the story of Casa Azul

I don’t know about Indian Summer but we’ve been just over two weeks in Portugal, it’s now at the end of September and the weather remains glorious. Not a cloud in the sky for 16 days out of 17 and the temps in the high twenties.

Of course we are still waiting on the plans for the house so no work has started there yet but we are using the time to work on the land. We’ve been harvesting our first crop. Embarrassingly we found a tree with hard green fruits wondering what they were. It was only when we saw some rotting on the ground that we discovered we had a walnut tree. Since then we have eaten quite a few and are keeping the rest for the winter.

We’ve also had loads of pears and peaches but just missed the apples – there are one or two on our tree but many more lie rotten on the ground. However on a walk we did at the weekend we passed an apple tree overhanging the path from someone’s garden with loads of ripe fruit on the ground so helped ourselves. On this walk we also gorged ourselves on delicious figs, grapes and blackberries which were growing wild.

There is plenty of work to do in the garden. The main one being to free the olive trees from the masses of brambles which have grown up over the years. We plan on keeping some brambles and more importantly their blackberries lining one wall but the rest we want to get rid. We’ve had some help from a local farmer who brought his industrial sized strimmer with him. This is a contraption he drags behind his tractor and consists of a rapidly spinning wheel with three chains attached underneath a large metal plate. This whips through anything and with it he has managed to clear most of our land. We have also had to knock down a walnut tree which was too near the house but it meant I have put my new toy to good use – the chainsaw. We’ve saved the logs for winter and our wood burning stove.

Next up is the compost heap which we plan to make from some old pallets which we managed to purloin from a neighbour. This relatively simple task however is already putting my rudimentary woodworking skills to the test. At this rate the potting shed and chicken coop will have to wait quite some time.

We also plan on planting more fruit trees in the garden and have been scouring local garden centres. Here we have discovered the vagaries of country time keeping. I mentioned in a previous blog that most places shut for lunch. But everyone keeps their own time. So one place may shut from 12.00 till 1.30 while another 1.30 till 3.00. We got to one garden centre which was indeed closed to the public for lunch even though a couple of workers were unloading a truck. They confirmed the lunch hour of 1.30 – 3.00. We duly returned at 3.15 to find the place still closed. The workers were still there but the centre still closed. They didn’t know where the boss was with the key to open up again and didn’t think he would be back that day. C’est la vie as they don’t say around here.

We’ve had a door put on the barn though by the local blacksmith and we are now waiting to fill it with our worldly goods from Jordan. Fingers crossed, our shipment will be here this week.

We’ve been here a week and things are going pretty much to plan – in that we knew that things would go very slowly! We think we have all the necessary paperwork completed in order to get our shipment in and we actually have an address: basically our names followed by our village: Galega. That seems to be enough for the postman. We are having to wait on our architect to finish plans that should have been done weeks ago. Very frustrating but par for the course I expect. He promises they will be done next week after which we can start getting quotes for the work. Anyway, the main task for the week was to buy a pickup and we’ve done that – a Mitsubishi L200. It cost us almost 7000 GBP (year 2000) but we knew that cars are expensive here. It’s just what we wanted and has plenty of grunt.

Having another look at Casa Azul was a reality check. Despite it not looking too bad we now realise how much work we have to do but little idea of where to start. However, that’s what we are here for and we are up for the challenge. At least we now know what fruits we have on our land as everything is ripening at the moment: pears, apples, peaches, walnuts, blackberries, redcurrants and figs and soon enough we will have olives and oranges.

A first priority on the house was to clear the courtyard of roof tiles which we have done. It was then a difficult task to get the pickup into the courtyard so the next job is to widen the entrance. At the same time we need to demolish an unsightly brick pighouse in the garden. I think the knocking down will be easier and more fun that the building up.

The house that we have rented is fine. Nice views across the valley to forested hillsides. Just as well as I think we will be in there for longer than anticipated. It’s also very close to Casa Azul. Although it doesn’t have a washing machine, we have met a friendly English couple who live down the road and they are going to let us wash at their place – at least for a while. The woman who rented us the house lives nearby and she said we could use hers but she has just gone into hospital – she has terminal cancer! It seems there are already a few Brits living nearby. Enough to ask for advice but not enough to overrun the place.

We have also got an internet connection, of sorts. It’s a dongle that connects our laptop with the mobile phone signal. Only problem is the speed is snail-like and there is no chance of uploading or downloading pictures. Anything more than checking E-mails is therefore to be done at the nearest library which is in Penela – itself only 6 or 7kms away.

Apart from the essentials, the other main aspect of our first week has been a general acclimatisation and I think we have done that. We’ve been to a few local markets – every day it’s a market day somewhere. They’re quite small and notable for the fact that almost everyone is over 60. I think I am the only male on view not wearing a flat cap and Jackie the only woman without woollie tights. I guess a startling realisation of the differences between the ageing populations of Europe and the young populations of Asia which we are more used to.

Lunch here is still an important part of the day. At least an hour and a half and most of the shops seem to shut down – not a siesta it’s just that everyone is tucking in. All the local restaurants fill up not long after midday. Mainly with labourers piling into the staple of Portuguese cooking – bacalhau (salted cod). There are supposed to be 365 recipes for it. Vying with bacalhau in popularity is pork – great big fatty chunks of the stuff. Veggies are fresh but definitely play second fiddle – always spuds and perhaps a bit of greenery if you’re lucky. The fish is also fresh and delicious. The locals also fill up on the local wine at lunchtime and good stuff it is too. I hope they don’t use any heavy machinery in the afternoon.

Weatherwise it has been wonderful. Long warm days with plenty of sunshine. However we have had one wet day – perhaps a taste of things to come. Better get some fire wood collected.

After two years in Jordan with the British Council I have left both. I am officially homeless and unemployed. Enough there to chat about for a while but as this blog is about Casa Azul, I’ll stick to the Portuguese angle.

The last few weeks was about shipping. Shipping our worldly goods wouldn’t be a problem (apart from the huge expense especially at the Portuguese end). Of course the problem was bureaucracy (I can see this becoming a theme with this blog).

In order to move to Portugal, or rather to ship personal possessions to Portugal you need docs. Plenty of them. The most important being a Certificado de Baggagem. Issued by the local consulate stating that the shipper (us) had lived outside Portugal for the last two years and was only shipping old, personal items. OK so far but as there was no Portuguese Embassy in Jordan I had to do it all through the Portuguese Embassy in Egypt. No problem they said – just pop over and they would process the docs for me. Of course that didn’t fly so I had to get all the docs certified by the UK embassy, translate the packing list into Portuguese, send it all to them, pray it was going to arrive safely and then arrange for someone to go to the Embassy in Cairo to physically pay for everything in Egyptian pounds. What a pain!

Now in the Isle of Man, I just have to wait in hope for the Certificado to arrive on my doorstep. The other docs (and there are plenty of them) will have to wait until we arrive in Portugal.

One week to go! I can’t wait!