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…
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,…