Christmas '11

Just can't believe how quickly Christmas has come round this year! Very lucky to have the family out with us this year- so preparations started early -making the Christmas Cake and mincemeat, and preparing for a pig to be dispatched and birds to be plucked! The boys were in charge of all the meat- they boned and prepared 7 birds - a pair of quails, inside a bantam cockerel, inside a duck, inside a guinea fowl, inside a goose, inside a turkey!

 The wild boar/ Iberian black pig has been a great success and made the best sausages and bacon ever!

 

 

 We've also had the underfloor heating installed and next layer of concrete poured so it has made for the warmest and most comfortable Christmas here yet- every year we progress a little bit more!

olives, dogs and the odd pig...

Olives '11

My blogs posts are like buses- you wait ages for one, and then three come along at once!!
I've been (quite rightly!) nagged by a few people to keep up with the blogging- so I promise to make more of an effort and post less erratically!!

Sooooooooo here we are again- with the olive harvest- its' just come around oh so quickly!!! The weather has been terrible recently- very stormy so we have lost a few on the floor but otherwise the harvest is looking fairly good!

 A break in the weather meant we could have a fantastic day picking in the autumn sunshine. These are the days we treasure- and what being here on this old quinta is all about.

We've had some help from Ish- as she is here at the moment- tempted her with a roast duck dinner and a couple of tankards full of black velvet- how could she refuse!!

PURO launch

Thanks to everyone who came along to our exhibition. It was a lovely opportunity to show our friends what all the soap fuss has been about!

We received lots of wonderful feedback and Ishbel and I were even asked for our autographs!!

We're all still buzzing from our fantastic evening!!

No rest for the wicked tho'- up the next morning wrapping soaps for a local shop and then straight into the olive harvest!

November 1st

We just had to go and have a look at the cemetary on November 1st- All Saints Day. all the locals put flowers and light candles on the gravestones of their lost love ones.

I thought it perhaps sounded a bit depressing but the sight of the beautiful cemetary all lit up was totally amazing.

sky, parties and lazy dogs

A couple of photos of the amazing sunsets we've had recently.

We've been partying as usual- this is a birthday cake we made for Cris who Paul builds swimming pools with- it's supposed to be a pool construction site!

Tose also had a birthday and i'm still trying to learn to dance but Gloria does have to watch her feet!

All too much for lazy dogs..

PURO SOAPS

Alot of you will now know what I've been busy on with Ishbel- a new Portuguese soap range- which will be officially launched in November. Check out Ishbel's blog to follow the progress:
http://naturallymadesoaps.blogspot.com/2011/09/portugal-soap-and-lots-more.html