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,

Thursday 30 September 2010

Hammocks,helpers, wood and even more chutney....

Yes folks, Ive made more chutney, heaven alone knows what we'll do with it all, but I just cant let the produce go to waste and Ive still maybe one more batch worth of ingredients left... never mind I'll barter with it if nothing else... Its getting to be a slightly different recipe as the days go on, the green toms I picked are ripening in the basket so its becoming green & red tomato and marrow chutney, with some apple thrown in for flavour, Rik is even scraping the pan and eating it straight... he just loves it! but whether he will by the end of the winter and numerous jars later...

Ive been catching up on yet more jobs that were on my mental list to do before winter...
I spent two days tidying the cottage guest area, the gravel was a bit scrappy and weedy, its a pig of a job but I have to keep on top of it as long as possible or by mid winter there is no gravel to be seen just a wilderness... like last year... it took two or three of us days to re-sort it... I dont want that happening again.
Luckily we have plenty of helpers coming this autumn so it shouldnt happen.
Between now and Christmas we have a French woman coming to experiment with me with making soap, cosmetics and herbal remedies... Im so looking forward to her visit, not that much work is likely to get done outside....
Plus another young English woman who just wants to experience how we live... hehehehe hopefully she'll not be too shocked...
Then a young couple coming during Nov, plus our big strapping Canadian who wants to chop logs...
We´ve also got two lots of friends coming at some point....plus my brother in law John arrives tonight for two weeks.. its all go... looking forward to lots of fun and food...
The dogs are doing fine, Beesa growing bigger almost while you watch... she's getting very affectionate now, and good with housetraining .... just the very odd accident now and then... usually at night, if we go to bed too early.. She's very, very vocal, she speaks when she wants a cuddle, and when you get up in the morning or have been out for a while, and even when she wants her dinner... she's sooooo funny!

Ive also been stacking wood, we are starting on the fourth row across the barn now, plus I collected four sacks of pine cones and bundles of bark for fire lighters... If the weather stays good like this we may even manage the winter without running out.... hehehehe I say that every year and we always do...

 So tomorrow this is what I plan to do... all afternoon with my new book...
My last job was to put another coat of varnish on our lovely wall sculpture, its a slice of pine, given to us by friends Paul & Barbara, we love it, its very special and decorates our home perfectly. And I did have a lovely shot of it, but it wont load.... damn.