the story of Casa Azul

The never ending battle with brambles and ivy

October 5, 2009 richard Comments 0 Comment

Need I mention the fact that the plans for our house renovation are still to be finalised?

But of course it means we can break our backs on the other thing – namely the garden. Slowly but surely we are claiming it back from the jungle. Toni’s tractor has done a good job but there are still brambles everywhere you look. It is seemingly a never ending battle as the roots go on and on. In addition to the brambles we have also freed a number of the olive trees from the ivy which was slowly strangling them. I’ve also cleaned up the threshing square from the same invasive weed.

We’ve also been busy lopping. Mainly lopping the dead bits off the olive trees. This means we’ve got loads of this excellent burning-wood stored away for the winter fire.

Using the smaller branches, all those bramble bushes and various other detritus, we’ve built up a huge pile ready for a bonfire. I don’t know whether I can wait till November 5th but Jackie is very worried that I might set off a forest fire as the flora all around is still tinderbox dry.

That may soon change though because as I type I can here the splatter splatter of our first Autumn rains and more is forecast for the next few days. It actually makes a pleasant change from the fierce heat we’ve been enjoying recently. I don’t know how long the pleasure will last though. I left the UK many years ago to avoid the cold and wet and I’m slightly concerned about the onset of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) despite this being Southern Europe.

To end on a more positive note we have enjoyed the first cooked fruits of our land. We’ve had plenty of raw fruit but hadn’t cooked anything until Jackie put some (actually all) of our crop of pears into a crumble. So delicious it was that it didn’t last even long enough to pose for a photo.

The rough with the smooth

September 30, 2009 Jackie Comments 5 comments

It’s been easy to feel frustrated – there’s nothing doing on the house at all as we’re still waiting for the plans to be finished. In many ways the glorious weather has added to our exasperation – it would be so much easier getting the roof done in the sunshine. No doubt the builders will start as soon as it rains… anyway, it’s important to realise too that we have achieved such a lot already. We now have two compost heaps, one for leafmould and one for normal compost:Don’t laugh – we are taking this very seriously!

Secondly, there’s been a lot of chopping, sawing and general tree bashing. We have two saws (one which is already bent) plus a horrid chainsaw, but at least that means we have plenty of logs for the wood burning stove to keep us warm during the cold, winter months. trees We have one neighbour – Sr Luis and his wife Laurinda live in a new flash house opposite us. There’s nothing Luis likes better than leaning on the wall and giving us advice, basically telling us what we’re doing is wrong. In fact, there is something he likes doing better – and that’s popping over and helping out. So he was in his element with his big orange tractor helping us to remove all the huge stones in the land. And then we couldn’t stop him from knocking over the old pigsty (or whatever it was) which is now a big pile of broken cement blocks.It was Luis who got Tony round (they’re both 71!) to pulverise all the weeds and brambles with his big red tractor. tonys One area is now home for the raised beds. These have been covered with carpets pulled up from the bedrooms with the aim of killing the weeds (although we have yet to find someone who thinks this will work) and so our next task is to find some manure… At the end of the working day we usually find ourselves in a little bar (at home with the other workers in our dirty clothes and big white truck) downing a bottle of Sagres and a pastel de nata or two. Today we celebrated buying 82 square metres of terracotta floor tiling for 7 Euros a square metre, surely a bargain? beers We have also found time to visit the different local markets, numerous construction material sites and garden centres, and go on a long walk into the hills and forest behind where we are staying for the time being. Oh yes, we also went to the local festa where the main attraction was… tractors. Ah, country life!

Indian Summer?

September 28, 2009 richard Comments 0 Comment

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.

pears

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.

field

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.

Week One

September 19, 2009 richard Comments 0 Comment

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.

car
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.

fruit

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.

pork
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.

Hello Portugal

September 14, 2009 richard Comments 4 comments

At last the moment has arrived! We touched down in Lisbon on a glorious sunny day. We stayed one night in Lisbon with friends and then headed up to our new home-to-be. As anticipated it looks rather different to when we were here in May. The ground is quite dry and brown but a few of the unrecognisable trees from May are now laden with fruit – apples, pears, peaches and walnuts. All over the area are entanglements of briars with redcurrents and the smallest blackberries I have ever seen. The only fruit trees that are yet to ripen appear to be the oranges and olives.

We also moved into our temporary accommodation. It’s quite an attractive house on the side of a small valley with views over to the small village of Via Vai with its local church which gives out a pleasant little tune on the half hour. That and the occasional bark of dogs and constant twitter of birds are the only noise. We rented the place from a Dutch lady who took us to the local store so we could get some groceries. As it happens the store was run by the parents of the guy who has drawn the plans for our house. We also met some locals – half of which seem to be English. Not exactly what we had come for but they knew what it was like to start here afresh and were very friendly and helpful.

We arrived on Saturday, so our honeymoon period has been a couple of days driving round and acclimatising ourselves. Reacquainting ourselves with one of the main reasons we came here – the wonderful countryside of forests, hills and rivers. But now, on Monday, the work begins! We have to track down our elusive architect to see how planning permission is coming along and check with the lawyer that everything is in order (and that we actually own the house!). Also the practicalities – first thing is we need to buy a pickup and get some sort of internet connection. Also work out our postal address and liaise with the shipping company to ensure that we have the papers in order to import our stuff. We also need to go to the bank and transfer over some more money to pay for these things. It’s going to be a busy day so no more blogging time…

Goodbye Jordan

September 7, 2009 richard Comments 3 comments

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!

plans

August 7, 2009 richard Comments 1 comment

Got the first draft plans. They look very sketchy and we are going to make a few changes but apparently they are all we need to get planning permission from the local council after which we can start work. As it’s now August and Portugal is officially ‘closed’ we are not holding our breath for approval.

The rooms look a bit small but I think that is only because the walls are nearly two foot thick (0.5 metre). Now we just need to fine tune them and then get the more detailed plans for the electricity, water etc.

Meanwhile Jackie is working on plans for the garden and has already laid out the positions for her ‘raised beds’ and polytunnel…

preparations

July 24, 2009 richard Comments 3 comments

It’s been three weeks since we became the official owners of Casa Azul and preparations are advancing. Our lawyer has continued to be very industrious on our behalf – he’s had to register the house with the various official bodies, make an application to conservation services and apply for an IMI exemption. Hopefully our architect is also busy preparing some draft plans for the house. They are due to be produced last week.

Meanwhile me and Jackie have been busy as well. Although Jackie is currently doing some teacher-training in Palestine for the British Council, she has found time to decide what sort of chickens she wants – latest option is some white fluffy variety as far as I can tell. I have been given instructions on how to make a chicken coop. I’m thinking though that perhaps a waterproof roof for ourselves may be more important than one for the chickens. I have, however, bought a rather hefty DIY manual and currently reading about why I would need a nibbler, grout spreader and power jig.

I’m also trying to learn Portuguese. One thing I’ve learnt is that you really need a heavy cold to get the pronunciation of those nasal sounds correct (there are 14 different ones according to my little book).

At least the dates have been set. My last day in the office will be 31st August and we fly back to the UK on 1st September. We are then in Isle of Man and Jersey before beginning the Portuguese adventure for real on 11th September.

..and now the agony

July 10, 2009 richard Comments 0 Comment

Buying a house in Portugal is fairly straightforward. Well, as straightforward as anywhere, which is rarely straightforward. We had been recommended a lawyer, Dr. D. An amazingly ebullient character with his own brand of humour and a colourful handle on the English language. We couldn’t complain about that as I spoke no Portuguese and Jackie only a smattering from her time as a volunteer in Angola many years previously. He was extremely helpful though and with his sidekick he whisked us around the small market town of Ansiao getting registered at the fiscal services and opening a bank account. Although it took us hours to open the account it was actually easier in terms of documentation we had to produce than the UK. Perhaps our stamina in the face of form filling was enough to prove to the Portuguese authorities that we weren’t money launderers.

The following morning we signed our lives over to Dr. Delphim in the form of a power of attorney and headed back to Jordan.

The next month was quite painful. There were problems contacting the seller’s lawyer and we had to have a survey, not of the house but of the land. This was because the land was taxed by size and so owners often registered their land with the tax authorities as much smaller than the reality. In our case it turned out to be bigger! There was also a problem with the promissory contract which we eventually decided to not do. Through all this we learned that nothing happens very quickly in Portugal and you constantly have to hound people to get anything done.

Finally, the date was set for the final signing, that of the Escrituria Publica, on June 25^th. Then this was changed to 2.30pm on Tuesday 30^th June. Then our lawyer phoned to say that there was another problem due to the fact that me and Jackie weren’t married. Again, not a problem with a house but a problem with the land and not a problem in the neighbouring municipalities – only the one where our house happened to be. However, our lawyer said he knew the municipality lawyer and could appeal the decision and get everything back on track.

So, on Friday 3^rd July everything was signed, sealed and delivered. There is one further problem but we are told it is minor and the house is ours! The champagne which had been on ice for a month was finally opened, our flights booked, my superiors at the British Council informed of my leaving. After 11 years at the British Council my last day in the office was set for 31^st August 2009.

dream to reality

July 4, 2009 richard Comments 8 comments

This is the story of a house called Casa Azul. It’s an old farmhouse situated in a village called Galega near the town of Penela near the city of Coimbra in central Portugal. Our part of the story starts in May 2009.

Me (Richard) and my partner (Jackie) had a dream in common with many others. A dream to live in the country, to grow our own food and live the relaxed but healthy life away from the stresses and strains of the modern world. Like most people we felt it would remain a dream.

However, we went on holiday to Portugal and started having a look around to see whether our dream may enter the realms of possibility. We didn’t hold that much hope as we had been to Andalucia, Spain, the year before with the same dream. The same dream that had become reality, or perhaps a nightmare for thousands of Brits beforehand. It didn’t suit us – too dry, too many expats. So anyway, undeterred, we rented a holiday cottage in the village of Alvorge and spent a few days driving around the countryside.

Immediately we could see this was different. The countryside was attractive, there were plenty of rustic but decrepit farmhouses which might suit us perfectly. We saw a couple of local estate agents, we did our own exploring but by 10^th May we had decided that after all our dream home wasn’t there. We were happy in Jordan (where I worked for the British Council), we could spend another year there and renew our search maybe next year.

We had however, made arrangements to see one more estate agent the following day. Might as well see what he had. We had already decided to curtail our search but we had nothing to lose, we had no other plans.

It was a wet and dreary day. We drove up a narrow country lane. We could see the house coming into view. The roof sagged. That wasn’t good. It would need replacing and fast. The gate was firmly stuck. The house obviously didn’t want any visitors. It hadn’t been lived in (by humans) for 4 years. We eventually gained access. We had a look around, poked in all the nooks and crannies. We disturbed a bird which had made a nest in one of the rooms. There was a hole in the roof and green fungus growing down the wall. It had a barn though, there was lots of land, about an acre. It pretty much ticked all the boxes but I had already made my decision to not stay, I was feeling tired and wet. Jackie turned her back on me. She obviously didn’t want me to see her face.

We saw a couple more places which weren’t much cop, said goodbye to the estate agent and went off for lunch.

Jackie was quiet over lunch at first. I was fairly happy. We had seen a suitable place but I was comfortable with our decision to go home and carry on our lives as before. However, over lunch, Jackie became more animated and we both started saying things like, “the roof could be replaced quite easily”, “there’s so much land, we could have a great garden, pond and there are already a number of fruit trees – almonds, oranges, peaches.” “The kitchen is huge and already has an old bread oven.” “We could convert the barn into guest accommodation.” “Let’s just have another look this afternoon.”

The following morning, the 12^th May, we saw it again, just to make sure. Bathed in sunshine looking out over the land, I telephoned the landlord. “We’ll take it”. Our dream was slowly becoming reality.