Home at last..

Well hello!!! Im home and so glad to be back I cannot put it into words... I'll try really hard to sort out this blog again now, to bring things up to date and have a little re-organisation around here too.

Firstly, Ive changed settings so sadly only followers on this blog can leave a comment, maybe that will deter the spammers, if it doesnt work or makes life difficult for REAL people who wish to comment, please email me, patricia@livingthedreamportugal.com and I'll try to sort it out.

Dad is doing really well at the moment, his health is never going to be great again, he's almost 80, has smoked, drank , not exercised and generally abused his body over a lifetime... so its about normal really. He's hoping to leave hospital over the next couple of weeks and I have other family menbers there helping out and looking in on him. I may have to go back towards the end of the month but I'll worry about that then. Now Im just enjoying being home...

Ricky has done so well coping alone, the freezer is jam packed with produce, so much so, Im trying to use up a lot to make pasta sauce so I have space for all our carrots still to come, I picked three washing up bowls full of tomatoes yesterday, plus peppers, aubergines, courgettes, and butternut squash. Bless him he even made some tomato sauce himself, 12 kilo jars!!
Yesterday I made a dozen jars of roasted tomato puree, yummy... I'll post the recipe later.
Today we are making more pasta sauce... we pulled the last of the french beans... and Ill add them to the pasta sauce, and use them up. We'll certainly be eating a lot of pasta this winter!!
Im also putting in tons of basil , as we have loads, wonderful stuff too...
Plus still loads of cabbages, the caulis are looking good, Im hoping they will heart up soon... and chillis... the small Piri piri kind.... literally hundreds!! Im going to start picking the red ones later...
Im also hoping to sweet pickle a few beetroots today too... its all full on now!

The log barn is looking good, Rik has tried to continue on with that , but obviously itsa slow job on your own, but its half full ... we must look to that next week... once I have the food situation under control..

Beesa the puppy is gorgeous, rik still having problems with the house training at night, she's good during the day but at night still poops.. Im now taking over the night duty and making a few changes to her routine that I think will help... I hope so...