's been so nice being able to go outside, hopefully it won't last too long.

13th January

Happy Birthday William !!!!!!! XXXXXXXX

We went into Fundao, me wearing my new dress which I'm very pleased with, to buy some POL hens, but somehow we managed to arrive at the market just as the poultry sellers were packing up!!!! We'd been to the supermarket, China shop, pottery etc first as we didn't want to leave the chickens in the car while we shopped, we were being considerate. Anyway all that was left was a crate of 8-10 week old Warren type hens at 6€ (about £5) each; we bought six and will go to our village market in the morning to see if there are any older birds for sale there. It's great to have livestock again, and I've always liked chickens, I love the soft burbling noises they make and these ones are very docile. They're already coming out of their shed and exploring their run.

And naughty Looby is already breaking into their run and exploring them, she got tied up after that little incident; we've erected an electric poultry net to keep them safe and Looby just pushed under it, but what she doesn't know is that it hasn't been switched on yet (she's in for a bit of a shock!!!!).

We couldn't get any commercial chicken food so we made a mash from stale bread, some brown rice (yes I cooked it first!) plus some vegetable peelings (which I cooked in with the rice), I wouldn't say they loved it but they had a good old peck at it - they have to get used to it because we're not going to buy all their food, they will be fed on scraps (until we get the pigs).

14th January

The chickens had to be forcibly shoved outside this morning and their pop hole shut; then they found their food and water so they were happier.

We went to the village market (leaving Looby on guard) we saw Mr Louis there, and Mrs Louis was with him, last time we heard she was in hospital in a coma so it was lovely to see her up and about. They insisted we went for a coffee with them, then Mr Louis took us to buy the chicken's food (he thinks we're novices, he doesn't know we had about 250 birds (laying, eating and POL hens to sell) at one time when we were back in Wales!), he likes to help us - he's going to come up in a few days to advise us on our vegetable garden.

We spent the morning increasing the run size, it's now two x 50 metre poultry nets, so they have a huge area with three big trees for shelter - lucky birds, 

and the electric fence is on - poor Looby, it won't be long before she gets a shock, I keep telling her to stay away from it (but she's fascinated by the hens) so it will be her own fault, she'll do it when we're not watching her!

FELIZ ANO NOVO!!!!!!

1st January 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It was a lovely NYE party at Josh & Jamie's; it was many of the same people as were at P&M's Boxing day party, but we got to speak to some different ones this time. It was mainly expats but varied nationalities - Israeli, Dutch, Irish, .........

We woke up (late) to overcast skies and heavy, penetrating drizzle, not a nice day but it was forecast; so the fire was lit early. We managed to walk Looby a few times between showers and tired her out running after the ball, occasionally she even brought it back! Maybe this week we'll get her a playmate (I know we keep saying that).

I didn't write about our visit to Claire and Phil yesterday; wow their place is lovely. They have a gorgeous stone house which they only live on the second floor of, downstairs is massive with huge wine making machinery and tanks carved from granite; it was originally owned by a doctor. Phil has built beautiful Shaker style kitchen cupboards, shelves and pegboards (he's a carpenter by trade) and they're all painted in soft, calm colours (greys and mushrooms), it is very tastefully done.  They have the most amazing views and can see the Serra de Estrella mountains from their living room window (which is actually double doors and, at the moment, has a long drop below it, they're going to put in a balcony). They have 5 acres of fruit  trees - about 80 oranges, masses of lemons, almonds (we came away with a huge bagful), apples, pomegranate, to name a few and a massive vineyard (which is a waste as they don't drink alcohol). Out of all the quintas we've visited their one is on a par with ours (fortunately we still like ours better).

We did our accounts today ............... we need to budget better, we spent twice as much as we should have last month (whoops)!

2nd January

So budgeting started well today; Pam and I went to the 'sales' in CB!!!!! There's a brand new H&M shop and lots of lovely stuff was half price, so I just had to buy it - I saved nearly 40€!

The solar hasn't had much charge for the last week or so and the batteries are pretty low, we turned everything off except a for 10 watt (low energy) light bulb and waited for the inverter to switch off ......... it didn't!

3rd January

Still raining, still dull but we still had a little power and put the fridge on in the morning (we reason that it won't lose much cold if we switch it off overnight as it's shut up tight); then we read the weather forecast, another week of rain, so we made the painful decision to turn it off!

Looby is a thief! I put a dish of almonds on the coffee table and she has spent the afternoon stealing one at a time, taking it back to her bed and eating the nut inside - she's a strange animal she eats, nuts, grapes, olives, haw berries, acorns etc.

I bottled some of our red wine today; I've been saving bottles for a while with the help of Mark (and Glenn) and filled 15 bottles, now all I need is a wine rack (and electricity so I can print off the labels).

Our wine has the burgundy tops

Why don't I ever learn? Yesterday I bought nut crackers from a China shop (that's what they call themselves), today I tried to crack one of the almonds that Claire gave us - of course the nut crackers cracked first!!!

4th January

It rained all night, heavy, loud rain; and it was windy! But this morning the sun showed itself for a few minutes, Brett even said "shall we turn the fridge on?" (we didn't) and then this afternoon it rained ICE (that's what the weather forecast called it) and it was very cold and dark so ................ we lit the fire and watched a film (Red Dragon), (nothing else to do); oh yes, and ate chocolate!

But we did have a beautiful double rainbow.

We took down the Christmas decorations, we've only lit the lights twice (both times before Christmas) because we didn't want to waste solar.

This evening we made olive oil 'candles',

Olive oil doesn't smoke as it burns and if you want it to smell nice you can add essential oils (I want to make lavender oil next year but I need to source a small cheap still); we didn't use our own olive oil, we used the expensive stuff we bought before we had ours back from the press! This is a prototype we will experiment with different wicks (this was just string) and several wicks in one jar. If we can make them bright enough we won't need to buy candles any more.

BOAS FESTAS E FELIZ 2014

13th December

This morning I had a text from Will "Update your blog" so I did!!! We have had very 'iffy' internet for the past few days, but it seems to be back now.

Today it rained, more or less the first 'proper' rain since Debbie & David's visit! It makes a change for us to say "it'll be good for the garden", but it will definitely help the vegetable plugs - they are starting to look stronger (I didn't realise it would take so long, I don't often use bare root plants). Unfortunately rain isn't good for the electricity, so we didn't put on our Christmas tree lights tonight.

Brett has succumbed to the dreaded sore throat and cold, so we spent the afternoon huddled in front of the stove; P&M took the olives to the mill for us, as usual it was running late they had to hang around for over 2 hours before they could unload - as Pam says "this is Portugal"!

Oh yes, a little piece of coincidence ........ Astrid was on a Permaculture course, in

Portugal last year, we said we knew someone who had written a book on Permaculture (Looby MacNamarar) and she was one of the lecturers on the course.

14th December

Brett was feeling rough, so we didn't do much today. I took Looby for lots of walks, and then tried to make a chandelier from sticks, the metal lids from 'Chinese shop' candles (you have to come to Portugal to know what I'm talking about!) and tiny glass jars (mousse type desserts we bought in summer when we had guests and I couldn't be bothered to cook! but knew I could reuse the jars!); I couldn't find my wire so tried to use twine to attach everything, it didn't work so now I need to buy wire.

We tried to teach Looby to fetch a ball; she's very enthusiastic running after it, but she doesn't get bringing it back (Winnie taught Molly how to do it).

The vegetable plugs are looking much healthier today, after yesterdays rain (unfortunately so is the grass in the vegetable plot - so it needs hoeing). I also have to find the enthusiasm to plant peas, radish and more garlic.

15th December

It's very easy to forget what day of the week it is, as we have no structure to our lives, but we always recognise Sundays as it sounds like war has broken out! Fortunately today the hunters weren't too close to our quinta. I can't think what they are shooting at we haven't seen any game around here at all this year; we had a partridge on the quinta last year but she seems to have disappeared L and we haven't seen any rabbits (and of course we've never managed to see wild boar, though we know lots of people who have).

We went into CB to start our Christmas preparations but as we were both feeling a bit rough we weren't really in the mood for it.
We had said that next time we went into CB we'd go to the rescue centre and look for another dog, unfortunately it was shut.
We were all (us and P&M) supposed to be going out for a meal with Mark tonight in Penamacor, but his truck has broken down just when he's about to drive back to the UK; hopefully he'll get it fixed tomorrow.

P&M  had us round for dinner tonight, we planned Christmas day (they're coming to us) and Boxing day (they're having 'open house' with 30+ people coming).

16th December

Brett spent the day tidying up the olive prunings, we need to buy a shredder so we can use the chippings (waste not, want not!!!) on the compost etc.

And I cleaned the house; I am becoming more and more fed up with the cement floor - I don't know if it's dust from outside that sits in all the pits of the floor or dust made from walking on the cement­­­­­­ but it's horrid to sweep, it creates this huge dust cloud which lingers in the air and then settles over everything, so then I have to wash down all the shelves and surfaces and everything on the shelves and surfaces - anyway it makes me very cross!!! And it made me all snuffily and coughy.

This afternoon I planted two (long) rows of peas and a row of radishes, so I'm feeling virtuous, of course the garden is pretty dormant at the moment so I'm not getting any results for all this labour (the only thing growing is the grass!) but come the New Year everything will suddenly take off.

Nick came with a new inverter for us to test for a few days, all being well on

Thursday we'll swop back to our original one (the one that's been working since we returned from UK) and then .......... we're going to be allowed to put our fridge on!!!! I'll be gutted if it does blow the inverter, I'm sure it won't it's just Nick that's put doubt into our heads.

Tonight we watched 'Hairspray', a jolly film that was easy to watch; Brett said he thought it was far better than ;Mama Mia', I have to disagree - with 'Mama Mia' you know the songs so you can sing along! But I did like the Christopher Walkin and John Travolta characters.

17th December

And now I have a chesty cough!!! It kept me awake most of the night, I got up as soon as it was light and made myself some hot lemon and honey and then 'googled' homemade cough mixture - it's made with lemons, honey and OLIVE OIL!!! You can also add onion and garlic (that sounds 'yummy' - not!). When I was young I remember we used to have a cough medicine made with an onion, cut in half, sprinkled with sugar and left overnight, then the syrup produced was used as a cough syrup; so it could work, after all onions and garlic do have antibacterial properties.

We went into Fundao to do some Christmas shopping. A lovely practice they have in Portugal at Christmas is that the shopping centres, and some of the shops, have 'wrapping stations' - they provide wrapping paper, sellotape, ribbon, bows etc. so that everyone can wrap the presents that they have bought there, for free - of course you do see people abusing it, stuffing their bags full with unused paper, ribbon and bows (human nature, always wanting more!).

Still feeling rough so watched two films today 'Spanglish' (Adam Sandler) and '72 hours' (Russell Crowe), both very watchable though I did get very tense at the end of 72 hours.

18th December

I had a good night's sleep and Looby didn't wake up until 8.00 J.

Our storage box indexing system is rubbish! Practically every time I try to find something I look it up in the 'Contents of Packing Boxes' document, find it, go to the shed, find the box number and what I'm looking for isn't in the box!!! It's so frustrating and I can't think why it should be happening, we thought we were being so organised. Today I couldn't find the cutters, slicers and graters for the food processor; we're making more fermented food, so the vegetables had to be processed by hand which took forever and grating onions makes my eyes water! it would have been really quick with the processor. We did three experimental recipes; cabbage, carrot and onion (a fermented version of coleslaw), mixed peppers, courgettes, onions and garlic (my recipe), grated carrots and turnips (Brett's recipe). This is all in preparation for when we have gluts of vegetables from the garden.

Poor old Mark is still having problems with his truck, it could be ready (if he's lucky) by Friday, but that doesn't leave him much time to drive to Calais (2 or 3 days) to catch a ferry to UK and then drive to Stoke in time for Christmas.

19th December

We went to the Post Office in the village today, there were Christmas cards, and even a birthday card, for us/me there; and still I don't feel Christmasy yet!

We haven't had internet (again) for a few days, we think it's a case of someone resetting the server! But it's jolly inconvenient, I wanted to make some crystallised clementines today - I had to make up the recipe!

I bought some wire, when we were in Fundao, so I had another go at making my chandelier - I'm happy enough with it (very hard to photograph though) as I've said in the past I'm into 'rustic'!

Nick came this afternoon ................ our fridge is on!!!! But I'm not getting excited, now I'll just worry every time we leave the house that when we get back the inverter will be off; if it's still working in a week's time, then I'll start getting excited.

I bottled my orange vodka and used the vodka seeped oranges to make a cake, I do this every Christmas using Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake recipe, it's very moreish.

I think I've 'broken' our dog!!!! Since last week, when she had two other dogs to run around with, she has been very boisterous, jumping up with her huge paws, whining to get attention, she's also started nipping at our hands, not hard or aggressively, but one day she could catch us; most of this was aimed at me. Brett said I was to smack her when she did it, so I tried ......... I can't hit my dog when she's so obviously pleased to see me!!! I tapped her and said "no", she continued to be boisterous and nippy. However today she caught me unawares, I slapped her (reflex, not even hard but it shocked her), she squealed and ran away from me and has been 'polite' ever since; I feel so guilty and cruel but Brett says I'll have gone up the doggie hierarchy several steps today.

20th December

Pam and I went Christmas shopping to CB; it was a long shattering day but I managed to buy presents for Brett (he's very hard to buy for!) and Mark (another male so therefore difficult to buy for) - I bought Pam's presents last week and could have carried on and on with her (see female = easy to buy for!).

I also started on the Christmas food shopping, but I lost the 'will to live' after a few hours so we came home, we were exhausted - I don't like crowds or queuing.

Looby is still being very civil around me, Brett said she was very well behaved all day.

Mark has his truck back, he's bringing his caravan over to P&M's in the morning then setting off for Calais - I think he's cutting it rather fine.

Our internet server is still down which means that I haven't been able to send Christmas greetings (I've written the yearly update letter) to all the people I usually send cards to but didn't manage to this year.

21st December

Happy Winter Solstice

Well, the fridge is still on ......................

Looby is still being good .....................

All's right with the world ..................

We had a visit this afternoon from Claire, a British expat who lives in a beautiful stone house near P&M, she's a numerologist. And for the first time ever I made Welsh cakes, they tasted just like the ones from Siop Laria!

And still we have no internet, it must be getting on for a week now.

22nd December

We were woken up at 7.30 by loud and frequent gunshot! - the Sunday before Christmas and the hunters were out in force, not a good start to the day, especially when, several times, we heard lead pellets sprinkling down our roof!! ? I still want to know 'what are they shooting at'? there's nothing there no animals, no birds, nothing at all to shoot at - they seem to be shooting up in the air, over the olive trees (Brett reckons they're shooting the sparrows). Funnily Looby has no reaction at all to the noise, maybe she was a hunter's dog?

I've solved the sweeping the floor/dust cloud problem - I 'hoovered' the floor today; only problem is/are (1) as the vacuum cleaner is turned on a HUGE cloud of dust issues from the machine (what's that all about?), so it has to be turned on outside (ridiculous) and then brought inside without turning it off until the job is finished (or it has to be taken outside again to start it), (2) as the beater bar can't be turn off (again ridiculous, who designed this machine?) when I use the tubes I have to stand the vacuum on a sheet of plywood. But it did clean the floor without leaving a layer of dust on the furniture.

Today was dedicated to Christmas preparations (about time); cleaning the house, present wrapping, food making (cheesecake, spiced nuts etc.) - because tomorrow is my day off!

23rd December

Happy Birthday ME!!!!!

A miserable day, drizzle and fog - rather like Debbie's birthday!

Brett did very well with his presents (I'm easy to buy for!), he bought me some beautiful wine glasses and a lovely ornate box.

My Mother rang up and sang 'Happy Birthday' (it's a tradition!) and then read me the message she had posted on Facebook which starts 'x years ago (for x read my age) I gave birth to ........' so now ALL my facebook friends know my age, and I can't even get on facebook to comment!!!

We had lunch in Penamacor with P&M and Chris & Di at this very posh looking restaurant, the Menu de Dia was only 7€ a head; but it was so cold in there, we all kept our coats on! I had some lovely presents and cards.

We spent the afternoon watching Ghost and Splash - it was my birthday after all!

And this evening the internet came back on, I had masses of happy birthday wishes.

24th December

Absolutely awful weather today, constant rain, strong winds and, of course, no sun, so the solar wasn't being topped up at all. We couldn't have the door open as it was too draughty, so we had to use candles to see by (no point in wasting the solar we did have). And Looby was going 'stir crazy', it hasn't been 'dog walking' weather for a couple of days, we did go out a few times but got absolutely soaked and Looby is frightened of a towel!

I made my 'sherry' trifle and found out that I had bought Croft's port instead of sherry! So we have port trifle tomorrow - I wonder if anyone will notice. I had a BIG sulk earlier in the day when I couldn't find a glass bowl to make the trifle in (stupid cataloguing system!) but Brett saved the day and found me one.

Nick told us that the Christmas bonfires were lit at 7.00 on Christmas eve, we planned to go to watch the one in Penamacor being lit, then go back to see the one in the village. At 4.30 we got a text from Pam, the Penamacor fire had been lit earlier and was still alight (what???), we raced to the village our one had just been lit - so much for a 7.00 lighting Drove to Penamacor, the fire was burnt low, very unspectacular, (in fact it turned out that it had been lit on the 23rd and had been burning all night!), back to the village and our one was actually looking quite impressive.

So much rain, the ditches were overflowing, the roads were flooded, it was not nice to be outside.

25th December

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
It rained all night and continued throughout Christmas day ......... didn't we come to Portugal to get away from the Welsh weather? And of course, just when we needed it, we had limited solar (we turned the fridge off over night) which had to be rationed.

P&M came round for the day, we ate (smoked salmon on rye bread, beef wellington with roast potatoes, sprouts with bacon and chestnuts and glazed carrots, etc) and drank (champagne cocktails, our wine, beer) by candle light. Then Chris and Di arrived we ate (trifle, cheesecake and orange cake) and drank (Baileys, orange liqueur, Pedro's summer fruits aguadente (very disappointing it tasted like slightly sweetened flavoured water) with ice from the still working fridge) and played Jenga. Then I went to bed!

26th December

Pam and Mark hosted a big Boxing Day party, we met some lovely new people and, again, ate and drank too much.

Got home and Looby had chewed up my slippers, bloody dog!

27th December

Happy Birthday Megan!
And still it's raining!!! On the positive side we haven't actually run out of solar yet, we have to ration it and turn the fridge off overnight, but so far we've always been able to turn on a light and charge phones and computers (and watch films).

We had a phone call from Jamie (at the olive mill) our second batch of olives (480 kilos) made 102L of oil!!!! (our first batch of 603 kilos made 86L) and is ready to pick up.

We watched 'Wedding Daze' tonight - it's very weird!

28th December

Yay, the sun came back and the solar charged.

Today we started making a chicken house, actually I held bits while Brett made a chicken house; Brett has strimmered down a large area of scrub for them which we'll put an electric fence around. So next Monday we might be able to go to the market and buy some POL hens - then we'll start to feel like real smallholders.

I HATE the vacuum cleaner, it blows out more dust than it sucks up, horrible bloody thing.

29th December

We had a really good day today; first we went to pick up our second batch of olive oil, we were told that our olives had given the highest yield of oil at the mill this year, 4.6 kilos of olives gave 1L of oil (it's very variable between 5 - 10 kilos/L is what's usually quoted) so 4.6 is exceptional!!!! (our first batch was 7 kilos/litre, which is pretty average), also the quality was graded as .4 which apparently is jolly good too - we can't take credit, it's nothing we've done, we just happened to buy a quinta with good olive trees. This oil is also much greener (in colour) than the first batch, which is the opposite way round to what we'd read on the internet: a mine of misinformation!

Then we went for lunch with Nicky and Rich (the people with pigs, who live near Fundao), they gave us goat stew with homemade bread. They have a proper smallholding with pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and geese; they also try to grow all the food for themselves and their animals, they've planted over 2000 broad beans this year!

30th December

The weather forecast for the next nine days is horrendous, rain and strong winds. So first things first we did our washing (haven't done it for over a week and won't have another opportunity for another week). But of course it's not sunny or warm enough to dry it so .............. I made a 'Sheila maid' (clothes airer), out of olive branches and twine, to hang over the range; we'll make a less rustic (prettier?) one when we have the materials but this is working well the time being.

Brett continued making the chicken shed.

We also popped over to P&M to borrow some films for when we're house bound!

Tomorrow we've been invited for tea at Phil & Claire's, the people with the lovely stone house near P&M, we're very excited about seeing inside the house.

And then in the evening Josh and Jamie are having a New year's Eve party.

31st December

So it's raining again!! And we're back to rationing the solar (turning the fridge off overnight and using candles to see by). But we lit the range early so we were all snug and cosy; the washing we did yesterday is practically all dry, thanks to my Sheila maid!

And I decided to update my blog as it's the end of the month and I still have internet. Actually we shouldn't run out any more as one of P&M's presents to Brett was their village wifi login details, they can't get it from their quinta.

OUR OWN OLIVE OIL!!!

29th November

It's nearly the end of the month and we still have village internet, so I posted my blog (might as well get my 'money's worth'!).

It must be nearly Christmas I saw my first ever robin here this morning, it perched on the chair outside the door and I swear it was chirping at me!

Our walking tractor's faults just keep coming ......... first we had the cables (clutch and reverse gear) back to front, then the tines hitting the housing (had to remove the inner tines), the pins that holds the wheels/tines onto the axle were impossible to take out when the tines were on as the tines have been assembled wrongly (so Brett had to put spacers in ) and now the plough doesn't fit, we think they gave us the wrong one, it has a completely different sized fitting! however it's still making a fantastic job of the vegetable garden, which is expanding daily.

Nick came round, to borrow our little inverter! And while he was here he told us something I can't believe is true ................... it's illegal to drive a foreign plated car in the UK on a UK driving licence, why???? It's exactly what we were doing when we came back to the UK in the summer. And it's very worrying if it's true as it means we can never drive back again - we couldn't even hire a car to come back (as it would be foreign plated if we got it here). I've 'googled' it and got conflicting information (ha ha, this looks like a job for Will and Steph!!!!).

30th November

And still he's cultivating!!!! I'm starting to get seriously worried, it must be an acre by now;

it looks fine at the moment but how will I keep it weeded once it has vegetables in it ( I can hear Debbie & David saying "with your new hoe"!!!), it'll be a full time job.

Oh dear, on Thursday we went into Minipreço and decided to try the Portuguese speciality Bacalhau (salt cod), we've eaten it in restaurants and it's very tasty. I looked up recipes on the internet (there's absolutely masses); bottom line it would need soaking for 24-48 hours and 1.5lbs would feed 4-6 people (I had 700g); so we invited Mark and Chris & Di round for dinner tonight. This morning I took the cod out of the water to remove the skin and bones and it was then that I found out we had bought cod's head (actually mainly the jaw)!!!! There was hardly any meat, it was practically all skin and bones (goodness only knows what it's sold for, all I can think of is fish stock)! The recipe I had chosen Bacalhau com natas (Cod in cream) is basically Dauphinoise Potatoes with a layer of salt cod in the middle - I padded it out with slices of hardboiled eggs and grated cheese, it was rather good even though I say so myself - it all went.

1st December

Flippin' heck it's nearly Christmas.

We went for a walk this afternoon and found some more stepping stones across the river, they're really close to our quinta (about a field away), we've never noticed them before because usually there's lots of vegetation in the way, and no river!

Mark phoned this evening to say our oil was ready for collection, he doesn't know how much we've got. We're meeting them at the mill tomorrow on our way back from Fundao (vegetable plugs and fruit tree buying). And then tomorrow afternoon Nick is taking me and Looby to Corvilha to the vet (he thinks she won't be car sick in his car as he has an estate).

2nd December

Today was a busy day. We got up early to go to Fundao market. We bought masses of vegetable plugs (which I will have to plant tomorrow - I'm already feeling tired at the thought of it!); we got cabbage, onions, broccoli, strawberries and something the lady said I had to have as it was 'the best' (I think it could be turnip tops) plus a couple of lemon trees, an orange tree and three kiwi plants(two female and one male). We could have bought a lot more if we'd had time, but we had people to meet for coffee (Nicky and Rich) and then were meeting P&M at the olive mill to pick up our oil.

We got our oil back, our 603 kilos of olives made 86 litres of oil, 20% is kept by the mill as payment, so we got back about 79 litres (enough for us for a year!). We had it with fresh bread dipped in it for lunch, it's yellow (I thought it would be greener) and peppery - Brett says it has a grassy/apple taste to it, I don't get that but it is nice so we're very happy with it.

 This became ................

This !!!!

and this!!!

Nick took me and Looby to the vet; she has done a test for mites and a test for fungus (she'll phone me in a few days with the results), she put a spot-on on Looby for parasites and worms (internal and external) and we have a calming lotion to rub on her sore bits. But .............. she says it could still be a food allergy and we wouldn't see results for 4-6 weeks. Oh yes and Looby is also lactating!!!! Why? She's been sterilised; so now I have to bathe her belly with warm salty water. She was sick twice in Nick's car too - fortunately we had put down a tarpaulin and I had kitchen towel and plastic bags with me.

3rd December

My back aches but I have planted all our vegetable plants, they're all looking a bit droopy but I've watered well so hopefully they will all survive and be standing up by the morning.

Brett carried on making the vegetable garden BIGGER. We planted the trees on the terrace below the house,

we'll erect a trellis for the kiwis to climb over and it should make a nice shady area to sit.

4th December

Brett thinks that Looby seems better 'in herself' today, she's still scratching but not as much; hopefully the vet will call us tomorrow with her results (I'm almost hoping it is mange - at least we would be able to treat her for it).

We took the plough attachment back and they swopped it for one from another machine as the plough we had fitted the other machine - our pin still won't fit through the new plough but we will be able to attach it with a bolt and it should work fine.

Our vegetable plants still look droopy, I hope they pick up soon.

I finished making and writing our Christmas cards today, we're not sending many this year (close family only, sorry) as they cost nearly a euro to post!!!!!

Tomorrow I'm going round to P&M's to help Pam make gingerbread men, and other shapes, for the Christmas market in Penamacor this weekend. Pam has said I can take our washing tomorrow - pure luxury, a washing machine; washing by hand is not fun in this weather and it's hard to wring it out well enough for it to dry as well.

I keep reading about fermented food which is supposed to be really good for you, and be quite tasty, so I decided to make some sauerkraut, one with red cabbage and one with white - it's literally shredded cabbage and salt. I did one full kilner jar of each.

Brett took a photo of a Portuguese Peasant Woman sewing outside her quinta!

5th December

We posted our first batch of Christmas cards this morning, I feel so organised! And Brett's chainsaw bits had arrived at the post office (thanks Steph), so that was Brett busy for the day; he chopped down some dead trees and sawed some logs - he was so happy with the new chain (said he hadn't realised how blunt his old one was).

Pam and I made over 100 gingerbread biscuits ......... people, hearts, teddy bears and frogs (!!!). We only managed to decorate about 50 of them as we didn't have proper equipment (and I was being a bit intricate), we had icing nozzles but not bags so we tried using plastic bags - it all got very messy.

The sauerkraut has started to work, it has shrunk to about half a kilner jar and has made its own brine.

6th December

I offered to go back and help Pam, there was too much work for one person to do. We finished decorating the gingerbread,

made 20L of mulled wine and decorated labels for the stall - it took all day!

Brett and I watched 'Brave' tonight (it was toastie warm in front of our stove!) brilliant animation, it looked 'real' .

7th December

The sauerkraut is looking like sauerkraut now, it's shrunk so much, I had to really press to get it all into the kilner jars, now the red one is about 2/3 full (shrunk by 33%) and the white one is only about a 1/3 full (shrunk by 66%).

Looby definitely seems to be on the mend, she's not scratching so much, she seems far more lively, her coat is looking better and she has no new raw areas. The vet phoned yesterday, the test for fungal growth was negative but she didn't see any mites either, though she said, as Looby is improving, it probably still is mites (she gave Looby a 'spot-on' for mites); we're taking her back for another 'spot-on' next week (we hate taking her in any vehicle as she's always sick, poor thing).

Pam didn't need my help at the Christmas market, as she had Mark and Astrid (another expat) helping her; we went along in the afternoon, to show support, and it was 'dead', there were hardly any customers, it was a real shame as there were lots of stalls that you could see had put in a lot of work (like me and Pam!) making their goods - Pam's hoping tomorrow will be livelier. I did buy some berry liqueur, aguadente flavoured with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, that Pam was selling for Pedro (a Portuguese friend of hers), he makes the aguadente (a spirit made from what's left after you make wine, the skins etc) himself then flavours it - it was only 7.50€ (less than £6.50 'real' money!) for 75cl.

Tomorrow is Mark's (and Glenn) birthday, we're treating him to a pizza in Penamacor; a whole group of us are going as it Keren's birthday too. This evening I made Mark a birthday cake, Clementine and Olive Oil, from our own oil and clementines unfortunately the stove is not very controllable and the top got a bit burnt, so I cut it off and iced it!!!!

Around 6.30 we got a call from P&M they were going to the Christmas 'wood festival' (it's a local tradition where they gather up wood to burn, on Christmas eve, outside the parish churches) with Josh and Jamie, and did we want to come? We met at J&J's quinta then drove down a track for several kilometres to a church where there was a massive bonfire and FREE wine!!!! There were masses of tractors and trailers with huge tree trunks on them, JCBs were loading wood onto the bonfire, it was all very jolly (and slightly pagan) 

but nothing much seemed to be happening ........... there were barbeques waiting to be lit (we were much too early as usual) apparently this festa lasts all night and then in the morning all the, drunk, tractor drivers drive their tractors around the district distributing the wood. We left after a couple of hours as we hadn't eaten, next year we'll eat first and arrive later.

8th December

Happy Birthday Mark.

Another cold and frosty morning, 

but bright and sunny too.

When we took Looby for a walk it was like having a new dog, she was so spritely it was lovely - she must be feeling better.

We cut down an olive branch for a Christmas tree 

(we're being as smallholderish/green as possible) - it was one that needed pruning, so we didn't remove anything that wouldn't have been cut off anyway.

When we went into Penamacor this evening the road to the restaurant was blocked with tractors and trailers, piled high with wood, waiting to unload outside the church. When we came out of the restaurant we walked up to the church to have a look, the bonfire was HUGE 

Mark & I being used for 'scale'!

we're going to go on Christmas eve when it gets lit, it should be very impressive.

The meal was very jolly, there were eleven adults plus Gypsy (4 years old) we all had pizza, pudding, coffee and as much wine as we could drink, the bill came to 85€.

9th December

We had Mark's birthday cake for breakfast, it was actually really good; very light and not strange tasting - I was worried the olive oil might over power the flavour, but it didn't in the least.

Brett and I started on the second olive harvest (P&M are going to help over the next three days), we picked 74 kilos.

Tonight we tried bacalhau again, we made sure it was fish fillets! P&M and Astrid came to dinner - they admired our 'Christmas' tree and are going to do the same thing, we'll look for a branch when we're picking tomorrow.

10th December

Looby was shattered after today's olive harvesting as P&M brought Olive (dog) with them, they spent ages running round and around in circles, chasing one another, and then dug a deep hole together to lie in. We picked another 121 kilos of olives (195 total), so another two days, with four of us picking, we should easily get 400+ kilos.

We spent the evening in front of the stove watching 'Friends' and eating chocolate; I've got a horrid cold and just wanted to relax in the warm!

11th December

We had five pickers today - us, P&M and Astrid, we picked 186.5 kilos (381.5 total). We ate the sauerkraut at lunch time, it was really good so I'll be making that again, Brett says next time we could try cabbage, onion and carrots - like a fermented coleslaw.

Tonight we watched 'My Fake Fiancé'; it is one of the most awful films I've ever bothered to watch to the end (probably because I was feeling too ill to move!), the story was formulaic, the 'funny' bits weren't funny, the romance was nonexistent,  the characters had no charisma so I just didn't care what happened to them, it was rubbish!

12th December

Our final day of olive picking (we're getting bored with it now!), there were only four of us today (no Mark); we picked 96 kilos so have a grand total of 477.5 so, as we only need 400 for a private pressing, we are happy. The olives go to the mill tomorrow, when they'll be pressed depends on how busy the mill is now. I've worked out that, if we get the same ratio of oil to olives as last time, we should get back around 55L of oil this time; but Pam reckons that it could be more as wrinkled olives give up more oil (I think that's still the same amount of oil per olive it's just that they weigh less because of water loss, therefore bulk weight yields more).

13th December

We took Looby to the vet this morning; this time we tried with me travelling on the back seat with her - she was still sick ....... twice! but I managed to catch it, both times, in plastic bags. The vet gave her another dose of 'spot-on' for mange; we're convinced that's what it was, so we're now reintroducing normal food, whilst monitoring her closely.