Michael's vegetable plot.  Broad beans in the background already with flowers. The local markets are full of all kinds of vegetable seedlings and he has planted spinach, rocket, peppers, courgettes, cucumbers, leeks and lettuce.  We shall see!  It's all an experiment.

See Jan 17 below - further postings will be under the heading HOLIDAYS

The drive up to QV from the track with the new hunting sign.

Today was pleasant although not warm.   We were busy packing and readying the house for our departure tomorrow to our Timeshare on the coast for our annual two weeks' beach holiday.

Two vehicles and a group of five men appeared on the track about lunchtime.  They were banging in signs at various intervals all along.  When they reached the end of our 'drive' I wandered down to say hello and to be nosy.  They were from the hunting association and were renewing/replacing the signs which indicate where hunting is permitted and where it isn't. 

I was relieved to see they had placed a no hunting sign at the edge of our property.  Other signs around indicated they could hunt with the owners permission. They are not allowed to hunt within 250 metres of a house so that includes us.

However if I ever see any men with guns at the edge of our property I shall go and ask them the speed, velocity and range of their guns just to check - that will be before they shoot me.

So the month we have been here has brought us up to date with the garden, ongoing projects and house.  Now we are ready for our holiday................. 

Looking north from the back door.

This picture sums up what today has been like - so quiet indoor day for me.  When the rain cleared for a bit Michael climbed on the roof (single storey) because we had some ingress of water last night and he found a cracked tile.  He glued it together and swapped it with a tile from the other side of the roof which is more sheltered. He did some chainsawing to top up our wood store - otherwise nothing of note except I have a sore back from lifting the stones when I was making the washing up bowl pond.  Not to be deterred I have bought an even bigger washing up bowl to make an even bigger pond when my back has settled down.

View of the track on a better day than this. When we get heavy rain like today we do worry about what state it will leave the track in. Although it can deteriorate - it has never become unusable and the council regrade it from time to time for our 90 euros annual council tax. QV is the white dot on the horizon.

We've been here a month now because Alte market came round again and we went.  Our friends Cath and Dave live there and they had been in the UK over Christmas and the New Year.  They are now back so we popped in for coffee and a chat.  

We woke to mist and wind, the day lifted a little until midday when the rain started.  As I write it is dark, the wind is howling and the rain spattering heavy at the windows.  The back end of Storm Rachel methinks.   We are cosy with our fire. 

The forecast for the next three weeks shows changeable with cold nights.  We have had such a good run for our money this last month but today is the first time the wind has been from the west and this is what it brings us.

New almond tree going in. The mighty cork in the background is one of the few that survived the fire

A lovely day quiet here.  Michael planted the new pomegranate and almond and I made a pond out of a washing up bowl - see photo album.

A bulldozer came along the back passage and graded out all the puddles as well as widening it by tearing down all the greenery along the sides.  We were just too late in realising he was there because we would have given him a few euros to grade our drive which is getting very rough. 

The sun went behind the hill at 5.20 pm - the day lasted 20 mins longer than the equinox.  More birds about today.  We have tried feeding them with bread but they don't eat it - they don't know what bread is. unlike garden birds. 

Yesterday was also quiet - Michael planted the vegetable seedlings he bought in the market - leeks, peppers, courgette and cucumbers.  In the afternoon the chimney sweep came.  The chimneys hardly need doing because the fires are only used in the winter and then only when we are here.  However they have to be cleaned because the house insurance has to have an up to date chimney swept certificate every year. 

The view of QV from the hill opposite

Today we went to Algoz market about 50 mins from here.   It is a very popular market among the locals, very busy and noisy.  We go because they sell good plants and trees there.

 Before we could find them though we had to avert our gaze from all the cages containing all manner of chickens, ducks, rabbits etc with all the attendant squawking.  And also from the stall selling animal and bird traps.   This trapping goes back to the times when the Portuguese were very poor indeed and the menfolk walked to France to find work and then send the money back.  This is why many elderly men speak fluent French but not English.  

 But nowadays if they can get in their cars and drive to the market they really have no need to trap to feed themselves especially with food so relatively cheap here.  It is just a very cruel pastime.  I am afraid to say that a local restaurant has thrush on the menu - it is just not necessary.

However we bought two trees - a pomegranate and an almond both €5 each, some vegetable seedlings, a lavender and a couple of succulents for the garden.

Then it was food shopping and home - not planning to go out again until Friday.

When we were driving today we saw a man and a white dog walking in the distance but too far to make contact and we wondered if it was the white dog that was lost. It was in the area that the man who came to ask if we had seen his dog had said he lived. So when we got back home I phoned the number we had been given to ask if the dog had returned home (as best as I could with my limited Portuguese) and was so happy to hear that it had.  We think it was the man and the dog we saw  today.

The Buddhist monument with far reaching views all around and built where ley lines meet.

Today we had a ride around to the north of us.  To the south we look over the Algarve and to the north we look over the Alentejo. We are on the border between the two.  Altogether our trip took 3 and a half hours and in that time we saw only a handful of cars and people

Most of our route was on rough tracks and it took us up to the ridge behind us were we stopped and looked back at ourselves.

Then we stopped at a cafe we have visited before and where they know us and ordered two beers for which we paid  1.20 euros ( 80p).The cafe owner had worked in Paris at one time so we talked about the people in Paris, their problems at the moment and the implications.   This is the first time we have been able to have a conversation in Portuguese about current events - we normally only run as far as the weather, family etc.

Further on we came to a cafe at a place where the view is all around and spectactular and where we had a 'sandes miste' - a ham and cheese sandwich and some coffee. (5 euros - £3.80)

Opposite there is a Buddhist monument (stupa) so we walked over to it.  It is on the highest place around here and the situation was chosen according to the principles of geomancy which is the study of ley lines and spaces of high energy. Tradition has it that you walk in a clockwise direction around it several times thinking about world peace and harmony which we did and also thought about Peter's wife, Irene, who died a year ago today.

Then homewards for a nice cuppa noticing on the way that the early lambs have already arrived.

This morning we received a joyful visit.   The German couple who turned  QV from a ruined farmhouse into a comfortable home turned up out of the blue.  We were delighted to see them because we had so often wondered about them.

They told us that they bought the two ruins in 2001 after Joao's parents had died.  In order to complete the purchase the permission of all 8 siblings who inherited the properties and land had to be obtained.  It took some time to locate them all and then obtain their signatures which were more often than not just a cross.

It was their business to renovate properties and sell them on.  They began the build and sold it to our Dutch predecessors in 2002 and completed it according to their requirements. So it was wonderful to be able to ask them questions about the history of QV and they were delighted to see all the improvements that we have made.

They live about an hour and half from here and we are going to stay in touch and exchange photographs of QV in its early stages.

In the summer this lovely lizard lives in a pile of logs outside the back door.

Shopping in Continente this morning for octopus primarily because Peter came up for supper. 

This afternoon Michael made his octopus stew and I tidied ready for our visitor.  We had a very jolly evening sitting round the fire after our meal which was delicious.

Out of choice we have never had television here.  Especially so now because since the Autumn there has been no BBC or ITV reception in the Algarve because both channels changed satellites.  So there is Sky News and Sky Sport.  It is possible to recieve BBC and ITV via the internet but the quality depends on broadband speed.   

There has been a bit of an exodus by the British back to the UK because of this.  We see the headline news via our phones and that's about it.  Our internet comes courtesy of a Portuguese Vodafone mobile router which works perfectly.

So we spend the evenings playing Scrabble, watching a DVD or just sitting by the fire.

A quiet day here. The local paper says that the nights are unusually cold at the moment and indeed there was thick frost on the ground as we drove through the bottom of the valley this morning, but we have not thought it so up here.  

The min/max thermometer that I ordered and they say it has been dispatched has not arrived yet so I cannot say what our minimum has been.(A letter in the paper complains about the poor postal service between the UK and here at the  moment, but what with all the news from Paris at the moment it's important to get the priorities right).

The building next to QV is the old ruin which like QV was once an old farmhouse.  Below are some photos showing the work we had done on it which gave it a new roof and windows.  Inside it is still as it was when it was a farmhouse.  Now we call it the cottage.

Today we went to a friend's lunchtime birthday party. On the way we stopped at the rubbish point to drop off our recycling etc (there is no house to house collection here) when a small Portuguese lady came up and asked if we were going into Messines, our nearest town.  

We said we were and she hopped in the back whereupon she talked very fast to us even though she knew we were English and some of it seemed to be funny so we laughed where we thought we should.  We dropped her off at her daughter's cafe.

At the party Britain, Italy, Holland, and the States were represented.  A topic of conversation was our concern about the mass immigration into our various countries.  Then we all gave a wry smile when we considered that only the two Italians, one Portuguese and us two were living in their native countries.  So we agreed that the operative word was 'mass'.    

The British who live here call folk like us who come and go 'The Grey Swallows' or 'The Only Half Heres'.

On our way there we passed the Cliff Richard hoarding.  This is a picture of Cliff holding a bottle of his wine advertising his vineyard.   It has been there a long time and over the years the colours have become more and more faded.  Then some of the top was removed exposing his head above the rest.   When we were last here his head had disappeared leaving just his body and the bottle of wine.  Today the hoarding had disappeared altogether.  Pity because it was a good landmark for orientation purposes.

Is this alpine gardening? Top RH corner is the solar panel which turns to follow the sun each day. This provides all our electric current. On the left you can see the solar panel on the roof which heats our hot water. There is a third panel below the swimming pool which provides the energy for the pool water circulation.

Quiet day at home pottering round.    I put some plants in and repotted others.  Michael worked on his veg patch.   A lovely quiet day.

 We planted two fig trees to go with the 4 cork trees we put in the other day.  Why since we are unlikely to cut any cork from them ever?  Because we think we should be replacing some of the corks that were lost in the fire.  Some of the people who own land neighburing ours lost a good portion of their annual income when the fire came through but they cannot afford to replace on that scale.

However as we walk further afield we see vast new cork, eucalyptus and orange plantations.  We think that these are planted by big organisations who qualify for grants because of the large numbers that they plant.   None of these trees will produce profit for at least 10 years or more so it is a brave investment.

Admiring the new log splitter.

Today it was a trip to Leroy Merlin the big DIY store to collect the log splitter that Michael had ordered.

When we reached the first cluster of houses 5 minutes down the track we saw Joao standing outside his house.

When he was a child he lived in our ruin and when he visited us he pointed out where the kitchen and bedrooms were.  We realised then that he could not read or write.  He must be about 55 so he would have been school age 40 years ago- so in 1974 there was no compulsory education here - and there are lots like him.

  This morning he invited us into his house where his wife Maria was in her dressing gown doing her sweeping.  He poured us a glass of medronha each, Maria produced some cake and we managed a 'chat' of some kind. When we left we pointed at all the cars parked outside the tomato farm and asked what it was all about.  It was the day of the pig kill and it was clear that Maria did not like it any more than we do because they really do kill it in a very cruel way to our minds.

We continued our journey fortified with medronha and soon passed a group of trucks and men pointing at the hills.  They are allowed to hunt wild boar on Thursdays and Sundays at this time of year so it's a good idea not to take a country hike on those days.

We duly arrived at Leroy, loaded it up and set off for home.  When we passed the tomato farm we saw that they were cutting up the last of the now dead pig.

Michael is very pleased with the log splitter.  It means he can chainsaw more wood from our dead trees and split them ready for the fire rather than having so much delivered.

There are lots of dead trees here because in 2004 a fire came through this valley - fortunately this house survived - but the land around was blackened.  This is how it still was when we came in 2008 but since then we have seen many of the trees disintegrate and fall and general regeneration of vegetation.

The sharp among you may have noticed that for the last couple of days I have had the dates wrong on this blog.  This is what happens when you live in the hills for any length of time.  More symptoms may become obvious as time goes on !

We bought these yesterday. A bag of 24 oranges - 5 kilos - for 3 euros - that's about £2.50

All along the roads at this time of year there are stalls selling oranges - these are navel oranges and they are the first of the season which lasts until May.  Tangerines and clementines are also in season now.  They are all very plentiful and it is a good year - the trees everywhere are covered.

They are very cheap and very lovely - it is tempting to hire a van - fill it with oranges -  drive to the UK and set up a market stall.  At the going UK price of 60p each, we'd make a killing.  You do not seem to see Portuguese oranges in our shops at home - they are usually Spanish. 

The Portuguese in general are not very good at marketing themselves. 

For example, when we drove down in the camper van in September we visited a Portuguese town called Evora where we had read there was a Roman temple  We went to the central square and there was no sign to it so we bought a map in a newsagent and found it  up a narrow side street off the square.

We walked around the temple which was half intact and there was no placard or information board to say anything about it all.

Now it isn't every town that has a Roman temple and the most natural thing to do would be shout about it but not so for the Portuguese.

And we have other examples of their lack of ability to promote themselves.  As an explanation we can only think that since the revolution which overthrew Salazar, the dictator for 40 years during which time they did what they were told, only happened as recently as 1974 they still have not learnt the habit of seeing any potential in anything.

Hence much of the tourist industry has been developed by non-Portuguese and so the profits leave the country.   

Showing the terraces we had made with a bulldozer and now planted with young trees.

Today was a big shopping day.  The last shop was on Sunday so we have lasted out well - albeit mostly on left over turkey.   On the way we were delighted to see a kingfisher by turtle bridge (so called because we have in the past seen turtles there)

So on to Continente the big supermarket  ( a well- worn joke among the Brits out here is to say we were incontinent)  to buy enough food until Tues and then to Leroy the big DIY store for 9 wooden deck slabs to replace the ones that have become unsafe here - so to say the car was loaded is an understatement.

By the time we were home it was 3pm so a quick late lunch of unpeeled prawns (delicious here) and mayonnaise. A cuppa and quick snooze and the sun disappeared behind the hill at 5.11 - 10 minutes later than on the equinox - so it's happening!🙂

Michael made tomato soup and cooked sea bream for tea, then Scrabble - he won - well he did cook supper!