Winding the Year Down

November is always a weird month here. Winter is in the air, night temperatures drop (a lot!) and the days are cooler. Yet we have sun and drought. It's time here for olive picking. Our neighbours have been busy and seem to have had an abundant year. Our olives were few and far, but mainly due to the way we pruned them last year to give them a rest. Basically for health rather than olive production.

Testing the ceiling colour at the start

We spent November giving the outside of the house a tart up. The kitchen gallery was looking worse for wear - not painted for nearly 16 yrs. So we have taken down all the green netting around the columns and given the whole area a face lift. Much brighter and a new mexican style mural next to the door of the armazem.

 Loving it!

 Land wise, Fraser and friends Paul, Steve and Ness got down to emptying and cleaning out the top pond. Sludge and immense water lily roots were cleared and trimmed. The growth has been amazing so it all neede to be done. Now it looks rather empty but by next summer it will have re-generated.

Since we disovered that an otter has eaten all our fish (bar two sunfish and a lot of mosquito fish) Fraser has decided not to restock. But I think he will change his mind!

Dug up the sweet potatoes...the final crop of the year. We got around 10 kilos out of half a dozen plants so pretty good all in all.

 The trees  are changing colour rapidly now and
the windy days mean they won't last too long.

But it is still a lovely time of year.

I have been putting together chilli jam, lemon curd, remaining advent calendars, abstract cushions and bits and bobs to sell at local winter fairs. Doing quite well so far and have another at the end of the month.

Our Ghost dog stray who we feared to be on his last legs is still with us and comes every day for food, although he still won't approach us when we are out. We have set up a shelter for him by the back gate but he doesn't seem to want to use it, so we will just continue to put out food and hope it helps to keep him alive this winter. 

Having heard from friends about a new dog sanctuary in Gouveia where they are helping out voluntarily we have also been busy organising bedding, dog food, flyers and business cards. The young woman, Lili, who runs it has left university to try to help the abandoned and maltreated dogs in the area. She started in May with 40 and now has over 70! The area is rife with abandoned and abused dogs and some of the 'official' kennels simply starve or get rid of the dogs whilst still receiving government funding to run them. Lili has rescued many from these kennels and is now trying to raise funds for development on her site to be registered officially.She is trying to manage on 300 euros a month and is not managing to do so.
So we are trying to do our best for her on limited funds.
You can find out more about 'Cantinho da Lili' at this link on facebook

Cantinho da Lili



If anyone in Portugal reading this would be interested in adopting a dog please make contact with Lili or send me an email.
Anyone can donate. We have sterling and euro accounts here. Any funds will be welcome to help with vet bills, food and cleaning materials.
Just contact me at sylviamay@sapo.pt to find out more.







So now we are organising ourselves to spend Christmas in the UK with family and visiting friends on a whirlwind 14 day trip.
So here's a Christmas wish for you all. Will not have a December blog. But we will be back in the new year .