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.