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!