HARVEST HOME ....

14^th June

HOT, HOT, HOT ... 36 degrees in the shade!!!
It’s too hot to work; though we are trying to weed the vegetable garden and Brett is finishing off the barbecue, ready for our decking christening party on the 21^st June.

The pool is no longer a luxury it’s an essential, I don’t think I could cope without it.

Looby spends all day under the decking, it’s cool under there, it’s her kennel.

The garden is very productive atm; we’re snowed under with courgettes and mangetout, the beans are just starting and soon we’ll have ripe tomatoes – we’re not buying any fruit and veg!

And we have HUGE apricots, they’re as big as peaches, oranges and peaches ripe for eating (the loquats didn’t do well this year).

The fruit on the right is an Apricot, it's HUGE

16^th June

Every morning I let the Muscovies out and Mrs Muscovy bustles off to the stream with her brood, she brings them back a couple of times for food and then she comes back for the night around 8.00 – she’s such a good mother.

We went to the bar with Chris & Di to watch the Portugal v Germany match – we arrived 4.30ish and got home after 10.30 (and I don’t even like football)!!!!! It was quite a feat getting the ducks and geese away in the dark whilst ‘slightly’ intoxicated ... we’re back there on Thursday for the England game.

17^th June

The barbecue is finished and looking good, and it cost about 100€ less than buying one readymade.

Our chickens are laying well, some days we get 10 eggs; so today I made an egg storage system;

it’s my version of one that Brett designed and made when we lived in Wales, mine is far more ‘rustic’! It means that we don’t have to sort through a bowl of eggs looking for the one with the oldest date, each section takes 21 eggs and I’ve made 3 – by the end of today it was full, 63 eggs ... we had Courgette Frittata for dinner!

18^th June

I went to Claire’s today to get some lemons and came away with two bags of lemons and one bag of plums (and I could have had more) – she has so many different types of fruit trees and it’s all fruiting prolifically.
Then this afternoon it was back to the weeding, the vegetable garden is starting to look rather good.

19^th June

We decided that we would eat before when went to the bar with Chris and Di (on Monday we didn’t get any dinner), to line our stomachs, so we invited them round to test out the barbecue – we had the most delicious sardines and octopus ever, it was really good and cooked to perfection. Then we went to the bar ...

Oh dear ...

We arrived just before 8 and left at 2.30!!!!!!
Pam & Mark, Josh, Jamie & Vince, Andrew & Baptiste all came to the bar as well, we had a very jolly evening but my goodness we were all so drunk; I blame it all on Chris & Di – they are a bad influence on us!

20^th June
Hip, Hop, Happy Birthday Mel!!! XXX

Oooh we both felt so ill today! I had a long list of things to do in preparation for our gathering on Saturday but hardly anything got done. I didn’t get up until 11.00 and I could so easily have gone back to bed, Brett did go back to bed this afternoon.

We had our first ripe tomato today; it was a Tigerella – yummy!            

21^st June

Happy Summer Solstice

There was so much left to do for this evening, after doing nothing yesterday; so I just left out a whole bunch, like ‘finish weeding the tomatoes’ ... it didn’t get done, and nobody really gave a toss!

The barbecue was lovely, everyone brought masses of food and drink (so Brett was right - I didn’t need to make so much!). After the excesses of Thursday evening everyone was quite restrained, so it wasn’t a drinkfest! ... but we still didn’t get to bed until after 2.00a.m.

And I’m so proud of our dogs, they were so well behaved (apart from Looby trying to sit on peoples laps!!!). I’m not proud of our geese though; one of them bit Gypsy on the bum (obviously thought she was too small to retaliate) and then they attacked the ducklings, so Jamie (my hero) had to rescue them.

22^nd June

The nights are drawing in!

Good old Brett insisted on paper plates and cups yesterday, so there wasn’t too much clearing up. I had chocolate mousse for breakfast – it’s a tradition, homemade chocolate mousse always tastes better the day after the party!

Despite not having hangovers we had a lazy day today, after all we only had about 6 hours sleep. We didn’t have to cook, as there was so much food left over, thanks to the generosity of all our friends.

I made plum chutney, with some of the plums from Claire.

This week I want to make plum jam, peach chutney, green bean chutney and courgette chutney too – I like chutney!

So much food to process!

23^rd June

Hoorah, at long last, I’ve planted out my sweet potatoes ... it’s been on my ‘to do’ list for ages. I also, nearly, finished weeding the tomato bed and found the peanuts hiding under all the weeds, until a thunder storm stopped play – I got absolutely soaked walking back to the house ... but we didn’t have to water tonight!

It’s Pam’s birthday on Wednesday, so I spent the evening making her present.

24^th June

And this morning I finished her present ... and I want to keep it!

So now I have to make myself one.

Finished weeding the tomatoes, uncovered the peanuts which are flowering like mad.

25^th June

Happy Birthday Pam!

Pam hung her mobile up on her decking – it looks good there.

I spent the day being very homesteady ... I made Plum Jam (I even managed to ‘lose’ some courgettes in with it, it was a proper recipe I didn’t make it up!) and Peach Chutney (who would have ever thought I’d have so many peaches that I would need to make chutney with them?).

The flowers at the back are my bolted leeks

Brett strimmered around the boundary; so we now have a walkway and a firebreak – of course the shepherd will now turn up to ask to cut the hay.

Brett found an interesting Beetle tonight!

I'M BACK!!!!

13^th June

Wow I haven’t blogged for nearly a month. 

Brett has done some sterling work in this time .....

·         He’s roofed the decking; it still needs the palings around it.

The roof finishes it off nicely and ties it into the house

Olive wood palings

·         But, most importantly, he’s wired the house!!! We have working light switches and sockets – he’s so clever.

·         And we have THREE windows in the house one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom – holes had to be cut for these ... oh the mess!!!!!!! And one to replace the one in the living room. It’s much lighter inside now.

A few other events have taken place ...

·         I’ve travelled to UK and back (obviously)

·         The duck has hatched eight ducklings, sooooo cute!

She's such a good mother, very protective (she even sees off the geese!)

·        AND Helen has been to visit, oh we had such fun ...

We did the usual; visiting Monsanto, Penamacor (Medieval quarter) and taking her out for a typical Portuguese meal, but the most exciting, for me, was our ‘project’ – constructing a chandelier for the living room. We fashioned the support from an old, traditional, crystal chandelier which we completely re structured; the arms now look like Medusa’s hair with wire birds and metal coils hanging from them, plus lots of sparkly crystals – very ‘Steam Punk’! I love it.

It's not finished yet, needs loads more crystals and coils

·         The garden has grown massively, including the weeds!!!! And we are now harvesting courgettes (and giving them away), mangetout, onions, potatoes, lettuce, radish, peas, chard, rocket, carrots, cucumber, garlic and masses of herbs. And very soon we will have runner beans and tomatoes; it’s all very exciting but ... the weeds are relentless, I have two, bindweed and a succulent, which have to be hand weeded as any part of the plant left in the soil will regenerate (nightmare!). And now, it’s hot and the ground is hard and the ants are back, it is impossible to grow anything straight from seed; our neighbour says it’s because the ground is hard, I say it’s the ants stealing the seeds! I can’t grow carrots or spring onions and my sweet corn is very sparse.

·         And the chickens are now laying properly, some days we have as many as 10 eggs!!!

SAD TIMES!!!!

6^th May

We try not to go into town too often; because (1) it’s not very exciting and (2) it means we lose a day’s work! But today we had a long list, plus hardly any food in the house, so decided the time had come, got there and half the shops were shut – another public holiday!!! Fortunately Lidl was open, so we got food, and some of the other shops we needed, so it wasn't a completely wasted journey.

Max/Min thermometer (in the shade) registered 31°, but neither of us has braved the pool yet – it’s still icy cold.

7^th May

Brett managed to count the Muscovy’s eggs (she was off having a drink), she’s sitting on fifteen! She’s a mean little beast atm (hormones!), she attacks the ducks and geese and she’ll even take on the dogs!

We collected a basket of lemons from Clare – she’s got so many trees heaving with lemons, it’s not fair! I need them for iced tea, mayonnaise, lemon curd and the Moroccan Carrot Dip we had this evening.

Brett has nearly finished the decking by the pool, it’s only 3’ x 8’, but it will make getting in and out of the pool so much easier.

8^th May

The decking by the pool is finished and the pool is looking more and more inviting. Unfortunately today we were waiting for a delivery (roofing sheets for house decking) so we didn’t like to get in.

We invited Chris and Di round for drinks, dips (food, not in the pool!) and a ‘catch up’, we haven’t seen them for a while as they have moved out of the quarry (where we saw them every time we drove past) and onto their land (where we can’t see them for the trees). They are such easy people to talk to, we had a lovely evening and they’ve invited us round on Saturday, to play badminton (can you play badminton in sandals?).

9^th May

Pam brought her daughter, Naomi, round for coffee; which was great for me as it meant I didn't need to do any work – Brett was strimmering.

The roofing still didn’t arrive – we went in the pool anyway! It was bloody cold to start with but we acclimatized pretty soon, it’s very good at cooling you down.

10^th May

Still no roofing and the Builder’s merchant was closed today, so it can’t arrive before Monday.
Brett made the frame for the outside shower (we’re going to cover it with hessian); I worked in the polytunnel (phew it was hot!) and did some weeding (there’s always weeding needs doing).

This afternoon we went in the pool and this evening we went round to Chris & Di’s.

I wore my ‘Wimbledon Whites’, because we were playing badminton and, although they claimed the victory (which in my opinion was debatable ...), I maintain that they put us at a disadvantage by facing us into the setting sun! We had a splendid evening, as always!

11^th May

‘Girlie’ shopping trip to CB with Pam, Naomi and Rowan! We all (except Rowan) spent ages (at least 2 hours) in H&M trying on clothes – I bought six tops and a skirt.

On our way home from CB we stopped to buy some of this year’s first cherries, from a vendor at the side of the road. He had the price written down on a piece of paper 10€ a box or 18€ for two boxes, rather a lot we said; so he turned the piece of paper over 10€ a box or 15€ for two boxes!!!!! Still rather expensive (it’s usually 5€ a box) but we bought two boxes anyway (one for me, one for Pam).

12^th May

My mother died in the night, it was a complete shock. She was taken into hospital yesterday with stomach pains, which turned out to be a ruptured bowel. The doctor said to get her family in to see her asap (to say ‘goodbye’), but I wasn’t to bother rushing as I wouldn’t make it in time.

I’m feeling rather numb, and don’t know what to do with myself.

13^th May

I don’t think I’ll be blogging for a while.

SUMMERTIME .....

21^st April

We spent the day tidying up outside and in the vegetable garden, we want everything to look it’s best for our visitors! And it really is looking nice, Brett says it’s the best it’s looked since we bought the place.

Absolutely shattered this evening!

22^nd April

CB shopping for hose pipe for the vegetable garden, this is just a temporary measure until we decide on a more permanent irrigation system; oh dear when we got to the shop we couldn’t remember whether the pipe from the well is 45mm or 55mm – of course we got the wrong one! So Brett spent the afternoon trying to coax a 45mm pipe onto a 55mm fitting; he managed it, with lots of boiling water and sheer determination, it’s not going anywhere now!.

P&M and Chris & Di came around for drinks and nibbles, we are so happy with how good everything outside looks we had to share it (they weren’t allowed in the house!). Once the roof is on the decking we’re going to invite all our friends around for a proper celebration.

23^rd April

It’s so nice to have Looby back; she’s been a slave to her hormones for nearly three weeks but suddenly today we had our dog back, it’s lovely.

Another shattering day cleaning the house, then we went for a walk around the quinta and I picked bunches of wild flowers and Brett picked a bag of lavender flowers – so we could ‘dress’ our environment, it now looks and smells good.

24^th April

Hoorah our visitors arrived today, I couldn’t sleep last night I was so excited!

This morning it rained quite heavily, I was disappointed as I had planned on having lunch on the decking – but the sun came out and dried everything off so we were able to lunch outside.

It was lovely to see Joyce, Sarah and James; but they were tired, they had been up since the early hours, so we didn’t get to do a tour of the quinta (we’ll do it tomorrow!).

25^th April

We had a lovely lazy day; we walked around the quinta, collecting wild flowers, which we pressed later, and generally ‘hung out’. Then this evening we went to Penamacor, walked around the Medieval Area and went for a meal in the restaurant – Joyce said it was the nicest meal out she’d had for ages.

26^th April

Haha, we got two lots of washing done yesterday, which Sarah brought over first thing so that it could be hung out ready for the sunshine.

We take all our visitors to Monsanto, it has very impressive architecture, with huge granite boulders bulging out of the walls and through roofs – the boulders are incorporated into the houses. The day started rather cloudy,

but fortunately the clouds lifted and we were able to appreciate the magnificent views from the village.

Sarah & James treated us to lunch at a typical Portuguese restaurant in Lower Monsanto, which was very enjoyable.

Then James wanted to visit Idanha-a- Velha (he had picked up a leaflet at the cottage), a nearby village with a Roman wall surrounding it, bridge and ruins - it was well worth the detour, we will go back again (it will be added to our repertoire!).

I just liked this picture of me and Joyce!

Beautiful carvings

And beautiful architecture

Roman Bridge

On the bridge

Unfortunately no pictures of Sarah as she was taking the photos!

After dinner we sent S,J&J back with another load of washing!

27^th April

Brett, Sarah & James took the dogs for a lovely long walk (nearly 2 hours) this morning (Brett’s going to take me on it later this week); they crossed one set of stepping stones, walked along the river, then crossed back over the other stepping stones. Apparently Lily didn’t want to get wet so she followed Brett across the stepping stones, which are a good four foot high – Looby, of course, waded through the water (with Sarah!). On their walk they saw a great deal of wildlife, including ducks, storks and most excitingly a large terrapin. Joyce and I stayed at the quinta and drank cappuccinos!

Time passed so quickly; Joyce, Sarah and James left after lunch and I felt rather ‘flat’, a bit like after Christmas; but I think they had a good time and they said they would definitely come again.

28^th April

Back to work today; Brett finished the rafters for the decking porch, so hopefully we will be able to get the roof on soon, we need the shade as the weather is warming up. And I worked in the polytunnel for a while, but it was very hot (40+) so I couldn’t stay in there for long. I picked a big basket full of vegetables, for lunch and dinner: broad beans, broccoli, cabbage, chard, escarole and onions – and this is merely the beginning of the season, I can’t wait for the courgettes (they’re already flowering) beans and tomatoes. And then I carried on with the relentless weeding, unfortunately the ground is getting rather hard, so it’s not easy going anymore.

29^th April

This morning Brett started preparing the base for the barbeque and bread oven, it’s going to be brilliant.

I spent the morning with an angle grinder, cutting up concrete mesh to make tomato cages; it’s lethal stuff, I had read warnings about it on the internet so I was wearing glasses and safety boots but I still managed to get some very painful gashes on the palm of my hand (no, I wasn’t wearing gloves!). So far I have assembled ten cages of various sizes – my tomato plants will vary from 2’ to 2m. They work out at around 1€ for the smaller ones, 3’6” high, to 3€ for a 5’ one – to buy a readymade one you’d pay £5.99 (for a short flimsy one) to as much as £25 (for a taller flimsy one), so I think mine are a bargain! And they will last many, many years.

It's hard to take photos as they blend so well with the soil!

We have been putting off taking Lily for her vaccinations and identification chip – mainly because she’s been car sick whenever she’s been in the car, but this afternoon we took her into CB and she was as good as gold, the poor little mite was very subdued. She wasn’t sick and she didn’t complain when she was injected (though she did do a little pee on the vet’s table, but she was frightened so that’s allowable!). She had her chip put in, she’s registered as MY dog and her name is now Lili (that’s how the veterinary nurse spelt it and I think it suits her, sounds rather French). The vet told us she is a Podengo (Portuguese hunting dog) quite an old breed (5^thC), used to hunt rabbits.

The other reason we went into CB was to buy the equipment we need to irrigate the vegetable garden – hoses, fittings, sprinklers, spray nozzles etc, we’ve spent about 280€ but it will make our lives so much easier and the garden should grow all the better for it, some of the plants are going to seed and I expect that is down to lack of water.

We started to assemble it when we got home, laying out the pipe and attaching the fittings (some a nigh on impossibility without boiling water, others just slipped on), but, as it was taking an awfully long time, and we were getting tired, we will finish the task in the morning.

30^th April

It didn’t take long to finish setting up the irrigation this morning (we were very tired last night!) and it works a treat, it needs a bit of tweaking but it’s going to make our lives so much easier.

Brett concreted the base for the barbeque and bread oven and I made twelve more tomato cages.

Then we watered the garden ... again!

Pam, Mark & Rowan came to dinner, it was good to catch up as we haven’t seen them much recently. They had some exciting news; Tipping Tipis is going to be featured in the Sunday Times as one of the twenty best ‘Glamping’ sites in Europe!!!

We started out sitting on the decking then it got a bit cold, so we moved inside.  Around 9.30 Brett realised we hadn’t put the animals away!!!! It was completely dark outside, the ducks and geese were just hanging around outside their sheds, the chickens had gone to bed; thank goodness he remembered we were fortunate no predators were around.

1^st May

Beltane Greetings, Happy May Day

We took out all the brassicas that had gone to seed (the plugs I bought from Fundao); the ground was very hard, it was tough work, very punishing on the hands (and mine were already painful).

Brett rotorvated all the unplanted areas of the vegetable bed – it looks much neater.

I’ve planted out masses of melons and watermelons; I’ve never grown them before so I’m very excited.

Summer is on its way; it was 25° today and it’s forecast to be 29° on Monday, so one of our next jobs has to be getting the ‘pool’ ready – it’s a thick dark sludgy green atm and I hate to think what’s lurking under the surface!

We went to order to roofing for the decking, the builder’s merchant was shut because it’s a public holiday – Portuguese public holidays happen on the day, not the nearest Monday as it is in Britain.

2^nd May

The temperature was 20° before 7.30 a.m. so much for getting up early to do things in the polytunnel!

Cesar brought the post for the decking yesterday so Brett was able to finish his hand rail.

I spent most of the day weeding and sowing, I was also flooding areas with the water from the pool, which we emptied today. We found three spiny newts and one frog at the bottom of the pool, they were all liberated safely.

The max/min thermometer in the polytunnel registered a max temp of 40°+, the one, in the shade, on the decking recorded a max temp of 27° - so it was pretty warm today.

3^rd May

We cleaned then filled the pool; unfortunately the paint we used last year has flaked off the floor quite badly; so rather than repaint it (which probably wouldn’t work any better than last year) we have decided to go for the distressed look!!! It looks very inviting now, but it’s bloody cold! It needs a few days of sun on it to warm it up.

We’re convinced the courgettes, pumpkins etc are looking better today after their soaking yesterday.

We went round to P&M’s this evening for drinks; they think the stray dog that has been living under their deck is pregnant – she’s been having carnal relations with Toobie (the dog they inherited with their quinta) despite them locking her in the Landrover, tying her up etc she kept managing to escape!

4^th May

It was Monsanto Medieval Festival this weekend; I realised we’d chosen the wrong day to go (today) when I saw Jamie’s posts on Facebook this morning – videos and photos of all the parades and events yesterday!
The Medieval Market was still on, but who wants medieval clothes, swords, bows and arrows? There was one band playing, they were rather good and the crowd was happy – who wouldn’t be ... the sun was shining, lovely atmosphere, fabulous architecture, however, next year we will come on the Saturday! We stopped for a drink in a restaurant, sitting on a terrace with the most fabulous views, and were soon joined by Karina, Alex and Alex (Alex’s dad) and their friend Ben ... and then a little later by Leo & Erica – so we sat in the sunshine socialising with friends for an hour or so; Alex knows someone who has a pregnant pig (black) and who is selling sheep (he has bought two young ewes) and goats, hopefully he’ll introduce us to him this week and we will get the start of our livestock.

5^th May

Brett is putting a small decking area around the pool, so it’s easier to get in and out of; today he made the concrete blocks to stand the posts on.

He has also started putting the spindles into the railings; they’re made from olive branches, so it’s rustic and engineered wood together. It looks good, though it does remind me rather of a playpen!

I did lots of planting and sowing; the garden is starting to come together and every day we are eating something from it. Already we’re not having to buy onions or salad greens. There are lots of flowers on the courgettes, and runner beans and there are peas forming on the plants.

The birds tell us when it's their teatime!

It looks as though the Muscovy duck has started sitting this evening, she didn’t come out for her evening meal, at the last count there were thirteen eggs in her nest; so in thirty five days (9^th June) time we should hear the patter of little tiny webbed feet!

I love this time of year, it’s so full of promise.

DECKING, FLORA & FAUNA ...

30^th March

Everything is going wrong ....

1^st the puppy chewed my computer charge lead, so, until I get a replacement I’m using my old notebook which has a very dodgy touchpad.

2^nd Brett’s computer crashed; it’s been misbehaving for a while, so he backed everything up on the hard drive and took it back to ‘computer settings’ but now it doesn’t work at all.

3^rd, today, the hard drive died!!!!! So we’ve lost everything – photos and videos of Molly and Winnie, all the films and TV series we’d been downloading from all and sundry; it might be possible to retrieve them but at a HUGE cost. We’ve shared the films etc with lots of people so in time we can get them back but the photos and videos are lost L.

Brett spent the day making concrete pads to put extra supports under the decking.

31^st March

First disaster of the day, Brett opened the fridge and a bottle of beetroot Kvass shot out and smashed on the floor spraying broken glass and bright red juice everywhere! Not a good start to the day!

I finished weaving the fencing around my herb bed – it looks rather nice.
It was hard to find the enthusiasm to do anything as it was cold and wet outside.

1^st April

The weather was vile today. Lily wouldn't go out this morning, she was so distressed at us trying to force her she managed to empty her bladder all around the house, so I had to follow her around with bleach – she doesn't like the rain! We were going to take her to the vet to have her vaccinations and be chipped, but we thought she might think we were punishing her; so we just went into town to shop.

2^nd April

And if things weren't bad enough today we got another delightfully depressing email from our estate agents ........ storm damage to the cottage, broken tiles, penetrating water, catch come off the gate (flippin’ heck it needs two screws to secure it, but our tenants can’t even do that!) and our tenants have given notice – so we have decided that perhaps we should to try to sell it, it’s deteriorating rapidly without us there to maintain it.

Another horrid day weather wise, getting slightly depressed!

3^rd April

It was a slightly better day today, still cold and windy but not nearly so wet. However the ground is still very soft so I couldn’t do any gardening.

When Alex & Karina came around at the weekend they brought some delicious homemade dips and flat bread; I got the recipes off Karina today – I made the dips ...

(1) Carrot dip/spread: Grated carrot and garlic fried in olive oil until soft, season to taste, mix in a little sour cream (I used Greek yoghurt) then allow to cool – so simple and absolutely wonderful. (2) Refried beans: Fry chopped onions and garlic in olive oil, until soft, add cooked beans and spices of choice (cumin, coriander, turmeric) fry for a bit whilst stirring and mashing, add lemon juice and seasoning to taste, cool – very good too! Karina said the carrot one can be made with beetroot too, which sounds lovely.

4^th April

Today was still gloomy but not the constant rain we have been having. The ground, this morning, was perfect for weeding (although I did make BIG footprints), it was good to get some work done in the garden.
Brett carried on with the decking between showers but had to admit defeat after lunch. But we both felt better for getting some work done.

For lunch we had the dips I made yesterday with some Russian flat breads (fried), that Karina gave me the recipe for; wow they are delicious and so easy to make and very versatile – I will be making them next time we have a curry, they will work brilliantly as Nan breads.

5^th April

Hoorah sunshine at last!
While Brett continued with the decking I carried on weeding the vegetable garden; I hoed the whole potato bed, and was absolutely shattered after that, then hand weeded the garlic (it’s got to look good for Joyce, Sarah and James’s visit).

This evening we had a night out at P&M’s which was lovely. We put the goslings and ducks away before we left (they’re easy to herd) but we just had to leave the chickens out and trust the electric fence – they were fine.

6^th April

Hot, hot, hot!! By 10.00 it was 30 degrees in the polytunnel.

Pam uses eucalyptus poles for her bean supports, it grows on her land, they look good; we don’t have any eucalyptus, but there’s a small copse between us and Gary .... I took the fallen poles, and felled a few that looked like they needed thinning out! In all our time here we've never seen anyone in there, it is completely neglected, like a lot of the quintas around us, it seems to be abandoned.

This afternoon I prepared the land for the bean supports hoeing and weeding; it was backbreaking, hot work! Not helped by the fact that I was completely overlooked by the family working on the quinta next door - though the locals do like to see the expats taking care of the land (they don’t care what your dwelling is like, but they approve of a well tended vegetable garden).

The shepherd came this afternoon, with another of his homemade cheeses (jealous Mel?). He wants to bring his sheep to graze our land for a couple of weeks, which is fine as long as he keeps them off the vegetable garden, herb garden and out of the polytunnel; the grass needs to be eaten (Pam is strimmering her grass all the time now) unfortunately sheep are indiscriminate they’ll eat all the wild flowers too which is a shame.

I managed to build one structure for runner beans, and got my first lot of beans planted out, so I’m happy about that.

Brett is going great guns on the decking, today he finished the joists for the roof – it’s starting to take shape now.

7^th April

This morning we went to Fundao market and bought ten more chicks (Ross Cobb type), when we got them home we realised they were all snuffly and congested; they don’t do well in damp confined spaces and we’ve just had a very damp period and I can imagine they were living in rather crowded conditions; hopefully they’ll get better now they’re getting fresh air and lots of sunshine.

Going to Fundao takes up most of the day, but I still managed to get some weeding done in the vegetable garden.

8^th April

We had a hard day working in the vegetable garden; this morning Brett rotorvated the unplanted ground, to reduce the weeds and so that I could plant out, while I carried on weeding (the rain has a lot to answer for). Then this afternoon he strimmered – it all looks very tidy, and I planted out courgettes, squashes, pumpkins etc. the garden is getting quite full.

This evening, 8.00, we lost the ducklings we scoured the whole quinta and couldn’t find them by the time we got back to their shed they were back and putting themselves away.

9^th April

Another glorious day, it was 35 degrees in the polytunnel by 10.00 a.m. and I was in there potting on – I was ‘glowing’ profusely!

This afternoon our friends Marc and Meike came round for afternoon tea, while we were taking them on a tour of the quinta the dogs disturbed a snake, it was hissing and looking poised to strike – but we think it was a ladder snake, so not poisonous, and this was merely it’s defence mechanism (I still called the dogs away, just in case!).

Then, this evening, I came across another snake; they must be coming out of hibernation with all the warm weather.

And look at this beautiful sparkly beetle, it's bronze coloured

10^th April

Today I made a very solid structure for my mange tout peas to grow up. We have a plant that looks like bamboo growing in the ditch, but I think it’s giant reed/cane, which isn’t as strong as bamboo (gardening sites say don’t use as it won’t last the season), but needs must! So I’ve woven and tied it together – it appears to be really stable (it took me most of the day!).

Brett made the handrail for the lower decking; I can’t wait for the floor to be laid, it’s looking absolutely fantastic – actually I can’t wait to start ‘dressing’ the spaces!!!

This afternoon we went to view the cottage that Joyce, Sarah & James will be staying in while they’re visiting us in TWO WEEKS TIME!!!! It’s lovely, a little bit further from us than we had thought; it’s not actually in the village of Aldao de Bispo (where we were told it was, and which is about 5 – 6 miles from us) but another couple of miles the other side to us. But it’s in a beautiful spot, cheap and very well equipped (it has a washing machine!!!!!) and I will definitely recommend it to anyone else who doesn’t want to rough it at our place (Will & Gill????).

One of our six ducklings is much smaller (about half the size) than the other five, it’s either a runt or we have one female and five males. When we got home from the cottage we could only see the five larger ducklings, we found her frantically paddling her legs to keep her head above the water in the bowl the big muscovies bathe in. She was absolutely drenched and shivering, she was so exhausted she couldn’t move. I wrapped her in the dog blanket, to soak up most of the water, and then we placed her in a box in the sunshine. Fortunately she pulled through her ordeal, we have no idea how long she was in the water, it could have been hours, poor little mite.

Then it was back to the garden; planting out and weeding. Tomorrow I’m going to Pam’s to pick up some Eucalyptus poles that she’s got for me – so I’ll be constructing more structures, I like lots of different shapes and textures in the garden, it looks attractive. Brett’s tells me off because I’m not weeding out all the weeds; I’m leaving in a few chamomile plants and some that I think could be poppies – I told him it’s companion planting they’ll attract beneficial insects!
The wild flowers are 'blooming' gorgeous atm!

Looks like a 'Pitcher Plant'

Red 'pea' type flower

I just love these Rock Rose with their tissue paper petals and beautiful magenta spots

11^th April

It’s really incongruous, we have lots of song birds that continue to ‘sing’ all through the night; so when we go out after dark it’s really noisy with bird, cicada and (atm) frog sounds – it all sounds very foreign!

The small duckling came out of the shed looking none the worse for her adventures yesterday.

We picked up some eucalyptus from P&M and I spent the rest of the morning removing all the leaves and small branches, a thoroughly monotonous task.
Brett fitted the joists to the lower deck.

I then had a hot, tiring and frustrating afternoon; I had to saw my poles to length, a job that would take Brett about ½ hour, it took me several hours (I’m sure the saw was blunt!). Then I attempted to construct ‘wigwams’ for the beans; I couldn’t even get the poles to push into the ground, I went home in a sulk – what a wasted day!

12^th April                                   

Today we had our first chicken egg!

I helped Brett flooring the lower deck; first we had to coat the wood with two layers of borax solution (insect and fungal treatment); we bought a spray pump especially for the job, it lasted about 5 minutes before the nozzle got bunged up with borax crystals, so we (I) ended up painting it on with a brush (not good for my back).
We had to sort out all the planks of wood, as they are all different widths, and we needed two the same for each run; unfortunately hardly any planks are the same width along the whole length, they differ by about 5mm, let alone two planks the same  – Brett can’t believe that the saw mill can’t cut accurate pieces of wood, he kept saying “if we were in the UK this would be a doddle” instead he spent a lot of the time planning down planks to make them fit AND the planks aren’t even all the same thickness they’re supposed to be 25mm but some are as much as 32mm! However what we did today looks good, so we were quite pleased with our work.

13th April

We had our second chicken egg!
We continued flooring the lower deck; it’s a long winded task due to the rubbish wood!

Then this evening we were invited to dine with Chris & Di; we had a fabulous evening.  We had to go home at 8.00 to shut up the animals; we took the dogs back with us, and didn’t return home until way past 1.00 a.m. (I thought it was about 10.30 – 11.00!). When we walked home, there was a full moon so it was really easy to see, it was a lovely walk.

14^th April

Hoorah four eggs today and so far all the eggs have been laid in the nest boxes, what clever chickens!

We more or less finished the floor of the lower deck, it looks absolutely fantastic and we’re both shattered!

For dinner we had broad beans from the garden, with parsley sauce (parsley from the garden)  and I’m back to making iced tea with our used teabags – Karina posted a recipe for Mint Tea Punch, which is iced tea flavoured with mint (from garden), orange juice (from garden) and lemon juice (from Marc & Meike), it’s very refreshing and exceedingly tasty.

15^th April

I was very disappointed when I let the chickens out this morning, as there were no eggs in the nest box, but we had four by the end of the day. But I don't know who laid this one ......

Ouch!!!!

It was wonderful, sitting out on the deck, to have my first morning cup of coffee.

The parcel arrived from UK (thank you Stephanie) with my new computer lead in it and .... it doesn’t work! The lead is fine it obviously wasn’t what was wrong with the computer; Brett says it could be a loose wire inside, so it looks like we need to take it to a repair shop (more expense).

Back to some gardening today for me (Brett still working on the decking) – lots of weeding, then tomorrow I’m going to plant up my herb garden; I’ve grown lots of herbs from seed in the polytunnel, then I’ll cheat and go to Lidl, they have some really interesting culinary herbs in pots which do quite well in the garden (and they’re cheap!).

Tomorrow we have been invited to a barbeque at Karina & Alex’s; I made some chocolate cornflake nests with sugared almonds, for eggs, as it’s Easter this weekend.

16^th April

At last we’ve spoken to the neighbours opposite our house, we have waved a lot but never had a proper conversation; this morning we made the effort and went to speak with them, she is called Olivia and he is something like Jocam (I didn’t quite get it, but then the Portuguese find it very hard to get Brett, today for some reason they thought he said he was called Manuel - it doesn’t even sound like Brett!). They have a very nice quinta, with a fabulous vegetable garden, which they are trying to sell (he says “mais Barata” – ‘very cheap’).

I planted up the herb garden with some of the herbs I’ve grown from seed – rocket, basil, parsley, coriander, bronze fennel etc.

We boraxed the upper deck in preparation for starting to put the floor down tomorrow.

Karina & Alex’s barbeque was great fun, and it was nice because there were lots of different people to our usual crowd; we had to come back at 8.00 to put the ducks and geese away (the chickens were left safely behind their electric fence), but we went back again until it got too dark & cold and the mosquitoes came out (I’d conveniently forgotten about mosquitoes!), about 10.00p.m.

When we got Looby, six months ago, she had just been spayed; she still had stitches in her abdomen from her operation. Well now she’s giving every appearance of being on heat, last week it was mainly physical symptoms (oozy, glowing, swollen bits!!!), this week it’s mental; the desire to find a mate, she can’t be left untethered at all, she disappears within a few seconds (even when we’re watching her closely, she can be gone in seconds) and this evening she and the puppy went while Brett was taking them for their midnight walk. Brett had to get the truck out and drive around the tracks to find her (the puppy came back on her own), he found Looby at Joao and Ilda’s we think/hope that their dogs were safely behind a fence and couldn’t get to her – now we’re just hoping that she’s not pregnant .......... but how can this be happening, she’s been spayed?

17^th April

Lovely, lovely weather, it’s a pleasure getting up in the morning; I so love my first cup of coffee sitting on the decking.

We haven’t had the village internet for three days which is frustrating (we can just about check emails on Brett’s Kindle, but it’s very slow); fortunately it came back at lunchtime.

We’ve started picking vegetables from the garden; today it was lettuce, chard and radishes.

Brett got about a third of the upper deck completed today; we sat up there on our chairs to drink our evening beer!!!

18^th April

Brett finished another third of the upper deck floor – it could be finished tomorrow!
And I spent the day planting out in the garden – peas, beans, tomatoes etc. It was jolly hot work.

The weather is cooling off over the next few days, which is probably good as Joyce doesn’t like it too hot.

19^th April

Well the weather has certainly changed; today was dull, overcast with a hint of moisture in the air. I worked in the polytunnel wearing a jumper and boots and not a sign of ‘glowing’! Then I did some planting out and was decidedly cold!

There were people working on clearing the ‘abandoned’ quinta next door (our quinta borders lots of other quintas), I couldn’t tell what nationality they were.

Brett more or less finished the floor to the upper deck, there’s one area he can’t do as we’re waiting for a post.

For the first time in a fortnight we lit a fire as it really was rather chilly!                     

20^th April

Happy Easter!

And the sun was back out this morning, but it’s still a lot colder than it was – typical as I planted out my tomatoes two days ago!

Brett finished the decking floor, he made a mock up of the post we need so we haven’t got an unfinished corner, it’s looking absolutely fabulous!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG ...

15^th March

This morning I decided to weed the herb bed in front of the house, halfway through I realised I was throwing away ‘food’ – masses of chickweed; so I made a chickweed salad for lunch, Brett says it tastes like baby spinach, and later I’m going to try steaming it. I made the sprouting chickpeas into a raw hummus, it has a much fresher flavour than with cooked chickpeas and tastes slightly of raw peas (well it would, wouldn’t it, dah!).

P&M and their workaway, Leon, came to bottle some wine this afternoon; so we all trooped over to the other sheds (near the ‘swimming pool’). I was showing (off?) everyone the vegetable garden when I heard a ‘splash’ and frantic paddling noises – Lily had fallen in the pool (Looby was nowhere near her!), I rescued her – poor little mite looked like a drowned rat.

About five minutes later ......... Looby ‘fell’ in the pool – she’s so competitive!!!! She managed to get out on her own.

Pam is going to sell their wine to their visitors (in the tipis), she’s bottled it all up, with lovely labels, it looks good. She has also bottled their olive oil and labelled it – she’s lucky she has an outlet for her wares; we have no one we could to sell to, so we’ll just have to find ways to use it ourselves (like bartering oil for lemons).

When we passed Chris & Di (they’re still camping in the quarry) they gave us a bag of lemons (Claire is away atm) and eggs, their neighbours are very generous.

My computer won’t charge any more (Lily chewed through the cable) so I’m using the old notebook with the dodgy keyboard; it works fine for a while (lulling me into a false sense of security) and then goes haywire – I can’t even describe what it does, it just goes ‘mad’, it’s very frustrating to work on.

16^th March

Whilst filling buckets with water from the stream (we have this chain gang thing going on, I fill the buckets, Brett pours them into our big barrels, then, when they’re full, we carry them to the duck/goose area for replenishing their water – they use a lot!) I noticed two types of mint growing; one is the ordinary water mint, but the other one is more like an apple mint (I love getting stuff for free!).

This afternoon we pleated and fixed one of the ends to the polytunnel, it looks quite neat – we’ve done this job several times now (at least five) and every time it looks different.

I saw swallows today, about five – so does that ‘make a summer’? Jamie has heard the cuckoo, I keep listening for it.

17^th March

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Oh what an awfully boring morning, it took over two and a half for the tyres to be done; we arrived at 9.00, left the truck, and walked to the shopping centre – apart from the supermarket all the shops were shut, they don’t open until 10.00!

We closed our Portuguese bank account, we’ve been keeping a big chunk of money in it (so we dodn’t get fined like P&M keep getting) then I had this ‘Eureka’ moment in the night - why leave it in the bank not being able to spend it, if we shut the account it could go towards the decking (it should pay for half of it), brilliant thinking.

There are so many wild flowers cropping up on the quinta, the chicken run is full of a dwarf iris

(apparently all iris are poisonous to poultry!),

I went around with the dogs and the camera photographing ................

About 12 -18" tall, very pretty

Peach blossom

Varigated thistly thing

Quince blossom

White Broom

I have no idea what a lot of them are though.

Our first potato was through today.

18^th March

I worked jolly hard today weeding the strawberries; they’ve been in over the winter and the rain encouraged lush grass growth, the strawberry plants were hidden under the grass – it looks great now.

Brett strimmered around the vegetable garden, cleared away piles of rubbish (mainly leftovers from Mr Louis), lit a bonfire, pruned the apple tree (with the chain saw!) and generally tidied up; it’s looking the best is has since we moved here.

Another potato came through, but still no sign of any chillies.

19^th March

Brett heard a cuckoo this morning, I didn’t!

Mark wanted to do a ‘Screwfix’ order (they deliver to Portugal now) so we went round to add to it (if you spend over £100 delivery is free). Poor old Pam spent ages on her Ipad filling in the order form, then it wouldn’t accept her address (invalid post code), so, two phone calls later, she was back on the computer reregistering her address, filled in the order form (3 items for P&M, 8 items for us), order accepted – ‘hoorah’ we thought, then a message ‘3 items no longer available’, everything P&M ordered!!!!! What a frustrating morning for P&M, our order is on its way (we registered independently; I thought it was a bit mean expecting P&M to continue with the order when they couldn’t get anything). And they are very busy atm as their first (paying) guests arrive in less than a week, this afternoon they’re putting up a tipi (they didn’t need our help as they have their workaway and Rowan there).

Their goslings have grown so big; they’re far bigger than ours – but still really cute.

Today we made and put the doors on the polytunnel – ‘it ain’t half hot mum’! We purposely positioned the polytunnel under trees for shade but it’s still extremely warm in there.

Cesar came with the wood for our decking, there’s absolutely masses (we look like a timber yard); so we will be busy for a while!

Tonight we had our first solar showers of the year (usually we heat the water up on the stove then fill the bags); Brett went first, he came out saying “that wasn’t bad at all, I enjoyed that”. Ha, it was bloody freezing and I had no choice but to continue as first thing I did was shampoo my hair!!!!

20^th March

1^st day of Spring!!!

Brett has started making the decking; he put together the frame and it’s going to be fantastic; two 12’ x 12’ decks, one at the front of the house and one at the side.

The one at the side will have a roof over it to give shade in the summer and obviously protection from rain, the one at the front will have about a metre of roof and the rest will be open (for all our visitors who want to get suntans!!!!).

I was kept busy painting a toilet seat; compost toilets can look pretty!

It’s taking me a long time as I’m using acrylic paint and if I don’t let it dry thoroughly the bottom coat comes off, today I painted a Swallowtail butterfly.

Oh flippin’ brilliant; tonight we had an email from the estate agent who is managing our cottage in Wales, for £50 a month they do nothing but send us bad news which usually costs us. Today’s message ....... a lorry travelling up the road has caught the electricity cable which has been pulled off the house (along with the telephone cable), dislodging the big stone it was attached to. The electricity has been restored by attaching the cable to the fascia board (which is in no way strong enough) and the stone has been placed back, but not secured – so did we want to contact our insurance company to get the damage made good; well ‘no’ actually as we have an excess on the policy of £300 which basically means we will be paying for the damage that someone else has caused!!!! How on earth do we sort this out, apparently it’s ‘not in the estate agents remit’, so what do we do????

21^st March

Brett continued with the decking frame; due to the gradient, at the side of the house, he’s having to do lots of digging away.

I spent the day making mosquito curtains for our bed (the mosquitoes have woken up/hatched out, with all the sunny weather, and we are both getting bitten at night) – to make them ‘pretty’ I appliquéd them with hearts made from lace.

22^nd March

Another glorious day, so, for Brett, it was continuing with the decking; Today he dug up and moved about 96 cu feet of soil, in fact a lot of it was rock, which he had to break up with a pick axe first, – he deserved his cold beer and sit in the sun this afternoon (he’s looking forward to a couple of days of rain so he can have a rest!)!
I finished appliquéing hearts onto the mosquito nets, then I varnished the toilet seat – unfortunately the varnish dissolved the acrylic paint a bit so now my design is a little blurry, but hey it’s only a toilet seat!

23^rd March

I heard the cuckoo this morning!

The Max/Min thermometer in the polytunnel said it went down to zero degrees last night (which means it would have been about -2 outside), so I’m slightly worried about the potatoes; on the plus side I haven’t been tempted (well I’ve been tempted but haven’t succumbed!)  to plant out beans or courgettes yet (phew!). Everything in the polytunnel looks fine.

Brett carried on preparing the ground for the decking; digging holes and making concrete plinths for the posts to stand on.

I pottered around in the polytunnel and finished varnishing the toilet seat, I’m not that pleased with it; while it was drying outside in the sunshine dust adhered to the varnish AND the varnish has yellowed in the sunlight, so .... blurry paint job, dirty yellowing varnish, lovely, but it’ll do the job.

24^th March

We went to Fundao market to buy more goslings – there weren’t any there!

But we did get a couple of hundred onion plugs, twenty five strawberry plugs and Rich gave us ten Jerusalem artichokes – so I’ll be busy tomorrow.

It rained while we were in Fundao, big ploppy cold rain and we didn’t have coats; water was running down my chin!!! And we were so cold.

Looby is in the ‘dog house’, she will be good for so long and then she’ll go off and won’t come back when we call; so now she’s got to go on a lead when she’s outside. There are sheep on the quinta next door, and the Portuguese won’t hesitate to shoot a dog they think is worrying the flock, so she needs to be kept under control.

25^th March

Heavy frost last night!!! Our friends Karina & Alex lost a field of sweetcorn and all their beans, so frustrating after all the hard work they put in. I was worried about our potatoes, but they are fine.

Outside the house I have a small garden which I am going to use for herbs; at the moment it has rocket, peas and mange tout in it – well it did until the bloody ducks and geese decimated it! So I’m now making hurdles from olive wood stakes and mimosa, to keep the blighters off the area; it actually looks rather attractive.

We went to visit Marc & Meike (the people who gave us the Muscovy ducks) in their new house; they have a huge lemon tree, I’m so jealous I’ve managed to kill four lemon trees since we’ve been here, I just can’t get them to grow – they gave us a bag of lemons!

It was very windy this evening, I started worrying about the polytunnel – so we took a walk over there, it’s actually positioned well, in a slight dip, so quite sheltered from the weather; I felt better after checking it though (I wouldn’t have been able to relax if we hadn’t).

26^th March

Still windy, but the sun was out – we have a week of cold, wet, weather forecast. So today I had to plant out all the plugs we bought on Monday; 189 x onions (main crop), 21 x strawberries and 10 x Jerusalem artichokes.
Brett put in the roof supports and hand rails on side decking.

Pam messaged us this afternoon, did we want to go for a pizza tonight as it was their workaway’s birthday. It ended up with thirteen of us at the pizza place in Penamacor – a jolly evening was had by all.

27^th March

I haven’t hoovered the floor for a least a week (Brett’s digging was causing so much dust there was no point) but today I had that dubious pleasure- I HATE my vacuum cleaner!!! Today it would only suck when I was using the attachments, so I had to clean the whole house using a tube with a 1” x ¼” orifice! It took me ages, and of course it spent most of the time spitting the dust back out; and yes, I have cleaned the filter (in fact I clean the filter after every time I use it and usually at least once while I am using it). And while I’m on the subject ...... why do they make vacuum cleaners from a plastic that becomes static, so that all the dust sticks all over the machine (inside and outside)? I not only have to clean the filter, I have to completely clean out and wipe down the cleaner after use too (I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE ....... IT!).

28^th March

Raining and cold; I walked to the polytunnel with the dogs and we got stuck in there, the rain was relentless – not a nice day, and we couldn’t go anywhere as our Screwfix order was expected today .......... it arrived about 4.30 it was such an easy process:

·         We ordered over the internet

·         We were given the delivery date, on completion of the order

·         The courier phoned our mobile, when he got to the village

·         Brett drove to the village to meet him and signed for the delivery

·         He came home with our order

The courier was happy that Brett was willing to drive to meet him, he said it was easy for him too and he would meet him in the same place next time we have a delivery ......... we are very happy – most of the delivery was for the decking (joist hangers etc.), but there’s lots of stuff we can’t get in Portugal, now thanks to Screwfix we can (and as long as our order is over £100 delivery is free); it’s funny what little things can ‘make your day’!

Pam came over with her guests, who are thinking of buying land in Portugal, – we enjoy showing people our vegetable garden, it’s looking rather good atm .... haha Pam said she has ‘garden envy’.

29^th March

Brett put joists on one of the platforms; it’s starting to look like a ‘room’ now.

I spent the day cooking as we had Karina, Alex and Sean round this evening – lovely evening, they are very easy to talk to (we’re all doing the same thing, so we have lots in common). And they brought us a beautiful bunch of wild flowers from their quinta.

We will have most of these flowers but ours are behind because we had the sheep grazing on our grassland.

I’ve run out of pots for potting on, so now I’m using used milk cartons (I pinched the idea from a ‘repurposed, recycled, reused, reclaimed, restored’ site); now all I’ve got to do is find a use for all the tin cans (mostly dog food) that I can’t bring myself to throw away – there’s only so many storage containers I can use and they’re too tall for plant pots (would use too much compost).