27th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Hoorah the gates are hung; and the posts have been filled with 6½ mixes of concrete; which Brett had to mix by hand, in a wheelbarrow with an enchada (the wonder tool), he said it was much easier than mixing it with a shovel. We spent ages with bits of string dangling down the centre of the posts trying to position and attach bits of metal to the hinges (to set in the concrete thus increasing the strength of the posts and hinges).

Our entrance looks very grand now; unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to paint the gates before we leave as more rain is forecast for much of next week.

Tonight we watched a harrowing film ‘Emotional Arithmetic’ about the meeting up, after about forty years, of three of the survivors from a holding camp, near Paris, from which Jews were shipped off to concentration camps during WW11; it wasn’t a very cheerful film, but it was very well acted (Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Gabriel Burn).

26th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

HAPPY 2^nd BIRTHDAY Lawrence!!

Wow what a horrendous night; we had torrential rain, at least 2” in eight hours. Brett is now busily working out where he’s got to dig ditches. The studio/gym shed has leaked but we’re not too worried as it has still got to be rendered on the outside and the ditch Brett dug will be concreted; the bedroom shed seems to be completely dry and the kitchen only has a little seepage along the back wall, which again can be fixed.

We didn’t get a lot done this morning, as it was still raining; but this afternoon there was blue sky so we decided to hang our gates. It took quite a while to transport everything, tools, generator, gates etc. We got one hole drilled out for a hinge and the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched and that was the end of that little venture. It continued to rain for the rest of the day and we are starting to get ‘stir crazy’ being in the camper continuously.

But on a good note our wells are filling up pretty rapidly!

And so is the river, which was completely dry a couple of weeks ago!

 

25th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We were up before the crack of dawn to meet Mark in Fundao; first stop was to go and look at the windows and doors he’s having made (we’ll be having ours made by the same people when we come back). We had originally decided on green windows and doors (there’s a very limited palette available) however Mark has had some burgundy ones made up and they are really rather nice, so we might be having a bit of having a rethink – we’d just need to choose another colour to the yellow ochre we had thought of for the house, which is quite traditional in this area.

Then we picked up (well Mark did in his big truck) our kitchen beam; it’s very chunky 240cms x 160cms x 7m, and is going to look great with lots of stuff hanging from it (hams, pots, washing!!!! etc).

This afternoon it poured and poured; we didn’t want to leave the camper, it was very miserable outside which makes us look forward to coming back to the UK more.

24th October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

An absolute nightmare of a Portuguese class today; Pastor Allen had written some sentences, with gaps in, up on the board and then proceeded to conduct the whole class in Portuguese; people were chiming in with answers and he would occasionally write these up in the spaces. I had absolutely no idea what was happening and, according to Brett, he nearly walked out! It definitely wasn’t a class that was appropriate to people who have had a mere twelve hours of tuition – I think he forgets that this is supposed to be a beginner’s class. We take a bit of the blame on ourselves as we have been less than diligent between classes; in fact we only look at our work if we have homework. So we have made a resolution; when we are back living in the Barn we will have a language lesson (probably 10.00-11.00) everyday; we have several books and CDs, so hopefully we won’t fall behind the rest of our group.

I couldn’t get blood, fish and bone meal, I don’t think they have it; there are lots of proprietary brands of fertilizers and feeds on the shelves but not the basic ingredients to mix yourself – so I’m doing without! We have lots of compost from the chicken and donkey sheds, I’ll use that.

We’ve booked our ferry back to the UK, Santander to Portsmouth, on 10^th November which means we leave here two weeks tomorrow, how exciting. We now have lots to do to organise ourselves before we go.

How frustrating, I’ve been reading a James Patterson book on the Kindle and I’d got to 86% of the way through it; the lead detective’s suspected murderer had been killed, she was being congratulated on a ‘job well done’, when she discovered the dead guy didn’t have a tattoo so couldn’t be the murderer and .................. the Kindle changed to a completely different book (about baseball) for the concluding 14% - so I’ll never know if her father was the murderer or just a ‘red herring’. And I can’t complain to Amazon as it was an illegal copy of the book!!!

23rd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Today Brett finished rendering the studio/gym which means that we now have somewhere to camp out when we come back, while we get the house habitable. Our solar should have arrived by then too, we should be able to put together a basic system so we can have a few lights and perhaps a couple of other electric luxuries (fridge, gadget (mobiles and computers) charger etc).

I dug holes for the fruit trees we bought yesterday; I didn’t plant them as I want to get some blood, fish and bone meal to mix in with the soil, hopefully I’ll get some tomorrow.

And I did some weeding in the vegetable garden; since the rain the vegetables have all shot up, but unfortunately the weeds have too!!! It all looks very green and lush.

22nd October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We went into Fundao and paid for the beam for our kitchen (215€); Mark (and Glenn)’s going to pick it up for us on Thursday.

Then we went to the market to buy some fruit trees; we bought three cherries (black, red and white varieties- 5€ each), two lemons (20€ each, we were extravagant we went for the more mature, three years old, more expensive trees as we want fruit asap) and a lime (10€, there wasn’t a choice) and because we’d spent some much money the lady on the stall threw in and apple tree. We want to get lots more fruit trees but we’ll see how these ones survive first (especially as we won’t be around to give them any TLC). I’m very excited about having my own lemon and lime trees. While we were at the market I bought some broccoli plugs which I planted in the troughs that I created the other day – it looks just like a proper Portuguese vegetable garden!

We propped our gates up to check the height of the posts - I think they look fantastic

We watched ‘Witness’ with Harrison Ford; it was quite nice as he was hiding out with the Amish, their lifestyle is very similar to ours no electricity, television, phone, washing machine etc.

21st October FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We were reminded that it was Sunday as we were woken to the sound of gunfire at 6.45 (it was still dark!); the bloody hunters were back.

Brett did three mixes of rendering; he’s only got another day down the gym/studio.

I started tidying up outside in preparation for returning to the UK.

We watched ‘The Artist’, a modern black and white, silent movie; it was an easy film to watch -I liked the dog!