Update... Mmmmm fresh veg..

Hmmmm I'm sorry its taking so log to update this blog recently, but with the veggie patch flourishing I'm kept busy down there most of the time, the lovely thing is, not only are we eating our own lettuce (have been for weeks) we now are digging beautiful new spuds .... oooh you cannot beat that taste... plus last night we had Beetroot suprise made with our own lovely beets, mmmmmmn, it was an almost completely homegrown free meal, beetroot suprise ( ours with a little bought cheese for the sauce) new spuds, ours, brussels from the freezer , ours from last season, plus I cooked the beetroot tops as spinach with a dot of butter and black pepper... a nice homemade loaf of Soda bread, a glass of our wine.... what more could you want....
The peas are in pod, just waiting for them to fill up.... the french beans and green beans have flowers on... the onions are huge!! Its all go...
The only failure was the broad beans, I put them in too late, andwe got hit by black fly... so we made the hard choice to take them out and burn them, rather than have it spread to the whole patch.... the french beans have a few on but Im sure they'll manage now the main source of infection is gone...

Electric Bill!!! Hoorah!!! we had a bill..... and it wasnt scary.... all our economies have really paid off now, as our last one was still part estimated they had to pay us some back, so all in all our bill was 11euros.... logically taking into account the back payment... and the fact that we had had guests in the cottage ... our normal bills should now range between 30 and 40 euros... which will be wonderful compared to the 90 -150 euro ones we were getting....
Unless you have many many gadgets, and tons of white good... DONT go on the duel meter saving thingy...

Normal day...
Ive had a few people asking about our lifestyle and in reply this is my average, normal day.... yesterday...

I got up around 6am, Rik had a bad night with backache so I got up to see to the dogs, we walk them early before the forest gets busy with loggers etc.
Feed the dogs.
Light the kitchen range...
Make coffee when range is hot...
I made six loaves of soda bread for the freezer, so if we eat salad and dont light the range , we always have bread.
I went to garden and picked loads of lovely baby beetroot to make a beetroot suprise for dinner, then dug a few new spuds to go with them.
Decided to try cooking the beet leaves like spinach for tonight.... mmmmn lovely...
topped and tailed the beets and cooked them...
Had loads of beet leaves left so made Pesto... loads of beet leaves, big handful each of.. fresh parsley, coriander, dill, a few sage leaves, a few mint leaves, 4 cloves of garlic , salt and olive oil.... all wizzed up in the blender... put into sterilised jars , cover top with oil as seal...
Lunch time, as we had loads of eggs given to us, we had scrambled eggs and bread n butter, and fruit...
stoke the range with wood...
Get another barrel ful in..
two loads of washing (30degree setting, only takes half an hour) washed dried and folded away...
I'm experimenting with the dehydrated soya chunks as they are cheap... so soaked some, and cooked it in onions and garlic with a dash of marmite, a stock cube and some soya sauce, it wasnt too bad... a tad on the salty side but , edible... needs more experimentation though....
Planted 14 cherry tom plants a friend managed to germinate cos I couldnt....
stoked the range.
Cooked the dinner , washed the dishes, walked the dogs... and settled down to read a lovely herb book Ive been lent... bed at 10.30...
So there you are, not what some would call exciting, but I love it... there is always work to do, but we dont think work is a dirty word... work is only work if you dont enjoy what you're doing... and we love it!!!

Pat

Jay& Jaqui !!!!

Ive been trying and trying to leave you a comment and invite you to ours... your blog wont let me... please email me ASAP!!! email is on contacts page on the website..

A Poo Mountain...

Ooooh, the circus came to Figueiro and left us a present... while we really dont like the idea of animals in the circus, I felt the tons of poo they left behind was just too good to miss... lovely Rik went and collected a huge trailor full of it, Lion poo, Camel Poo, Llhamas etc... and its all excellent stuff, really given our compost heap(which is now a sizable mountain) a great boost...