From giant to lesser to the unnamed, the wild flowers are slowly but surely appearing. Each year I say we should have a photo collection of all the flowers in and around our garden, I started something last summer but am determined to try harder this year. After months of flowerlessness (?!) it’s great to see some colour at last. We’ve already mentioned the chamomile but here are some more plants that have recently appeared.

Two get a special mention: the giant orchid and linaria amethystea. The former you can’t miss, it’s big and brash and is the first of the orchids. The latter is a wee thing that you can easily miss, tiny compared to the daisies, but have a closer look; it’s just beautiful. It doesn’t seem to have a common name so I’m calling it the galega toadflax. And we’re really pleased that we have found this great site for Portuguese flowers. It tells you what you can see in each region, and there’s loads of photos and information about the individual plants.

There’s been a competition between the blossom in the garden as well. In the end the blackthorn won and now the spiky bushes are covered white, it almost looks snowlike. Second was our new almond tree but the ornamental cherry and apricot have a few flowers on now too. We made some sloe gin from the blackthorn last year (which slips down a treat in front of the roaring fire) so we’re hoping for a bumper crop this time.

And talking of booze and blossom I have now, at long last, bottled the elderflower wine that has been sitting silently in the pantry – since last May! I was pleased that it had cleared and has the most delicate of colours (Richard: pale pee), and in fact it didn’t taste too bad – it actually tasted of wine! (Which is more than can be said for the quince effort). Really looking forward to sipping that when the warmer weather eventually gets here.

Meanwhile, on with the wellies and waterproofs…

I know January is only two thirds over but we’ve had enough already! Although not as bad as the UK, we’ve had rain, rain, rain, culminating in storms this weekend which knocked the power and water out for three days. And there are more thunderstorms to come. Every cloud has a silver lining and I think we were lucky to escape much of the damage. We had an olive tree fatality and a tile off the roof but the polytunnel and the shed survived (thanks to a high quality build I reckon!) and the well is now full to the brim. And our chest freezers full of pork managed to avoid defrosting.

The local bus stop was not made of sterner stuff however…

ex local bus stop

However, our bees have once again absconded. They disappeared this time last year and it is just as perplexing this time around. Last week they were still out and about collecting pollen ( I posted photos here) and there is plenty of pollen and honey in the now empty hives. We think that living in rural Portugal we have ‘got away from it all’ but I guess even here we cannot escape man’s degradation of our natural resources. They are saying that the honey bees abscond because of pesticides and I have to say that the locals seem to use them indiscriminately here. Perhaps that is the cause, we just don’t know.

We also had a bit of a shock with Betty. Previously known as Lucky – as she was saved as a puppy wandering lost in the forest, she was very well named. She certainly has a wild spirit about her as she likes nothing better than to tear off out of the garden chasing after goodness knows what, only to come back three or four hours later covered in goodness knows what! However, she always comes back, eventually. Even if it is three in the morning when she announces her return by howling outside our bedroom window. This time was different. After she had been gone for two days we thought the worst. However, on the third day there was a scratching at the door. She was filthy and half starved but of more concern was a huge gash around her stomach. We think she had been caught in a javeli ( wild boar) trap, which is made of thin wire. We cleaned her up as best we could and took her to the vet. Suffice it to say, after a coarse of antibiotics (intravenously administered by our good selves!) and some tlc, she is already back to her worst.

Betty

Despite all the doom and gloom it’s not all bad. After all, during our electric-free nights, I managed to beat Jackie at scrabble and cribbage and we have our first daffodils of the year – in fact they’ve been in flower for over a week, as well as a clutch of pretty crocuses.

daffs

Rain, frost, wind and thick morning mists – the winter is well and truly here. All the leaves have fallen off the plane tree in the courtyard, the less hardy potted plants are in the barn or polytunnel and little is being done in the way of gardening although a number of (rainless) days have been spent weeding and composting the beds. We still can’t get over how green it is compared to last year but the downpours have seen to that. They’ve also brought out the snails and slugs that they slither towards the baby turnips and swedes. One evening spent collecting the little blighters in a bucket was enough to fork out on some horticultural fleece which is certainly doing the trick.

The veg patch is actually looking quite good at the moment, with most of the beds full or covered in compost. We’re still eating our own potatoes, the colourful chard is going strong and at last some sprouts have formed. Plus the calabrese and cauliflower are ready now too so there’s more variety on our plates at the mo.

But as I walk down the beds in the winter sunshine there’s one plant that beats them all, yes the humble leek is crowned queen of the veg patch. There’s lots of reasons why: firstly, I’ve been growing them from seed for three years now and they’ve never failed. Every little leeklet grows, some bigger than others, but grow they do. Secondly, they take very little looking after. They need watering and weeding but that’s it – no pests to worry about, no supports, no pruning… Thirdly, they stay in the ground for as long as you need them. No need to worry that they’ll be past their best if not pulled out in time, so no storage problems either. In addition they’ll happily put up with whatever the winter throws at them. Plus they’ll reproduce from their own seed so no need to buy any more seed packets. Next year is the first time I’ll be trying this, I have a couple of dried flower heads from some plants left in the ground over the summer so with luck they’ll germinate in the spring. So all in all a fuss free, hardy, reliable cropper. Oh, and they taste good too of course! Long live the leek!

I was just looking back at our blog entries for this time last year. What a difference! This time last year we were having lunch outside and actually bemoaning (slightly) the lack of rain but certainly not the wonderful blue skies. This year we’ve had plenty of rain and not even contemplated eating outside although we have had the odd cuppa and slice of cake in the courtyard – I used up the last of this year’s and indeed last year’s(!) walnuts in a walnut cake this week.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, our oranges are looking good and here is the proof:

oranges

Our plane tree, which we planted in January, has also done rather well. Autumn of course comes later in Portugal than the UK and so it has only just lost its leaves as these pictures show, the leafy photo only taken three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, our Christmas booze is coming along nicely as Jackie has just decanted off the fruit from the sloe gin, and cherry and damson vodkas. I have to say they taste delicious! The elderflower wine is also nearing maturation.

The big hairy one continues to improve and here she is rehabilitating on the sofa…

…and Betty is still on the lookout for trouble…

Well, not that bad really but it hasn’t been a great start to the new year. Along with the disappearing bees our washing machine still isn’t mended and the car won’t start very well. Plus I caught Richard’s cold and have been feeling rather sorry for myself, I haven’t felt this bad for years. At least the rain came while I was in bed all day Sunday, we haven’t had any for weeks and weeks so very welcome it was too especially as new plants and trees have been put in the garden.

Most days have been cloudless though so the frosts keep coming, not as bad as previous winters (no frozen pond) but certainly more frequent. Most of the veg patch seem oblivious to this but the cauliflowers, just getting bigger now, have brown patches although I have pegged down the leaves over the heads to protect them. The calabrese seems totally unaffected.

I’ve decided to grow more potatoes this year. There is already a bed of ‘Jersey Royals’ and now there are 64 Stemster tatties out for chitting which will be put in come March. They’re new for us, red skins and yellow flesh, and are meant to be drought resistant and heat tolerant – let’s see! The only other thing on the go are a load of turnips. I don’t grow them directly in the ground now. Last time, after so many not making it past the slugs and birds, I decided to grow them in individual modules and them pot them on and, when big enough, to transplant in the bed. It’s certainly more of an effort but on a small scale it’s definitely worth it – every turnip came through, so we’re hoping for the same success this time.

The sunny days have fooled the asparagus, quite a few shoots are popping through the straw only to be zapped by the frost. I need to put some more straw down. Today we had the first of the rocket, growing through the spring and summer has never worked, they always bolted. This winter, both in the polytunnel or in the bed outside, they’ve done fine. So of the crops I’ve tried to grow throughout the winter the swede, turnips, kale, chard, calabrese, cabbage, rocket, beetroot (and leeks of course) have all been a success. I hope I can add cauliflower to the list. The peas and broad beans are just growing but I’m really hoping for a good early spring crop.

Otherwise the hens are the happiest here. They’re on green pastures today (having escaped from their last field which they scratched to bare earth) so plenty of chuckles, and eggs, from them. I’m off now to work out which seeds I need to get for the year ahead…

First post of the New Year and we have our first proper frost of the winter. The hens aren’t bothered. In fact after a number of weeks of only three eggs a day, number four hen is back in action and it’s four a day again.

The hairy one is also not bothered about the cold and here she is ears a flappin’!

hairy one at full speed

I’ve been less active however as I started the new year full of a cold. It didn’t stop me from knocking up a couple of birdboxes though.

birdboxes

And also I’m putting a plane tree in the courtyard – it will look good in about 20 years!

Big project for 2012? Operation Porco. Watch this space!

We finish 2011 with some sad news – our bees have buggered off. Or, to put it technically, absconded.

When winter started they were very quiet as expected but some of them were still out and about foraging as normal. We were very lucky as there was plenty of food available as our rosemary bushes were still in flower as was a large eucalyptus tree in the next field to us. Then yesterday they seemed to be very active, chewing up their wax and dropping a lot of it just outside the hive. This morning I checked again and all the bees had disappeared!

Every one had gone leaving behind a healthy-looking hive with plenty of honey and pollen stores. After a bit of web research it’s still not clear what has happened. The presence of wax outside the hive and some telltale signs inside the hive, indicate robber bees – i.e. bees from other hives stealing the honey. But I think they are just opportunistic, stealing the stores after my bees had already skipped off. So I think the bees I saw yesterday were not mine but these new scavengers. Mine had already gone, maybe some time before.

healthy looking comb - a ring of pollen stores and some honey in the corners

Apparently absconding is rare but it does happen – the strange thing is, it is usually a result of some kind of disturbance or when there is a lack of food – neither of which has happened here. I have to say I’m absolutely devastated.

I won’t be defeated though, it’s just back to the drawing board. In the new year I’ll ask around and see if I can find out what has happened and get some more bees. Every cloud has a silver lining however, as there is a fair amount of honey in the hive I can harvest and I can render down some wax to see if we can make a candle or two.

In better news, in the winter sunshine, which we’ve had plenty of, we managed to spend some quality time enjoying the garden and doing some bird watching. What started it off was a rare sighting of a great spotted woodpecker on the walnut tree. It stayed for ages which was great. Then we started to notice loads of other birds. In all in about an hour we saw 14 species: blue tit, great tit, meadow pipit, thrush, goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, sparrow, robin, blackbird, black redstart, pied wagtail and serin. And that’s not including a buzzard which we saw the day before soaring high above the garden as well as long tail tits which often fly through the olive trees in small family groups. No pictures here but they are all on our bird page

I’ve also been busy in the kitchen. I used up some spare tiles to line the kitchen shelves. I have to say it makes cleaning them much easier and looks a lot better too.

tiling the shelves

Of course Jackie has been busy in the garden as ever and here she is doing some weeding ably assisted by the hairy one.

As you can see the veg patch continues to feed us over the colder months and although we’ve pulled the last of the (delicious) turnips up we still have swede, chard (partly grown for its amazing colour), beetroot, leeks and some sprouts on the go. Soon some calabrese will be ready and with luck, some peas. Jersey new potatoes were planted yesterday and Jackie’s also busy planning next year’s crop hoping for an even bigger harvest. The almost daily sunshine this month has meant lunch outdoors but with only a few days rain we’re hoping January will be wetter to water the newly planted trees (shade for the hens) and fill the well but the weather forecast is sun for the next 10 days (we’re only slightly complaining!).

We mustn’t forget the hens who laid a total of 1064 eggs this year and gave us wonderful eggs benedict on Christmas day.

Meanwhile the oranges are growing bigger than ever and we’re both looking forward to new projects we’re planning for 2012 – come and visit and see for yourselves!

So here’s to a Happy New Year to our friends and readers and hope it’s a good, productive and peaceful one!

Feliz ano novo!

It’s thundering down with rain, the wood burning stove is blasting away in the corner and the dog is at my feet – a perfect time to update the blog. Which, in fact, we haven’t done for some time. I suppose because we haven’t done any major projects recently around the place, and it’s a little quiet in the veg patch too. Smaller tasks have been taking up our time: firstly, the chickens are getting bigger and bolder. They are extraordinarily inquisitive and somewhat adventurous. The gap in the fence that surrounds them was for a time filled with a wooden pallet propped closed by a leaning pole. This they loved to climb (and then slide down) and squawked loudly when it was replaced with a proper gate (made by Richard) and latch. One was on the roof of the hen house the other day attempting, in vain, to get at the overhanging branches of an olive tree. There was some alarm last week when I realised they had all disappeared, Richard reassuring me with the fact that there were no bodies anywhere. Faint clucking led me to look over the stone wall and there they all were in the neighbour’s field. It then began to become a regular escapade -  a flutter of wings, a scramble over the brambles and freedom! When their wanderlust took them into the far distance we knew something had to be done. So that part of the wall is now covered with corrugated iron. Watching them approach it the first time was amusing. As soon as they drew near their necks came up, their eyes popped open and they began to complain very loudly! I try and tell them that they already have a large grassy field all to themselves, how lucky they are not to be cooped up all day but they are still a little sulky…

Secondly, we have planted quite a few more trees, mainly fruit, near the pergola. We now have another quince, apple and peach. Plus we have a persimmon and a Christmas tree. This rain will be great for them.

Last year we had the first frost mid December. This year it’s been crunchy underfoot already a few times these past few weeks. The marigold and nasturtiums, which were still bravely going, succumbed immediately. All the peas and beans, left in the soil so as not to have bare earth, turned black as did the leaves of a sweet potato I’d planted a few months ago. However, everything else seems impervious to the freeze, even the lettuce is happy to have frozen frills.

And although it’s a quieter time in the garden there’s still a lot growing. The seeds for the winter growing turnips are just coming through (I do hope they survive) and the onions and garlic sets planted last month all have shoots. These join the onions I bought in plugs, and the ones I’ve grown from seed, so all go on the allium front. Villagers who have the field next to us (that the chickens love) chatted over the stone wall to talk veg. They wanted to know what the very large green things I was growing were. They were referring to the artichokes and purple-sprouting broccoli. I knew the Portuguese for these vegetables but failed to get them to understand what they were, as for explaining how to eat an artichoke…

We’re eating the spinach, leeks, sprouts, swede, turnips, celery and carrots. Plus the calabrese which I’m really chuffed with:

Not forgetting the herbs and now the oranges in the courtyard, which reminds me – it’s also a perfect day to make some marmalade.

So, Thursday came and went with no sign of the builder. We are used to such disappointments, so we were not too disheartened. It was an added shame in that it was the first bright sunny day we had had in ages – but then again it meant a glorious day for getting down to the myriad of things that needed to be done in the garden.

I made another extension to the compost heap as Dolly (our neighbour’s horse) continues to produce poo at a tremendous rate. Apparently horse poo is the best thing for the veggie garden but needs to settle down for 6 months before we can use it. I think by then half our garden will be one huge compost heap. In comparison we are meticulously saving our food scraps in another compost heap which seems to go down as quickly as we put stuff in. A good sign of course as it means it is composting down to rich nutritious ‘stuff’.

This compost will soon be ready for our first ‘raised bed’ which Jackie has been digging over in preparation for our first planting – spuds. Unfortunately however, in her digging she is coming across prodigious amounts of vine weevils which apparently lie in wait to munch through any roots that come their way.

I’ve also been busy digging, taking the turf off an area which will be augmented with the garden shed. Round these parts, sheds and similar buildings are built with bricks, so I shall do the same. I have to say, having no experience in such matters, I fear I will be rather pathetically overwhelmed by this relatively basic task – certainly basic for the locals round here. I am hoping that Luis, our neighbour, will be able to point me in the right direction before I make an absolute idiot out of myself. In the meantime as I brace myself for this larger enterprise, I hope I can build my confidence by erecting an even more menial structure – the cloche. Rather like a miniature poly tunnel. Hopefully a few photos of this will appear here next week.

We have also been experiencing winter frosts. Not quite the thick winter snow of the UK, but this morning we were treated to views of the far valley covered in a white dusting and we had to clear thick frost from the windscreen of the truck. In preparation for the colder days ahead we ordered more wood for the woodburning stove and went on a foraging expedition in the surrounding forest for pine cones. Pine cones are nature’s firelighters. You can understand why forest fires can be so devastating once you see one of these little guys flare up.

For those not accustomed, it may seem strange that winter is the time for another crop – oranges. I have mentioned them in a previous post but loads have now ripened on our trees and we have more orange juice than we know what to do with. As they are really sweet, they are great for eating but not the best for marmelade. However, Jackie has made some anyway and I reckon it’s fine. It’s also good for the mulled wine!

We’ve also been doing a bit more shopping for the house. Today we bought a bedroom set for the spare bedroom and have our eye on a sofa bed for the lounge, so we’ll have plenty of room for guests. Judging by people’s keenness to visit us, I think we’ll need them. Just need to get started on the Bl**dy house now!

By the way, the builder said he was busy finishing off at another place and promised work would start on Monday. We’re not holding our breath.

So the year draws to a close, and how nice that would be if we could say that at last the builders are busy on the house. Alas, that’s not to be – although it does seem that the paperwork is done. Now it’s a matter of getting it all approved, and for that we need the officials to be in their offices… well, it is Christmas I suppose and things do wind down this time of the year…

The weather has turned jolly cold and looking across the valley it was white with frost one morning. Not a great event for many but for me, having lived in more clement climes, it looked lovely, hence the pretty frost pics…

Even the bloody brambles looked nice!

Looking out of a top window from Casa Azul it was great to see so many birds by the big pond, although one looked like it was walking on water – yes, even the big pond had frozen over. This was lunchtime too and the sun had been on it all morning but it was still completely iced up. The pic shows the pond completed before the frost – just to show you what it looks like now filled with water.

And the garden plot has had a lot of work on it now. The last three beds were weeded (and the stones removed), then covered with paper and finally with grass. The idea being that this will prevent the weeds returning (ha!) and also add some nutrients to the soil. The worms should come up and break everything down. For those interested the compost heap has grown (and shrunk), we have made another compost box for all the horse manure we’re collecting (thanks, Dolly), and there is now comfrey root growing in pots (I hope) which will grow huge leaves that make fantastic organic fertiliser. Well, that’s the idea anyway. The most successful gardeners look after the soil rather than the plants, it is said, so at this rate I should have the best produce in town! (When Luis saw us digging up the brambles he scoffed and suggested his tractor friend Tony come round and sprinkle poison over everything!)

Finally, when the sun comes out we get in the pick up and have a run around. The countryside around here really is lovely and we always feel better afterwards. We are spending Christmas down in Lisbon which I’m really looking forward to. So Boas Festas and here’s to a house-building 2010!