The view of the valley from our house has two distinct parts. To the west there are olive trees and a huge pine. It remains green all year round. But to the east there are chestnuts and a variety of different oaks. Some of the oaks already have bright green leaves, others are just appearing and some are still completely bare. In the late afternoon sun they all look splendid although more autumnal than vernal. It has, it must be…
Gosh, where to start, perhaps with Happy New Year! December was a good month in many ways. The weather was kind for the main part which meant we could get out and about. Highlights included the fabulous new restaurant Richard found across the border where we can have marvellous seafood while looking over towards the coast. We spotted turnstones scuttling around on their orange legs, scavenging among the barnacled rocks. Other coastal birds we struggle to name. Back home, however,…
We had a pond at Casa Azul. The initial idea was to encourage frogs and such to take care of the slugs in the veg patch, but it became a huge magnet for birds in a way we never imagined. We also had snakes, salamanders and even deer visiting one night. It got a little out of hand in our rewilding phase during the Covid years but we have always wanted to repeat that here at Casa Lima. We have…
For those of you who thought we were a bit smug last post will be pleased to hear it has been a very wet month. We have had 365mm of rain, this is compared to 274mm for October 2023. That’s 24 rain days over the month. Fortunately, this area of Portugal has avoided the awful flash floods and storms which areas of Spain are still suffering from. One of the annual events we look forward to here is Laurear a…
I suppose we have to start with Betty. She’s had a lump on her back leg for a number of years now, it’s never affected her walking (or indeed chasing after anything) so we’ve not bothered to have it seen to. Then over the last few weeks it became larger and redder and she seemed a tad lethargic. A wound appearing meant we had no choice but to take her to the vet’s to have the lump removed. Given her…
In many traditional Portuguese houses the ground floor was often used for non-living purposes: keeping animals, storing foodstuffs, making wine etc. The house next to our rented one was full of their produce: onions hanging in plaits from wooden beams, potatoes supported in hessian sacks, wooden boxes full of eggs, buckets and buckets of dried beans; it was choc-a block with goodies and cobwebs. This house, Casa Lima, used the ground floor for making wine. It contained huge wooden barrels,…
So now that we have settled in, I’m using that term very loosely, our attention has turned to the outside area. We have land front and back of the house which still looks exceedingly scruffy, there’s still some builders’ stuff lying around and mounds of gravel. So perhaps, when we look up in our guide book to identify the plants coming through, we should not be surprised by the phrase occurs especially on wasteland. We also have a lower field….
Saturday 18 May: it was raining. The car was packed, yet again, with more of our stuff but this time we had Betty with us, squidged in between boxes and bags. When we arrived the heavens opened and we all three stared at the house, rather reluctant to get out. A break in the downpour saw us leap out and into the house to be welcomed by the view of the valley beyond. It was our first day in the…
I just checked when the blog was last updated: 28 March, so not even 3 weeks and yet (fanfare please) it seems a lot longer because so much has been done. First of all we have an anniversary (to celebrate?). 11 April 2023 was the first day work started on the house. Let’s remind ourselves what is looked like on that day: The crane had been up a while but the first thing they did was remove the doors. And…
March has remained a somewhat gloomy month overall. We have had both breaks in the rain and workers back on site but we have reluctantly realised that we won’t be moving in next month. We had a long meeting with the builder last week. He seemed to suggest that most things would either get done straightaway or very shortly but that really doesn’t seem to be the case. Two big things have happened though: firstly, the windows and doors have…