"Now is the month of Maying....

"...when merry hearts are playing" according to the folk song, so it is fitting that our first "month of May" post begins with some heart-felt news.

We are delighted to announce that James and Adela are engaged. Following his huge success as best man at Richard´s wedding and obviously with the ambience of the occasion still in his mind James proposed on Friday 2nd May in Milan and Adela said yes!

Congratulations and all our love to you both and thank you for making our name month so happy!!! Now we have another wonderful wedding to anticipate probably sometime next year according to James.

And on the home front we lots has happened on the quinta over the past month.

Garden First!!
Despite weird and wonderful weather we have an amazing selection of wild flowers all over the place (some of which we still can´t identify) and some of our cultivated flowers have brightened up our unseasonal wet weather. Here´s a small selection of our photographic record....

WE KNOW THIS ONE..... AND THIS ONE

NOT THIS ONE...
NOR THIS...

NOR THIS...
The vegetables in the various patches are growing fast ...

and I have been working hard to develop a new rockery at the front of the house next to the barn conversion.

The rockery before...

And now... The garden areas have become overgrown like blazes because of the unseasonal rain and as fast as I weed and clear one area I have to revisit others. So gardening takes up most of my time these days.

Also the Elders are in full bloom so I have been busy making Elderflower cordial along with marmalade from the early local oranges. I have decided to make labels for all my preserves to make them look a bit more special. Here are a couple of examples.

It´s great fun and it´s a nice way to celebrate the hard work of making!

We also have done a lot of field work, fencing and tree planting, not to mention planting round the pond, plus we have loads of bugs and critters in the pond too...Over to Fraser

Well, the pond is blending in well, due to the vast quantities of rain making the surrounding vegetation grow at a phenomenal rate. The fish, now expanded to 7 due to two small brownish jobs escaping mission impossible style from the reservoir via a 3 foot drop and a pipe into the pond... we'd have 8 but, sadly, one didn't make it.

The colonisation of the pond is also going at a fair lick. We have resident salamanders and newts making homes in and around the waterlilies. Our local dragonflies have found it and are industriously laying eggs. There are a lot of species, think I need a book on dragonflies. Here's a few.

We get quite a few birds of prey around here too, including what we think was a booted eagle being harassed by crows over the local town. Then there's this one I photographed over our house in 2006. At the time I thought it was one of our Black Kites but looking at the photo now...

If anyone can help with identification leave us a comment please.

We'll catch up on barn and land developments in the next blog...once it stops raining! Aaaaarrggh.

Spring Wedding - Richard and Jo tie the knot

Although in their 30´s I still call my sons - the boys! So, as Mum, seeing one of them get married was amazingly emotional.
The wedding was in London on 5th April and was such a memorable and happy day.
After a romantic and emotional ceremony we wined and dined .
The guests were predominantly friends and few family which gave it a real party atmosphere and the bride and groom were both beautiful
I have just posted pictures because I don´t really have words to express the atmosphere - it was perfect.

Welcome to the family Jo.

James (my oldest son) was best man

Two happy Mums

Sanya was the second best man, but certainly not second best!

I met Richard and James´ step brother and sister, Harry and Emily for the first time.

After cutting the wedding 'Cheeses' - as opposed to 'Cake'
The bride and groom cruised onto the floor for their first dance............and we partied the night away.

The sign at the venue said it all for the happy couple...'you make my heart go boom boom'

New roof, new sink and new car.

My how time flies when you are having fun!

We have been up to our ears in everything it seems but we have achieved a lot.

The barn roof is now boarded out and the inside gallery beams are in place. The beam supports are in.. and two of the windows.The roof tiles arrived and were launched up to the roof for fixing and Mike and Ant, our builders completed the job except for putting in the vellux which we will do after the rains have stopped. It looks very shiny and new but great!

Inside the house we had to do major surgery on our ceramic sink in the kitchen, which cracked explosively in December
and continued to disintegrate over a period of months until we took it out a week ago, very sad! It had been the sink of my dreams! However we have now replaced it with a stainless steel sink (couldn´t face the same thing happening again) and Fraser has done a great job of completely changing the sink units and surround and it looks great too.
In November I decided to have the bodywork of my 2CV - Rosie - completely overhauled because she was looking very dull and jaded. We found a local guy who has done a great job of removing the dents, rust patches and knocks. She now has a fabulous new paintjob and body - wish I could say the same for her owner!!! We now have to get her registered in Portugal, which is a complete pain and nightmare to do but has to be done.

Our friends Jon and Annie came to stay this week and have helped us with terrace clearing, planting and renewing our grape supports. It was great to have them working with us and giving us the chance to complete some overdue jobs with their enthusiasm. So thanks guys.
As a reward we plied them with lots of food and wine and even took them out for a day by the sea at Figueria da Foz...and to Conimbriga Roman Ruins (But the weather was awful!)

Boar and blossom...must be spring!

We haven´t had a springtime here so it has been great to see everything coming out and colouring up. We discover something new every day and it´s like Christmas all over again!

Our new tiny fruit trees are budding and blossoming... I planted them out in October

and the peach, nectarine and plums have all blossomed!!!! It´s just sooooo exciting!


Around our water mine and reservoir we have wild strawberries and violets that we didn´t even know existed.

There are thousands of spring flowers appearing everywhere and the Mimosa are startling.
So the gardening bug has hit again and we have been to the local market buying stuff to plant out
The pond has begun to take shape..



Since the last post Fraser has planted a weeping willow to replace the old willow we cut down, two different papyrus plants and bamboo, bulrushes and we have a couple of water lilies in place. Around the edge we have transplanted agave, camomile daisies and four or five different creeping plants which we hope will soon cover all.

I have spent hours weeding the garden and reclaiming it from the wild
and the rain has replenished our lake which had become very low over the winter.
Then last week we discovered that the wild pigs had paid a visit to uproot a wild lily-like plant that they are particularly fond of......
on the terrace above my vegetable patch!

If only we could train them to turn over the rest of the terraces for us! Fraser is threatening to prepare some broad head arrows (we are both archers) and have a shot at them from our balcony!
We could always practice on our local shepherd´s flock that comes to graze on our upper terraces and strip of forest to keep the undergrowth clipped!!!

The left~hand half of barn has now been boarded out and insulated and on Wednesday the tiles are being put up and the Vellux put in at last! The gallery will go in next and then the final windows will be put in on that side. I can´t wait!