Strawberry fields…
Our first strawberry tasted as good as it looked. Sorry, Richard.
Evening sunshine
We were working till late the other day and after finishing walked to the end of the garden – it all looked so nice in the evening sunshine:
The reassuring sound of drilling
The reassuring sound of drilling has resumed at the house. Yes, the builders have returned. We’ve also got the plumber on site and together they are knocking out holes, drilling through walls and digging up floors to lay various pipes for the electricity and plumbing. This will also include central heating and solar powered water heating. The solar heated water is certainly not for economic reasons as it won´t pay for itself for many years but it is something which we always wanted to do.
Of course, work continues on the garden. In addition to the spuds, carrots, onions, leeks etc, Jackie has now planted out beans, peas, cucumbers, courgettes, squash, tomatoes, turnips, broccoli and goodness knows what else. I must say apart from a minor slug attack on the baby rhubarb the whole crop has been remarkably pest free and looks extremely healthy. I wonder how long that will continue for. We are also preparing for our first crop which will be ´oriental leaves´. I´m not sure where we got them from but they are varieties of lettuce as far as I can see. We plan on having them at a barbie at the weekend. Let´s hope the weather is OK.
The weather has actually been perfect for growing things – plenty of sun and rain. In fact despite some friendly joshing from Luis who thought our water tank (see previous post) would take forever to fill, after some pretty heavy rain in the last week (thankfully mostly overnight) we have already collected over 300 litres.
While Jackie has been busy on the veggies, I have turned my attention to rescuing more of the olive trees from ivy and brambles and also some strimming (yet again) – perfect weather for veggies is the same perfect weather for weeds and grass. However, I have also been able to do some landscaping and by using quite a few discarded rocks from the house, I have created the ´peninsula´, a raised area in front of the threshing square. We’ve already planted a few decorative plants in and around it but I think it will take quite some time before it starts to look anywhere near attractive. It’s a start anyway.
In addition to all this, I’ve also made another video (it’s not surprisingly on the video page of the blog). A little update on how the place is coming along. Check it out.
P.S. plums and cherries already starting to appear!! yum yum.
After the sun the rain, after…
It’s typical April weather at the mo, one minute pouring down with rain and another hot and sunny. We’ve managed to make the most of the blue skies though, along with the walk near casa azul we’ve also been geocaching again and managed to find some lovely spots in the country.
We’ll certainly be returning for a dip in the summer. There are loads of these river swimming pools in the region which I think are a fantastic idea, although a touch parky no doubt.
Plus we had our very first meal at the house. Richard dusted off the barbecue and we had huge pork chops and salad, washed down with some vinho verde, in the evening sun. It really was lovely but made me even more impatient to move in (the builders absent both from this blog and the house).
We are also making the most of the rain too. The shed now has guttering and is attached to a huge plastic water tank which fits niftily behind it and away from view and as I type is filling up with water.
And if anyone can identify the wild flowers growing along the drive that’d be much appreciated – I’ve spent far too long googling and got nowhere (although I think it’s a lamiaceae/labiatae)!
A walk in the country
The builders have decided to take another break, so once again the only sounds from the site come from the birds. Unwisely, a pair of redstarts have taken the work hiatus as an opportunity to build a nest in the scaffolding. That won’t last long. As well as being busy on the garden (Jackie will no doubt post an update on that very soon) we have been exploring our neighbourhood, so here are a few photos of a recent walk taken in glorious spring sunshine. Thankfully there are no photos of my milky white legs which were revealed for the first time this year.
Reasons to be cheerful
One: at last at last we have the Internet at our temporary home and what joy! Up until now we’ve been using a dongle on the laptop – the connection was slow (sometimes non existent), we were having to share (no comment) and to do any work on our website or skyping meant driving up the road to get a better connection. Great news.
Two: the builders have been plodding on. We now have new roof beams over the kitchen and some of the tiles have been replaced so that won’t fall down in a few years’ time. We were also really pleased to see that a huge pile of metal junk that we had inherited from the previous owners had been taken away.
Three: we have our shed! We were going to get someone to make a ‘proper’ one from bricks but for various reasons that fell through and I was getting fed up staring at the concrete platform we’d had put in months ago. So when a leaflet came through the letter box from Bricomarché with flat pack sheds we were there in a flash. It took us two full days to do it but we were really chuffed in the end!
We seemed to have nails we didn’t need and not enough screws of a certain size but that didn’t deter us.
I thought the whole thing was going to get blown over at this stage.
And luckily we managed to get two licks of paint on as it’s pishing down today!
Electric
The two blokes on site have continued to work hard over the last few weeks and they have now been joined by the electrician/plumber. Together they’ve managed to do some more demolition work. This time inside the house, digging up the ground and chiselling away at the walls finding gaps to put the electric cabling in. Next up will be the plumbing. Although the house was lived in up until a few years ago there is hardly any electric cabling or water supply in the place so everything has been done from scratch.
Meanwhile Jackie’s veggies are sprouting everywhere, led by the spuds. Every day now she is replanting the youngsters from the kindergarten (the cloches and cold frames) into senior school (the raised beds). Also more and more trees are sprouting, including this one to the left of the pond (see photos below). It’s a fruit tree but we have no idea which. There are about 4 or 5 others we are not sure of either – can’t wait to see if they fruit.
There have also been plenty of birds around including some big predators – black kites, buzzards and harriers. Here I snapped a couple of marsh harriers – not over our land but over some marshland not too far from where we live.
Ah, primavera!
That lovely spring feeling is continuing. It’s strange then to see at first glance what looks like snow, in the trees and the fields. Closer inspection reveals wild plum bushes bursting with white blossom and meadows of daisies.
So the warmer weather has seen us donning those lovely blue dungarees and doing some landscape gardening. The back of the house has a huge mound of enormous rocks and stones from the holes made in the walls so we’ve been using those to make a rockery and discovering a hidden talent for dry stone walling. Not bad, eh?
Meanwhile there are those of you who will be pleased that the first seedlings are sprouting, here broad beans and sweet peas. The leeks are up too and many others beginning to poke through. Our cold frames have been made from the old window frames balanced on breeze blocks.
Plus the super spuds are going from strength to strength, with a second batch not far behind. Helpful Luis handed over a box of some too so, if they all work, they’ll be about 40 plants – a whole bed full of tatties! The tunnel cloche over them was removed today as I decided that it was now warm enough. Not without some trepidation though – the bunnies have been seen with napkins around their necks and a glint in their eyes. The gate has been covered in chicken wire and the other entrance to the veg garden near the house has been blocked off with corrugated iron (not the prettiest of sights but will have to do for now), so fingers crossed! (And we are perfecting a wonderful Nigel Slater rabbit dish just in case…)
The second cloche remains up for the mo protecting onions and carrots although it seems to get very hot inside. I opened one end up the other day and my glasses immediately steamed up… the plastic covering is lifted when we’re around but until I’m convinced that Brer Rabbit and his friends won’t be round for a sneaky supper it’s staying put. We’re really looking forward to having a barbecue in the garden in the not too distant future – coelho kebabs, perhaps?
Spring has sprung
As predicted, with the roof completed, the weather remains fine and no rain forecast. In fact it has been glorious weather to do a bit of gardening. Jackie is now worried that it may be too hot for the spuds which are coming on great guns under the cloche. And most of the fruit trees have now burst into life with blossom all over the garden. Soon we may even be able to tell which fruit trees we actually have.
Despite threats from the builders that work would stop on the house for another break, my pleading seems to have done the trick and we still have two workers continuing on site. They have started on the rendering/plastering the walls inside and out.
We’ve also got the electrician/plumber starting soon. The forward slash is because it’s actually the same person. It seems strange to me but apparently it is the norm in Portugal. Anyway, he has been round the house with us and now knows where all the plug points, sockets, sinks etc will be. Hopefully he will be starting work very soon…
A roof over our heads (part 2)
Finally, we’ve got the tiles on the roof! Now they are up I don’t expect any more rain for the rest of the year. I can’t understand why the builders didn’t put up them up earlier as they only took a day to do it in the end. Ah well, done now – so hopefully the inside can now dry out.
The extension is also taking shape. After finishing the walls to the study downstairs, the bricky is now working on the bathroom upstairs so that should be ready for the plumber soon.
Meanwhile the garden is blooming wonderful. The fruit trees have sprung into life with buds appearing everywhere. In fact, our first plum blossom is out (proof below) and the others are not far behind.
We’ve also built a small fence. It separates the veggie patch from the rest of the garden. Jackie reckons it will keep out the rabbits and javeli (wild boars) and keep in the sheep (we plan on getting some of these at some stage in the future). I’m not so sure but as we’ve planted vines and a redcurrant bush against it at least it should provide some fruit.
