May 19- The Garden

It's a fantastic time of year- everything is beautifully green. The frogs are calling, the hoopoes, cuckoos and nightingales are back and in full song.

The River Garden is a year on now and really establishing well- feels like we've got a 'real garden' again and we just love it.

Pascoa '19- Easter and Myrtle Madness!

We had a wonderful Easter with family visiting- plus a crazy little boxer pup on the scene!

 

She is fitting in brilliantly. The first few days were challenging- she seems to have no fear- and I needed to be watching her like like a hawk.
The Weasel wasn't too sure to start- and neither was Flea, but slowly they are getting used to having her around. Weasel seems to be happy to have a bit of backup again!

Myrtle

It's been a year now since we had to say goodbye to Twiggy. We've been missing her so much, but we didn't want to rush into any hasty or bad decisions. After a lot of thought- weighing up the pros and cons, we threw our caution to the wind and decided to go for a new boxer pup.
Our reason for not getting a rescue this time is for several reasons- the first and most important is The Weasel- she is 11 now, and we felt that bring in an unknown would be very unfair on her. We don't have fences or gates here- so we needed to start with a puppy which we could train, and one we know the habits/character of.
Paul and I have had boxers for almost 20 years and there was a huge boxer shaped hole in our lives. Plus we've had a hard 18 months and we all needed a little sunshine back at Velagota again....


So here she is........ Sweet Myrtle de Lareanus

Spring 2019- javali!

We had a visitor to the girls in the Spring- a huge male Javali- wild boar.
He jumped into the pig field, had a sniff about and jumped out again. The girl weren't fussed at all- all very calm and curious! He visited a few mornings in a row- which was quite inconvenient as he was super aggressive towards humans!!

Bees Knees

Paul's surprise from all the family was two bee hives (bees to follow in the Spring!). Very exciting for both of us. We have been thinking about the best place to put them- on the sunny side/out of the frost, but with shade from the midday sun. We've chosen a spot below the veggie garden- and at the weekend visited the local market to buy some more trees and then set about planting bee friendly trees around the area.
1 Liriodendron
1 Tilia
5 Almonds
5 Apples
1 Feijoa
1 Eriobotrya japonica (Loquat/Nespera)
1 Cherry

We also bought 5 olives for the terrace below the 'river garden'- which we've named 'The New Wedding terrace'. We want to keep this level nice and simple with green lawn and olives only.

Because it's the right time of year to buy citrus we also bought 4 more citrus trees- a Grapefruit, Blood Orange, Orange and Lemon- which we'll plant when the weather warms up a bit!

Pauls birthday

Paul had a big birthday this year, so we took a few days out and visited the Douro Valley (two hours drive north from here). Beautiful area to relax, walk and drink some local Douro wine.

2019

January we were straight back into the clearing below the house- also putting in new ramps so we can get the mower/tractor around most of the terraces now

Christmas 2018

We had a bit of a break over Christmas with friends visiting from the USA. We managed to do a bit of clearing below the house and our guests bought and planted two new trees! Alan the Almond- and Sunny D the Orange