The heat is on

It is getting warmer outside which is really nice, at least like this in the beginning of the summer. Eventually you will probably get tired of it but for now it is wonderful. I have missed sitting outdoors at night. The wind has been so chilly so we have mainly been indoors in the evenings.

My youngest son and his friens are here for a week and they are helping us fixing the chicken coop. We are going to build a nicer one later but this one will do for now. This afternoon we are going to pick up 6 young chickens that are going to move in to the chicken coop tonight.

fixing for the chickens

arrival in Caldas

 It is lovely to have family here because I have really missed them. I hope all of them will visit soon. On Monday they are going to Lisbon for three nights so we have to hurry if they will explore the area. Today we are heading for the beach anyhow.

The new pool is coming along nicely and we think they wil be ready this week with the construcktion work. Then they are coming to put the new overing and all the equipment in. Then it will look better and more apealing then it doea right now.

one day´s work. Not bad.

School is nearly over and after tonight I think we only have one more lesson left. I miss it already and hopefully there will be another course next semester.

Take care
Ase

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cork oaks

There are many cork oaks where we live. I hold a fascination when it comes to ork oaks. I don´t if it is the romantic view I got when watching the cartoon, Ferdinand, on Christmas Eve. Ferdinand was one of the strongest bulls but he didn´t want to participate in the bull fights. The only thing he ever wanted was to sit under his cork tree and smell the flowers. He was a peace lover of a great kind.

Ferdinand under his cork tree

The other romantic aspect is that the cork from the the cork trees has been used for a very long time for wine bottles. And I do like wine :-)

Since coming to Portugal I have learned that you can use cork for many other things as well. Belows  is a bag I got on my birthday last year. They use it a lot here for bags, wallets and many other things since cork is durable.

bag made of cork

I learned that a cork tree can become 150 years old and a good one can give you many harvests. You can start to take cork from the tree is about 20 years old and then you can harvest every 7-10 years.

beatiful cork trees from my morning walk

this one has ben peeled but it is time to do it again

newly harvested ones

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Ase

mysterious animals

I know.
It´s been a while.
I am not even trying to catch up but rather write what´s on my mind right now.
I have now lived in Portugal for seven weeks. Seven different, extemely busy and fun weeks. Some days I have almost lost my mind when nothing works as you are used to and most things are so complicated. For instance it took me 10 visits to PT, the Portuguese Telephone company before my tv, telephone and internet was working.

On my morning walks we come across new things every day. The first days we only noticed the wonderful smell of eucalyptus

The ivy is taking over

 Then we started to notice other things, dogs barking far away,chickens in a yard and lizards running up and down the sides of the road. One day we saw something on the side of the road. It was some kind of animal. First we thought it could be a lizard, but no it moved differently. Could it be a rat or a baby boar?

apples and pears

 We just ouldn´t figure it out. The next time we walked the same way I spotted something white running in to the bushes. A boar or a white rabbit? Then another couple of days passed before I saw the mysterious animal again. Now I saw it for sure. It was a guinea pig, and not just one. We saw one white and another yellowish. But I think there are more. The reproduce themselves quite quickly, right?
The dogs are VERY intersted in them.
How do they survive? Did someone, who just got tired of them, just let them out to fend for themselves? It must be tough for them out in the wild, being the preys of cats and wid dogs.

not ready to eat yet

beautiful walks

I will try to catch them with my camera next time.

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Ase

Äntligen är alla på plats i Portugal (även den

Nu är det tisdag kväll och jag, den "gamle", Baldo "Ronaldo" och Lennon (våra två yngre hundar) har varit i vårt nya hem i Portugal 3 dygn. Resan ner gick via Köpenhamn och väl på plats i Portugal hämtade Åse upp oss på flyget. Det var otroligt skönt att få se Åse igen, det har varit tre långa veckor med mycket jobb både för Åse och mig. Huset i Sverige är sålt och containern med alla våra saker är på väg ner. Att sluta jobba och summera sitt traditionella yrkesliv var en speciell känsla, nästan 30 års jobb inklusive studier. Är jag nöjd med vad jag uträttat? Skulle man gjort något annorlunda? Det var många tankar men valet att lämna en traditionell karriär känns helt rätt. Vi fick en möjlighet att hitta ett liv tillsammans vilket inte är alla förunnade. Valet att stanna i Sverige och resa 150 dagar per år eller att få möjlighet att bo tillsammans med Åse min underbara hustru i Portugal känns väldigt lätt. Självklart kommer jag att sakna möjligheten att med kort varsel få träffa barnen och vänner känns självklart lite vemodigt, det är dock kul att flera av barnen och vännerna redan har bokat in resor ner till oss

Nu efter 3 dygn i Portugal känns allt helt rätt, det är ett helt nytt liv som ligger framför oss, mycket jobb med svåra utmaningar. Språket är en utmaning och alla nya sysslor med ägorna en annan. Under de två första dagarna riktade vi upp alla linor och stolpar som håller vinet uppe samt började med att binda upp och beskära vinrankorna. Idag har det regnat så att vi inte har kunnat arbeta ute, då passade vi på att göra marmelad på egna apelsiner och citroner.

Ikväll såg jag den mest fantastiska regnbåge, tar detta som ett tecken på lycka och framgång i vårt nya liv, vad tror ni?

Hälsningar den "gamle"

much work and a little relaxation

On Sunday my dear husband arrives in Portugal together with our two other dogs. They are all flying from Copenhagen very early Sunday morning. That means they have to start driving in the middle of the night from Goteburg. Luckily a dear friend is taking them. What would you do without friends?

I will be awesome to meet the guys again and of course my husband. It has been very empty without them. On Sunday, after I ´ve picked them up 9.30 in the morning, we will just take it easy and chill the whole Sunday. We will show the boys the area and have a nice dinner together. Maybe I can persuade my husband to take a nap. He has been going from Sweden to Lisbon via Denmark and working like mad for so long now.

We´ve had really warm weather lately so it was necessary to give Herman, the old dog, summer costume.

Herman and his very good friend Rufus

roses everywhere

The garden is really over grown but ever so beautiful. I don´t dare work so much in it. I kind of had a close encounter to death. I don´t know what happened. I was working in the garden, cutting a lot of flowers when I started to cough. I started to head for my house when I suddenly couldn´t brreathe. When I came inside it became better but until I have someone to keep me company I don´t dare do to much in the garden.

Yesterday we went to Caldas da Rainha because they had some kind of holiday and it was supposed to be a lot of festivities all over the town. Very much to our surprise we couldn´t find anything that looked any different that it normally does. Well it was a bit more quiet than normal.

Tomorrow I might sit in the sun for a while. I am so pale.

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Ase

Portugal

The first morning we picked our own organic oranges and made juice for our breakfast. Together with eggs, coffee and sandwiches we were ready to tackle everyday life on our farm.

The mornings kept coming and we didn´t know were the days had gone. Everything went so quickly. We also expected our first guests an April 18. So we were busy cleaning the apartment out and making it nice for our premiere guests.

First morning walk

pretty flowers everywhere

a lot of fruit on the olives this year

new patio furniture for our guests

But we also had time for some exploration. Below at Foz do Arelho.

Writing more tomorrow.
Hugs
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I am here

April 10 we left Sweden on the Goteborg-Kiel ferry. Herman our old dog was with us and we figured we would save some miles of driving and be lazy going by ferry a small part of the way.

"Our" ferry

The guys in the cabin

The bext day, after a big breakfast on board, we took off. We had 2700 kilometers to drive before we would reach our final destination, our new home.

Herman had his seat belt on at all times

Our oal was to reach the north of France the first day but we would see if Herman managed to go so far. He did fine so we slept in a nice place in France and the third night in north of Spain.

Having a break in sunny France

Pretty colours

When we started our drive from San Sebastien, north of Spain, the temperature got real high. By the time we reached Portugal it was 28 degrees centigrade outside and we had no A/C in the car. We saw that Herman started to become ill. It was to hot for him. We stopped every hour and tried to get him to drink. The last pause we had he wouldn´t drink and just shook.His legs were trembling and I felt we would loose him then and there. He refused to drink until Lasse came up with the idea of putting some food into the water. Then he drank. Thank God.

Finally! Portugal

When we got home, my friend Annelie and her father had prepared a meal for us and it was really nice to be home, at last.

Home at last

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