Nordanvind

Hej igen
Det trodde ni kanske inte, att jag skulle återvända menar jag.

Idag är det ruggigt kallt ute. Just nu 14 grader och sol men nordanvinden gör att det känns jättekallt. Det är tvära kast här på Silverkusten. I lördags 24 grader, lite vind och sol och nu detta.

Namnet Silverkusten är speciellt. Det används av utlänningar, turister och expats. Portugiserna säger Oeste och förstår inte vad man menar när man säger Silverkusten.

Men tillbaka till vädret. En dag som denna då det kommer skurar hela tiden och det är en isande vind ute passar det bra att göra välbehövliga men ack så trista grejer som rensa avlopp och städa kylskåp.
Det känns desto bättre när det är gjort.

Just nu är det lugnt på gården. Inga gäster. På torsdag kommer 6 personer. Några är förstagångsgäster andra är återkommande. Det blir kul. Dessutom är det chokladfestival i Óbidos. Kanske går vi dit.
Annars blir det en utflykt till Areia Branca kanske.

Vi har beslutat att inte en enda tass, hov eller fågelfot kommer över tomtgränsen. Vi hinner inte med fler djur så nu får det vara nog. Djurbeståndet består av en häst, Floyd, 3 hundar, 5 katter, 4 tuppar, 4 kycklingar och 10 hönor. Enough is enough. Nästa gång kommer jag berätta mer om hur en dag kan se ut. Må så gott

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5 år i Portugal

Hej alla
Antagligen har ni ledsnat på mig. Det är ju sååååå länge sedan jag skrev. Men jag har beslutat mig att börja skriva i min blogg igen men nu på svenska. Det liksom killar i fingrarna så här kommer ett lååångt blogginlägg.

Vi firade 5 år i Portugal i lördags. Jippie och hurra. Vi har alltså överlevt, stått ut och kämpat. För det har varit en kamp många gånger. Kamp mot myndigheter, naturens krafter, dåliga huskonstruktioner och mot oss själva. Har vi gett upp? Ångrat oss? Ledsnat?

NEJ!

Vi älskar vår gård, vår region och Portugal mer än någonsin.Varför skulle vi inte? Det måste vara en av de vackraste kustlinjerna på jorden. Dessutom är det så vackert den här tiden på året då allt blommar.

Vallmo

vildväxande lavendel

Hur går det för oss? Vad gör vi hela dagarna?
Det är en lång historia och den kommer berättas stegvis och lite då och då. Dock ej i kronologisk ordning.

Nu slår passionsblommorna ut

Vigga aka Donald Trump

Vi hörs snart igen
Åse

Two and a half dog

In June last year we lost our very much beloved dog Herman.

Herman on the beach-Foz do Arelho

We knew it was coming since he was almost 13 and was a quite big dog. But it was hard anyway-so hard. Afterwards we were devestated and took some time off. We didn´t have many bookings for June so when we had the feeling that he wouldn´t make it much longer we didn´t accept any more bookings and closed the place down for a couple of weeks,

Then we only had two dogs. Also very much loved of course but we said that we didn´t want another dog, at least not for a while.

In November I saw a dog that I had seen before. A dog with a broken leg. This dog was so scared and shy and wouldn´t even come close to get some food. It looked miserable and dragged his broken leg behind him in a twisted angle. I went out to try to catch it again. If it wasn´t possible to fix his leg maybe I could go to the vet and put him to sleep and put him out of his misery.

Unfortunately I couldn´t catch hime this time either. But when I tried to call him softly another small dog appeared. He had a friend. A small dog, clearly some podengo mix. This little fellow was super friendly and not afraid at all. I decided to catch this one. Maybe he had a home somewhere and maybe it would be easier to catch the other one too. But he ran away and I was left with the small friendly dog in my arms.

He is hard to catch-full of energy

We took him to the vet who stated that he was around one years old, healthy, had no chip and a wound around his neck. Probably from a chain that had grown into his flesh. I asked if we should try to find his owner but the vet didn´t think so. He said that if you leave a puppy with a chain around its neck and let the chain grow into the puppy the n you don´t deserve the dog. I just love our vet.

Who can chain a puppy?

So friendly

Not still for long

We took him home. The thing was tha he disappeared. Where was he?

To be continued.......

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Isn´t yoga supposed to give you harmony?

I found this wonderful young lady who offered yoga lessons to people living around Caldas da Rainha/Peniche. Excellent and wonderful yoga teacher She wanted to start  a yoga course and wondered if people here were interested to participate. She also was willing to come and give private lessons if needed. I signed up for one lesson since I am very tense and also have got problems sleeping.
Last Sunday she came and she was marvellous. Patient, soft and encouraging. I signed up for another private lesson this morning. It was even beter this time so I will absolutely continue the course which starts next Thursday.

After the yoga I felt great and had alot of positive energy. Since it was very cold outside I decided to bake cakes. There are two reasons why I wanted to bake cakes 1) We will be starting with some activities here on the vineyard next summer. We will offer our guests guided walks and afterwards there will be coffee/tea/homemade lemonade and home baked cake.  So I thoght it would be nice to try different recipes out and see what cakes will work, 2) We have a lot of eggs at the moment.

So I started to bake. I started with an orange flavoured sponge cake. We have a lot of oranges so it was a good idea. This cake came out not really cooked so it turned out a little soggy.
Cake number two was a spiced cake, with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. This cake I forgot to put the melted butter in before putting it into the oven. (turned out ok anyway)
Cake number three was a sponge you put in a flat tray to bake. I took a too large one so this cake was thin and not very impressive at all. The last cake was a lemon sponge.This cake was flat baked or dead baked as we say in Sweden.
So I succeeded with absolute zero of the cakes.I don´t know what went wrong. i can normally bake a sponge with no problems at all. Today all four became failures.

Isn´t yoga good for you after all?

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Death of a palm tree

You might have read about the little bug that kills palm trees aroung the Mediterrenean. This bug is one of the nastiest little creatures, the red palm weavel. We have five of those palm trees that this little bugger likes, the Canarian date palm. See in front of our farm house how two of them majesticly stand on either side of the entrance in the front picture of this blog.

About a year ago we started to notice dead or dying palm trees in Säo Martinho bay. We also got warnings from people living in the Algarve area. It was time to take action.Us trying to take action about a year ago. We sprayed all our Canarian palm trees and they all seemed fine.

In October, our neighbour Paulo passed, he is working in a garden/landscaping company, and shouted that one of our palm trees is dying. It is almost impossible to get rid of this bug once it has settled. What this little bug does is to use its trunk and dig into the top and goes inside the palm to lay its eggs. The larveas eats the flesh of the palm and it dies. To get rid of it you have to strip the palm fron its leaves, almost like shave on the outside and slice it from the top until you can´t see anymore affected or bugs. It is hard work because you don´t just have to to all this but also burn everything and dig it 2 meters under ground. Have you ever tried to put fire on a palm tree before? It akes forever because of its high water content. The garden companies charges 550 Euros to take down and destroy a palm tree.

so nasty

So we took all the leaves down on our dying palm tree. Kind of shaved it and also sliced it. This is the only way you can save it. Afterwards you have to spray it and also inject some stuff into it as well. To finish it off we put ahes on the top so it wouldn´t bleed so much. 

Then we just had to wait to see if it had survived. A month later we could see new leaves growing out. So it survived after all.

Then the next blow struck. During the renovation of our bathroom we found that the roots of this very palm tree have gone in to our house so we have to take the palm down anyway. Oh how it sucks.

A bit religious feeling

It is more job than you can imagine

Here you can see where the monsters have been eating

This is what our magnificent palm looked like after

One more is trying to get in

The leaves are coming back

Red palm weevil

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Getting there-little by little.

2016
In a distance I see the tractor. It is one of those tractors that the Portuguese farmers use around here, the Portuguese farmers that grow fruit that is. Around here it is mainly apples and pears. There is another kind of tractor around these areas, a much slimmer variety which is used between the rows of grapes.

The tractor is getting closer. It is hard to see it now because of the sun in my face and in my eyes. I am walking my dogs on this gravel road along the Rio Tornada, Tornada river, which isn´t a river but more of a stream, at least here.

Around me there are fields with apples and pears and some super food as they call it in Sweden, the ever present Portuguese kale. The thing is the Portuguese don´t even know it is fashionable to eat it. A trendy thing people pay a lot for in Sweden or USA or England. Here they don´t care. They eat it because they like it, it´s cheap and they can grow it year round.

Not trendy

The sound of the tractor is getting stronger and it is almost impossible to hear all the birds. The flowers are visible still. Poppy and a pretty little yellow type of clover which are growing in abundance.Soon enough they will be smothered in all fumes and smoke from diesel from that tractor.

yellow clover

View from a farm.

Now the tractor is clear to see and it isn´t new or clean. There is a little man driving it. Now when he is getting closer I recognise him. He has some fields near us and he has always looked very grumpy. Every time we have passed I have always tried to smile my widest grin and shouted Bom Dia! He has never once looked at me nor said anything.

This time I can see that he had spotted me, this strange foreign lady, clearly crazy. Why would a sane woman walk big dogs in the middle of the day and not growing...kale for instance if she wasn´t complete nuts?

I smile my biggest smile and shout Bom Dia, again. He slows the tractor down, lifts his cap, and well doesn´t exactly smile but...

Then as he passes I can clearly hear a vague Bom dia!

It only took almost two years.

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better shape up.

Busy week with a lot of guests have made us neglecting our blog horrendously. We will try to become better and write more frequently but we can´t promise since we´re going into the busy season for us.

We have had, as mentioned, many guests, and they have mainly arrived through airbnb. From the beginning we didn´t have many hopes that we would get many guests through them but they keep coming and we are thankful for that.

Spraying the palm tree to protect it from the red palm weavel

Adilson cutting the insulation for the roof

My job among others

This time of year we have also begun to spray our vines to protect them from mold. We do it once a fortnight and it takes Lars and our helper Adilson a whole day to do it. One is driving the tractor and one is managing the hose and spray.

Today Lars and Adilson are working in the vineyard with straightening the wires, repairing and replacing ols poles.

Lars in action

Adilson is helping us out 1-2 days a week and he is extremely allround. He is an excellent mechanic but is very good at plastering as well. We will probably need his help for a long time since we´re doing all kinds of improvements on the quinta.

Natalia is our cleaning lady and she is here 2 days/week during the season. She cleans our guest accomodations and does some ironing.

When the two of them are here lunch is included so that is one of the things I am doing. I plan, shop and cook. I wash about 20 machines of laundry/week (when we´re fully booked) and I answer mail and requests. I also take care of the dogs and chickens, bake a lot and clean our home once in a while when there is too much sand from the dogs inside. Some gardening, limoncello and jam making are also on my work list.

someone has to take care of Senhor Lars

At this very moment only one of our apartments are occupied and that is probably why I have some time to write today. But on Sunday a friend is arriving with her sister and they are staying a week.

All our fruit trees are coming along nicely. There are baby fruit wherever you look.

plums

quince

pears

olives

apricots

nectarins

figs

The garden is also thriving and we have got roses everywhere.

roses thar smell wonderful

many passion flowers

Now I have to prepare lunch for the workers.

Have a wonderful day because we do.

Ase