So We're Building an Ark on Valentine's Day!

Shouldn't joke knowing the problems people are having in the UK, but the amount of rainfall here has been really staggering. We were off yesterday going up towards the hills to Seia and Gouveia to deliver the last 3 kennels and visit Lili at the Dog Shelter.

On the way we stopped to check out the burst banks of the River Mondego which flows down to us and it was inundated there. Luckily few people here build close to the river's edges, except where the dams are since the water's height is regulated. Easy to understand why when we looked over the bridge just outside Seia.We were amazed at the levels and speed of the water.









So we drove on to the shelter and arrived in time to meet the dogs and help with cleaning out the shelters. A nightmare job which Lili has to do every day, twice a day. Hosing down dog poo in the rain just about takes the biscuit for the job I would least like to crawl over broken glass to do. 

Fraser fell in love with this young Podengo bitch and would have taken her home if he could. She was a real sweetie. But then all the dogs are. So now our team has provided 6 kennels. 

More will be made over the next few months.

Planning now to collect good quality Bric a Brac for a stall at the Tábua Cheese Fair in March and I am going back to Gouveia next week to spend the afternoon and evening with Lili to sort out just what is needed to be done now. I want to apply to RSPCA International for grants to help her complete the site work needed to be formally registered here. There is a lot of structural work and additional buildings needed. So I want to help her create an action plan and link this to required finance so I can make an application on her behalf.

If anyone reading this would like to help out with donations or has connections with businesses which might like to sponsor some of the building projects... or if you just have any ideas please don't hesitate to contact me at sylviamay@sapo.pt.

You can see more on the new website once it is fully operational. There seem to be a few glitches at the moment but the site is here: Cantinho da Lili

And Finally x x x x 

Rainy Dog Kennel Days, Sparks and Lost Channels

Since our return in January the weather has been as bad here as in the UK and across Europe, rain, wind, rain, sun, more rain, but thankfully our flooding is localised so only the field is under water. Not so just west of us on the coast where record breaking surf was recorded at Nazaré.

Didn't know what to do with myself so I decided to start sanding down the ceiling in the bathroom as the paint job I did was rubbish and was peeling off! So I made a start and it was heavy going and not working well. 

     Fraser had come down with a whopper cold and chesty cough which took most of the month to clear and he is still not right. However he took over and was doing a much better job of removing the paint until the electric sander sticker surfaces decided not to let the sandpaper stick on. Aaaaarrggh! Had to get friend David in the UK to send us some Velcro stuff to fix onto them.

So we took a break leaving half the ceiling stripped. And it still is!

I had a 72 hour weird virus thing that made me extremely bone sore, grumpy, tired and lacking in any kind of motivation to do anything. We both sat looking out at the bloody awful weather and grumbled into our tea or alcohol of choice.

HOWEVER.....we eventually managed to shove our hands up our fundaments and pull ourselves together and started the marathon dog kennel project for Lili's dog shelter in Gouveia. This meant much stripping down of pallets, kindly provided by friend Felipe in December and again in January.

Fraser dismembered and I de-nailed and sanded shedloads of wood panels.
We made a design and went for it! We made two!

 
Once tested and approved by the kids we then set some dates for inviting foolhardy friends to a dog kennel day


 IT WAS A GREAT DAY!

 We had lots of donations of fabrics and stuffings to make interior mattresses for the kennels so the team of Rob, Harry, Fraser, Ness and Steve got down to kennel building.

and Marian and Judy got into making mattresses.

 


I just did a lot of encouraging and trouble shooting, tea, coffee and burger and chips making and taking photos.

By the end of the day we had made three more kennels so now have 5 altogether from here and one that friend Paul made earlier.

Rob took 3 of the kennels to the shelter this week and we hope to take the other three in the week to come. Thank you to everyone who donated materials and continue to support the project. You are all great friends. Will be planning another day in the future when the weather permits and we have had a chance to split up the rest of the pallets.

Watch this space for a second blog about our visit to the Kennels next week.

Scraps in the meantime has gone viral on facebook after having been snapped sitting in the log basket and captioned by Steve in the light of current events

The only other useful thing I managed to do was to FINALLY put a new cover on our old Victorian nursing chair! It only took a day - after 25 years of waiting.

Then at 1.30 this morning, we woke up thinking there was silent lightning flashing through the window only to find it was our electricity line shorting out among the trees behind the house. The tree caught fire briefly (too wet to travel beyond the trunk) before the line was broken. The tree was cut down and the line was replaced this morning, but I need to talk to other neighbours about clearing the trees that are growing by and around the high tension line. Ho Hum! 

 And the final ignominy is that we have lost all our BBC Freeview channels today since they have now changed to another satellite, so farewell to intelligent viewing...Bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

2014...Christmas Done!

Fraser here......

Well, this post is a bit late...Gorillas ate the first draft! No? OK, how about: The line was downed during Christmas eve storms, and more or less has stayed that way ever since. Steve and Ness, who were house sitting at the time were told that it couldn't be sorted (we need a new line) till at least the 2^nd January and here we are on the 3^rd at 1300 and no line and therefore no internet. Dunno when they're going to get around to us. I get the impression we're a low priority.

Hang on though.....OK so they have just turned up and are fixing the line....Good thing!

So, December.

A quiet month till we organised a Christmas quiz afternoon with friends to both celebrate the festive season and to raise some funds for the dog shelter we are trying to support. A great afternoon had by all. Thanks to everyone for their pet food and money donations.

Then it was full on preparations for our Christmas visit to the UK on the 16^th. There followed a great, if a bit hectic, two weeks of visiting and Christmas festivities.

Flew to Gatwick and made our way up to Rich and Jo's in London. The day consisted of train to plane to train to underground to train....a fairly long day but arrived safe and wet 10 hours later!

Day two 17^th December, involved some local shopping and looking after Lexa. I was conned into making paper chains and doing jigsaws and putting up Christmas cards with Lexa and Sylvie and even made instant cupcakes. The latter possibly even edible.

Artists at work

The next day, 18^th by now, leaving Sylvie for another day of Lexa minding, I was off to Bath, where I had lunch with friends Saied and Charlotte,  and then went off with my old mate Alan and had a really weird, but enjoyable evening concocting new flavours of ice cream. I could tell you more but I'd have to shoot you 'cause it's all secret...

Sylvie came down to Bath at noon the next day, 19th. Met up with another old mate, David in the morning for a cuppa and a chat. Sylvie and I did a bit of shopping and then went to visit Glenna, another friend we haven't seen in a while. Met up with niece Saffi and friends Ian and Jo in the pub (complete with a pint of Best and fish and chips).

Spent the night at Malc's, another friend's, flat which she'd kindly let us stay in for the night as she was hot footing it off to Oman for Christmas. Friday 20^th we were up early to get the train to Truro where we spent a few days getting re-acquainted with the Cornish branch of the family. Stayed with Jan in her lovely little rented terraced cottage, visiting niece Hannah, husband Steve and the kids at home.

 
We had a really nice time in and around Penryn, Falmouth and Truro getting out and about including (yay) a visit to the Falmouth Maritime Museum.

The Race is on!

Jan and Roo sail against Fraser

Finn in the Museum

Hannah and Roo

After this all too a short stay we caught the train back to London on Monday 23rd. This is where it got interesting because of the storms. Glad we had reserved seats as due to ferocity of the weather and train cancellations it was very crowded. Single track running near Teignmouth... the sea, which is right next to the track , looked incredibly unfriendly, to say the least. It took all day to get back but arrived only a couple of hours later than we had hoped.

OK my turn....Sylvie here....

From here on it was full-on family Christmas.Lots of planning of meals and sorting of fridge space and last minute frantic wrapping up of presents. Lexa and I had made a fairy for the top of the tree and a table decoration and Rich and Jo had got in most of the shopping. Christmas eve saw Rich at work, Jo taking a driving lesson and meeting up with Rich to do last minute shopping midday, Fraser heading out to collect the Turkey and a few bits and bobs while I stayed with Lexa and we made even more paper chains for her bedroom and a couple of presents for Mummy and Daddy and Uncle James and Auntie Adela.

Adela entertains

Christmas Breakfast

Rich and Jo and James and Adela arrived late in the afternoon and we were off!!!! Christmas time! Santa came and we all had an inelegant sufficiency of amazing food and drink over the two days and lots of presents!

All wonderful fun. It was great to have a family Christmas after 4 years and our first with Lexa.

On TV at Victoria

On 27^th we made our across London to be with my sister and family for the day in remembrance of my Mum whose birthday was 27^th December. We got stuck at Victoria since weather had made lots of delays and famously appeared on the 10 o'clock BBC news that night! Fame for 5 seconds! We only found out because loads of friends texted us to say they had seen us.

Almost all of the family was there including several of our many great nieces and nephews that we hadn't seen for many years. The house was packed.

On Sunday 29^th Lexa met up with my great niece Luna for the first time which was a joy.   

We had a final family dinner at my sister's with Malc who came up from Bath for the occasion despite missing bus and train drivers

and then we flew back the following day.......were attacked by overjoyed dogs and are feeling KNACKERED.

Fraser has managed to pick up a chesty cold and we are both taking it easy for the week to recover from our holiday travelling. It's a bummer getting old.

Our main forest track is becoming impassable by car because of the rains and resembles a river bed.....and so the new year's resolution is to give the local council a REALLY HARD TIME in the hope that they will sort it out. Hmmm. Pigs might fly.

SO....we hope you had a busy and fun Christmas and wish the very best of new years to all of our faithful blog readers.

We hope 2014 will be a healthy and happy year for us all.

Winding the Year Down

November is always a weird month here. Winter is in the air, night temperatures drop (a lot!) and the days are cooler. Yet we have sun and drought. It's time here for olive picking. Our neighbours have been busy and seem to have had an abundant year. Our olives were few and far, but mainly due to the way we pruned them last year to give them a rest. Basically for health rather than olive production.

Testing the ceiling colour at the start

We spent November giving the outside of the house a tart up. The kitchen gallery was looking worse for wear - not painted for nearly 16 yrs. So we have taken down all the green netting around the columns and given the whole area a face lift. Much brighter and a new mexican style mural next to the door of the armazem.

 Loving it!

 Land wise, Fraser and friends Paul, Steve and Ness got down to emptying and cleaning out the top pond. Sludge and immense water lily roots were cleared and trimmed. The growth has been amazing so it all neede to be done. Now it looks rather empty but by next summer it will have re-generated.

Since we disovered that an otter has eaten all our fish (bar two sunfish and a lot of mosquito fish) Fraser has decided not to restock. But I think he will change his mind!

Dug up the sweet potatoes...the final crop of the year. We got around 10 kilos out of half a dozen plants so pretty good all in all.

 The trees  are changing colour rapidly now and
the windy days mean they won't last too long.

But it is still a lovely time of year.

I have been putting together chilli jam, lemon curd, remaining advent calendars, abstract cushions and bits and bobs to sell at local winter fairs. Doing quite well so far and have another at the end of the month.

Our Ghost dog stray who we feared to be on his last legs is still with us and comes every day for food, although he still won't approach us when we are out. We have set up a shelter for him by the back gate but he doesn't seem to want to use it, so we will just continue to put out food and hope it helps to keep him alive this winter. 

Having heard from friends about a new dog sanctuary in Gouveia where they are helping out voluntarily we have also been busy organising bedding, dog food, flyers and business cards. The young woman, Lili, who runs it has left university to try to help the abandoned and maltreated dogs in the area. She started in May with 40 and now has over 70! The area is rife with abandoned and abused dogs and some of the 'official' kennels simply starve or get rid of the dogs whilst still receiving government funding to run them. Lili has rescued many from these kennels and is now trying to raise funds for development on her site to be registered officially.She is trying to manage on 300 euros a month and is not managing to do so.
So we are trying to do our best for her on limited funds.
You can find out more about 'Cantinho da Lili' at this link on facebook

Cantinho da Lili



If anyone in Portugal reading this would be interested in adopting a dog please make contact with Lili or send me an email.
Anyone can donate. We have sterling and euro accounts here. Any funds will be welcome to help with vet bills, food and cleaning materials.
Just contact me at sylviamay@sapo.pt to find out more.







So now we are organising ourselves to spend Christmas in the UK with family and visiting friends on a whirlwind 14 day trip.
So here's a Christmas wish for you all. Will not have a December blog. But we will be back in the new year .