Year's End

December already! And the Christmas tree is up.

 It's been a busy year all told. Looking forward to more fund and adventure in 2015.

But as for December...

We spent 5 days on the Isle of Wight looking for properties. Stayed with cousin Debbie and her husband Dave who were wonderful hosts and incredibly helpful. Lots of advice and support and enthusiasm for our venture.

It was an interesting experience and we managed to view 19 properties in all. Many were simply not up for consideration but a few had a lot to offer. However there was always something missing or not quite enough for us to jump to making an offer.
We do know though, that this is where we would like to be and we did around 150 miles so feel we pretty much covered the area we would consider living in.

So now we are getting more properties lined up for our trip in January and hopeful that we will find something then.

In the meantime we spent some real quality time with friends and Family.
Fraser was back before me and managed to see friends in Bath and Swindon, before meeting up with me in London.

We spent three days in London over the two weekends and did lots of festive things with Rich, Jo and Lexa. We set up their advent calendars ready for 1st December. 
Saw the Paddington Movie which I would recommend to everyone..it was great fun. Bought and decorated their Christmas tree and paid a visit to Santa. I guess we haven't been good enough because he didn't have a present for us. 

 

We watched Lexa in one of the two Christmas plays that she is in. She goes to a Stagecoach club and they did a great performance where she was an elf and had 4 lines to say too. It was wonderful.

 The Christmas Raffle for the dog sanctuary raised 1,350 euros and our Christmas Quiz fun day here collected 13 bags of dog food too. Plus everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.
So we are all very happy about that. 

Much to do in the next few months but in the meantime we are having a break now until the new year when we travel back on 9th Jan to view more properties.

We hope all of us will have a Happy and Healthy 2015. Take care of yourselves and live each day as if it is your last.

Changing Lives

It's the first of November and preparation for moving to a new location and different lives has begun.

Our buyer, Naomi and her sister and sister-in-law visited us for the first time last week and have confirmed wanting to purchase the quinta. They stayed with us for 6 hours and were all very excited and delighted with our lovely home. So now we can start to confidently plan for the future move.
We won't be completing the sale until April next year, but there is much to do. Mainly we need to find somewhere new to live! More about that later.

In the meantime we have been sorting out and shedding stuff that is no longer needed or things that we will be leaving behind. Naomi wants to buy virtually everything in the property so we are compiling lists for her and Fraser has begun to pack his studio into boxes. Quite a task!

Some things we have already given away. I am organising a luxury Christmas raffle for Lili's dog shelter 'Cantinho da Lili'. Friends have donated some stunning prizes and we have donated quite a few things too, so that we have 14 prizes in all. We just have to sell the tickets now! If you are interested you can go to the website 'Cantinho da Lili' and click on the button Christmas Raffle in the menu across the top of the main page to see most of the prizes there.

In addition we have given more clothing, books, DVDs and household goods to the shelter's second hand shop in Oliveira. Suzanne and Jan, who own the shop, have been a huge support and are promoting the raffle and selling tickets too. So fingers crossed that we manage to sell all 500 tickets.

The rest we will either be selling off finally or giving away. 

It is amazing how much stuff we have collected over the last 11 years but we are determined to simplify and reduce our possessions, as hard as that is going to be.

I made some new advent calendars to sell this year again. Not much luck so far but there is still time before December. Parcels of advent treats for the boys, their girls and Lexa are due to be posted on Monday

Groundwork goes on as usual and Fraser worked with friends Mark and Karen to pick our olives on the trees closest to the house and prune the trees at the same time since they have become really overgrown over the past two years. It is a lot of work and sadly the olives weren't good enough to produce oil as the water content was too high because of the early rains.  

Karen picking olives from the branches

Mark and Fraser cropping in growth

Fraser in action

beautiful olive wood

brash for burning

Much ado about lots of exciting stuff!

Busy, busy, busy September and not just because of the interesting changes in the weather!

All beginning for me when I went back to UK for Lexa's birthday, which from day 1 was non-stop preparation after they had to cancel the venue they had chosen. Venue? (I don't ever remember venues for birthday parties...unless you count the one occasion we did a Macdonald´s in Hong Kong as it was back in the 80's when it was novel and actually very good.) 

Anyway so much planning and furniture moving and baking ensued. Jo spent at least 4 hours making an amazing three-layer princess cake (complete with princesses, lake, swan and balloons.) We finished it at about 11.00pm!



Then on the day we had 20+ children with their respective adults...Mr Marvel in the lounge, producing a puppet racoon and a live rabbit for the kids to stroke, karaoke and games, miniature bouncy castle in the garden and the biggest 'pass the parcel', parcel in the entire universe, if not galaxy, that took me an hour to wrap with so many rolls of wrapping paper that I couldn't believe it. What happened to the old newspaper wrapping stuff I ask? 
Rich was king of Pizza production and Jo was hostess with the mostest..Granny was the help aided by the odd glass of beer!! 

Any way it all went well and Lexa had a lovely day and the family and aunty and uncles all sat after everyone had gone with a large bottle of wine before the grand washing and clearing up. The sun shone and it was a lovely day.

Next came preparation for Lexa for school and some fun trips. Went into town to meet up with Auntie Adela for a picnic and to buy some last minute clothes for school.
Also we had a couple of lovely days with a new friend Eloise who is also in Reception with Lexa although in a parallel class.
Trip to Stratford park complex was the best fun!


 



Then came the big day... she looked so cute!


She has settled in really well and loving her new school



I met up with Malc, Chris and Ejock at a pub to have a pub lunch and long gossip and to walk to the source of the Thames...not too far at all.

 

Next pub lunch was with my siblings and inlaws for brother Den's 70th birthday (on my right)

And now I am back home and we are signing our contract to sell next week. All things moving on once more.

In the meantime I have started to make preserves to sell at Christmas and also to store and take back next year.
So far it is chilli jam, apple chutney, fig, ginger and apple chutney, spiced grape syrup, plum jam, peach sorbet, chinese plum sauce and raspberry and apple jam. Lemon curd and Orange marmalade still to come later in the year. Feels good to be able to use up the home grown produce.
Also going to start making fabric advent calendars again to sell in November. Anyone reading this who might be interested in buying one do get in touch soon as they go really quickly. Will be able to send you images of what will be made.

And for other news....our old friend from Bath days Alan Snow (centre in coloured shirt) has just been to LA for the premiere of the film 'The Box Trolls' which was created from his original story 'Here Be Monsters'. We are just so chuffed that his talent has been recognised in this way although we prefer his original drawings to be honest. So Congratulations Alan....really looking forward to seeing the movie.

There is an interview from the guardian if you are interested in reading more about him. Fraser has been working with him on his ice cream parlour project and we hope to be around for the opening next year.

Interview with Alan Snow



And Also............ a group of our friends here who have been part of a writing group led by friend Seana Slattery, have just published their e-book 'The Thursday Table' which is a collection of their short stories and poems. 


Finally friends Josh and Veronika have launched their new website..The Inner Journey Project.
This is a wonderful site with information, resources and support to help you take an inner journey to achieve personal fulfillment. 


We are so lucky to have such a great bunch of amazingly creative and talented friends.

Charlie Dog Has Gone Home

We managed to get Charlie to the vet today after a hefty application of calming pills. He is chipped and his owner has been contacted and he is at the vet's awaiting collection.
We hope that the owners deserve to have found him and only worry if he actually ran away because he was mistreated. 
However we feel pleased that hopefully we have been able to get him back to his owners.
We will keep an eye out though in case he decides to come back!!!

Bye Charlie

Charlie, Charity Shop, Canvases and Change

So much seems to have happened this month and we are only 3 weeks in!

First of all we seem to have collected another stray dog, Charlie, who pitched up at the end of last month and we thought he was just another visitor from the village. However it appears not to be so. He got thinner and thinner and hung around more. Wouldn't approach us but wanted to play with Bugsy and Scraps.

We have now started to feed him, he has made himself a den on our lower terrace and comes in to sleep in the back garden when he is really scared,which is most nights.

Bugsy and Scraps won't allow him into the front though and we can't take him on, but he now trusts us and allows us to lead him, groom and bath him but is nervous of other people. 
Haven't yet managed to get him into the car to get him checked out at the vet, but are hoping to do so in the next week.
We now plan to train him to be happy with other people in the hope that we can get him adopted. If anyone reading this would like an affectionate but scared young male dog and can have the patience to make him trust you then please do get in touch with us. He will make a lovely family dog, given time and TLC.

 

 
















The second event this month was working with Lili and friends of the dog shelter Cantinho da Lili, to open up a charity shop space. We are selling good quality second hand clothing and accessories, books, DVDs and some household fabric bits and bobs. It is in an existing second-hand shop 'De Klomp' (The Clog) which is run by a Dutch couple in a large building on the N17 between Sta Ovaia and Oliveira do Hospital. 
They are kindly hosting our charity stuff for free and managing the purchases too. We are really very grateful to them. If you live in our area and don't know about the shop, or even if you do, go and see everything that they have on sale for really good prices.

We have also completed an application to the Dog Trust in the UK for a grant for Lili to develop a fit for purpose and more appropriate shelter on a new site- the application has gone in and we now await their decision. We all have our fingers crossed because the grants are sizeable and would make such a difference to both Lili and her helpers' lives.

But getting away from dogs..... Fraser's final exhibition 'Memorabilia' opened on 9th August and the opening was attended by a lot of friends.
For a change he included a couple of his models, one of the schooner Scottish Maid and a dolphin shadow box.
It's a great setting in a gallery/flower shop and we are grateful to Astrid and Ton for their support and space.
Some paintings have been sold already and we hope a couple more will be bought over the next couple of weeks.The exhibition closes on 13th September.

 




















And finally we have a buyer for our lovely home! 
We are still formulating contracts but essentially we hope we will be completing and moving from Portugal back to the UK in the spring of next year. Probably at the end of April, beginning of May.

No idea where we are going to move to....but we are on the lookout and doing our homework for finding nice and cheap and perfect places to choose from. So more on the subject in future posts.

So if you haven't come to visit us yet and want to come, you need to get a move on!!! I am returning to the UK next week to have my first Lexa birthday party as she is 4 next week and staying to help with her integration into her Reception class. Once more Fraser will be left holding the fort and the dogs and signing contracts for the house sale.

Goodbye RWB.. AKA Dave Stroller

I returned last week from two weeks in the UK on Granny duty and took time out to go and visit my old college friend Roger, who was then slowly fading in a hospice near Henley on Thames.

Hard to reconcile the effect of that visit. Hard even to write about it. Here was one of my most lovable, talented friends, music and so much humour in his soul, refuter of the benefits of all things technical that weren't related to music or motorbikes..... looking so fragile and lost.

Yet he was lucid enough then for a few seconds at a time to know who I was and I recognised pleasure in his eyes at seeing me. It just about broke my heart. 
We spent the afternoon together with very little said but it didn't matter.
It was hard to say goodbye when I left his bedside...so I didn't.....I kissed him and told him I would see him again and he took my hand, kissed it in return and I walked away.

At college in the sixties he managed to enroll a 'mythical' student he called Dave Stroller, who over the years, cropped up now and again in conversations, letters and even sent Fraser and me a telegram at our wedding in 1995. No more now though.

August 1995..my wedding day

He was the first person to take me fishing and I actually caught a fish...no idea what it was...but it was a fish.
I left wildflowers on the dashboard of his Metropolitan, which stayed there for  a while. He wrote a poem about them once upon a time.

I should have been in touch more often, taken more care to stay in contact. Still no regrets.... just fond and happy memories.



So now it is time to say goodbye. He died peacefully yesterday 29th July at 14.10 leaving a huge gap in the lives of his family and so many of us who knew him.

We will miss his friendship, talent, jokes and his passion for the river, the blues and motorbikes.
And here for all who knew him.....no more tears let's celebrate his life, love and music.

June, Mow weeds, repeat.

A surprisingly cool summer - so far. A fair amount of rain and all, which has meant some extra mowing as everything is growing at an impressive rate. Lots of flowers as well as weeds so lots of butterflies too.

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Along with keeping the wilderness in check, a bit, we’ve continued doing things to make the place more des-res. First up was an actual gate on the entrance to our water mine

Hopefully it will keep any lost ungulates from committing suicide in our drinking water...Most of what we've been up to have been things  that have languished unfulfilled on our to-do lists for (ahem) a while. A useful, if not beautiful addition was a hatch in the fence behind the log store -     

OK, a bit of a trashy effort, but it works and will make lugging wood into the store a bit smoother than either lugging all around the back yard or poking it through the roof - necessitating the temporary removal of a few tiles...     

The cool mornings are ideal for walking Scraps and Bugs down to the Lake, nicely still full due to the ongoing rains. Bugsy enjoys herding schools of fry and swimming while Scraps argues with things like tree roots (well it might be a deadly eel, eh?

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And here at the end of the month we woke up to discover that our solar water heating storage tank has, um, problems. This is bound to get expensive, watch this space…

 

 

May Doings

Olive blossom

We decided a couple of months ago to put the quinta on the market but it has taken till now to actually get that achieved.

Why are we selling up? Well, we really do love it here but over the past 20 years of moving from place to place we have always quit while ahead. As we get older we realise that we need to do so without so many stairs, aching limbs and maintenance in our lives!!
We have put our hearts, hands and souls into the quinta over the last 10 years and made it a special place to be. We realise just how lucky we are to live here. We don't want, however,  to be in a position of suddenly and without preparation (for whatever reason) having to sell up and move on and  we don't want to live here alone when one of us pops our clogs.

So there we are. I have made a website http://qtamosqueiro.wix.com/qta-do-mosqueiro for prospective buyers, and we have three website agents on the cards at the moment. We don't expect miracles and realise it could take anything up to 3 years to sell...so if you should her of anyone interested in a little spot of peace and beauty then please send them the website. If you have any ideas or know of host websites that we can pay to advertise on then please let us know.

Also we are happy to reward any friend who finds us a buyer so there is a financial incentive too.

We have been really busy tarting and painting and weeding and repairing stuff all over the place. The attic has had a bit of a facelift and is in the process of final painting. 
Weeding and trimming and strimming is still happening since the weather turned from spring sunshine to winter rains, then back to sunshine and a growing frenzy.
James and Adela came over to help out and have a bit of R & R. While the girls sorted and painted the verandah

the boys re-built our log shelter. 

                The cane, plastic and builders net really did us well for 3 years but the winter rain and winds just consumed it.



 So Fraser and James did a pucker job and now we have a solid structure with corrugated roof and guttering. Now we need 12 cubic metres of firewood and we are ready for the winter with dry wood!!!

 

 A Great Job!!!!

James and Adela took a day off and went kayaking, Fraser did the first leg of the journey with them. I couldn't join them sadly as I managed to damage a knuckle joint so would not have been able to paddle.

A spot of hammock time

It was great having them here though and we were really grateful for the help and some quality time spent with J & A too.

They got to meet two of our regulars...Little Red who comes to play with Bugsy if he is in the mood and Dude who is looking very thin these days but always happy to get a head rub!

Fraser has now gone to the UK (traveling back with James) to work with friend Alan doing diverse weird and wonderful constructions and creations for a project of Alan's. 
So I'm holding the fort. 

One big adventure for Bugsy was that he managed to put a young fox at bay right next to the river where we couldn't get to him through the dense uncleared undergrowth. So Fraser had to wade along the shoreline up to his crotch and then his tum to get to Bugsy before he attacked the fox. Scraps went with Fraser but couldn't swim so Fraser had to hold her afloat and snag Bugsy at the same time. Artist friend Diego in Argentina sent this wonderful cartoon of the event. Although he is holding Bugsy aloft instead of having him swim beside him but it is a lovely cartoon.

Bugsy then had another go at the poor thing a few nights later in the next bay to us and he actaully attacked the young fox before I got to him and dragged him off. The little fox was really scared and slunk away limping slightly. We think that Bugs must have done him some harm. It was just rather scary to see him actually attack something though.
I know that it was a natural reaction but it helps me remember that you can never be sure about your dog's temperament when instinct takes over.