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30^th March

Well I don’t like this extra hour at night; we’re getting up at the same time and working until at least 8.00 and then not having dinner until 8.30 – 9.00 ... I’m shattered.

Brett was working for Annika today, so I carried on spring cleaning as I had run out of paint for the gates (fortunately Pam went into CB and bought me some more). Today was the dresser and glazed cupboard (and all the stuff on them) – it took most of the morning to do those two. This afternoon I made chicken liver pate (our chickens) and then Brett came home from work, via Pam’s with the paint. It’s nothing like the last lot, it’s so thin and drippy; I painted another gate, it covered more like a stain than paint.

The lavender is blooming.

The colour of the gate goes so well with the lavender.

Karina messaged us to say the lambs are ready to pick up, so we’re going to collect them on Thursday, and Nicky says we can have our goats in three weeks – we’re going to visit them on Monday, after taking Pauline and Mike to Fundao market.

31^st March

Brett’s last day at work this week (Hip, Hip, Hooray!)..

I painted the last gate; it was to the field I usually put the dogs in so I put them in the field opposite – they didn’t like that one bit, they thought they were being punished!

A few days ago we need to make room in the freezer (for chickens) so I took out a large bag of sundried tomatoes ..... note to self: store sundried tomatoes in small bags and only remove when they’re going to be used otherwise they go mouldy, what a waste (I managed to save a good percentage which I processed into paste).

We have a goose sitting on sixteen eggs, the two Muscovy females have nests side by side and the Guinea fowl are growing.

1^st April

I spent the morning cooking and preparing food, as we had guests for lunch – Alex & Karina and a young couple they have staying with them, Emily & Nick. As always with A&K the time just flew past, they’re so easy to talk to. We had lunch sitting out on the decking in the sunshine; just like the stereotypical Mediterranean image, it was a lovely afternoon.

Brett made a crate to put in the back of the truck as tomorrow we get some lambs!

The bee-eaters and swallows were arriving back today.

2^nd April

What a shitty day! First of all there were people cutting down the eucalyptus behind the pig run and of course they managed to fell a tree on top of the pig fence, squashing, snapping and stretching the wire and pulling out the staples. Then when we complained they just pulled the wire up off the ground and tried to balance it on the post!!! Of course they were also pretending they couldn’t understand us!

Then Pauline & Mike phoned, they were supposed to be arriving today, to say they wouldn’t be coming until tomorrow as their plane was overbooked.

Then .... we went to pick up our lambs, we thought we were getting two females and one male – we got three males! But they are beautiful looking sheep, really strong and stocky.

3^rd April

Today was better! Josh arranged for us to go and look at some female sheep; we bought three and these ones are black, so we have a very attractive flock; actually atm we have two distinct flocks a black one and a white one – with the black flock running behind the white flock bleating ‘wait for us boys’ and the white flock replying ‘go away dogs’ (I don’t think they’ve ever seen black sheep before).

And then this evening Pauline and Mike arrived.

4^th April

We took the dogs down to the river for a splash and frolic, which they greatly enjoyed; that is to say Looby frolicked in the river, Lilli frolicked beside it (Lilli uses the stepping stones when the water is high!).

There was a festa in the village over the weekend; we went there this afternoon, met up with Chris & Di, P&M, Baptiste and Andrew – so we spent a while at Bar do Clube and Pauline & Mike met some of our friends, it was a lovely relaxing day.

The sheep are getting on better!

5^th April

Today was the obligatory trip to Monsanto (we climb right up to the castle at the top) and Idanha a Velha (we had a picnic lunch) – a good way to impress visitors. I collected seeds from trees (Judas tree), which had magnificent blossom, along the roadside in Idanha a Velha, hopefully they will germinate.

6^th April

Nicky and Rich invited us to lunch so that we could visit our kids; but then it turned out that, as they were so eager to get rid of the kids that we were having and the adult goats that Karina and Alex were having, they were willing to drive them over in their car!!!!
So today we got two of our kids (the other one is still with her mother at Alex and Karina’s). 

They are very, very sweet and Lilli loves them.

Lilli is fascinated by the sheep and goats.

Tonight we had ‘smoked pizzas’ – we haven’t quite got the hang of the bread oven! 

7^th April

Today we were supposed to go to the Serra d’Estrelas (highest mountain range in Portugal) with Pauline & Mike; however we cried off as we needed to buy food for the sheep and goats, make field shelters and troughs etc. So Pauline and Mike went off to explore on their own.
This afternoon Looby ran off for a couple of hours, Brett even got to within a few metres of her but she completely ignored him – so she’s in our bad books. The worrying thing is that she’s not used to sheep and could easily chase them and, as there are lots in the abandoned quintas around us, we are scared that she could be shot for sheep worrying - bloody dog.

Lilli and our flock/herd

they're getting braver.

For Stephanie .....

21^st February

I always feel a sense of achievement once I’ve posted my blog; round about two weeks after I’ve last posted it starts to hang over me – it’s all the compressing of pictures (and choosing them) that takes me so long, and that's saying nothing about uploading time. Anyway it’s done now for another few weeks.

I started weeding my herb bed and Brett continue to put the wire around the first paddock.

As we were invited round to Chris & Di’s tonight I made some honeycomb to take with us (forgot to take a photo!). It was a great success. Andrew and Richie were invited too and we had a lovely sociable evening (Di didn’t serenade us this time which was rather disappointing).

22^nd February

We didn’t hear any shooting this morning so maybe the hunting season is over (fingers crossed)?
I continued weeding the herb bed and Brett finished the wire on the first paddock – so now we need our lambs!

It was lovely and warm today – spring has sprung.

23^rd February

Got up early to make lunch as Andrew came round to encourage me to weed my vegetable bed (the one with the over wintering crops); we got on quite well until ‘rain stopped play’.

Garlic & Broad Beans 

Peas

Brett has found a spring coming up at the edge of the first sheep field , so he dug it out and filled it with stones – hopefully it will flow most of the year and we’ll have fresh running water for our animals.

24^th February

Spent the morning shopping in CB. How do I always manage to fall over? We went into a China shop; I stepped on a rug, sticking out of a pile, and crash there I am down on the floor having smacked my knee, on the hard tiling, on the way down! – fortunately no one, but Brett, seemed to notice.

We bought the wire, for the second sheep paddock, on the way home.

25^th February

Pam came for coffee this morning, so I didn’t get much done.
Chris & Di came for a cup of tea this afternoon, so I didn’t get much done!!!!
I did make some lemon curd and started tomorrow night’s dinner as we have P&M coming over.
Brett has started attaching the wire to the second sheep field.

26^th February

I had to take P&M to pick up their Landrover from a garage near Spain; it wasn’t ready and the mechanic wouldn’t be back for an hour, so we went to Penamacor to do some shopping – got back to the garage, he needed to work on it for another day!!!! So I took P&M back to their quinta and explained that the house would not be clean when they came for dinner as the three hours I had lost driving backwards and forwards to the garage was my house keeping hours!

Brett finished the longest side of his second paddock and the wood for the gates is arriving tomorrow.

27^th February

Andrew has been nagging me about my weeding!!! So I was back out in the vegetable garden today weeding the over wintering veg – it was much more enjoyable doing it with Andrew!

Brett continued with his fencing.
As Cesar (with our wood order) hadn’t turned by the time we needed to leave for class I got a lift in with Pam and Brett stayed home.

28^th February

We took our rotovator over to Andrew’s quinta today, so that he could use it ... something has happened to the gears (they won’t engage anymore), it would have happened who ever had been using it (so we’re not blaming you Andrew!) but it’s annoying it happened now, just when we need it.

1^st March – St David’s Day

Yesterday I continued weeding the vegetable garden, today I could hardly move without pain, so I took the day off and played with various methods of labelling the plants in the herb bed.
This afternoon I just sat in the sunshine and relaxed with an audio book!

2^nd March

Spoke to Mr Louis today about where to take the rotovator, he has arranged for us to take it to Viktor (the mechanic at the start of our track) on Thursday.

Brett continued fencing, I worked in the polytunnel – it was jolly hot!

3^rd March

Today a whole load of us went to help Clare & Andy start their straw baled house; Brett was making ‘beams’ and I was stripping bark from Eucalyptus trunks – not a nice job, apparently it would have been easier if they were freshly felled but we were having to bash them with hammers to get them separated.

At 4.00 we, along with Marc & Mieke, met up with Karina who had kindly arranged for us to see her neighbours who had lambs for sale. They were a lovely Portuguese couple who spoke no English and lived on a huge farm (120 hectares); however he said that we should have bought our sheep in October, as they are strong, because of all the grass (grass grows in winter here not summer) and that the spring lambs are weak and not good for breeding from – he showed us both, unfortunately he didn’t have any October sheep for sale!
When we went to leave they invited us in for a drink ..... three bottles of wine (he made 2,000L last year!), aguadente shots and jeropiga (a mixture of aguadente and grape juice) all made on the farm served up with their sheep milk cheese, homemade chorizo and bread – Portuguese are very hospitable.

4^th March

My hands hurt!!!!!
J&J phoned up this morning, they want Brett to do some building work for them; so we went to visit them at their new quinta. They want him to build a couple of small block buildings.

5^th March

The rotovator was left outside the mechanic’s garage at 10.15 (we had arrived at 9.45 but nobody had opened up by the time we left) Mr Louis said to leave it outside it would be fine ..... it was, phew.

6^th March

Mr Louis took us back to the mechanic’s (so he could translate???); Viktor basically said our machine had a good engine (Honda) but the rest of it was a heap of shit and something inside the gearbox was broken – I don’t think he even looked inside it! He told us (well he told Mr Louis, he never once spoke to us) to take it back to where we had bought it as it was probably still under warranty.

7^th March

We took the rotovator back to Soferragens and it is still under warranty (as far as we could tell!).
Brett carried on with his gates while I spent the rest of the day cooking and cleaning as we had Chris & Di and Andrew coming for dinner and table tennis. I did a cheese fondue; Di had never had a fondue before!

8^th March

Gardening – me.

Hanging gates – Brett.

Freerange geese

9^th March

Pam and I went to Fundao; I bought some onion plugs (2 bundles).

Brett finished his gates.

10^th March

Brett has got a few days, paid, work for J&J; he’s building them a toilet block (dog shed on paper) as they are going to have a bar.

I planted nearly 500 onions (plugs and sets) and potted on lots of seedlings .....

Onions

11^th March

Happy Birthday Karen!

Brett at work.

Me hobbling around with a bad back; but I still managed to do three lots of washing (with my trusty washing dolly!) – including the bedding, so I’m feeling virtuous.

12^th March

Brett working

I went into CB with Pam; I was keeping her company, she had a long list.

13^th March

Hoorah, Brett’s last day at work!

Made lemon curd and honeycomb (which was much crisper than last time, I let it cook longer – I need my cooking thermometer); lemon curd for my breakfasts with Greek yoghurt and honeycomb to take to P&M’s for Pizza Night.

Lou and J&J came to Pizza Night plus Leon (P&M’s workaway); we christened their HUGE new decking area – it’s very posh.

14^th March

First Saturday morning advanced Portuguese class; where we speak mainly in Portuguese! Oh it’s hard; it’s not so much the speaking as the understanding what we’ve got to do when that’s said in Portuguese.

Andrew’s friend Baptiste is back for a year; he’s has bought a beautiful mansion, in the village, which needs rather a lot of work – including a new roof, including timbers, and floors. Last night he invited us and C&D for drinks at the bar in the village – of course we didn’t get home until gone midnight!!!

15^th March

It’s so nice getting up on a Sunday morning and knowing there isn’t going to be any shooting, not that we had it particularly bad this year.
I woke up remarkably fresh after last night’s socialising!

Brett and I spent the day constructing and painting the panelling for the seating area by the kitchen stove – we’ve made it a bit of a statement by painting it purple!

16^th March

We bought 100 more posts today (for fencing): I helped Brett line them up and then spent the rest of the day being domesticated cooking and replacing a zip in Brett’s new trousers – which was easier (for him) than taking them back!

17^th March

Happy St Patrick’s Day

RAIN!!!! Hoorah, the garden needs it.

As many of our friends are Irish (Lou, Jamie, Vince ...) P&M hosted a St Patrick’s Day lunch.

18^th March

We bought fence posts and wire today (two trips this week because we can only get so much in the truck). So Brett now has masses of work to keep him occupied (plus he’s working for Annika next week).
I spent the day in the polytunnel.

19^th March

Brett is very busy with his fencing and until we get the rotovator back there’s not much I can do in the garden so Brett suggested I did the vine pruning; he gave me a quick lesson (cut back to the second bud) and I was off .... audio book on my MP3 player, dogs in field playing. It was quite a relaxing pursuit until I got a big weeping blister! Yes, I should have been wearing gloves!

20^th March

 I carried on vine pruning –wearing a glove on my cutting hand.

Brett will be fencing for the foreseeable future!

21^st March

Language class, I’m the dunce!

Brett carried on fencing and I pottered in the polytunnel and did some vine pruning (my hands hurt!).

22^nd March

Summer’s arrived – I heard my first cuckoo!

We had a bit of a relaxed day today as Brett’s working for the next three days.

Pigs in the shade

Pigs in their wallow

23^rd March

Brett went off to work at 7.45.

I was so busy, spring cleaning – washing rugs, curtains, windows, lampshades, moving the heavy furniture to sweep under ... all the stuff that doesn’t happen with general housework. Everything was so dusty; I can’t wait to lose these concrete floors (although Brett maintains that most of the dust comes from outside!).

This morning we had hail and this afternoon a strong, icy cold, Northerly wind; I lit the fire early.

24^th March

Brett was working. I tidied up all my mess on the sleep platform.

I tend to dump all my craft projects up there (in the process of tidying the kitchen); so today I labelled draws and boxes, threw out rubbish (as much as I could bear to!) and tried to group materials logically – well it looks better anyway.

25^th March

The sun is out today, but it’s still rather blowy.
Andrew and I did ‘open gardens’ today for one another. First I walked to his quinta, 12 minutes door to door, and admire all his broad beans (Haha Andrew, that’s in case you’re reading my blog!!!!). His garden is very well maintained, especially compared to mine, and his Globe Artichokes and Asparagus make me very jealous (my ONE Globe Artichoke is weed infested and my Asparagus was eaten by the geese last year!). However my winter squash (I have about 100 plants) and potatoes are more advanced than his – not that it’s a competition! His neighbour gave me two buckets of potatoes to plant and a bag of lettuce to eat.
Then we wandered back to our quinta, walked around the polytunnel, where I'm having to balance all my seed trays on tall pots to stop the mice eating them!

Mouse deterrent 

Winter Squash

and garden,

Florence Fennel

Potatoes

Brocolli

Oranges

 and then went home for afternoon tea – so civilised.

26^th March

We went into CB to see what was happening with our rotovator – they said it should be ready next week .... it’s been four weeks and I need to sow root vegetables.

27^th March

Brett dug over some of the vegetable garden, for me, with an enxada; at last I’ve sown parsnips, carrots and beetroot. Lots of the plants in the polytunnel are ready to plant outside; so over the next week or so I need to build supports for beans, peas and squash.

28^th March

Portuguese class this morning was quite nice; we went for a coffee break and decided to just sit in the sunshine and speak Portuguese (it was hard not to lapse into English when we couldn’t express ourselves in Portuguese though).

This afternoon Brett carried on with the fencing and I started painting his gates. There’s a farm in Wales, between Pontardawe and GCG, that we have always admired; it’s called ‘Garth’ the farmhouse is stone and slate and all the doors and field  gates are painted a pale blue – it’s so pretty. I used a pale green paint and hopefully we have achieved the same effect as ‘Garth’.

Lovely green gate

Geese and gate (only three geese because one is sitting on sixteen eggs)

Cork Oak Tree and Gate

29^th March

Brett strimmered all the verges and around the vegetable garden – our quinta is looking lovely atm. I continued painting gates.

The wild flowers are starting to bloom.

Irises in the poultry run

The Guinea Fowl are growing.

We nearly had ducklings ......

2^nd February

RAIN!!!!

As there was no way either of us could go ahead with what we had planned today ... me planting potatoes and sowing root vegetables, Brett banging in posts around the sheep field, we took the day off! Lit the fire early and watched a film, the Swedish version of ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’.

3^rd February

We went into Penamacor first thing, on our way back Mr Louis stopped us; last week I asked him where I could get cheap aguardente (Portuguese spirit) from, he had 5L for me for 20 Euros – I’m going to use it to make fruit liqueurs, starting with orange liqueur.

The ground was good and soft for Brett to bang in his posts; I helped him line them up, then he spent the day banging them in – he managed half the boundary of about a two acre paddock, it gives structure to our land.

Unfortunately it was too claggy for me to plant potatoes or sow anything outside; however, when we were in Penamacor, I did find a packet of metre long beans, some of which I planted in the polytunnel, plus some purple and gold mangetout – I’m very excited about that!

The polytunnel has an awful lot of things planted directly into the ground now; so we should get some very early harvests.
I made some flapjack, to take to Alex and Karina’s tomorrow, which I cooked in the stove and it burnt, so then I had to make chocolate fridge cake – so I was pissed off about that!

Originally we (and Marc & Mieke) were going to A&K’s because we were going to choose our lambs (from their neighbour’s farm) but they won’t be ready for a couple more weeks ... we decided to go to them for lunch regardless J!!!

We watched ‘The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest’ (Swedish version) tonight – the subtitles must have been courtesy of Google Translate, they really didn’t make any sense!

4^th February

Happy Birthday Joyce !!!

Clear bright skies, but icy cold. Brett was happy working outside, but it hurts my ears!

We had rather a distressing time with Alex & Karina and Marc & Mieke this afternoon; after a lovely lunch we went for a walk around the estate that borders their land. We came across a dog that had been shut up in a yard with no food or water – the poor thing was skin and bones. Unfortunately the owner of the land and the dog’s owner arrived and a volatile argument ensued resulting in the dog being taken off in the back of its owner’s car. It was doubly distressing for A&K as it was their neighbours and they live there.

5^th February

Had a very restless night; I just couldn’t stop thinking about the poor dog and trying to think how we could have handled the situation differently.

We bought 100 more posts today, Brett is really into fencing atm, to finish the first paddock and start another one.

Andrew came round to put some of his seeds in the polytunnel to germinate (Pam has some of her pots in there) and I have tomato seedlings through already!

6^th February

Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!,

Brett finished banging in the posts of the sheep field and started on his corners.

I spent the day writing a letter to Alexandra; I took lots of photos of the animals for her.

I love this one of Looby, such a beautiful animal

I tried to do my Portuguese homework ....... I stink at Portuguese!!!!

Portuguese class wasn’t actually too bad; Pedro asked who had done their homework, only Pam said she had (because we have to go to the front of the class and write it on the blackboard and then read it out loud!), so it didn’t matter that mine was rubbish.

7^th February

Flippin’ heck it’s cold overnight; on the bed we have a winter duvet, two patchwork quilts, a ‘fur’ throw and a blanket – it’s very heavy! But I still have to wear socks to bed.

Brett started banging in the posts for the next paddock (Lavender pasture); I helped line them up. Then I planted 25kgs of potatoes; it was jolly hard work, especially making the troughs with an enxada, Brett did some for me but I did a good half and all the planting and covering.

8^th February

So cold .........

Brett was outside doing his fencing – he’s really enjoying being out in the open air.

I stayed inside and cooked, cleaned, washed up etc.
The guinea fowl think they are chickens ....

They're not intimidated by the size of the chickens, they just climb on top of them

They're growing rapidly

9^th February

Happy Birthday Mark!!!
So many birthdays in February!

P & M had a barbeque to celebrate Mark’s birthday; the sun was shining we all sat outside on their decking eating and drinking – a lovely afternoon.

10^th February

Rain is forecast; Chris & Di are panicking about their roof, so Brett went to help them put rubber matting on it this morning.
I stayed at home as we had Wendy and Kevin coming for lunch. W&K have just had an offer on a quinta close to Monsanto accepted; they’re very excited, they’re going to the Algarve to have a break before coming back to all the hard work.

This afternoon I made an orange liqueur, with our oranges, and a lemon liqueur, with scrumped lemons, and the aguardente that Mr Louis procured for me.

The aguardente smells really strong (Brett says like paint stripper); I don’t know how people can drink it neat, it really is ‘fire water’; I really hope my liqueurs work, I’m just a little bit worried!

We’re rapidly running out of stuff to watch, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel now .... we watched the shittest film tonight – ‘Beastly’, it really was rubbish!

11^th February

Today we bought more fence posts and 400 metres of wire – we have spent nearly 1500€ on fencing so far and we’re not even halfway there yet!
I made some lemon curd today; last time I made it I got a scrambled egg effect and had to strain the lumps out, so I looked for a different recipe. This method looks rather weird, but it says it’s infallible, and it worked perfectly for me today.

Classic Lemon Curd

·         3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

·         1 cup sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         2 large egg yolks

·         2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

·         1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, for about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Bottle into hot sterilised jars; it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

Variations

For lime curd, substitute fresh lime juice and zest for lemon.

The polytunnel is getting very exciting now, there’s so much coming up

Seeds in coldframe

other side of cold frame

Peas

and I have lots of ideas for structures to support beans, squashes etc all I need is to be able to access pliable wooden poles (unfortunately we don’t have any on our land).

12^th February

I planted four rows of onion sets and then started weeding the herb bed; I have lots of herbs coming through in the polytunnel – chives, thyme, basil, parsley, coriander, bronze fennel etc.

Pam wants to go into Fundao tomorrow; I said I would drive ... I want to visit the Nespoon building!

13^th February

Wow, I’ve seen the Nespoon building ...... unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough to touch! It is beautiful, the original building is decaying and distressed and her decoration is already discolouring and flaking off – it looks fab!!!

I love the fact that the house occupants have a washing line up in front of the artwork!!!!

She even decorated the waste bin.

Me and Pam spent ages trying to work out how she actually did it – i.e. what order she did it in and how on earth would she make a stencil that big?

Brett spent the day tensioning the corners of the first sheep paddock; next the wire can be put on.

Language class tonight was small, only five students. Last week we had to do an exercise in class then hand in our sheets. Well .... first he asked Lou for her answer to the first question, then after she answered he said ‘no, that’s not the answer .... Sandra what did you write?’ ‘Yes Sandra that is correct’. Second question, Pam what’s your answer? He said ‘no, that’s not the answer .... Sandra what did you write?’ ‘Yes Sandra that is correct’. Etc etc – I was teacher’s pet!!!! Unfortunately after that exercise it got hard again!

14^th February

My Valentine cards seem to have got lost in the post (again!).
I watched a couple of videos of Nespoon doing installations .... the lacy doily buildings are done freehand! Haha and there’s me trying to envision this giant stencil. I’m sure I can do one somewhere – maybe on the bread oven? .... Brett just gave me a 'look' when I suggested it! 

I think I’ve finished my chandelier! I bought some strings of ‘crystals’ from the China shop yesterday and some tiny fake roses – it looks very Miss Havershamish!

It's very hard to photograph

When we put the animals away today Brett saw broken egg shells in the Muscovy shed, so it looks like the ducklings are hatching.

She's very protective

15^th February

Only three ducklings this morning,

but she stayed sitting on her eggs so perhaps some more will hatch.

Brett is working for Annika tomorrow so today we put some batten behind the stove so that I can start tiling the wall.

Brett has been claiming back lots of land around the boundaries; strimmering back all the brambles, broom and other foliage – our fields are going to be a good two metres wider!

This afternoon we went to a festa in a nearby village, Proenca a Velha; there was lots of food available, unfortunately we had had a large lunch! It was one of the good festas; lots of people, live music, interesting stalls and food & drink.

16^th February

Still only three ducklings; so we disposed of the remaining eggs to encourage the mother duck to leave the nest.

Brett continued to push back our boundaries (he was going to work for Annika but the builder’s merchant hasn’t got the roof fixings yet).

I started tiling the stove alcove; it was very fiddly trying to get tiles behind the flue and the stove, in fact I panicked and got back to the house because it was ‘all going wrong’ however he said it was fine and I was over thinking it (phew). I got just over a square metre done (as Andrew came over for lunch), it’s going to look fantastic.

Andrew came to bring some seeds that he had ordered for me from the UK and to see his seeds progress – it’s great he’s as excited as me when he gets in the polytunnel.

We had to light the fire, and sit, in the sitting room tonight; it made a nice change.

Lili thought so too!!!!

17^th February

Happy Pancake day!!!

When I let the muscovies out today there was a drowned duckling in the water bowl and three adult ducks, the other two ducklings had completely disappeared! We can only think that the big ducks ate them L !!!!

I carried on tiling, Brett continued to fence.

18^th February

Still tiling and fencing.

Free range animals

19^th February

Finished tiling!!!!! Lots of tile cutting going on today.

I sowed some of my organic seeds and did some potting on in the polytunnel.

Brett started attaching wire to his posts,

20^th February

Happy birthday Lili – we’ve had her a year to date.

Today I grouted the tiles and, even though I say it myself, it looks bloody brilliant!!!

Look at those parallel lines!

Brett has put wire on half the posts of the first paddock.

A bloody mouse has eaten all my expensive yellow courgette seeds I sowed yesterday!

Only four of us at class tonight; we’re going to change it to a Saturday morning – it will be a lot easier for us with the animals, we had to put them away 40 mins early tonight – they didn’t like that.

21^st February

On closer inspection the mouse (mice) have eaten aforementioned courgette seeds, all of, one type only, pumpkin seeds, nasturtium seeds and then they have dined on the fresh young shoots of peas, mangetoute, butternut squash, capsicum and my metre long beans!!!!! I am furious, what can I do? I have re-sown the seeds and they are now in isolated splendour perched on top of my tallest plant pots, in the hope that the mice can’t climb that high! AND there are mouse traps, baited with chocolate set up on the ground (I don’t like to kill them but if I used humane traps they would just return).