Sharing...

I just read this at another blog Ive discovered and thought it so lovely I wanted to share it with everyone...

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain clean room , a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along a floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door.
I have found such joys in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose fresh-cut and placed within a vase,
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.

Grace Noll Crowell

Plus....

Just as a little thread of gold running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women’s work at home, while only the doing of little things, is like the golden gleam of sunlight that runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization."

Laura Ingalls Wilder

So describes my life here....

Kristina

Hi KristinaI dont know if it will work for coldsores outside the mouth, his was right up high inside between cheek and gums, he just bruised a fresh leaf, and laid it flat on his cheek against the ulcer and left it there all day, he said he soon got so used to it, he forgot it was there, I made him take it out for bed incase he choked. it took two days to heal it completely

Medicinal Herb Garden

Just a quick update to say... no change really, the weather has been so pooh that Ive not had any chance to get out and work on it, any time we have is spent planting food.
BUT... I did use Rik as a guinea pig again the other day with great success..
A friend of ours had been suffering with coldsores and without thinking gave Rik the customary side to side pecks... sadly almost the next day he had really big painful mouth ulcer... now he swears he's never had a mouth ulcer before in his entire life... and it gave him hell for days with no sign of going.
I checked my herbal and insisted he try my treatment... a fresh bruised Lemon Balm leaf, tucked flat in hs cheek against the ulcer... within a day... much better, the following day the same treatment and it worked...

Wet Stuff.... again..

Yes, its been raining, again, just when we get all fired up and thrilled by some sunshine, it vanishes and the wet stuff comes again. Its been too wet to get out on the land to continue our planting, but Ive been out today buying my french bean seeds , green beans, and ever more beetroot, its turned into a main crop for us as Rik LOVES it so much, we eat it hot as a veg with cheese sauce, hot garlic butter or just cold boiled and peeled like apples... he also eats kilos sweet pickled every year... I bought more Basil too...

Crisis struck last night... I used the last of our peas from the freezer, hehehe Rik was horror struck, he loves peas, I refuse to buy them, so he only gets what we can grow, I extend the length of our 'season' by freezing surplus, but its never enough. I dont mind really, I think it makes us appreciate the new crop when it comes, as with all our stuff, there's nothing quite like going to the garden and picking the first new peas and eating them straight away, or pulling the first beetroot ... the fact that we've done without them for a while makes them all the more tasty.. thats the trouble with supermarket veg, its always on tap, and it gets taken for granted, it may have travelled half way round the world a couple of weeks before you buy it as well... it can never never match our veg for taste, goodness or cost...
So... he'll wait with anticipation and watch the young peas spouting up...

I'm having my frugal cooking skills stretched to the limit at the moment, the freezer and store cupboards are getting low, we've still loads of food, but its all very much the same stuff... courgettes, aubergines, tons of toms , pumpkin, loads of sliced peppers,fruit, plus a few other odds and ends of bags... so making meals using this is getting a tad boring... but Im determined not to buy in food when we still have lots to eat... We also have a lot of soya granules, dried beans, lentils and herbs... (and bags of cubed stewing beef) I'll just have to get more inventive!!
Ideas please???

Rain, Plant, Rain, Plant, Rain...

Hmmm bloody weather, we seem to have spent a lot of time dashing in and out recently, one minute its lovely warm and sunny, then like today, its absolutely hammering it down...
Yesterday was gorgeous, must have been over 70 degrees... lovely, we planted tons of beetroot, parsnips, three huge drifts of coriander, as well as a big patch of Basil and one of Parsley...
All my squash seeds are in pots now, if they all take we'll have mountains of them, Black courgettes, yellow cougettes, green and yellow pattypans, butternuts, spaggetti pumpkins, normal giant pumpkins, and also some Okra.
Down in the patch we've now got in 250 onions, with the same again still to go, tons of peas, carrots, 40 cabbage, 40 leeks, and 2 dozen lettuce. Plus what we planted yesterday...
Still much to do, caulis, some broccoli, corn, more beets, and all the toms and peppers and aubergines yet... phew....
Ooooooh my spuds are just popping up through the ground too.... the raspberries are leafing up, as are the blackcurrents and redcurrents... the orchard is going well ... I love this time of the year.... everything showing such promise I get so excited to see the new growth coming... with the rospect of all that lovely food to come...

Spring has sprung...

The weather is lovely, we had a couple of wet days but generally at the moment is wonderful... warm, sunny, and high 60s to low 70s... a little humid but its excellent growing weather , all work inside the house has ground to a halt... with my blessing, we are busy rototilling and getting the land sorted, today we'll get all our peas in, plus a couple of rows of Parsnips and some parsley and coriander... I plan to divide as much and many of the different areas with herbs as possible, culinary ones that is, I also scattered french marigolds all around the potatoe patch... it wards off eelworm and other pests... the Portuguese think Im barmy... the strong aromatic herbs keep pests away from veg when interplanted...
I must try to crack on with the herb garden too... so much to do... I love this wonderful growing fertile time of the year!!!
Oh and for all those who have been in touch about our lovely old boy Cola.... he's much improved this week... we upped his Devil's Claw and he seems to be improving... fingers crossed...

Spuds , spuds and even more spuds...

Well, considering we do not usually plant many potatoes as we dont have adequate storage for many, this year is a little different...
We usually plant just a few , enough to give ussome lovely early new potatoes when they are still expensive in the shops.
We were in town a couple of days ago when we bumped into a near neigbour (well the next valley) and he asked if we had enough seed potatoes.... I said we just had a few as we dont plant many...
That evening he arrived at 7.30pm with a bottle of wine and a couple of huge boxes of seed potatoes... what a lovely man.. so yesterday, we spent all day... and I mean ALL day strimming, then rototilling , then planting a huge patch of spuds... More than enough for us ....
This is actually a good thing, as we have some friends , a lovely young portuguese couple who are having a bit of a rough time at the moment, the husband has just lost his job, and the wife has had to stop work while she has very invasive treatment for cancer, they live in an apartment with their two children so do not have land to grow veggies, things are a little tight for them moneywise , so we plan to grow as much as possible and give them all the surplus... they have been so good to us , Rik stays with them whenever he needs to stay in Abrantes overnight, they feed him every weekend when he's at Softball too... this way we feel we can help out a bit at least.
So we are in for a bit of the wet stuff agin for a few days... at least its warmer though, and in between the showers we'll be clearing the land and hopefully starting to plant, everything else is on a back burner for now...

Kitchen update and sunshine!!

Well, the kitchen is coming along lovely now, I really, really love it.. its still not finished, We have another wall to render and paint, but that means moving the sewage pipe, which means moving the upstairs loo, which means rearranging the bathroom, which was temporary but is now staying put, so its a little more involved than first though, but Rik promises it will be done soon.
Apart from that, the sink is in , Ive a lovely old butler style Belfast sink , we tried all ways to get it to look good , Rik built walls to stand it on, then demolished them ... finally we've stood it on an old Singer sewing machine metal stand which I will paint blue to match the old cupboard, the wooden work top and my shelves have moved across to the long wall and the range is in place and working, we have put granite tops either side of the range so when I forget a pan and rush to pull it off and dump it hot somewhere... I wont ruin the worktop...
We've painted the floor as we cannot afford tiles yet, and this way keeps the dust down and easy to sweep, plus our lovely Cola is getting VERY dodgy on his legs at times and tiles are just too difficult for him to balance on...
Ive tried to accustom Rik to the inevitable pain thats to come, probably sometime this year, Cola is very stiff and we've upped his Devil's Claw pills now in the hopes it will help for a while. But he's 10 this year, which is good for a Dobermann... Rik just will not even discuss the idea that it will happen... Ive had dogs all my life and know that its something you have to live with to get the pleasure they bring too... this is Riks first and only dog, and he'll find it devastating.

But enough of that....
The weather has turned beautifully, we've had a week now of sunshine, the nights have been cold and for us quite frosty, but the days are mild and sunny, we are preparing to rototill and get the spuds in quick... Im enjoying rummaging through my box of seeds and planning my planting ... the daffodills are blooming, as are the grape Hyacinth, everything is popping up all over the place... including the weeds.
The new orchard looks good, sadly we've still no helpers, we were so looking forward to getting loads done , and more land down there cleared etc before the end of the burning season in a few weeks... but hey... we've managed up till now...
We do have two lovely girls coming for a week during April, but all the planting will be done by then...
We are still collecting wood, trying to bring our woodshed back up a little now its starting to dry out a bit... the BBQ in the cottage seating area needs rebuilding, the intense rain just washed out the fire cement... the pool is a tad on the green side, so thats another job... wow its gonna be action stations for the next few weeks to catch up....

Plastic...

So, its not just me that has a problem with plastic... the damn stuff seems to just appear...
Ive solved the problem of the damn Tetrapack thngs, everything here seems to come in them, from milk to juice to just about every liquid... Ive refused to buy almost everything now, apart from milk which we cannot manage without... and our local recycling bins have a special bin for them now.
But the horrible plastic wrapping .... its just about all that goes in my rubbish bin nowadays, as Ive improved our composting and recycling. but Ive decided to tyr to use it in another way.. Im talking about the soft filmy stuff thats wrapped around a lot of things... Ive made a door draft sausage... and stuffed it with the plastic.... its waterproof, light, and does seem to do the job...
Any more ideas ....

Beetroot suprise recipe

Ive posted this before but ages ago...

Boil and cube enough beetroot to cover the bottom of a oven proof dish with a layer about an inch or so thick. Cover with a good layer of sliced mushrooms, make a nice strong cheese sauce, and pour over top. Sprinkle with oats and seseme seeds and bake in the oven till brown bubbling and crispy on top. I serve it with rice & beans, which is rice with blackeyed peas. Plus generally another veg such as carrots. ummmm yummy.

Menu planning,

I havent really done it this week, (I usually start the plan on Saturdays) but we have plenty of food in store and freezer, I'll need to buy the usual, eggs, milk and cheese, but thats about it, oh and washing up liquid, but... after the last post I wrote about doing my bit, I may try experimenting with wine vinegar and lemon juice for washing up... I'll not tell Rik yet though as he gets wobbly about my ideas sometimes... If it works I'll tell him then, if not, he'll never know...

I made a big stew yesterday, with dried beans, veggies and a few slices of chorizo, last night we had it with roast potatoes, tonight we'll finish it off with some rice...
I have some beetroot so i'll make a beetroot suprise tomorrow, and serve it with rice & beans, and probably carrots, thats as far as I can think ahead at the mo.
I have loads of stewing beef in the freezer, I dont generally buy red meat nowadays, its expensive and not particuarly nice, but a local supermarket had an offer on and it looked excellent for a change so I bought a kilo, and we tried some, and it was as good as it looked, so I went back and bought another 4 kilos... yes you may cringe.. but it cost me only 2.99 a kilo. I ended up with 11 bags after I cubed it up. Each of those bags will feed four people easily, more with the addition of extra veggies if I need to, or make a meal we'll eat two days running... so for 15euros, I get at least 44 meals.... good value...well worth it I think. All things are good in moderation, and the small amount of red meat we eat at any one time is minor....
Im still trying to stick to as many one pot meals as possible due to the disruption to the kitchen, the worst thing is without the range, we've had to buy in bread.... the extra cost ... wow we'd forgotten how much we used to spend...
But thats at an end now, Im back to baking again this afternoon... and washing... wow, not being able to do any washing as without the drying rack above the kitchen range, the washing would just contribute to the cold damp feeling in the house, and not dry either... that kitchen range is such a huge part of our lives now, I didnt realise just how much untill we were without it for a week... wood is VERY low though. Again with all the wet stuff (Ive stopped saying the R word) we have wood, but its too wet to burn... now the range is back, I'll put some in the bottom warming oven to dry it every day...

Kitchen update and other stuff..

Well things are steadily improving, hopefully today I'll have water again. the range is in place and working again, and I must say looks lovely where it is now Ive painted the newly rendered wall a nice pale creamy golden yellow colour, a sort of warm golden cream.. and its beautiful... the walls that will hold my wooden worktop are in place and will be rendered today, the stone pieces that will go against the range will have to wait a while till we save some more money, but its not a problem, we've plenty we can be getting on with so the work wont come to a standstill while we save. I had a very old handmade cupboard given to me last year, some English friends were going to throw it out as it has a smattering of woodworm holes. I saved it, its beautiful, it even has the curved cutout in the middle where the small barrels fitted, it was painted a dull green, I have now painted it the very traditional bright blue, and placed against my golden cream wall , it looks stunning !

The wet stuff has been falling a lot again the last couple of days, so no improvement or work done outside, the herbgarden is still a rough patch of brambles full of piles of rock... well over half of it is anyway, Im trying not to stress myself about it, but the seeds will be here soon and spring is on its way and Im not ready for it... we still have strimming to do down the veggie patch and rototilling and fencing before we can start planting... this time of year is allways hectic but this year will be worse due to the kitchen and the weather, we can generally do a little here and there over the space of a few weeks but this year by the time the weather clears it will be full on planting time... oh well... what gets done gets done...
I was hoping for helpers this year, but it just hasnt happened, we have two lovely girls booked to come to help for a week in April, but we needed some now... and two lots have so far let us down...

The orchard is looking lovely, rather wet but the trees are all just starting to bud up so at least we know they are ok...

The weather we've experienced and the rest of the world really, has made me even more determined to make my own small contribution to changing what we are doing to the planet. We must compost more, and we already recycle most things, but Im going to try to persuade Rik to look at our fuel consumption on the van a bit closer, as we do use it a lot, we run hydrogen cells which give us economy and much less emissions, so we are trying, but I'd like to cut usage down, it would save us money too. But he is a petrol head and always has been, so this is a difficult ajustment for him..
We do get comments from people at times who trot out the same old thing... the difference one family makes is so small... what good does it do, if you save a little water or fuel.... sadly so many people still feel like that, is it lazyness, or just ignorance? I dont know, it makes me really angry.. I think its selfishness , as it can be a big ajustment to make to your lives, to think about this kind of thing and not blindly switch on the light or heating or newest electrical gadget from the shop... people think they have to go without... and that scares them... they want... things and will have them regardless of the cost to the rest of the world...
We are not as green as we could be, we dont go without too much... I have a washing machine, we have a motorbike we use for pleasure, we dont want to live in the dark ages, but we are trying, bit by bit , there is so much of the gadgets and convenience world you can live without and yes it does make a difference !!
One of the upside points is our last electricity bill just came in at 37 euros.... what a difference from the almost 100 euros bills and more that we were getting a year or so ago...

Warmer Weather

well its almost dry ... most days, we've had three nice days now, its still rained at some point every day, but inbetween times its also been sunny and warm... at times well into the 60s good working weather! Which is good as Rik moved the kitchen range a couple of days ago so we've had no heating or cooker since... Oh joy, hopefully by the time I get home today , he'll have lit it and the place will be warmer.... he's building walls, and knocking holes all over the place.. it is getting a little better though as I can see the kitchen I want taking shape now. Its going to be VERY rustic, all made with wood and stone and very old fashioned... but just what I want, our house is 250 years old... ish, so a modern fitted kitchen would be a crime in there... this is meant to look like it was always there....
Running water would be nice though hehehehe

Tempest Cynthia..

Well we survived, and luckily with no real problems, we were so blessed compared to all those poor people all over the country who have been flooded or lost their homes. Poor Madeira too... such difficult times over there.
The whole of the world seems to have gone crazy, what are we doing to the planet that this is happening ...
We had the odd tree down, but apart from the orchard flooding nothing bad... Ive spent an afternoon down their digging a drainage channel and its working well, it just so happened it needed doing the day Rick was off helping someone else... so muggins had to wade in and get on with it.

A big thank you to the lovely Jan & Alik, who sent me a suprise parcel of two herbal books, they arrived out of the blue this week and were exactly what I wanted.... thanks guys, we owe you LOTS of dinners...
No sign of my seeds yet... Im really excited about the herb garden, not that Ive finished clearing the rocks yet... but I can dream about it... and we have actually had two more or less dry days in a row now...
The kitchen is moving along... I now dont have a sink either... hehehehe No really, Rik has rough rendered the big main wall, where the kitchen range will go, and we've highlighted a few nice stones around the doorway, and have been waiting to collect the new chimney pipes , they were suposed to be here today.... we are collecting them this afternoon... I hope, then we can continue, meanwhile he dismantled the sink as I 'm having an old stone butler style sink, it took two of them to carry it up the steps... so how lomg without a sink or water.... who knows...repeat after me... all together now... it will be worth it, it will be worth it, it will be worth it....