Mysterious Meteorology and Manifestations

Storms, wind, hail and rain every night for 8 days so far. Biblical proportions of small toadlings hopping everwhere, plagues of biting flies too. Maybe someone is trying to tell us something here!
So is this Rio or what?.....sun and up to 35 degree heat, 99% humidity and awesome storms? This is the strangest weather so early in the year. The sky has entertained us with some spectacular cloud scapes, deluges of rain and hail and the dogs have been beserk, Scraps trying to hide out under the stairs or in our wardrobe space and Bugsy looking very hangdog and worried. Not to mention the power outs.

The combination of heat, rain and sun has been great for the garden though and everything is putting out in spades!! Sadly including the weeds. I have had to give myself a strict regime of daily weeding just to keep the weeds down and even then not gone entirely. Can only work outside mornings and sometimes a little in the afternoon, otherwise heatstroke and migraines.
The cherry tree has done us proud this year and the harvest has been such that we can even let the resident blackbirds and jays help themselves.Fraser has been getting up earlier than me to go out and scythe the woods, terraces and strim the fields which have grown up again since last month. And boy do we have hay!!! Fraser made great hay rakes..from cedar and hardwood dowel- so much lighter than the portuguese version made with pine and 10 inch nails!
Steve and Vanessa helped with the field strimming and windrow raking and, after letting the grass dry and with the help of a large plastic sheet we have now 4 huge haystacks and a burn pile ready for the winter solstice! Fraser found our little wild gladioli in the woods that are few and far between but gorgeous. Whilst taking a photo of our only white rose I discovered this little fella...
a crab spider matching the colour perfectly.
Hot afternoons have been spent making yet more Lemon Curd ( no husks down the loo this time) alcoholic beverages...YUM! ( Limoncello and Orangecello) and have just done a batch of Cherry Brandy. We took them along with some of Fraser's smaller paintings and a couple of cushion covers and other patchwork pieces for a boot sale we went to down south of here...........complete waste of time sale wise but a nice day out and met some new people.

Fraser is disciplining himself to draw something every day and we have been working on landscaping the last untidy areas of the garden.
We have finally sorted the patch where the washing line hangs at the end of the kitchen collonade with a pathway and re-planted beds As we are a ways from the sea we have created a beach just in front of our woodshed! In order to keep it weed free we levelled the area and put down one-way membrane and sand! It looked so much like a beach cabana that I decorated the edges with stones and shells and we plan to do more! ( I see Plastic Flamingos in our future - F) Needless to say the dogs are thrilled with what they see as a new playground...Watch this space!
The new pond planting is really settling in. And looking at this photo it seems out of date. More pics next month.Meanwhile poor old Bugsy still waits patiently ever hopeful that he will see the phantom carp and goldfish that we took out last month-Finally..spot the snake!
This gorgeous metre long ladder snake decided to become part of our rustic fence for a while until gently encouraged to go and find his home, which seems to be somewhere out in the front rockery we think-Not venemous but can bite!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines (or not!)

A real batch of mixed weather this month has meant having to do as much as we can outside while the weather permits. The grass and the wild flowers are as high as an elephants eye as the song goes, so Fraser has been busy using his new scythe to cut the high grass on the terraces, but leaving patches of flowers in the fields. Had to let the cutting dry off before we raked it all up and so far we have several high piles of hay mulching down nicely.Sylvi spent most of the month digging and weeding the various garden sites, sorting out the irrigation and planting up more veg in the food garden!

The new fence and gate is up around the pond but Bugsy is just a pain and keeps chasing the fish we had transfered. This little game has played hell with the lilies we sank in pots - he keeps knocking them over... The sides of the pond are an easy slope in for him....so we have moved the fish back into the old pond for the time being.
He now spends a lot of time staring down into the now empty pond looking very confused and worried, looking for his orange buddies. Stuff we have planted around the edge seem to be doing ok too.

On Fraser's birthday, since the weather was sunny we spent the day at the beach with Steve and Vanessa and Beanie. It was a glorious day and we were all pretty knackered after several long beach walks. Spot the ball!!! Had a picnic lunch at Tocha and then home for a few beers.
Spent the Easter weekend doing not very much at all, although we had a lovely lunch with friends at Harry and Seana's place on Easter Sunday. The month was pretty well rounded off by a visit from some very close friends from Brasil - Liz and Nigel. An all to short visit, but it was really wonderful to see them again after so long and to have them stay with us.On the Royal Wedding Day the sky changed, rain fell and the thunder roared so we joined the masses and watched the event on TV in between power surges which tripped our electrics. Glad we did too! Some happiness to view in current world chaos.

The latest Lexa update is...she has teef!!!! What a poppet!!!

Marching On

March madness seemed to set in this month, and in complete contrast to February we have been at it non-stop...work that is! Hence the delay in this post.

It all started with yet another fence which stops Bugsy from knocking me over the edge of our entry way when he is really pleased to see me. Duly constructed by Fraser in willow and finished off by me with some drift wood as a whimsical idea.
Needless to say Bugsy has found means to escape and has virtually demolished the small fan palm above in order to get out...so the project continues.
The fruit trees are blooming and the sun has shown up after the rain so it's been a good time for the garden.We might actually get some nectarines this year with a bit of luck.

The plums look like they may produce this year too...if the blossom sets and if they can weather the peach leaf curl

My new wisteria is in bloom and, as if shamed into flower, the wisteria that has grown here for 12 years and never flowered has produced two buds!!! Sooooo exciting.The bulbs are coming up as I discovered after a few days weeding... and the shrubs are starting to flower so at last the garden is giving us some colour. I've also planted up the garden with some new blooms and shrubs and we have completely revamped the front wall to give the passion flower, jasmine and virginia creeper a proper climbing frame!Found a baby salamander in the process.On the farming side..Fraser rotavated my veg patch and enjoyed every moment as you can see! Having dug in some great compost from the pond weed and my kitchen compost bin and some commercial horse poo compost it is now partially planted with broad beans, peas, onions, lettuce, spaghetti beans, rocket, carrots, parsnips, leeks and radishes. The pumpkins and squashes are being seeded in the back quad of the house along with the small cherry tomatoes and will be going in soon.
I have re-vamped the compost bin in the style of Darth Vader to make two compartments. Amazing what you can do with a dead compost bin from Lidl old gate and some pallettes.As if rotavating wasn't enough work, Fraser decided we were to become a two-pond household, so decided to dig out an extension. The dogs helped of course...overseeing the project and helping to flatten the ground!So in a period of 3 days he dug pond two. and we have lined, filled and completed it with a slate waterfall leading from pond one.and some more formal planting than the last one. We need to re-fence the area and provide another gate. Next month's job!

In the house Fraser has closed off part of the stairwell to the attic with wood panelling. Looks great and now just needs painting.

I made my first ever batch of lemon curd and learned the hard way not to try to flush chopped lemons in an attempt to help clean the system instead of using bleach. The end result was a blocked pipe...very unpleasant and meant we had to rip up the lino in the utility armazem... find and dig out the buried inspection point, complete with concrete hatch (buried halfway under a granite slab on the back path to the field,) and three hours later rodding and clearing the lemons (tempted to say lemon turd here but I won't).

For R and R we spent a day at the beach and took a walk to the river today and the stillness of the water threw up some amazing Dali-esque reflectionsBeanie came over for some playtime with Bugsy
And I have caught the weaving bug after attending a weaving day with friends Josh and Veronika in their workshop.Scraps would like to have a go at unravelling the yarn!

And Fraser has found the right colour red for his latest model, a Douglas Skyray which was a very pretty delta winged fighter with the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s.

So all in all we think we are in for a rest...
but not for long!!!!