The countryside – Page 5 – the story of Casa Azul

Walking the dog

December 21, 2010 Jackie Comments 4 comments

One of the nice things about having a dog is that it makes you get out and do more walking. There are plenty of fields around our house but we’ve been encouraged to explore a little further away. It’s been great to find tracks and forest paths where there are no houses at all so that our new faithful hound can be let off the lead and run wild.

Alas, we have a Labrador who likes nothing better than galloping through the puddles, ears flapping, and then leaping all over us in her excitement.

Needless to say we come home just as filthy as her!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the chickens continue their naughtiness. Those who have read the previous post will know that we had to put up some corrugated iron to stop them escaping. This failed. We came home the other day and all them were spotted, clucking madly, making for the derelict house a field away. So more corrugated iron went up. As they continued to stand on their house and try for the olive tree above we even put in some ‘tree art’ for them to clamber over.

However, closing the door of the hen house the other night I was sure the goodnight clucks were coming from above my head rather than from inside the house. Sure enough three of the rascals had eventually managed to get into the tree and were there roosting for the night, a hint of smugness in their clucks methinks. It’s great that they can do what comes naturally but getting down means they can choose which side of the fence to land on, and you’ve guessed it… so it’s Chickens 3 Us 2 for the mo, we’re looking forward to them hatching eggs rather than hatching plans…

Happy anniversary

September 14, 2010 richard Comments 4 comments

We’ve been so busy this week we haven’t had time to put up an anniversary blog entry. We flew into Portugal on September 11, 2009 (an easy date to remember) to begin our new life and here we are a year later in our wonderful home. The reason for the lack of postings? Well, we’ve been enjoying ourselves! We’ve had my sister, Sue and brother-in-law, Kevin over to stay. While they were here we swam in the sea at Figueira da Foz and in the river at Zezere and went for walks in the countryside including one with a new bunch of Portugal friends near the beautiful village of Dornes. We also returned to the ancient town and castle at Tomar. I usually keep these non Casa Azul activities to my regular Portugal blog but I thought I’d slip these photos in here anyway.

Kevin, Sue and Richard on the beach at Figueira da foz

river — Jackie and Sue in the Rio Zezere

zezerewalk1 — "Portugal friends" above the village of Dornes

All this of course doesn’t stop activity in the garden and kitchen and Jackie has been as busy as ever tart making. Although our tiny fig tree is not yet ready to start producing there are loads of fig trees near our house to plunder and right now they are all in fruit. Here is a delicious fig tart Jackie made recently. She has also been making Courgette cakes which are the business. When she is next out of the kitchen, I’ll make sure she puts finger to keyboard and gets the recipe on our recipe page.

Other news: Well the hot chillies are finally going red as are the sweet peppers. We will have a final flush of tomatoes before they finish and sadly we have had our last fresh cucumber (pickled ones will be ready soon). But as we have now been here for a year we can look forward to the crops we first harvested last year – the walnuts will soon be ready and then we are into the olive harvest. Can’t wait!

Eu gosto muito dos bombeiros

August 30, 2010 Jackie Comments 3 comments

Just as we were leaving to go out last night I noticed what I thought at first was a large, low, grey cloud billowing behind the hill with the wind turbines. Then I could smell smoke. Sure enough, there was a fire raging in the distance, and the wind turbines showed clearly that it was coming in our direction.

I must confess to feeling some unease. We decided not to cancel the invitation out but to take the longer scenic route where we could see where the fire was. Luckily for us it was further away than I first thought. When we drove home I was convinced we would see it glowing red on the horizon – but nada. However, this morning the garden was covered with a fine sprinkling of ash.

And today the choppers are out again. This one was flying right over the house having emptied its huge bucket of water. I think the bombeiros (firefighters) are amazing, already one has lost her life fighting some of the worst summer fires Portugal has seen. Meanwhile the thermometer was reading 34 in the shade, in the sun it shot up to the maximum 55 in no time so have no idea what it is really. The forecast is for the temperatures to steadily fall, with rain in a week’s time. That, for me, would be a welcome change. No doubt for the bombeiros too.

Feelin’ hot hot hot

August 29, 2010 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

The summer heat is here – the plants are wilting, helicopters hover overhead laden with water for forest fires and the wind feels like a giant hair dryer. Just the kind of heat that makes you crave a dip in a cool river beach. Hurrah! then for the numerous river beaches in central Portugal – another fantastic one we were taken to the other day. No salt, no chlorine, just clear, fresh water and some amazing scenery:

The heat has meant all garden work is done early in the morning after a spot of bird watching. The birds haven’t always been welcome visitors though and CDs and aluminium foil have been hung up around the runner beans whose flowers are all disappearing. The swedes and turnips will have to be sown again having been eaten by flea beetles and a cat has dug up the chard seedlings. However, more carrots have come through, more onions are in the ground and, in lots of little pots, cabbage, calabrese and cauliflower are waiting to go in the old legume bed (rotation, rotation). We’re now eating the dwarf french beans – from seed to stomach in seven weeks – so I’m hoping that this ignoring the seed packet sowing dates will work for everything else as well.

One buttercup squash refuses to die which is great as we’ve already eaten quite a few of them already. The flowers are always open in the morning to greet me and the bees:

It’s been great collecting the day’s produce. The courgettes plants have come alive again and so we had courgette fritters for lunch (which were fantastic) and the courgette cake was a success too. We were also really pleased with our second melon. The first one wasn’t quite ripe and so we waited a week and had another go. Looks like melon for pud for the next few weeks…

Our chillies are eventually turning red (but, stubbornly, not the sweet peppers). Initially I’d put them in a metal dish (as recommended on a UK website) to dry in the sun only to discover that they’d cooked! Hanging them up in the hot air seems to be working much better:

Richard has been making a great som tam salad using courgettes instead of papaya although the chillies so far haven’t been quite as hot as he’d like. The barbecued aubergines make a great moutabal too, I’m hoping the tahini we brought over with us from Jordan is ok still! Oh yes, we’re eating quite a few of the sprouts. Here’s hoping there’s enough growing for Christmas!

After the sun the rain, after…

April 16, 2010 Jackie Comments 1 comment

It’s typical April weather at the mo, one minute pouring down with rain and another hot and sunny. We’ve managed to make the most of the blue skies though, along with the walk near casa azul we’ve also been geocaching again and managed to find some lovely spots in the country.

We’ll certainly be returning for a dip in the summer. There are loads of these river swimming pools in the region which I think are a fantastic idea, although a touch parky no doubt.

Plus we had our very first meal at the house. Richard dusted off the barbecue and we had huge pork chops and salad, washed down with some vinho verde, in the evening sun. It really was lovely but made me even more impatient to move in (the builders absent both from this blog and the house).

We are also making the most of the rain too. The shed now has guttering and is attached to a huge plastic water tank which fits niftily behind it and away from view and as I type is filling up with water.

And if anyone can identify the wild flowers growing along the drive that’d be much appreciated – I’ve spent far too long googling and got nowhere (although I think it’s a lamiaceae/labiatae)!

A walk in the country

April 11, 2010 richard Comments 0 Comment

The builders have decided to take another break, so once again the only sounds from the site come from the birds. Unwisely, a pair of redstarts have taken the work hiatus as an opportunity to build a nest in the scaffolding. That won’t last long. As well as being busy on the garden (Jackie will no doubt post an update on that very soon) we have been exploring our neighbourhood, so here are a few photos of a recent walk taken in glorious spring sunshine. Thankfully there are no photos of my milky white legs which were revealed for the first time this year.