Time For Ourselves

Smoke and vapour clouds from the Caramulo fire on our horizon yesterday

August has continued to be such a scorcher and there is very little motivation to be out and about beyond 11 o'clock each day. The land is crisp and dry.Portugal is on fire in at least 13 locations each day, some quite close too. Some friends of ours in the Caramulo mountains and also in Travanca de Largo have had close calls over the past week and, as we post this, some are still burning almost out of control. The EU is funding aircraft from Spain and France to help with the problem. 

image from the news

A female firefighter died last week and one yesterday but others have died too. People have been arrested for arson but we are not yet sure which fires they relate to. The full story is here if you are interested http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/dozens-detained-as-fires-rage/29214 

They should be charged with attempted manslaughter or reckless endangerment and given a hefty prison sentence with any  luck.

We are now having to water the newly planted forest and fruit trees at least twice a week. 

Early morning ramble for the dogs

The nectarine tree seems to have finally died, one of the new persimmon trees too and one of the new little flowering cherry trees didn't make it either.

Water Hyacinths in bloom on the top pond

Fraser has cleared the front reservoir of our choked water mine. The huge water hyacinth and water lilies, whilst beautiful, prevent light and air from getting to the water.
 Sylvi has given up on the vegetables this year, but the raspberries are starting to produce enough for Apple and Raspberry Jam and the little chilli bushes are producing enough tiny chillies for her to make the annual batch of Chilli Jelly.

Our biggest crops this year will be olives, figs and apples. So chutney will definitely be on the menu next month. Not all is lost.
So we have taken much more time for ourselves this month. Sylvi continues to work on her weight loss. Continued diet and regular exercise sessions, when her knees allow, including yoga, pilates and Zumba at home in the barn or with friends seem to be paying off. So watch this space.

Fraser is working on scratch building a small scale schooner The Scottish Maid, which occupies his time each day.

Sylvi has got back into her fabric appliqué work making abstract hangings. Deciding which way up they should go is always a bit of an issue!

Stardust for Veronika

Feather Landscape

Guineafowl #1

We have taken the dogs down to the river on several occasions to swim and cool off - in Bugsy's case and to wallow for Scraps.  

Bugsy has had problems with his sensitive skin again this year with allergic reaction to grass mites and other bugs.  So we have been treating him with Turmeric in his food and on his broken skin patches mixed with Copaiba oil which has really helped even if it increases his orange blots! 
We have also both been taking Turmeric to help reduce inflammation in our joints and Fraser takes it to reduce his breathlessness. It works too.

We sponsored our friend Steve who kayaked down a section of the River Mondego to raise funds for a child with CHARGE syndrome who is  hoping to have surgery to help him hear.  If you would like to donate to the fund for Danny's surgery please go to this link
http://www.helpmehear.info/
Once they had finished we met up with them and some other friends for a picnic by the river.


Our lovely Lexa had her 3rd birthday this month just a week after her Dad's 37th!
What a poppet she is! Happy Birthday Sweetie.

Despite the fires and heat of the day we are lucky enough to be able to sit out after sundown for dinner. Such a great way to enjoy the summer.

Dry Times

July is always dry here. No exception this year. 
We also had the hottest temperatures of the year (so far) which coincided with a visit from my old friend Nik and his daughter Ellie.

We did the usual jaunts out which I hope whetted Nik's appetite for further visits.

We spent a day kayaking along the Mondego, arranged by friend Matt of 'Rock and River.' It was a great morning!

We took in Coimbra and did a run up to the Serra da Estrela

Accompanied, of course by the dogs...

Spent an afternoon at the local adega sampling wine and buying a couple of bottles of course!
It was great to have them stay since we haven't seen them for 13 years! 

They left on the same day that Sylvi flew away to England to do Granddaughter minding. The dogs and I settled in to a now very quiet and rather empty house for a couple of weeks.

 
Sylvi here....So yes I flew back and had a busy 2 weeks. First weekend was supporting Adela in her 10k London Charity run for the Mayhew Pet Charity. 
She managed to raise over £600.




I got a lovely gift of a watercolour painting done by Adela of Poppy, their cat, for being the first to donate.  So a result in every respect!
 

It was an incredibly hot morning and Adela really made good time too. So well done Adela. We relaxed afterwards in the park and then went for a lovely lunch. 

Thank you both.



The main reason for my trip was looking after Lexa, since her school closed two weeks before Jo's. Lexa has grown up so much since I last saw her in January and is chatting away and a real little madam at times. We had a lovely time together, lots of laughs and special times. 
Aunty Pat came to visit...had fun in the paddling pool and she had bought her a lovely dancing tee shirt with special frills to wiggle with!

 

Scootering!

Dancing Dress

We went to the park to celebrate a friend's birthday and spent time playing in the garden...

Daddy ride! and tickling Granny with a feather

 and exploring Epping Forest with Rich and Jo. It was lovely to spend some time together outdoors in the sun as a family.

Sunny days!                                                  

Got my milk Granny!
Missing her already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

   

 









Back to Fraser.  
We ended the month finally getting around to mowing all the naughty bits of our land - thanks to Steve and Ness. Places like the bank out back which is very steep and a real pain to mow - particularly with a dodgy ankle!(see right)................................

Above before clearing...below afterwards

 







There are also water sources that need clearing and their walls repairing...so made a start on one of them, cutting down a huge invasive willow and elderflower. Then start to clean out the overgrown roots and foliage and create a new dam at the front.


 

Interesting critters of the month:

 A huge caterpillar which we think is either a Hawk Moth or Sphinx Moth larva, sometimes confused with the Hummingbird Moth.

Two amorous mini-lizards. We have lots in the garden and are lovely to see. Sadly Bugsy and Scraps like to chase them. Tails detatch quite readily though if snagged or trapped.

And a bright Green stick insect on the wall by the utility room door.

Midsummer Already???

36 degrees in the shade today. About time I say. But hopefully not for too long.
Fan's on in the bedroom at night to try to get some air moving through the place.



Midsummers Eve and the Supermoon event have come and gone already so I suppose we are heading for autumn now. 

We spent Midsummer's Eve at friends Judy and Nigel's house and the view from their window of the mountains was stunning (Fraser has a new camera by the way!)

Big events this month were:
 #1.  Sylvi hitting 64 (cue photo and Beatles song)...

#2.  Boules and Darts rematches...over 40 people came this year..all went a bit viral with the invitations but a good time had by all.

 

 The team from Sta Ovaia walked off with BOTH trophies this year!

 Second division teams for darts and boules were a mixed bunch!

Thanks everyone for coming and making it a fun day and to Steve and Jo for doing the BBQ!

 

The kids did some great painting during the evening and off their own bat decided to hold an exhibition the next day to 'sell' their paintings. It was a sellout!!!!

#3.  The reappearance of our turtle in the pond..much bigger now. It has been named Trixi by Julia the daughter of Fraser's Argentinian webpal Diego and the naming accompanied by a picture!!! Thank you Julia, the picture is a masterpiece. 

So  Trixi it is.

#4. Fraser finished the new back exit staircase, complete with new trellis ready to plant something there to climb up it...maybe next year though!

 #5. Our biggest surprise this month though was discovering that our 'empty' wren's nest was, in fact, occupied with two tiny hatchlings! We have spent a wonderful two to three weeks watching mum wren frantically feeding them and sadly they have now fledged. We really miss them!

Bugsy has been having a great time encountering some of our resident snakes in the garden and in the field but he missed this one...one of the watersnakes sunning himself on the top pond. And the little skink on the right had great problems crossing the tiles on the back patio.

 
The wild flower planting around the new fruit trees seems to have paid off and it is great to be over there listening to the mad hum of bees. It looks great too so we shall be continuing to develop more patches next year. Sadly we lost all the blossom from our plums, peaches and nectarine this year but it looks like we are going to have shedloads of apples. 

Having seen the photos of herself at the boules and darts day, Sylvi has decided to go on the major diet and lose 10 kilos in 10 weeks! Yikes!!!!
Seems to be on target since she has already lost 2! Adela has been helping sending short daily routine yoga videos for the fat and unfit!! 
Scraps is going for an xray on her hips on Monday but in the meantime has been joining in with Sylvi on the yoga front!

 Our good friend Crispin left Portugal this month to travel back to the States and seek his fortune there. We all will miss him but hope he has a brilliant time there and that his wish to buy a bike (motorbike of course) and travel the States comes to fruition!

 Finally, Sylvi is going back to the UK in a couple of weeks to look after this little lady. Leaving Fraser to take care of the ranch.

We hope you are having some better weather, wherever you are and that the next month is a sunnier one for you all.
 



Leaving you with this incredible cloud formation that entertained us the other evening while we were outside having dinner.