The red devils

Hi

I´m not talking about Man U but the real little red devils that eats and kill the lovely Phoenix Palm trees.

the "little red devils"

In Algarve there has been a big problem with the red  palm weevil. Many palm trees that have been attacked and killed. Now this problem has occered in our region as well. In Sao Martino do Porto and in Nazare a lot of palm trees have been infested and had to be chopped down and destroyed.

We have 5 Phoenix Palm trees on our farm and we have been a little bit worried. What can we do to protect our gorgeous palm trees? Ase read on internet that you can treat the palm trees before they have been attacked by "the little red devils"
We went to our local store in Caldas were we buy all our equipment for the wine, fruit trees and the garden. We got a product that we should apply twice and the "little red devils" would not try to take our palm trees. Here are some pictures of the first pruning of the palms and the first treatment. There will be one more spraying of the palms and hopefully there will be no "little red devils" in our farm.

//Lars

Farm Holidays Silver Coast Portugal

http://www.farmholidayssilvercoast.com/

PS the music to the film is a bit strange don´t you think..

Management of Red Palm Weevil - www.redweevil.com

Me pruning the palms

after pruning

the treatment

Hidden treasure

Last week we got our new chickens (of which we think one is a rooster....again). Our friend, Peter, who we bought the chickens from , said that they had to be locked up in the coop for a couple of days until "where they lived". Also it was good to keep them separated from the other old chickens since the old ones can be kind of nasty to the little ones in the beginning.

The new ones

When the young ones were confined to the coop and the small pen outside, the big ones were ot and about on the farm eating insects and grass. But this meant of course that Senhor Lars and his ladies were locked out from their nests. So no eggs for three days more or less. One or two mornings we got an egg which had been laid during the night or early morning. But there were much less eggs than normal.

Yesterday Senhora Idalina was here to help us prune the fruit trees. She had done the ones in the lower field and had started with the ones in the garden. When she pruned the ones around the villa she suddenly called Lars.

Senhora Idalina, professional pruner

The treasure

Here were the egss from when the chickens were locked out from the coop. It is a good thing it hasn´t been warm out so they were all fresh and perfect to use.

11 fresh eggs

All of a sudden we had plenty of eggs again.

Maybe there is a treasure in here as well.

Something must be in there

Ase

Picasso! Eat your heart out.

So yesterday was my first time as an artist. :) That is it was the first of four lessons/sessions in my course in water colour painting.

 A couple of years ago I got some pencils water colours and some paper from my husband as a bithday present. I had wished for that for a while, not that I have any talent nor ambition but still,  and finally I got it. These would come handy now as I was attending this course. I hadn´t really used them before because when I sat down to try I kind of froze and didn´t know where to start.

Of course I couldn´t find my thing now when I needed them. So I had to go to the course a bit earlier so I could pop by an artist store. There are quite many here in Caldas since it´s an artsy kind of town. Well I got what I needed and went to Agneta´s where the course was held. My legs were a bit shaky. What if I would be so much worse then the others or I can´t follow one instruction from beginning to end. Well there was no need to be nervous. Agneta is a very encouraging teacher and instructor.

Just to get us started we got a super easy ? task. Paint the rainbow from your memory on wet and dry paper. Just to get to know the paper, the colours and the pencils. It was easier said than done. A wild discussion followed.What colours should be in it, in what order and how many. My first attempt looked like a 5-year old had done it. Not only did it look like #5&5%&"# it was wrong as well.

I wonder how much they are worth?

Then we got to se how it should be and have another go. They didn´t look much better but at least the colours were in the correct order (more or less).

Not much better right?

Then we should try to paint two apples, a still life, on wet and dry paper. We didn´t have time to finish them before the last task. To paint them from our memory. They look, at this point, like two breasts.

boobies

So the last attempt on the apples, from my memory, on wet and dry paper. I think it became better this time and I am happy with my "development"

More apples

One apple I am happy with

The best thing with the course, beside the other wonderful contestants and the very skilled teacher, is that it silences my head and takes away my sadness. I am so looking forward to next week.

If any one of you out there would like to buy a rainbow painting, or two, please contact......

Ase

work work and more work

Hi

In the winter you should have a nice time, no stress and just a little bit of work. That was what all our neighbours and friends have told us. Yes they are right of course if you don´t have an agro turismo to promote and have to place it on different marketplaces and of course if all the apartments are in a good standard and in no need of renovation. And ours are, all of them.


We have been working like idiots to find the right marketplaces for our Agro Turismo. Today we tried to get into Holland on the web page Micasu, After more than 5 hours work we haven´t succeded yet. Everything is in Dutch and Ase and I speak absolutely none Dutch so every little thing has to be translated so we know what we are describing.
For instance



Geef op de kaart uw omgevingstips voor de huurder aan. Sleep de oranje indicator naar de juiste locatie en geef een toelichting over de tip.

Means

Place on the map markers as tips for your guests what to see and do (more or less)

Beside this we have also been painting in one of our aparments. There is a lot of painting to be done, both indoors and outdoors and it seems like we never will be ready in time for the season.







Are we complaining and say that it is too much work, the answer is NO but there are a lot of things that have to be ready before the next season and this is our first year as owners of the farm.There are so many things that we must have in mind all the time, there are no one else than us so we have to take care of everything by ourselves and it´s really hard but exciting.

For all of you that have been reading our blogg, we can tell you that the "new kids on the block" are coming on really good and they have already become a part of the pack. Soon we will have more eggs than we can eat.


Have a nice evening
//Lars

http://www.farmholidayssilvercoast.com/
Farm Holidays Silver Coast Portugal

No stress

At the moment there are no tenants in the farm. This gives us a possibility to share more time with friends and our lovely dogs. Today we were in Nazare with our friends Yvonne and Condor. We had a long lunch and a lot of laughs, it´s really nice to not have a watch that says that you have to run away to a meeting or any other apointment.

When we got home we took our dogs for a walk and toninght we are going to read a book or watch TV or just relaxe. It´s really nice to have a calm day without any stress. Back in Sweden this never happened. I think all people needs a day once in a while without any stress. You just eat and sleep when you feel to do it.

As we moved to Portugal there has been a lot of stress situations, the language, the farm, the business, the tenants .... but there has also been a possibility to take one day totaly off once in a while. Today there has been a day without any stress, a lovely day

Take care and don´t stess



/Lasse

Back to square one

Not a good day today- not particularly bad either. Just a day when nothing seem to go your way, or in this case my way.
For instance I have been trying to place ads about our wonderful turismo rural on Marktplaats, which is a second hand online market in Holland. I sarted with it yesterday, wote in English and had a real hard time struggling to understand all written Dutch. I succeeded in the end, with the help of Google translate. The photos were in place, the text was written, I just had to go to the paying section. STOP! The only way I could pay was with a Dutch bank account, which I obviously don´t have.

The I mailed them and asked if I could pay with a credit card and got a ridiculous answer back. I
didn´t become any wiser. So all that hard work was for nothing.

Ok let´s make orange marmelade instead then. That I at least understand. Tried a new recipe, peeled and chopped and boiled and boiled. Bitter and not very nice at all. It looks nice but tastes like shit.

I think I better go to bed instead and pull a blanket over my head.

Tomorrow is new day, eh?

This winter´s last bougainville?

I think I will walk this road tommorrow instead

Ase

Dynamite, fireworks and ordinary gun shots

So ordinary Sunday then? Actually yes.
There is almost always a festa going on somewhere close to us. And since we are on a ridge with a valley below and there are several villages around us, and they love to fire dynamite when they´re having a festa. Why no have some fireworks as well while they´re at it.

Here is a party in our village celebrating Nossa Senhora Dos Anjos another name for Virgin Mary

There isn´t anything to small that can´t be celebrated. A saint, Independence day of some sort or just some kind of food like chourico for instace.

Another party in our village but know something more down to earth. sausage

Angola´s Independence day is celebrated in a restaurant in our village

Our neighbouring village Guisado also wants to have a party

Oh! here goes Barrantes-next village

Wine this time, in Barrantes

Another saint, Sao Bráz, is celebrated in our neighboring village Tornada

Here he is by the way

The list goes on and on.

Sundays and Thursdays are hunting days. So then we can hear gun shots as well. They are hunting rabbits and pheasants. All day long they´re shooting. This means our old Herman won´t leave the house for the whole day. He hates all kinds of shooting, fireworks and thunder. So today we left all the saints and sausages and shooting to the village people and went to the beach instead.

Have a good evening