Regular readers will know that we bought our ‘roasties’ five weeks ago when they were four weeks old. The bloke at the market reckoned they would be ready to slaughter right about now, so yesterday we caught the biggest two and took them to our ever helpful neighbours Luis and Laurinda. Luis is in charge of the fruit and veggies but it is Laurinda who deals with the animal husbandry. I will spare you the details but I have to admit me and Jackie were both just a little bit queezy by the end but also proud to return from across the lane with two dispatched, plucked and gutted chickens. The biggest was 2.7kgs fully dressed (or rather undressed?!) so not a bad size I’m sure you will agree.
Richard plus birdRichard with Dona Laurinda and LuisLaurinda with the chicken in the 'mata frango' ready for the chopJackie plucking
So that I don’t forget what I’ve learned (yes, Jackie has retreated somewhat and chickens are now solely my responsibility!), I killed and gutted another one today myself and didn’t do too bad a job I think.
Here is the rather picturesque setting under a willow tree where the dirty deed was done.
Double meaning for this post. Jackie mentioned in the last one that June was rather unseasonable. Well next week the forecast is for it to go to 37 degrees (that’s in the shade). And also although it’s not been too hot, it has still been very dry, meaning that quite suddenly everything has taken on a golden hue. Or if you are less romantic, everything is drying up and going brown. We don’t have much water here so we let the grass die. Many of the flowers and blossoms have come and gone but we still have the roses and the lavender which look great and provide much needed colour.
roses and lavender
The other roastie of the title is ‘the roasties’ – the chicks we bought just over a week ago. Well, they are certainly meant for the table because they are eating like trojans and putting on plenty of meat. Only a few weeks to go till chop time! As it is heating up they even have a little shade – what luxury!
But they are not the only birds around. Remember I mentioned the collared doves? Well I found their nest – it’s at the top of an old olive tree. A bit difficult to observe (and to photograph) but we have seen two chicks. Also the parents have become quite tame and despite my dishevelled appearance will even accept a few crumbs from my outstretched arm.
Of course the harvesting is now in full flow. Not least the plums. the yellow ones and the red ones have come at the same time this year so we are frantically using them up before they all fall and go off. I have made a number of plum crumbles and Jackie has been busy bottling plum cordial.
Of course we are still getting 4 eggs from our hens every day regular as clockwork and are managing to barter them for our neighbour’s meat pies now!
And we are still managing to get out and about a bit so here is a pic of my two girls and the beautiful Portuguese countryside.
…OK a bit premature but over the last couple of weeks the veggies have sprung to life. We’ve been eating the strawberries for a while, the delicious raspberries have now come on stream and the cherries have already come and gone. Admittedly ours were rather small like last year. And of course just like last year, Luis, with a big smile on his face, came over with a huge punnet of plump ones for us. Back to our veg, the artichokes and purple sprouting broccoli have come and gone but now we’ve got potatoes, onions, garlic and various beans and peas. Oh, and those triffids from last year are back and already producing like no tomorrow – the courgettes. And that’s just the start. There are plenty of other veggies on their way as well. Jackie will follow with a full update soon.
plums
In addition to veggies, the tree fruits are coming through. The plums should be ready soon and although the main pear tree (and apple tree) may well disappoint (the aphids have been extremely busy this year), we found a rather sickly young pear tree at the end of the garden last year and after some careful nurturing looks like it will come good.
pear
I only hope our electrician returns and connects the electricity to the barn as our new chest freezer is ready and waiting for excess produce. Talking of the barn – that is finished (but still needs painting) as is the patio. And I must say the front of the house finally looks pretty good. However, unlike in the UK, we haven’t seen the builders for a while and I still owe them 1000 Euros!
Jackie has also been busy making Elderflower champagne. Despite exploding bottles – glass and even plastic (see below) we have salvaged a fair amount and I must say it’s pretty good. Next up the quince wine.
explosive device
Apologies for no posts over the last two weeks but we’ve had Jackie’s parents staying and we’ve been quite busy. So has Jackie’s dad. He very kindly brought over a new henhouse for our proposed table birds (chickens for eating) and he also made a run for them while he was here.
New chicken run
Having them over has also meant me and Jackie (and the hairy one) managed to get away for a few days for some camping while they looked after the hens. As this blog is focussed on casa Azul, I won’t go into details but we had a great time and below are some photos.
campsite near Marvaoin the Rio Zezere
And to wrap up this blog entry – garden wildlife. It looks like the black redstarts won’t be making a nest in the postbox this year but we do have a couple of collared doves in the garden. I presume the nest must be here somewhere but we haven’t found it yet. Watch this space!
One of the strangest features of Casa Azul has been a large stone, standing in the courtyard. Well this week we took it down. It went as part of patio project stage 2. Now we’ve done the barn we are paving part of the courtyard and turning it into a small patio area. The stone was in the way but we wanted to keep it so we’ve turned it into a stone seat. Very nice it looks too.
monolith in placemonolith gonepatio coming along nicely
After the recent, much needed, heavy rain a surprising thing happened. I found some puffball mushrooms at the bottom of the garden. Autumn was so dry we didn’t get any mushrooms but here they are now. I’d never eaten them before and I must admit they were rather a disappointment. Like creamy tofu.
puffball mushroom
Much tastier, I am sure, will be our honey and on the latest inspection, the bees are really going for it. Keen readers will know that we started off with one box (the brood box) and after the bees had settled down we added a second on top. Between the two was a queen excluder. This is a wire frame that stops the queen from going “upstairs”. Therefore she concentrates on laying eggs and making new bees in the bottom box while the workers fill up the top with honey. And after a few short weeks the bees have been busy making honey comb in the top box and filling it with honey. As can be seen in the photo below. This is just one frame of ten, so we are hoping they will all be full by July and ready for harvesting. Thinking of which, I’ll have to do some reading and work out how to do it.
honeycomb
Never mind honey bees, we also have a carpenter bee making its home in the pergola. I’ll try and get a photo of the bee soon (it’s a big black hairy thing like a bumble bee). The nest itself is just a small perfectly round hole which the bee has chewed out of the frame.
We’ve also got a wasp making a nest in the potting shed!
wasp nest
With the rain and now more sun, the veggie garden is taking off. Here are the spuds in all their glory. And thanks to the polytunnel we have been eating strawberries for weeks (admittedly only about 6 or 7 a week) and have enjoyed plenty of artichokes.
Of course warmer weather means the smell of summer is here – yes the barbie!
Most of the locals have small tractors but we’ve got one old boy who still uses the old ways.
Couldn’t resist putting in this photo of the hairy one enjoying a puddle. They won’t be here for much longer.
And of course the wild flowers are still a joy. The poppies are coming up now but we still have a few orchids about. We’re not sure whether this one is a bee orchid or woodcock.
So much for summer – this week has seen plenty of rain, which is fantastic for all the plants and the well is well on the way to filling up. We’ve also had more friends staying. This time a fully fledged family. My old school friend Simon, his wife Paula and two sons Lucas and Sam. It was great to see them and there was a break in the clouds long enough to go for a very pleasant walk.
Meanwhile, the barn has been finished. Or at least sports a new roof and plastered walls. Just needs a lick of paint now.
barn when we first saw the house
And despite the hectic lifestyle there’s still time to relax…
We’ve now had at least 2 weeks of blazing hot sun with temps in the mid to high twenties. Surely it can’t go on? One thing we are already worried about is our water bill. With no rain in (April!), July, August and September and with loads of thirsty veggies, it soon mounts ups.
We do have a well, but it only stores water and doesn’t access any groundwater. It’s over 5 metres deep but the pipe, which feeds it with rainwater from the roof, comes in quite low down and leaks water out, so my first job was to get down there and cement up the hole. This should mean we can get more water in. Fortunately the ever reliable Luis had a ladder long enough to go all the way down. I can tell you that water was cold!
So with that done, next up was getting the water to the veggies. For that I bought a pump to get water from the well and into a tank on top and then a system of pipes from the tank to the veggies. In addition, I needed small plugs which drip feed the water to the plants. I can tell you, that stretched my Portuguese to the limit (I now know these plugs are called gotejadores – I think. Difficult to spell but impossible to pronounce). Only time will tell whether it saves us any money and whether we get any more rain to replenish the well.
notice the ladder coming out of the well opening.pipes going to the veggies
Still, with all this gorgeous weather, the plants are loving it.
irisespoppy
Couldn’t resist another photo of that great, Naked man orchid!
Naked man orchid
…and other wildlife…
empty dragonfly casesfrog in small pond
We think this is a toad – and toads only go into the water to mate (which is why we kept finding a big toad in the courtyard last year)
toady
The butterflies are also here, this one is as pretty as a picture underneath too.
southern festoon
We also continue having guests over. Jackie knows Rosie and Debbie from her time volunteering with VSO in Malawi so it was great to have them visit for a few days especially as they hadn’t met up for years.
Jackie, Rosie, Debbie and the hairy one
We’ve also been down the beach, which was glorious and not a soul about.
The bees seem to go from strength to strength. I have a look in the hive every now and then and everything seems to be OK. I have even managed to spot the queen which was great. No more stings either which is a bonus.
This photo is quite interesting (for apiarists only maybe). In the top left there are cells filled with honey, in the bottom right, sealed brood (baby bees waiting to hatch out) and in the lower middle you can just about see small white grubs in the base of the cells. This shows that everything is operating as normal. Now the bottom box is pretty full – of brood, grubs, pollen and honey, they should now turn their attention to filling the top box just with honey!
The next big project is renovating the barn. We either had to renovate it or the thing was likely to collapse as there were holes in the roof and the joists were rotten. Basically we just want to replace the roof, plaster the walls and level the floor. We started work by ripping off the roof but then we promptly had to stop.
A year and a half ago the local council told us they were thinking of widening the lane outside and then we heard no more. Anyway, if it goes ahead we may have to slice a corner off the barn so work has had to stop until we sort out the bureaucracy. A pain but I have to admit we have been remarkably free of bureaucratic problems so far, so fingers crossed that we can soon resume.
Another project is to get more chickens – this time growing them to eat. I’m putting off making a new henhouse as it promises to challenge my rudimentary woodworking skills to the max. However, I have prepared an area for them and fenced it off in readiness. The laying hens have tried it out for size and seem satisfied.
staking out the new chicken patch
Now spring is here the garden is green and lush. We’d better enjoy it because in a few short months no doubt it will turn into a dustbowl.
Someone still looks as cute as ever and never far away from a ball ready to be thrown.
Spring has well and truly sprung. The last few posts have been about how rapidly everything in the garden seems to have taken off. With the plants sprouting, so have the number of jobs I have to do. We plan on getting some more chickens – this time to eat, so I need to build another henhouse for them, we need to fix the well and get some sort of irrigation system ready for the baking hot summer, the barn needs renovating, shelves still need to go up, the list is endless. However, some things are getting done – I repaired the potting shed roof and strimmed the garden – a big job which takes at least a couple of days. I have left some areas unstrimmed however. My excuse is that these areas should be left to nature, encouraging the insects, wild flowers, birds, pest predators etc.
We have also got one of our next major projects up and running – bees!
We’d got word from a friend of ours that there was someone in the Dornes area, not far from here, who had bees and hives for sale. We headed down there with great anticipation and came back with a hive full of bees and all the necessary equipment. We were also quite proud of ourselves in conversing with this guy all in Portuguese (we are still very ashamedly poor at the local lingo). As instructed, we set up the hive in a good place at the bottom of our garden and let the bees settle for a couple of days. Only then were we to inspect the hive.
We have a beekeping guidebook and it explains what to do on this first inspection: try to spot the queen (she is slightly longer than the normal ‘worker’ bees), see that she is laying i.e. try to spot eggs in cells and grubs in various stages of growth and also to see if there was any honey. Basically just to check that everything seemed OK. The book also said that when you buy a nucleus – which is a starter colony containing only a queen and a few attendant bees, you don’t need to smoke them as they will be very calm.
We chose to inspect them first thing in the morning as we knew they would be still asleep (or whatever the bee term is). So, Jackie settled at a safe distance, camera in hand ready to record the moment. I must admit I felt a bit like Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak approaching the hive all suited up.
And then our troubles began.
We had not actually bought a nucleus, but a pretty full hive. Morning is not a good time to open up the hive as everyone is at home rather than out foraging. We had Iberian bees which have a reputation (well warranted I will vouch for already) for aggressiveness.
While I was gingerly taking out a frame to inspect it, clouds of bees took off in front of me. I could see them all over my veil. I almost felt they were going to bite through the gauze. However, I maintained my calm. Then, I heard a scream. It was Jackie running down the garden. “It’s in my hair, it’s in my hair. Arrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!” I didn’t see her for a while but she had only suffered superficial wounds. One sting to the scalp which was not painful. I carefully put the frame back in the hive and then replaced the top. Unfortunately there were bees all over the rim, so a few got squidged, which also makes them angry. I then retreated. I didn’t find the queen and am not even too sure what I saw.
But the story doesn’t end there. Later, in the afternoon, I was strimming the garden quite some distance from the hive and I heard a buzzing followed rather quickly by a sharp pain in my hand – one of the blighters had got me after all!
The bees obviously are not going to give us their honey without a fight but we remain determined. Next time we are using the smoke!
We also made a video for our English teaching site podcastsinenglish.com. Unfortunately (perhaps) most of the more exciting moments were not captured on film and the section with me examining a frame is necessarily ‘artistic’ (and accidental) as by this stage Jackie, the camerawoman, had dropped the camera and retreated to the safety of the house.
To anyone who knows about bees there is also a glaring error in the narrative. The queen doesn’t lay the eggs in honey but in an empty cell. After it hatches, the other bees then feed the larva with royal jelly and pollen. The honey is put in cells purely as a store for the winter months.
While Jackie was suffering with the wind and rain at Casa Azul, I was back in the UK where the uniform grey was cheered by snowdrops and the first signs of crocuses and daffodils. Here and now, however, the crocuses and daffodils are already on the way out to be replaced by tree blossoms. Already, one of our plum trees is in full bloom and is being quickly followed by the peach and even the apricot which we only planted last year.
plum tree in blossomplum 2peach blossomapricot blossom
As my sister visited us in September last year, she never realised we actually had grass in the garden (by then it was just a red dustbowl). So here’s a photo for her.
