My parents are with us at the moment and if they thought it was going to be one long holiday they have had a surprise: there’s work to be done on the farm! I did tell my dad before arriving that building the chicken coop would be a project for him but rather than taking a few days to do it’s taken a matter of hours because he cheated and brought a flat pack one with him!
With Richard at hand to help and a couple of Bosch boys’ tools they had it all up before lunch. They were both rather pleased with themselves and well deserved the extra large portions of courgette cake.
So have hen house, just need the chickens. Meanwhile the field where the chickens are to live had become a jungle: tall thistles and giant species of weeds had taken over and then dried to death in the endless sun. I eventually persuaded Richard to get the strimmer out and then we raked it over. It looked like an 18th century pastoral scene (except for the baseball hat):
We’re getting the galinhas next Saturday. The local agricultural co-operative has given us some help about where to get them, their age and feed. Can’t wait!
We’ve been so busy this week we haven’t had time to put up an anniversary blog entry. We flew into Portugal on September 11, 2009 (an easy date to remember) to begin our new life and here we are a year later in our wonderful home. The reason for the lack of postings? Well, we’ve been enjoying ourselves! We’ve had my sister, Sue and brother-in-law, Kevin over to stay. While they were here we swam in the sea at Figueira da Foz and in the river at Zezere and went for walks in the countryside including one with a new bunch of Portugal friends near the beautiful village of Dornes. We also returned to the ancient town and castle at Tomar. I usually keep these non Casa Azul activities to my regular Portugal blog but I thought I’d slip these photos in here anyway.
Kevin, Sue and Richard on the beach at Figueira da fozJackie and Sue in the Rio Zezere"Portugal friends" above the village of Dornes
All this of course doesn’t stop activity in the garden and kitchen and Jackie has been as busy as ever tart making. Although our tiny fig tree is not yet ready to start producing there are loads of fig trees near our house to plunder and right now they are all in fruit. Here is a delicious fig tart Jackie made recently. She has also been making Courgette cakes which are the business. When she is next out of the kitchen, I’ll make sure she puts finger to keyboard and gets the recipe on our recipe page.
fig tart
Other news: Well the hot chillies are finally going red as are the sweet peppers. We will have a final flush of tomatoes before they finish and sadly we have had our last fresh cucumber (pickled ones will be ready soon). But as we have now been here for a year we can look forward to the crops we first harvested last year – the walnuts will soon be ready and then we are into the olive harvest. Can’t wait!
Just as we were leaving to go out last night I noticed what I thought at first was a large, low, grey cloud billowing behind the hill with the wind turbines. Then I could smell smoke. Sure enough, there was a fire raging in the distance, and the wind turbines showed clearly that it was coming in our direction.
I must confess to feeling some unease. We decided not to cancel the invitation out but to take the longer scenic route where we could see where the fire was. Luckily for us it was further away than I first thought. When we drove home I was convinced we would see it glowing red on the horizon – but nada. However, this morning the garden was covered with a fine sprinkling of ash.
And today the choppers are out again. This one was flying right over the house having emptied its huge bucket of water. I think the bombeiros (firefighters) are amazing, already one has lost her life fighting some of the worst summer fires Portugal has seen. Meanwhile the thermometer was reading 34 in the shade, in the sun it shot up to the maximum 55 in no time so have no idea what it is really. The forecast is for the temperatures to steadily fall, with rain in a week’s time. That, for me, would be a welcome change. No doubt for the bombeiros too.
The summer heat is here – the plants are wilting, helicopters hover overhead laden with water for forest fires and the wind feels like a giant hair dryer. Just the kind of heat that makes you crave a dip in a cool river beach. Hurrah! then for the numerous river beaches in central Portugal – another fantastic one we were taken to the other day. No salt, no chlorine, just clear, fresh water and some amazing scenery:
The heat has meant all garden work is done early in the morning after a spot of bird watching. The birds haven’t always been welcome visitors though and CDs and aluminium foil have been hung up around the runner beans whose flowers are all disappearing. The swedes and turnips will have to be sown again having been eaten by flea beetles and a cat has dug up the chard seedlings. However, more carrots have come through, more onions are in the ground and, in lots of little pots, cabbage, calabrese and cauliflower are waiting to go in the old legume bed (rotation, rotation). We’re now eating the dwarf french beans – from seed to stomach in seven weeks – so I’m hoping that this ignoring the seed packet sowing dates will work for everything else as well.
One buttercup squash refuses to die which is great as we’ve already eaten quite a few of them already. The flowers are always open in the morning to greet me and the bees:
It’s been great collecting the day’s produce. The courgettes plants have come alive again and so we had courgette fritters for lunch (which were fantastic) and the courgette cake was a success too. We were also really pleased with our second melon. The first one wasn’t quite ripe and so we waited a week and had another go. Looks like melon for pud for the next few weeks…
Our chillies are eventually turning red (but, stubbornly, not the sweet peppers). Initially I’d put them in a metal dish (as recommended on a UK website) to dry in the sun only to discover that they’d cooked! Hanging them up in the hot air seems to be working much better:
Richard has been making a great som tam salad using courgettes instead of papaya although the chillies so far haven’t been quite as hot as he’d like. The barbecued aubergines make a great moutabal too, I’m hoping the tahini we brought over with us from Jordan is ok still! Oh yes, we’re eating quite a few of the sprouts. Here’s hoping there’s enough growing for Christmas!
Things have been a bit quiet on the farm this week so I’ve had time to sort a few of the photos of our trials and tribulations over the past 6 months and have put them on a new page: Photoblog I hope you enjoy them.
However, no time for slacking. Our guest bedroom will be seeing its first guests very soon – we await the imminent arrival of our friends from Lisbon, Jo and Nigel. They will be followed in September by my sister Sue and brother-in-law Kevin, and hot on the heels of them will be Jackie’s parents.
The pond has been abandoned a little but despite a somewhat murky appearance seems to be doing well. We had made it to attract the frogs and this has yet to happen but as there seems to be so few slugs that’s no big deal. What has happened though is that it has become a magnet for the birds who like nothing more than a big splashy bath to start the day. There can be up to five different kinds battling for a place on ‘the beach’ including tits, (blue and great), goldfinches, robins, serins, blackbirds, greenfinches, sparrows and black redstarts plus their scruffy young. Pictures to follow. My favourite at the moment is the linnet although not a common sight. A hoopoe flew by the other day, and there are jays too.
There are quite a few plants growing well and the lily has produced its second yellow flower – very pretty:
But nowhere near as pretty as the red dragonflies:
They look bizarre close up with a giant bobbing head and filigree wings, kind of fascinating but creepy at the same time!
NB Have a butchers on the video page as there’s a new one with the (pretty much) finished house.
…or rather the pigeon! The only thing remaining to be done on the house was to have a couple of doves / pigeons perched on the roof. With those we would pay the very last of the builder’s fee. And last night they arrived and with them a feeling of completion; there is of course hundreds of things still to be done but by us rather than others. The bird on the roof, the cherry on the cake. Actually, they weren’t exactly what we wanted. Many of the old houses here have ones with wings outstretched as though they are about to take off, but on reflection I like these modern sedentary ones – they look calm and settled, one looking north and the other south.
When Richard asked me to update the blog I realised that I never took any photos when the veg patch was looking it’s best. At one time it was teeming with produce and flowers but I think I was so busy picking and then cooking, bottling, pickling etc that I forgot. Anyway here are some that give you an idea of what’s happening now. All the beans have finished. The borlotti beans and runner beans have been dried for winter use, everything else was eaten. But it seemed strange to me not to have any more growing, so I set about sowing some more and in this heat they have all come through in record time. So a second round of peas, dwarf beans, french beans and runner beans are on the go:
Meanwhile the cherry toms have almost finished but we still have ‘golden sunrise’ and ‘tigerella’ coming through:
What else? The sweet corn have all been eaten – when I found out there was only one cob per plant I thought I wouldn’t grow those again but in fact they were so delicious that I may well do them again next year. I’m pleased with the aubergines and peppers (there are sweet peppers, chilli peppers and red hot chilli peppers) and the melons will be ready soon we hope.
The Brussels sprouts are slowly taking over from the courgettes which are still producing but flagging:
I’m not sure how successful the companion planting was but the nasturtiums did indeed have loads of aphids on when other plants didn’t, and the bees loved the marigolds which have grown enormous. The flowers have made the garden really colourful, both plants were a range of reds, yellows and vibrant oranges.
However, I’m aware that these pics have made the veg patch look more attractive than it is. It’s midsummer here of course and not having had any rain for weeks means that the land is bone dry and turning a paler shade of yellow:
Our next project is organising the ground around the house, we’re thinking of simply getting some earth and encouraging grass and flowers to grow (with a sign up saying no weeds) because the birds come right up towards the windows as they can’t see us inside and that’s great. Meanwhile, Richard is relaxing:
After two weeks in the house we still haven’t finished unpacking. And no, we haven’t just been lazing around enjoying our new home. In fact I think we’ve been busier these two weeks than ever before. Jackie has finished painting and I have finished the shelving – not only the mammoth bookcase in the lounge but various shelves in the kitchen and a bit of work in the bathroom. My electric drill has been a constant buzz around the house.
bookcase is still standing after a day
We have also completed shelving for the pantry which now holds a whole raft of various preserves, chutneys etc in addition to home grown veggies including some rather large prize-winning (but possible inedible) marrows.
This weekend saw us down in Lisbon where we were once again very well taken care of by our friends Jo and Nigel. Not a complete jolly however, as we needed some stuff from Ikea. Mainly lights for the bathroom and bedroom but also various other necessities that only the big city superstore can provide. Of course, sod’s law took over and they were all out of the lights we were after but still we managed to spend almost 400 euros. We spent 700 last time and on neither occasion did we buy any furniture (except for a kitchen table and TV stand).
With the shelves up, all Jackie’s kitchen stuff is organised and our books unpacked. So all that remains are our clothes (the carpenter still hasn’t finished the wardrobe) and then the final thing will be to hang the pictures and find room for our knick knacks – sorry, objets d’art. Oh and there is still a bit of work for the hired hands – the local blacksmith has to put in the main gate and the builder install the “Pombals” – pottery pigeons which adorn the corners of the roof and which is a local tradition. I think only then can we say we have really moved in.
Veggie update: We’ve been eating sweetcorn almost every day as it has ripened and can’t be stored fresh. Needless to say it is absolutely delicious. The salad stuff is going strong and I can’t believe it but the fruits of another plum tree have ripened. That’s five varieties and all taste very different.
tomatoes going stronga couple for "That's life"
The chillies are turning red and the aubergines are coming on. This is the moment that Jackie has been waiting for – to prepare a meal totally from garden produce – it will be a ratatouille, with aubergines, courgettes, onions, olive oil, peppers, garlic and herbs and if I have any say, a red hot chilli pepper as well . We shall see.
So, stage one is essentially over – the main fabric of the house is completed. and from these photos taken in January we have come a fair way in six months:
But we have more immediate concerns. Having been totally ensconced in the structure of the house we have temporarily forgotten the veggie patch. And now we have discovered lots of it needs eating. Namely: Tomatoes, cucumbers, broad beans, french beans, borlotti beans, runner beans, courgettes, chillies, aubergines, lettuces, onions, garlic, cabbages, spinach, carrots, turnips, sweetcorn and we even think the brussel sprouts are ready. Three months ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile the celery, rhubard, currents of various hues, artichokes, asparagus and lord knows what else is on its way. Needless to say one of the rooms that needs seeing to now is the pantry and some storage needs to be created.
