2008 and all that... A quick history of the quinta and our projects

We have fully owned our quinta for 4 years now and the farm cottage was already converted from a ruin when we bought it. However we have added a new kitchen and upgraded parts of the interior since then.

We are situated in a lovely little forested and cultivated valley with a view of the lake which is a 3 minute walk away, where we can swim and fish and a 7 minute walk to the local village.
Fraser and dinner!

We have just under a hectare of land which was mainly cultivated in the past with five terraces, two small fields and a small strip of forest which is under pine, oak and strawberry trees (Madrona) whose fruit is distilled to make a local brew of the same name. We inherited many very old, overgrown and dry grapevines......................

A view of our fields part of our terraces

25 olive trees, several willows, 2 small fig and 8 old peach trees, 2 apple trees, a medlar which is past its prime, a new cherry tree and several New Zealand Cabbage Palms and an infestation of brambles and local cane which dominated the land to the point of all else.


We visited up until summer last year, only during school vacations when we would fly in from Prague, where I was working. We spent all of our time re-capturing the house from the wild.


and making changes to the interior, frantically strimming the terraces and woodlands against fire risk and doing grounds and house maintenance. It was hard work recovering key features from the land...

Water Source....Before

Water Source... After a summer´s work

But we did take some time for ....Hammocking




We would then leave exhausted to return to Prague for another 6 months. All very frustrating.

However since summer last year we have stopped working and we are now here full time. We have opted to downsize and hope that in the next two years we will have completed our four basic projects.
Project 1

Reconstruct the barn to a workshop and studio/ recreation area. Fraser, my husband is a painter and modeller. I also like to paint and have several other creative hobbies so we both need a space to work and be able to leave our stuff out. So the ruined barn at the back of our property, which was once used as the main house, is an ideal solution.

Project 2

Complete patios and shadery and an outdoor kitchen. We have two other outbuildings which we hope to convert for storage and an outdoor kitchen barbecue area for the summer. These make the third side of a quad and a natural area in the centre is perfect for a terrace patio.

Project 3

Re~forest 3 of our terraces and turn the rest into kitchen garden, and landscaped garden with fruit and nut trees and grapevines. As we are too old and decrepid now to farm all the terraces we want to turn most of the area back to deciduous forest and garden. I love cooking and want to try my hand at wine~making and vegetable gardening on a small scale.

Project 4

Create a pond and marsh area in our field and plant crops and other vegetation to encourage wildlife into our valley. Being lovers of the environment we want to improve the land for flora and fauna to flourish.

Next post will be about the barn project!!!!!