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

Issue to be a farmer..

Hi

Today is it the old one that writing the blog

As you know we  have chickens and a rooster called Sr Lars. He is named after me and I don´t understand why but that´s a different story.

To have chicken has been a dream for us and the chickens are lovely animals.They have become more and more like pets for us but it´s not as simple to have chickens as you might think. After almost a year having chichen there have been a lot of different things happening that you normaly don´t have to handle.

First we bought six chickens, no problem at all we thought. After a couple of weeks we learned that there are two types of chickens, the one that lay eggs and the other one that are bred for eating.

Frango-eating chicken

This two types are completely different and the type for eating can´t have eggs without having problems, they suffer a lot. The first cycle of eggs is fine but eventually when the eggs get bigger one of them gets stuck in their bum and they die a painful death.

Of course we had a couple of chickens that are supposed to be fried chicken. Our friend Peter that normaly helps us said to us that we had to kill two of our chickens because they were going to have problems with the egg production.

Peter wanted to show me to kill the chickens because as a chicken owner and a farmer you need to know these things, But I don´t want to kill my animals!!!. Peter is a good friend and he understood that I didn´t want to kill them so he said to us that he could take care of it and he did. He asked us if we would like to have the chickens to eat or if we would like to have two new ones, We chose to have two new ones, and all of a sudden we had Sr Lars and Snow white, they are both very pretty and have a white feathers.

After a couple of good weeks there was a loose dog in our garden and he bit one of the chickens so we were a little bit worried but we solved the situation and she survived.

Now everything is going smoothly and we asked Peter if we could have three more chickens. He delivered three very pretty chickens after a while but it turned out to be three roosters so we had a big problem because they tried to mate with our hens.

The girls are mine

Sr Lars was not pleased with the situation so Peter came again and took the three small roosters away and gave us two new ones. After a week he gave us the young Sr Lars jr in a bag if you know what I´m talking about and It will be our dinner tonight.

Here he is-Junior

So to summerize this story. It is not so simple to have chickens as you might think

Have a nice evening
The real Sr Lars

A full House and a knife

Busy busy busy
The last couple of weeks have been really hectic but also filled with fun events.
I have kept my promise to go riding at least once a week on Quinta do Pinheiro Manso. Yesterday I even brought one of our guests that´s staying on the farm at the moment. She really enjoyed herself and we rode in the eucalyptus woods around the quinta. We had wonderful weather a nice galops on their beautiful horses.She wanted to come with me next week as well.

Three of our apartments are filled with happy and hopefully content guests which makes life so much easier for us since happy guests give us so much new energy. Even though it has been a lot of work lately and we are a bit tired. When the guests arrive and are in a vacation mood we nourish from them and we are filled with the same holiday spirit.

Last Saturday Lars was going to put up a new radiator in one of our apartments and Lars cut himself a bit. It wasn´t too deep but there was a lot of blood. Of course he didn´t want to go to the ER and put the cut thumb in alcohol. During the night he was awake most of it and decided to go to the hospital in the morning. But there was no infecton or anything he just got a big bandage and was told to be still for a day or two. He is better now but still has to keep the bandage on for a while.

We worked hard to finish the last apartment´s veranda and we are happy with the outcome. We think it looks nice and cozy and we hope our guests will enjoy sitting here and read or drink a glass of wine.

Tomorrow we will go to Óbidos and to their annual chocolate festival. It is the first time for us because we didn´t have time to go last year and we are really looking forward to it. It has been on from Thursday-Sunday the last two weeksand this weekend it is the last one so we better hurry or we will miss it this year as well.Óbidos Chocolate Festival

Tomorrow two guests from Austria and Germany are leaving us. They have been here, together with their dog Joey, on the farm for a month now and it will be empty without them. On Sunday two guests that were here last season as well, are returning which feels good for us. They were so satisfied with their stay here so they wanted to come back.

Well will keep you posted how the Chocolate festival was.

Take care

Worried husband

In the last blog my wife was worried about me because I have become more and more Portuguese in my way of thinking and the way I live. I can´t really agree but there might be some truth in her way of expression it. You have to take into concideration where you live and adapt don´t you think? So I have probably become more Portuguese in my way of living.

It´s now my time to be a little bit worried about my lovely wife and her "new" Portuguese life. As you know we now have three big dogs (they are lovely) and one rooster named after me!!!! (I don´t understand why) and 9 chickens. Ase has a wish that we would have the nicest chicken coop in Portugal and it´s up to me to build it, but it has to be the nicest...... No pressure at all.....

I know Ase would like to have a horse, but I also know that horses are not supposed to be living alone so we probably will end up with at least two horses. Do you think these horses will have the nicest stable in Portugal??? I can feel there is something in the air.

To build a chicken coop is one thing but to build a completely new stable is a totally different thing to do and it will take a lot of work, many hours, so at the moment I rest my case and do nothing. I will keep you updated

Regards 

"the old one"

One hungry and dangerous chicken called Gracie

Sr Lars  and his ladies at the veranda

worried wife

We needed a new batteri for the tractor and we also needed to change oil in the car. Something was broken in the motor, don´t ask me what, and that also needed to be fixed.

Adilson, the man who helps us out with constructions and the wine, twice a week, is a very good mechanic. He was going with Lars to the cheapest places to buy "stuff". So off they went, to a place close to Le Clerc in Caldas da Rainha and to two other places in Rio Maior. They needed a pit where they could change the oil but also to buy parts to our old SAAB. It is hard to find around here since you don´t see many SAABs here.

Lars came back, and this is the thing that worries me, very happy, almost in a wild way. Apparantly they had bought the things in Caldas and found a place to change oil. But he also found a compressor and two elecrical bush cutters in a junk yard. The man who own the junk yard wanted to sell them to Lars and Lars started to haggle. The price was for the compressor 50 Euros but the man would give him the bush cutters too in that price. Lars shook his head and sighed and said it was way too expensive (in Portuguese) They finally agreed on 20 Euros and 50 litres of wine because the man was having a party that very evening.

There were no wheels on the compressor so they took a couple from a kick board that was laying around.

But that is not all. He stole a couple of right threaded screws as well.
What is happening to my husband?

/a worried wife

The most honest dentist in the world....

This is a scary blog. To go to the dentist hurts three times, first you got pain at home, then you go to the dentist and have a treatment, it normally hurts like hell and after this you have to pay a lot of money. It hurts both body and soul, so we always try to avaid to go to the dentist but sometimes you have to go anyway

Ase had a problem with one of her teeth so she went to a dentist last week to see what was wrong. The Portuguese dentists are known to be really good and they use modern equipment. Ase went to a dentist in our home town Caldas da Rainha and after x-ray she got the verdict from the dentist One of the teeth (the one that was hurting) has got a fracture all the way down. You have to take it out and make an implant. There was no doubt that there was nothing else to do because she had a lot of pain.

Before the dentist could start with the surgery the infection had to be treated. Ase got a price to have it done and we went home after visiting the farmacy to get all the medicine for the infection. Later that day Ase talked to a friend who suggested that Ase should have a second opinion from her dentist.
Yesterday Ase went to that dentist and got the same diagnose but the price was 2/3 of the first one. Of course Ase accepted. There was just one thing the new dentist didn´t have an x-ray so we had to go to Alcobaca to a clinic to have it done.

All these dentist we are talking about is private and have their own business models. If you are a dentist the best for your business is to have a lot of regular customers that are coming back year after year. In Sweden the dentists always have some advertisement of different tooth pastes and other products that are reducing the need of a dentist.
This dentist was really modern, effective and honest. When I was a child and went to the dentist I got a bookmark or a new toothbrush after the treatment. You always hoped for the book markThis dentist didn´t try to give away things to prevent bad teeth. They were very honset and gave you candy after the treament. This is a perfect business model and they didn´t hide there goal to earn more money. Of course I will go to the same dentist again when I have problem with my teeth.

After the dentist appointment we had a walk in a new area with the dogs and we alse went to a restaurant after saving a lot of money choosing "the first honest"dentist in the world.

A lot of candy afterwards so you will return

Senhor Lars
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Riding in Portugal

My last year in Sweden I was so lucky to be able to start riding again. I borrowed a horse twice/week. The kind owners let me have Pontus as much as I wanted to but he wasn´t the easiest horse to be around. Well he wasn´t that harder either- He just had a few issues with leaving the paddock.

Pontus in Sweden

I am not coming.

Pontus is a so called "Nordsvensk" a North Swedish, if you were to translate it. A Swedish cold blooded breed used in the woods or on farms in the ol´days. So you can imagine the weight on it. Nowadays there is a lighter type as well used in trotting, a kind of horse racing.

It is normally not the kind of horse you compete in dressage with or jumping but there are exceptions of course. For example Turbo.

But otherwise you mainly enjoy this type of horse on trail riding. And that is what I did. To ride Pontus was a bit like going on a tractor, steady and not very quick but you got there, safely.

Last week I had the oppurtunity to go with a friend to Quinta do Pinheiro Manso where she keeps her horse. I didn´t expect to ride even though I hoped and longed for it but to my surprise they asked if I wanted to ride as well. Of course I did until I heard that I was going to ride a lusiarab stallion. Ok he was 19 years old but he was a former now retired bull fighting horse. It sounded very dangerous and kind of wild to my hears. But he was so kind and sweet. The thing was it was such a difference riding Pontus in Sweden. Almost like driving a Volvo 740 to a Mustang.

hard work to drive

a bit lighter more nervous

It went ok even though I had to rethink everything I once knew. My experience in the past with horses are from riding schools or Pontus. This horse was so light and my hands were too tough and hard for him. You could only use light light squeezes almost as light as feathers. But it was so much fun. Next week I am going again.

I on Nijinsky

Ase