Equinox!!!

The day after the winter equinox on the 21st October we had gales for two days right on cue! The sunsets were pretty stunning too. Illustrating that Portugal is not just sun and relaxation all year round.
Luckily the gales were not too damaging and we didn´t have it half as bad as in the southern Algarve where the floods and winds were vicious. Friends of ours, Steve and Jenny (the villa we stayed at in August with the boys - see August post) had their chimney struck by lightning earlier this month which did huge amounts of damage, blew out the woodburner glass door and shot the electrics. The chimney disappeared and the rubble was everywhere including in the pool. Fortunately this happened in the early hours of the morning so they were safely tucked up in bed. They have spent this month fixing the damage and sadly did not manage to come and stay as planned.

Our woodland is changing its wardrobe to autumn shades, the olives are pretty full of fruits although some are unripe green and others ripened black which is unusual since this is traditionally the olive picking time.

The morning mists have started caused by the closeness of the lake and we even had frost the other night.We fell to talking with a local builder about what it was like here in the past before the river was dammed. He maintains that the olives never used to ripen so sporadically when the river ran free. Apparently in summer you could cross the river on stepping stones it was so shallow and the whole riverside sandy beach was much longer and was full of people at the weekends from both sides! It was well known and the boats used to come up from Figueira da Foz in winter when the river was full and there was a little ferry to the other side and Azeré, the village on the other bank. The two villages had a lot of ties but the dam killed that, separating family members. It was suddenly a days walk or cart ride over the newly built bridge and back to Azere and as no one here in the village had a car in the 70's they rarely saw their families more than once or twice a year.

Fraser has been wondering recently why he hasn´t seen the usual shoals of little sunfish close to the banks anymore but according to a few local fishermen, some idiot of a bureaucrat decided it would be a really good idea to release pike into the river a couple of years ago. Being a reservoir there are no weed beds to provide cover for dinky fish. Probably more worrying is the slimy flourescent green algae that has been coating this stretch of the river all summer. It's like green cottage cheese and where it dries out it turns a bright turquoise blue. I wonder if it's because fish, like shad or something used to eat it before they were eaten?

Going back to the Olives, we have decided to harvest a couple of trees ourselves and process them for eating which is a helluva long process. After bruising the fruit you have to emerse them in water for two weeks, but change the water every day. Then you can preserve them in brine or oil. So we are going to have a go! The rest we have offered to the neighbours who will probably harvest them and take them all to the local Adega to have processed into olive oil. We will then get a few litres of oil from them as payment. We really do need to prune the trees back hard this year, because they haven´t been done for years but there are so many and there is so much wood to prune that the task is pretty daunting. However we will try.

Fraser helped me make a compost bin using up an old door from the barn, two pallets and some other old pieces of wood. Hopefully it will make some decent compost for the spring

We have planted out more saplings, a Sharon Fruit (persimmon), a Liquid Amber, 6 Gingko and 6 more Sweet Chestnuts. We have also decided to sew Clover on the two fields to help enrich the soil, please the bees and hopefully help cut down on the amount of grass cutting needed next year. I have dug over the garden beds but hope to extend the area for next year so after the current rains finish Fraser will help me do the first dig!

We spent a very autumnal day last weekend helping our neighbours Harry and Elaine to collect chestnuts from their new land.

We had a hot lunch thanks to Elaine, camper style and of course roasted chestnuts!Regarding the barn we have panelled sections of the work areas so we could insulate on the brickwork and cut down the costs of rendering! Rui, a local builder and decent sort of bloke, stopped by on Sunday to deliver the quote for rendering the second half of the inside of the barn - €2000. OUCH. This was mainly because it's dead fiddly, lots of nooks, crannies and corners. I think that this is where we learn rendering. So first we decided to do the bathroom ourselves, since that isn´t a place where you spend too much time and anyway I did the tiling so why not finish the job! Fraser says "Ain't doors fun to put in?" since he has just put in the door to the bathroom. And then we came to think that we might as well have a go at doing all the rendering so wish us luck! We're going to be tiling the floor ourselves too, 50 square metres of it.... We're looking for cheap tiles that aren't too hideous.

I have reconstructed the steps from the front of the main house to serve the the door of the barn to make them safer and friendlier to use, using stone wherever possible. It only remains now to put up a couple of railings. Friends have provided us with an old indoor stair rail, very popular in the 70's here which will do brilliantly for us. We just have to work out now how to fix it.

Our solar water heating panels are up and running. Need to adjust how we use hot water to cater for the supply but so far it has been great.

We bought a mysterious orchid cheaply last February without know what kind of bloom it would produce and it has turned out to be a stunner. Captured here with a regular visitor to our verandah.And going back to the theme of windy, I made Jerusalem Artichoke soup from our crop and have decided to re-name it windy soup. Boy we suffered for days!!!!

Fraser...on September

September…autumn is a-cummin in…though you wouldn’t guess it at noon when it’s in the high twenties. However the breeze is from the North, turning the willows silver and demanding a sweater to be worn at dinner and the evenings are really drawing in now.

The grapes have ripened.

Sylvi has made juice and spiced grape jelly (free-range since it runs pretty well all over the place) from some of the black grapes and as for the rest; we gave the picking to the Shepherd, Manuel and his family. They’ll be making wine from them which is virtually undrinkable, but they like it!
Sylvi hopes to make our own wine next year once we have the kit, know how and the space to make it.

Our builders have now left to do other things, the builder budget having run out. Fortunately the structure is now complete and weather-proof with all doors and windows in, if not totally finished. Studio.....

Downstairs patio doors... We had to get our septic tank emptied before we could patch in sewage pipes to the barn. Quite an experience! We ordered the job to be done at the local town hall and they sent an old guy with a tractor and honey wagon to do the job.All the men found it too fascinating not to watch. Sylvi couldn´t quite work out the fascination of the view down into the tank!

Sylvi has tiled the bathroom and been doing pointing while I’ve been working on stone steps at the front and carpentry generally.
The veranda extension is done. The solar water-heating system’s tank and panels are in place and we hope to get everything connected up next week. We now have water to the bathroom and downstairs and electricity in half of the barn and the rest should be done soon. Got the fire and it’s flue in. Now we just need to build the surround to hide the pipes!

Sylvi’s veg patch is now winding down but there are still squashes, courgette, aubergines and green peppers coming through –

shame the pumpkins never put in an appearance!

All in all though it has been a productive year for the veg and some of the fruit trees. The yield from the peaches and apples was poor because a lot of it was bugged fruit. However we had enough for chutneys and jams in the larder and there seem to be plenty of green figs. We are hoping to see some produce from our new trees next year.

The fish in the pond have been procreating all summer and I’m seriously thinking that I may try and catch a couple of young bass from the river to put in as population control – we seem to have upwards of 50 goldfish of varying size and colour.

We had friends from Bath, David, David Junior and girlfriend Sarah to stay for a few days. It gave us the chance to have a day off! We went to the beach just north of Figueira da Foz.

The two Davids did lots of digging!

It turned out that Sarah was a dab hand at getting value for money from a toy vending machine. Say no more!

A final note from Sylvia…………..One sadness for the month is the death of Paul Newman on September 26th. I grew up with Paul Newman in my life as an icon and lead player in a young girl’s dreams and young woman’s fantasies. My sadness is for the loss of a consummate actor who, even in advanced age, was to eye candy what Moet Chandon is to champagne. But more importantly, because he was one of a rare breed of real celebrities who are true philanthropist. He will be missed by many.