Visitors!

We had a lovely day yesterday, Precurso from on here and her husband Mark called in to see us, they are looking for Property in Portugal and came and had a bowl of soup and a really good chat, actually we had such a wonderful time they were really late leaving and probably didnt make their appointments at all...
It was so nice to put faces to names and really spend some time with people I talk to but have never met before... it seemed strange... but we all really enjoyed the experience...

We then called to see some English friends in the next village and had a coffee as we've not seen them in a while, and recieved a kind gift of some Strawberry plants, they were very welcome , Id only been moaning at Rick the other day that our soft fruit area was a bit sparse and I wanted to build it up with planting some strawberries... but with money so tight at the moment I could justify the cost... hehehehe now we have some for free... the runners are tiny, and probably wont fruit this year... but it is something to look forward to...

We've planted the garlic, some experimental rows of carrots, more Grellos and a few Cauli seeds to see how they go...
Later today I may prune the Kiwis, as Ive been told mine will fruit better (any at all would be good) if I pruned them hard...
So as long as this weather keeps on...

Sunshine & Planting ...

Well its another lovely day, Ive checked the forcast and apart from the odd blip here and there with a showery day, its set to stay nice for the next ten days or so. The temps are good too, mid 50s most of the time. Im not sure what this is for you lot out there who do it the other way... around 15-16 degrees or so I think. Mild and warm in the sunshine, thats the important thing.
So, I have a packet of cauli seed , a packet of carrots some garlic that is shooting, and some onion seed and Im going to see if I can make an early start. All say they are suitable for early planting... So we'll see.
I so look forward to the planting time of year, its such a positive time...

I'd like to say thank you to Heiko, over at the Path to self sufficiency blogspot , who sent me a lovely parcel of herb seeds that arrived yesterday, Im so looking forward to making the medicinal herb garden this spring... We just have to make a path for Rik to get hermann up there to cultivate it...

Today I had a bit of a blow to my hopes of cutting down on buying seed this spring . I went to look at all my saved bean seed, and all has weevil or something in it...little jumpy things that look like fleas, and all are covered in tiny holes. They were sealed in plastic containers, so the little buggers must have been in the beans when I sealed the containers... Im not sure how to counteract this... as I dont know what they are or how it happened... The bean plants were good strong and healthy and gave an excellent crop, we ate them and they were lovely, so where do the little buggers come from?

Sunshine!! and broad beans..

Well its brightened up beautifully, the weather yesterday was mild and dry and today it dawned dry and mild and with bright sunshine, I went to the veggie patch at 9am this morning and it was warm enough to go in tee shirt and jeans... excellent... and the forcast is more of the same all week... I went down to our winter garden in the orchard yesterday and checked out the new stuff down there, the broad beans are coming up really strong, and look excellent, although Im not counting my chickens as we generally get this far and then still dont get to eat them... Ive been saving all the wood ash from the fire for them so gave them a good top dressing of ash to help them along a bit, such valuable potash...
The winter peas down there are not too bad, a little sporadic , as they suffered a bit with the rain washing stuff out and maybe rotting some seed, but we have quite a few and this sunshine will really make them pull strongly now...
My onion seedlings are coming on too... Im so hopeful of them, never having grown them from seed before...
The Grelos is good, we are eating it in soup at the moment... and I'll plant another lot in a day ofr two.. there are still one or two caulis left to come as well, we've managed one a week for ages... I'll defo plant them late again, to have caulis during the winter has been a great help to us this year and I hope to repeat that success next year..
The cabbage is still doing okay, its slowed down a lot but the next batch will be ready any time now... Rick cannot manage without cabbage...

Im so looking forward to this growning year, I felt I missed so much last year with having to dash back and forth to Ireland. We'd planted so much extra stuff so I could preserve, and dry it all, and I never got to do much, Rick had to give so mmuch away as he couldnt cope with the workload without me.... aaaarrrhhh .

Weather... and stuff..

Well the weather is certainly giving us a few changes at the moment, Friday night, it was howling up at our place, wind , and lashing rain, we often get high winds when the village a klm away gets a breeze, it seems to funnel up the valley to us, and buffets the house really hard. Its noisy, but I like it... if Im not going out that is.. there's nothing better than sitting by the fire or being tucked up snug in bed listening to the wind and rain lashing down... sadly it still seems to end up all over my kitchen floor if we get too much...
Yesterday, it was gorgeous.. after about 10 ish it was T shirt weather... we spent a lovely afternoon wandering in the forest with the dogs and really enjoyed the exercise in the sunshine...
Last night the temps fell drastically as it was a clear night, the first for ages... so it was quite cold.. and as we have no heating upstairs, the hot water bottles were out in force!
This morning the wet is back...we awaoke early to a dry misty morning... and I thought it was going to be lovely again, but then looking across the valley I could see the misty foggy stuff on its way...

It really only takes a few mins at most for the whole valley to be full and you cant see the garden ..

The citrus squeezing goes on and on... we are picking up off the ground around a bucketful every day now.. Ive given tons away, and we are now juicing the rest as much as a small manual juicer and a strong arm can do in one day that is... Im freezing it in those plastic ice cube bags, I looked into the best way to do it and there isnt a no plastic way I can think of... Ice cube trays still have to be emptied into freezer bags for storage, these at least lay flat in the freezer taking up less space especially as we have so many more to come...
It will save us a lot of money on juice during the summer, I'll just pop a few fruit cubes in a glass and cover with either water or Gaseoza and its a cheap fruit drink...