Garden – Page 4 – the story of Casa Azul

Is it a bird, is it a plane..?

December 16, 2014 Jackie Comments 2 comments

It’s a tree, our plane tree! Two years ago we decided to buy a tree for the courtyard. We wanted one that was deciduous so that the winter sun would fall on the other plants, and we wanted one that we would shelter us from the summer sun. It was to be, without doubt, a long term plan. We plumped for a plane tree. We’d seen many around and noticed that they seemed happy to be planted in pavements or cobbled squares, and that their roots didn’t didn’t create bumps on the surface. Well, if any of you are thinking about getting a tree and have little patience this is the tree for you – it’s grown amazingly!

A year ago, with our RHS guide in hand, we pruned the lower branches. Not all the branch mind, only half, the idea being that young trees need as much leaf coverage as possible to help them grow.

To be honest it became a bit of a pain. The branches grew so long and low (despite the pruning) that this year walking from the kitchen to the barbeque area has meant walking off the raised courtyard bit and onto the gravel. There wasn’t room to sit underneath it. It wasn’t so much a tree but a kind of Jack in the Beanstalk reaching every way which.

However, we are pleased to see birds in it and witnessing the new bright green leaves forming so close up is always a treat. Come winter when the leaves turn orange and fall off little poms poms are revealed.

Now we are at peace. The lower branches have been cut off completely and we know that next year we will have a proper, grown up tree in the courtyard – in just 3 years!

Nest swapping

June 13, 2014 richard Comments 0 Comment

Our orange tree has certainly seen some bird action this spring. First we had the linnet nest, then we had the wrens utilising last year’s goldfinch nest. The wrens all fledged successfully and now this nest is being used for a third time. This time for greenfinches. The transformation is all the more remarkable as finches have the regular “cup” nest but wrens make an all enclosing nest with a side entrance. So the wrens made their nest underneath the original goldfinch nest using it as the roof. And now the wrens have gone, the greenfinches have just moved in to the old roof top apartment! Even better news – they have already laid a clutch of eggs.

Here is the wren nest that I took out of the pig pen. I must admit it looks very different to the “two-in-one” nest in the orange tree as that is well hidden amongst a load of branches but it does show what a regular wren nest looks like.

Birds galore

May 19, 2014 richard Comments 2 comments

Our garden seems to be very popular with the birds this spring as we’ve had nests popping up all over the place.

First there was the blackbird nest where we saw two little ‘uns fledge, then the linnets in the orange tree. From here 4 fledged.

Also in the orange tree we’ve got a family of wrens, building on last year’s goldfinch nest.

Meanwhile in the nest box we have a family of blue tits. Here’s mum (or dad) bringing back a tasty grub.

But that’s not all. After we dispatched the roasties we noticed that there was a nest inside the roastie/pig pen. We think it is a wren nest but there’s no one home at the moment.

And finally (for now!) we have discovered another nest. This time it’s in the pergola amongst the grape vine and right above where we often have breakfast/lunch. As yet we haven’t see any comings or goings. Watch this space.

Good news and bad news

May 5, 2014 richard Comments 0 Comment

The good news is that our two year old apricot and almond trees produced fruit for the first time. The bad news is that they have all fallen off while still very small. We’ve had this happen with other young fruit trees. The first year we had fruits on the lime tree they fell off, but the following year we got some more and this time they stayed on and turned out really well. So there is hope. Similarly, last year we had loads of figs on a young tree but they all fell off before they matured. This year they are coming on nicely – hang on in there!

apricots - before they fell off — apricots – before they fell off

The other fruit trees have done really well. It looks like being a bumper plum crop. We’ve got about half a dozen trees, young and old and a variety of types, so that will be good. And we’ve never had so much pear blossom so fingers crossed for them. Meanwhile, we only picked the last of the oranges last month and now the two trees in the courtyard are full of blossom and the smell is divine. Added to that, a couple of linnets have decided the big tree is a great place for a nest but more of that later.

The fruit bushes in the veggie patch are also doing well. Hopefully we will have increased crops of gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants.

I mentioned the linnets – I saw 4 little blue eggs in their nest the other day and now they’ve been replaced with 4 hungry mouths. We’ve also already had two baby blackbirds fledge and leave their nest in the garden and we also have a couple of blue tits feeding their young in one of our nest boxes. There’s also been at least one hoopoe hanging around. But the most exciting sighting was a neighbour of ours. We often hear the barn owl which lives in the ruined house next door and we have caught glimpses at night, but only recently have we seen it during the day and I managed to have my camera handy.

We’ve been a bit slack on updates over the last month or so and in that time we bought a dozen baby roasties and I’m already killing them. At least there is now plenty of room for them in the freezer. Slowly but surely we are getting through the two pigs we reared and slaughtered in 2012. I recently found another pork belly at the bottom of a freezer. It was from the so called thin end so wasn’t good for roasting but it was excellent for making bacon. And this is where your supermarket streaky bacon comes from. We just cover the belly in salt, leave it overnight, then drain the liquid that comes off. Reapply the salt over the next 5 days and the result is dry cured streaky bacon. Perfect.

Of course we still take the dogs for a walk every day and Jackie has been keener to do it these days as it’s orchid season. She wrote a post about it recently but since then she has spotted quite a few more. Maybe another orchid post soon and of course May is peak time for the wild flowers so watch this space.

About time!

March 16, 2014 richard Comments 0 Comment

After a fairly miserable winter, signs of spring started appearing at the end of February and now March has been glorious – in fact we’ve even had to start watering the garden! Most of the early fruit blossom has come and gone but now the plums are in full bloom and there is plum blossom confetti drifting around the garden. We’ve got quite a few peach trees but they never seem to do very much. However, the blossom comes out every year and the pink contrasts well with the white of the plums. Cherries up next.

Flowerwise, the daffs are still going but the irises (which grow wild around here) are now coming through as are the first of the orchids.

With the warm sunny weather, I’ve been making some more garden furniture. Here is an adirondack chair upcycled from an old pallet.

We’ve also got a new (temporary) addition to the family. A local animal sanctuary has had to close down so we are looking after Teddy for a month until he goes off to his new family. The main residents weren’t too happy at first but they seem to have accepted the young scamp now.

Blossom

February 20, 2014 richard Comments 0 Comment

Despite all the rain (which is showing signs of slackening off), things are finally looking up and spring is round the corner. As well as the daffs which have been with us for quite a while, the yellow crocuses have followed the purple ones and are now in flower.

However, the real harbingers of spring are the fruit blossoms. Like last year the apricot was first followed by the almond. We won’t have any fruit from either again this year because although we did buy another apricot for cross pollination, it is still too young as is the almond.

The plums are showing no sign of flowering, which is not necessarily a bad thing as we hope they flower when there is less chance of the rain knocking the flowers off.

Meanwhile we are back to full egg production. The old hens are still in semi retirement only laying one or two between them per day but the youngsters have filled the void. We get 3 every day, which is a little strange as there are 4 of them. Maybe one is a dud? As you can see the eggs are quite a bit smaller than the ones from the oldies.

The oldies have completely destroyed their run which looks rather devastated but we have adopted a new strategy with the youngsters. As you can see they are constrained in their run. We move this every few days so they get fresh grass and the grass where they have been gets a chance to recuperate. We also did it because they are ‘at that age’ where they want to stretch their wings and can quite easily fly/jump over the fence. It’s a bit of a faff. I wonder how long we will keep it up.

After a number of trips to the vet with the big hairy one, the vet reckons she has got atopy – it’s an allergic skin reaction which makes her lick her paws and is probably the cause of her often infected ears. It’s not too bad at the moment – the scratching and licking is usually just in the mornings for some reason and we are now used to cleaning her ears every day. And she is still full of life and obviously happy so we are not worried that much. The (slightly) smaller hairy one is still up to her tricks and recently she has presented us with a rabbit’s foot (for luck?) and a pig’s trotter (??!).

Light at the end of the tunnel?

January 24, 2014 richard

I think we were softened up by the winter of 2011/2012 which was a series of warm sunny days followed by clear frosty nights. Last year was rain, rain, rain and this winter has been more of the same. However, I can’t complain too much because this is the opening paragraph from last year’s blog: “I know January is only two thirds over but we’ve had enough already! Although not as bad as the UK, we’ve had rain, rain, rain, culminating in storms this weekend which knocked the power and water out for three days. And there are more thunderstorms to come.” So not quite so bad this year – up till now! However there are plenty more similarities between this year and last:

For instance enjoying a day at the beach under a glorious blue sky.

However, this year Jussi is wearing the big plastic collar – her ears are playing up and she has managed to cut the outside of one by scratching it. Remember this time last year Betty had the big collar to stop her licking a huge wound caused by a wild boar trap! This year she’s decided to take it easy:

However she does enjoy “playing” with the local cats.

And the daffs are coming out again, as they did last January. There is no mention of oranges last year, but I’m sure we had plenty. This year there don’t seem to be as many but they are whoppers! Grapefruit size and delicious. One new thing, and something I’ve wanted to do for ages is to get rid of the ivy around a walnut tree. When we arrived (4½ years ago!) I managed to get the ivy off most of the olive trees and what a job that was. Many of the ivy stems were thicker than my leg and tightly wrapped round the trunks. Anyway, this year I finally got round to this walnut. Here it is in all its glorious nakedness.

In one of the last posts of 2013, I mentioned that we had started work on the rockery. Well, it’s pretty much done. Not so much of a rockery now, more a bed, but we will be planting some flowers and a few more herbaceous perennials when the last of the frosts has gone.

Lets hope the similarities continue as we had a great 2013 and here’s to an early spring!

Winter?

December 4, 2013 richard Comments 2 comments

Why the question mark? Well it definitely is winter, with our first frosts and temps going well below freezing. But as you can see from the thermometer in the polytunnel, crazily it has still got into the 30s during the day and we’ve had some cracking sunny days: Lunches al fresco and runarounds on the beach.

First thing in the morning, it’s a Christmas scene.

But we still have quite a few flowers. Above are chrysanthemums and below, one of many roses.

The sudden sharp frost that we had yesterday meant that finally the Plane tree in the courtyard has started to lose its leaves.

But the days are still sunny and warm and perfect for a runaround on the beach followed by lunch at one of our favourite beach side restaurants.

Meanwhile, back at the house a project which I have wanted to get going for ages has lurched into action. By the threshing square is a pile of rubble, rather grandly termed ‘the rockery’ although all that grows there are a few hardy weeds. Well this winter I intend to get it sorted. At least I’ve made a start…

stage 1 - clear out some of the rubble — stage 1 – clear out some of the rubble

Betty is supervising. In her own way.

As we know this is when she is at her sweetest – when she’s asleep. When she’s awake she gets up to all sorts. One day last week during a walk, she managed to grab a wild bird. It was something like a grouse but as she refused to come anywhere near with it (hence the blurry photo taken from distance), we can only speculate. It is now buried somewhere for future retrieval no doubt!

Crumble

July 18, 2013 richard Comments 2 comments

One measly crumble! Last year we had plums, plums, plums. Yellow ones, red ones, purple ones and green ones. Mirabelles, Victorias, Greengages and Damsons. We had loads of crumbles and litres of cordial. This year I picked enough to make one plum crumble. It was still delicious though and I’m looking forward to making plenty of apple crumbles to partly make up for the plum disaster.

The summer bush fruits weren’t too bad – redcurrants, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants. And the strawberries keep coming. Meanwhile the summer veggies are now coming through – we’ve had cucumbers, plenty of courgettes (of course), and our first batch of aubergines. And the toms are not too far behind. The corn on the cobs were variable but overall not quite as bad as we thought and the later ones are looking good.

In animal news, we’ve seen a few snakes recently, including this rather brazen metre long ladder snake cooling in the pond (its rear half out of shot was in the pond). We were a bit worried about our resident frog but apparently ladder snakes feed almost exclusively on rodents (thankfully sorting out our temporary mouse problem). However a week later froggie was found floating face down in the pond anyway. 🙁

We’ve also had a roastie death. A few have been making unpleasant gurgling noises – they seem to have some sort of a cold and one has succumbed so far. Although there are still a few sniffles about they don’t seem too bothered by the heat and have been growing quite nicely. The hens take everything in their stride as usual and only recently have gone on summer laying schedule (ie. have the odd day off) but we did have one surprise the other day finding a monster egg. In the UK a large egg is classified as between 63 and 73g. The small egg in this picture is 70g. The large one is 126g! It was indeed a double yoker.

In Jackie’s last post she described our courtyard which is looking really good. In the picture you can see some hollyhocks. They are over 3.5 metres tall. I don’t know much about these flowers but I think that is pretty tall for a season’s growth. The lavender is also doing well and is attracting huge numbers of bumble bees from dawn until dusk.

So now we are well into July and the garden itself has been transformed, the lush green of early June is a distant memory and now all the grass is burnt away not to be seen again until November.

Offal and orchids

May 14, 2013 richard Comments 7 comments

Since last November when we dispatched the pigs, their livers and kidneys stare at me every time I open the freezer to take out a more delicious cut – maybe a chop or a pork belly or a shoulder for roasting. No longer, for the offal are no more. I know some people are a bit squeamish and only like the boring, homogenized modern, (mostly chicken) liver pâtés but I am well chuffed to have produced a traditional, fairly lumpy, strong, and exquisitely delicious farmhouse pâté. And we have over 4kgs of the stuff! The kidneys weren’t spared either. I opted for the rather basic Delia recipe for pork kidneys in a chilli sauce. These were pretty tasty too.

Meanwhile, the garden has been putting on something of a show. A show, yes. A show garden, no. Some may even say our patch of land is little more than a partially tamed wilderness. As the difference between a flower and a weed is in the eye of the beholder we like to describe ‘the lawn’ as a resplendent carpet of gold. Others may just say we have a major problem with dandelions. Also providing colour is a profusion of red and orange (Californian) poppies and in fact, grass, which is still green. We will enjoy it while we can because in a few short months it will turn into an unforgiving dustbowl.

Apart from the flowers, I’ve been keeping a careful eye on the fruit trees. Unfortunately it seems that the plum harvest will be non existent. The flowers were all out in April but they got completely washed off by the torrential rain. There will be no plum crumbles, jam, or cordial this year :-(. On a more positive note the apples have set and we should also get quite a few pears. (Oh, and there’s a nest in the pear tree so we’ll keep an eye and ear out for any little tweetsters). And there will be plenty of quinces as well, so all is not lost.

The heat of summer is not yet upon us and so the cool breeze often makes the courtyard a better option than the garden. Jackie has been hard at it repainting the blue bits and has actually added a stripe to the bottom of the main house which I think has made it even more Portuguese.

The ambiance is also certainly improved by a glass of chilled white and we are currently enjoying a few bottles of Casa Azul, 2012 vintage. Yes, it’s the elderflower wine which is a surprisingly fine drop. As the elderflowers are out now we had better get busy and prepare for the 2013 vintage.

Outside the realms of Casa Azul, we continue to walk the dogs every day and keep an eye out for the wild flowers of which there are many. Jackie has become an orchid expert and has managed to identify at least a dozen indigenous species. We’ve had a succession of different types over the last weeks and now it is the turn of the pyramid orchids…

And even a few mirror orchids…

the story of Casa Azul

and a new life in deepest Portugal

Browsed by
Category: Garden