Happy Christmas!

The boys did a grand job on the Christmas dinner- doing a five bird roast- boning out two quails, a chicken, a duck and a turkey, all filled in with home-made stuffing and roasted for about 3 1/2 hrs. in the Esse. It was a roaring success and the meat was tender and moist -we'll definately do this one again- maybe next year we'll try it with even more birds.

We've eaten well and shared some nice bottles of wine- chilled out, and been for some good long walks.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday and Great New Year- thanks to everyone who sent cards and pressies xxxx

Olive Harvest 2010

Almost exactly a year to the day we again find ourselves picking the olives here at Velagota. Only difference from last year was the weather- we had to keep dodging the showers! (good excuse for a wine break!).

Only slightly more than last year- the weight came in at 160kilos. The nice thing about this quinta is the harvest seems to be fairly early which means we are some of the first into the press and avoid the huge queues which will occur over the next week or two.

Shame it's all over for another year!

Some friends of ours are offering a great olive picking experience this autumn!

http://www.quintadopinheiromanso.com/olive/

Autumn

Can't believe it's autumn again already. The area's terrible bushfires and drought seem like a distant memory all of a sudden.Lots going on on the quinta as usual. The house continues to progress slowly- the outside is pretty much all painted now and inside improvements include handrails on the main stairs and (more importantly!) a large wine-rack!

We had a great time with Pauls mum- visiting the beach one day and introducing Twiggy to the sea!

I helped the neighbours with their grapepicking last weekend- a brilliant day and the experience gets better and better every year with more understanding of the language and banter!

I've also been busy making Fig jam and am currently making lots and lots of Soap!

summer stuff!

We've been busy cracking on with the house- painting outside and some inside aswell!

really nice to get a bit of colour and put some of our bits on the wall!

It's turned very hot here over the last couple of weeks- up to 40degrees quite often and the fireplanes are busy.

I've been planting up a couple of ponds for some people here- nice place to be when it's hot!

Bats in the Belfry!

We had a couple of visitors yesterday- two long-eared bats had roosted in our stairwell for the day. Don't think they liked our music as they didn't come back this morning!

Can you see our troll in these rocks?!!

soaps are taking over!

having fun making loads of soap!

side of the house now painted!

and now for the good news

We have a new cockerel called Roger (Daltrey) and five new chikkabiddies to keep him company

Also I have an outlet in the UK selling my soaps- check out the new site going global at any moment!!

http://www.simplyportugalsoaps.wordpress.com/

sad post

Well it can't always be good news on here. We had a bit of a disaster- a fox got into our chicken corral and took all the chickens- it chewed through the electric wire in FOUR places then dug under the fence- I was away, Paul was at work, so the dogs were shut in the house and we can only assume the fox kept coming back throughout the day and helping itself to another meal. Luckily it didn't get the ducklings, rabbits or geese/goslings- but a real shame nevertheless.
The price you have to pay sometimes having free-range animals.
So the next project at the weekend is to super fox-proof the corral again, and start stocking up the hens and a new wife for mr duck who managed to survive.

Soap

I'm continuing to make new soaps- really enjoying it and selling a few now to friends- these are my current orders.

and back to 'normal'

Everything is growing like mad- the vegies, the weeds, the wildflowers and the livestock!
We are picking fresh salads, baby carrots, courgettes, cucumbers, spring onions, beans and plenty of raspberries every day, and we will soon have peas, tomatoes and peppers.

We have 11 new ducklings (a muscovy/mallard mixture so will be interesting to see how they turn out) and we bought two new hens from the market who have settled in brilliantly and are already scratching about with the others and laying eggs.

The goslings are growing by the day and we are planning Christmas dinner by thinking about taking out two of last years goslings- the group is getting big now with 9 altogether- so it's either that or their house will need another extension (and we will need an industrial poopickerupper as they are making a right mess!)

We had a small problem when a few of the rabbits mysteriously died after we brought in a new male (who died aswell), but the remaining ones (7or 8) seem to be fine and are enjoying the vegie garden 'thinnings' of carrots and lettuce!

We've been busy cutting and raking up the hay for the animal bedding and you can't help but stop and admire all the wonderful, natural plant combinations- like Allium sphaerocephalon and Sedums growing out of the terrace walls

So that's the quinta update- we continue to work on the house- trying to get the outside painted and get inside walls plastered, doors made etc etc! (thank-goodness for 'wine-o'clock' when we can relax!)

Shell's 21st (oh bum- i mean 40th)

We have just had the most fantastic weekend- we've partied hard, danced our socks off and enjoyed good company with plenty of food and wine!

We've chilled out in the tub, pic-nicked by the river and strummed on the guitars.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, messages, pressies and money, and my lovely bar stools- I have just been totally spoilt!

Thank-you to all the guys that shared the weekend with us- we really appreciate the effort- and I had to keep pinching myself just to check you were all actually here and i wasn't dreaming!!

goslings

latest update 3 more have hatched so we have 4 now! all out and about, grazing on the grass- sooo sweet!!