About Me

We moved out to Portugal to live a frugal but better , simpler and peaceful life, our house is a very basic, semi ruin, up in the hills outside Figueiro Dos Vinhos, where we work our land, enjoy life with each other and our dogs, and hope to make the smallest carbon footprint we can,

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Summer update.

Well its mid July, the weather is still a little strange at times, one week in the high eighties low nineties next week... overcast and rain, but Im not complaining, it means we've got more work done and I get to sleep at night more often.
The pool has been a gem this year, I dont know how we ever managed without it, although its not a posh in the ground tiled huge thing, (its an above ground 15 metre round one) its perfect for us and we tend to have at least one dip every day... now the sun deck/terrace is finished too, it really looks lovely, its all tiled and you can walk straight to the pool ladder now, the back terrace wall is stepped with irregular shelves that we have decorated with plants and laterns and candles for at night... its beautiful!! Cant you tell I just love it....hopefully we'll get some pics up on the website soon, Rik is actually building the new BBQ/summer kitchen under the seating area today, so that whole area will be done then... he's worked so hard ..maybe have a little BBQ party next week to celebrate...
The garden is still cropping heavily, tons of weeds, they have taken over at the mo, I just cannot keep up, as stuff comes out and we get empty space, the weeds just take over... never mind, we just treat it as green manure and plough it in later...
We ate the first tomato yesterday... still warm from the sun, you just cannot beat the taste...
tons of peppers, aubergines, caulis, french beans, courgettes too... the squash are looking fab, more leeks coming on, millions of cabbage and the brussels have baby ones coming... we even had parsnip thinnings baked with butter and a pinch of sugar the other night.... stunning..

The cottage has done well and we still have more guests to come...

Im still madly stashing away food and all kinds of grocery stuff for the winter, in case we have a tricky winter like last year, this time I'll be ready, the freezer is groaning even now...

We really have to spend some serious time on the wood barn though, times getting short to get it filled up... there just doesnt seem enough hours in a day at the moment...

For all those who were kind enought to ask... Bonnie is fine again now, still digging up my yard...