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,

Monday 14 May 2012

Free Accommodation in Portugal for the summer..

We are looking for someone, either a single bloke or a couple, to live here for the summer or longer if it works for all concerned.
We offer the caravan accommodation, including free electricity & water, plus a share of veggies from the garden in season. The caravan has a shower and portaloo, a heater for when needed, sleeps two, (14ft) and is basic but comfortable. Possible use of small area of land for own cultivation.
All we ask is 3 hours help a day on our land and with wood collection. You must be able to drive and love dogs!
email me ASAP... patricia@livingthedreamportugal.com to discuss...

House For Sale Update

Yes the house is still for sale, we've had a few people come and look but no takers yet, we are just continuing on as before but looking for ways to cut our workload to make life more manageble for me and my health, poor Rick cannot do it all alone. He is also only doing week long training clinics abroad this year, so he can be home with me more , but it means the chance of his job away has fallen by the wayside sadly.
So, if you are thinking of a new life in the sun... give us a call or drop me an email...
Check out our webpage about this place please...
www.buyoursmallholdinginportugal.weebly.com  

Home at last!

I'm finally home, and so very pleased to be here. Im still not completely well but hopefully this time will continue to improve . I have to take it easy still, but am looking forward to working the land and enjoying the summer .
The tangerine tree in the garden is in flower and coupled with the warm weather was a beautiful fragrant welcome home for me, I love Portugal in the Spring and early summer, its so beautiful with all the wild flowers and citrus fruit trees in blossom, the air is scented and absolutely heavenly.
Also as the temps in North Wales never went above 14º the whole time I was there, the lovely 28º I came home to was very welcome ...
The heavy rain that troubled Portugal while I was gone has caused havoc in the veggie garden though, all our aubergines, peppers and most of the squashes have just drowned and completely rotted away.
We will have to replant as fast as we can and hope this warm weather will bring them on fast!
The cabbage, both red and green are doing fine, as are the couple of rows of beets Rick managed to get in, he worked like a trojan and planted all our spuds singlehandedly and they are looking great, and the beans are popping up everywhere. The sweetcorn is just coming up in places, so we hope not all has rotted away...
We have had to make the decision to only plant bare basics this year, as we will struggle to cope with the work of caring for it all.
I will plant some late parsnips next week, plus some basil, summer wouldnt be summer without the gorgeous scent of fresh cut basil in the house... tomato salad just isnt worth eating without it..
The ton of broad bean seed we planted in the autumn has paid off, we have just started picking a mountain of them... and I really do mean a mountain.. the pics below should show just how many, we filled the red laundry basket first, then had to use the plastic fruit tray, and still had six rows to pick that we couldnt fit in...
I spent yesterday podding& freezing them.

Obviously we are eating them fresh everyday too....