Our Helpers. Gareth & Osian

Well things are certainly working out well , both lads are hardworking, pleasant and polite. Both also have an excellent sense of humour, which is always needed when working with Rick... They seem to be enjoying life here with us, its been almost two weeks now and we've all agreed they will stay indefinately. At least till New Year. As long as I can feed them anyway... Luckily although money is extremely tight as always, food stocks are very high, so Im confident the next few weeks will be fine. We've tons of cabbage and caulis coming on in the garden, Ive just planted some Grelos(turnip tops) which make great soup, we are still eating aubergines and peppers, I think I could write a book on cooking with Aubergines.. We've had them in one way or another everyday since the lads arrived..
Things around the place are moving on well, although we dont have the money to do things that require buying materials, land work costs us nothing. The lads have made a great job of landscaping the area near to the house, building pretty little dry stone walls and clearing rubbish and rubble. And moving a small mountain of rock...
They have also made a good start on collecting some more winter wood, a whole van load yesterday, which has been cut up and Im busy stacking it over the next couple of days. Osian has been hard at it , strimming away, and he had his first encounter with a snake, bless him... he was pretty shook up for a while. Luckily we had made sure he was well protected with steel toecap boots, leg protectors and all the relevent safety equipment.
The weather has been superb for them to get settled, its suposed to break this weekend and we are due some rain, it will be quite welcome. We have a lot of stuff to burn, and want to get it sorted.

As you can see by some of the pictures below, they have also been enjoying their time off...

Osian                                                                           Gareth

Flowers & walls

Well the lads have been hard at it again today and the garden is showing real signs of their efforts already. A lovely stone wall has been built to hold back a crumbling bank, and now a large pile of builders rubble which was all overgrown with weeds and home to many mice that invaded my kitchen in cold weather has almost been cleared away.

Again the temps are high, we've called it a day at lunchtime and they lads had a dip in the pool to cool off before coming in to find a cool place in town.

There should be a shot of them here somewhere plus a couple of their handywork too.

When we first came to Portugal Rick bought me, as a present some 'Bird of Paradise ' plants, we've nursed them along and they have never flowered, we get too much cold wind and frost for them up here really, but this week for the first time ever I have a flower.... and another six or so to come... I wanted to share it with everyone Im so pleased!

Helpers... A success this time.

Well our new helpers arrived the day before yesterday, two lovely Welsh lads, Osian & Gareth. Both from the wilds of Snowdonia in North Wales. Such great lads, already they have fitted in perfectly, they have exactly what is needed to fit in well here, a strong back, strong nerves and a excellent sarcastic sense of humour. Plus the ability to ignore almost everything Rick says... he's a real p**s taker and likes nothing better than to torment people... These lads are having none of it and it bodes well for a great fun few weeks.
They are working well and building stone walls and tidying up the main garden around the house, shifting rubble and logs. The weather is to them unbelievable... for us its actually getting a tad tiresome...
I know its not done to complain, but its mid October is today it was 34 degrees in my garden... Im having to cook huge meals for these boys and Rick as they are doing a lot of hard work and lighting the kitchen range makes my kitchen like a sweatshop..So I would like it to cool down a few degrees ....
I suppose when it does happen it will drop like a stone and feel freezing ...
We have lots of plans for all we want to accomplish while they are with us, lots of stone walling, vine clippping, rototilling, beans to plant  for spring, wood to collect and chop and stack, weeding , strimming, oh the list goes on and on... but they seem happy to help...

On a different note, Im SO EXCITED..... its all or nothing for the welsh lads come saturday...Hopefully by the time I can log on saturday morning, Wales will be through to the Rugby World Cup Final....
C'mon the boys!!!
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Aubergines...

Well I hope our helpers who arrive later in the week like aubergines, ours have been magnificent this summer, and are still producing around 6-8 a day... plus the pepper plants are churning out a half doz or so each day too.
As the freezer is full to capacity I am making sure we eat them every day...
Ive pickled aubergines in garlic oil ...
Im now thinking of making a chutney with them...
And tomorrow Im experimenting with a aubergine & green pepper dip... lots of garlic and lemon should be yummy....

Any more ideas...???