The autumn colours are begining to grace the garden but we are having an indian summer with perfect temperatures and enough rain to turn everything golden and green. 
The mist builds up in the mornings across the valley and we have had amazing cloud and light effects due to the altitude of the clouds. 
Sadly still loads of mosquitoes and flies which are making a nuisance of themselves, a meal of me and keeping us awake at nights. Put up the mosquito net and new screen door to the lounge and still they get in somehow! Scraps is now coming out of her post op confusion. To stop her scratching a really incredibly bad shaving rash we had to cover her with calendula soaked bandages and put a stretch body bandage on her!! Sexy!!!!!
For two weeks she was behaving as if she was either pregnant or had had pups. Apparently this is quite common after spaying, while hormones are still raging around. She cried a lot, gently carried a favourite toy (pink plastic dumbell with lost squeaker) all over the place looking for a dark corner as a den to keep it safe, or a hole to bury it in not quite sure. To this end she tried to dig up the floors in the house, under the stairs and in the various baracao areas and to top it all started producing milk. So she has had tablets to help dry that up and gradually she is getting back to her old self. I boxed in her summer cage; which she used to sleep in during the day on the veranda, with insulation so it would be dark and warm and have put old sheet and cushion in there to see if she would like that as a den. 
Still not sure! But she goes in there sometimes. She is more or less back to her stubborn self though. So puppy training begins again.
The concrete floor has been laid in the baracao now and the walls are rendered. 
Just need to let everything dry out and then we can paint walls and seal the floor and I will mosaic the steps. I used the remnants of the tiles we had and beach pebbles to surface window ledges in the barn so I will give the step the same treatment.
and we worked to gether to take off the forest bark for mulching and I stacked the wood. 
Scraps helped of course in her usual fashion.
Unfortunately for Fraser tennis elbow set it (again, and I don't even play tennis!) so Steve, Vanessa and Joao Pedro came to the rescue with their new electro-hydraulic log splitter. 
We were well impressed. So much so that we went and bought one since they were on sale 50% off.We had to cut down another 20 metre, 30 year old pine tree which was dying and probably had long horn wood beetle. The Portuguese authorities were supposed to visit each area and identify sick trees and then demand they be cut. Well they did get down our track because we saw evidence of white painted trees marked for cutting. But they never came to us. Anyway we had been watching this one pine gradually turning brown and decided that it was time to take it down.
So Steve, Vanessa and new workmate Joao Pedro came over to do the deed and by pure luck managed to fell the tree along the edge of the forest without damaging any other trees! Within the day it was down, processed,trims and pine needles burned and the logs transported and stacked.
So we have now processed the majority of our dry wood and are now starting on the wet, with the aid of the new log splitter.
We have rigged up a rain shelter for the new wet logs to maximize the air flow around the wood so it can dry out and also because our woodshed is now full of dry wood. We are determined not to be cold this winter.
The garden is looking pretty untidy but still is putting up displays to keep the spirits up.
I (I and me, the tame muscle) have created a new flower bed along the barn wall on the track side and it is just so wonderful to have this area done after so many years of storing building stuff, sand and rubble and gravel there.
Hopefully by next year it will have started to settle in.We took a break day out to visit our nearest mountain range, the Caramulos which in some areas at the summit of the range, really is like visiting the past since there are antique ruined buildings high up that look like they have been hacked out of the hillsides, which of course they were!!
It is strange though up at the top of this range, it feels unfriendly and bleak and it is where one of our local wind farms cuts the sky line and is bizarre but beautiful.
To top off the month I discovered that the sweet potato plants that have been growoing and spreading for the last 4 months have actually produced spuds!!!!I am really chuffed!
To celebrate we are having a hello November Barbecue on Sunday 1st and it seems that 35 people are coming, so I guess I had better dig up some more!!