Glut and Groundwork

 

 One morning's picking.

We are both pretty knackered this month since we seem to have been non-stop busy every day doing something or other that just HAS to be done TODAY or else.

First everything edible in the garden and on the land has been crying out to be picked, eaten, processed or put somewhere to store. It has been a great year for fruit and we have apples, peaches and figs coming out of our ears. Neighbours have provided raspberries (as mine just fried in the heat) and plums. So we have peach jam, yellow plum marmalade, raspberry jam, peach icecream, peaches in Limoncello, chutneys of various kinds and even sauces this year.

Likewise the usual green veg and tomato abundance has meant all in all a month of freezing, bottling and making stuff! Here is just a small selection of the preserves. Hoping to sell some closer to Christmas.

Just today I made two savoury jellies, chilli and a tomato, garlic and basil concoction. It takes so much time but I just can't bear to waste. The pumpkins are a huge success by the pond but they can wait another month before harvesting.

That's a first for us.

Fieldwise, Fraser has been busy cutting and clearing overgrown areas of the land and our ditches

Our stream before and after

while I have been clearing steps and the veg patches.

 

I had my first go with the smaller scythe to help Fraser with cutting the cow parsley and we have collected split and stacked what wood we have for the winter. We collected a trailer full of dried horse manure from friends Shelley and Paul which is now sitting rotting down nicely and we have a load of cut cane that is needing mulching or cutting and tying into faggots for burning ..not to mention all cut undergrowth to sort for burning in the winter.

Amidst all this I decided that we really had to do the tiling on the colonnade pathway and our kitchen outdoor eating area as well as properly creating slate pathways to the back of the house to the patio there.  So supervised by our in-house site manager, Lady Scrappington---

and despite back ache, knee ache, swollen finger joints and general body strain, we finally got it all done. It was a lot of hard work and Fraser did most of the crouching and sorting.
The back steps and slate path in progress

 and completed

 

 The kitchen gallery finally tiled and tidy...

The major excitement last week was a fire across the river which started in the late afternoon and we went down to the beach (along with some of our neighbours) to watch the firefighters in action. They very efficiently dealt with it in less than half an hour. Very impressive. There have been on average 200 fires a day in Portugal over the last few weeks. Luckily this was a small one.

 Found this bug on the cobbles...

 and this one in the pond. Poor Bugsy continues to have a skin infection so is now on a 16 day anti-biotic regime, regular baths and lots of TLC

And Finally but most importantly......Our Lexa Rose was 1 year old on Saturday. 

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

A Right Load of Cobbles!

 This month's summer madness was the decision to remove the dusty, messy and roaming gravel from outside our kitchen door and in the entryway to the house, and replace it with granite cobbles (calçadas in Portuguese)

First we had to remove the gravel and deteriorated plastic that had been there for 16 years and had collected dust, weeds and all manner of rotted vegetation over the years.

 Then we had to dig down 15cms to allow for the sand bedding and the granite cubes.

 We couldn't have done it without the help of our friend Mark so thank you mate for a all your hard work

Then after a delivery of 3cubic metres of sand the stone truck finally arrived after a hairy journey through the narrow streets of the village and down our forest track. It carried 9 tons of granite cubes!

Overseen by Miguel who was going to lay the stones for us we finally got the lot dropped onto our driveway. The noise was quite deafening!

And then the work began!

 

Cementing in the edging stones to hold the rest in place

Setting the cobbles into the sand

After using a mechanical and incredibly noisy tamper the stones were vibrated down to the right level into the sand bed and then a wet mix of sand and cement brushed over the stones and pressure washed into the gaps

It took six days to do but the end result is just amazing and we just wish we had done it years ago. NO MORE SUMMER DUST AND WINTER MUD being traipsed into the house from the gravel and no migrating gravel on the concrete walkway outside the kitchen. Plus it has given us additional comfortable shady space to sit outside under the olive tree.

Now we just need to tile the walkway and our small patio area for the job to be finally done! See next month for that. Right now we have other stuff on the cards.

Having successfully grown onions this year I did my first ever onion strings! I was really chuffed.

We decided to buy ourselves a utility vehicle to allow us to get up to our woodland and onto the fields below to tote, wood. building stuff, sand, soil and compost. Also we want a 4 x4 to be able to explore reach more inaccessible places around and about our area. So enter the White Devil!!! (since Diablo is written on each side)

She is a soft top Suzuki Vitara 1.6 and although 19 years old is in really good condition and only has 87,000 kms on the clock. Fraser is happy because there are few electronic bits and pieces so he can tinker with the engine etc if need be. We had to get the front lamps and huge tyres removed since they were illegal, but will be selling them off to local off roaders through our tame mechanic who is a member of the 4x4 club.

 

Scraps likes it, but Bugsy is not so sure!

We have already managed to get through the forest tracks above our terraces and down into our woodland to collect the wood from 2 trees cut and set to dry earlier in the year; and we have toted the rest of the pea gravel and sand for the pond which we have been doing with a wheel barrow up to now. We hope to get a small trailer eventually for collecting more messy stuff like horse and sheep poo for our veggies and compost.

Poor Bugsy has been in the dumps this month with a nasty skin infection from a scrape which started in his groin and then travelled down his legs and we ended up giving him antibiotics and skin spray. He was a bit down for a few days but happily this has all cleared now and he is his usual adorable self

For R and R Fraser is continuing to add stuff to his new blog Sketch, Draw, Paint at 

http://frasers-paintings.blogspot.com/

which is encouraging him to do something every week and allowing him to return to his love of cartooning and sketching. I meanwhile have been continuing to learn to weave with friends Veronika and Josh and am now working on a Saori loom (Japanese) and weaving a wonderful rainbow cloth and having great fun doing it.

 

Veronika checking the warp threads above and below a section of the fabric so far. Hopefully I can show you the full length of fabric next month and then have to think what I will do with it!

Welcome to Summer….

Well this month got of to a festive start when we had a party on Sylvi’s Birthday involving team Boules, Darts and lots of food..and drink. It was a good day and despite threats to the contrary, didn’t rain – yay!

 

Prizes, even…... The winning boules team Matt, Elaine and (missing) Megumi

 Darts Team winners, me, Matt and Kate

And second division winners of both boules and darts, Ecki, Shelley and Josh

We also did some fundraising on the day to support the search fund for the niece of a close friend who has gone missing in Canada. Sylvi supplied the produce to be exchanged for donations and we raised 151 euros on the day. A great birthday present for Sylvi. Thanks to everyone.

Sylvi went off to England for two weeks to go to our friends’ 40th wedding anniversary party and her college close down reunion (don’t mention the tiara) .

 

in addition to having as much time as possible with our granddaughter Lexa.

Me? I stayed here trying to remember to water everything….(This is Sylv…That sounds like it was my fault!) June has been dry and towards the end of the month very hot with a scorching wind, just to make keeping plants alive was a battle with some victims!

Took the dogs for long walks through the woods now that there’s  not so many ticks around.

One very corkscrewed pine!

The Reservoir is looking good and full. This is because they’re working on a couple of, um, less than safe bridges over the gap to Santa Comba Dão and have barges in place so need to keep the level up. This is a bit of a bonus for us because it means less visitors to the river this summer, therefore less people passing by our place on the caminho.  

The new pond is now settling in nicely and the new colour water lilies are starting to bloom along with the water hyacinths - We planted some plants that came out of Sylvi’s compost…maybe squash and um, possibly melons, or are they pumpkins(?) around the pond and given the virtually unlimited water supply they’re going nuts.

The new pond also has a large, if temporary population of frog tadpoles, which at this point have started sprouting legs. It’s nice to be able to provide a haven

for amphibians and reptiles  which are pretty hard pressed in todays world. A very small water snake is around as well – all part of life’s rich tapestry.