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Month: March 2010

Electric

Electric

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The two blokes on site have continued to work hard over the last few weeks and they have now been joined by the electrician/plumber. Together they’ve managed to do some more demolition work. This time inside the house, digging up the ground and chiselling away at the walls finding gaps to put the electric cabling in. Next up will be the plumbing. Although the house was lived in up until a few years ago there is hardly any electric cabling or water supply in the place so everything has been done from scratch.

Meanwhile Jackie’s veggies are sprouting everywhere, led by the spuds. Every day now she is replanting the youngsters from the kindergarten (the cloches and cold frames) into senior school (the raised beds). Also more and more trees are sprouting, including this one to the left of the pond (see photos below). It’s a fruit tree but we have no idea which. There are about 4 or 5 others we are not sure of either – can’t wait to see if they fruit.

There have also been plenty of birds around including some big predators – black kites, buzzards and harriers. Here I snapped a couple of marsh harriers – not over our land but over some marshland not too far from where we live.

Ah, primavera!

Ah, primavera!

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That lovely spring feeling is continuing. It’s strange then to see at first glance what looks like snow, in the trees and the fields. Closer inspection reveals wild plum bushes bursting with white blossom and meadows of daisies.

So the warmer weather has seen us donning those lovely blue dungarees and doing some landscape gardening. The back of the house has a huge mound of enormous rocks and stones from the holes made in the walls so we’ve been using those to make a rockery and discovering a hidden talent for dry stone walling. Not bad, eh?

Meanwhile there are those of you who will be pleased that the first seedlings are sprouting, here broad beans and sweet peas. The leeks are up too and many others beginning to poke through. Our cold frames have been made from the old window frames balanced on breeze blocks.

Plus the super spuds are going from strength to strength, with a second batch not far behind. Helpful Luis handed over a box of some too so, if they all work, they’ll be about 40 plants – a whole bed full of tatties! The tunnel cloche over them was removed today as I decided that it was now warm enough. Not without some trepidation though – the bunnies have been seen with napkins around their necks and a glint in their eyes. The gate has been covered in chicken wire and the other entrance to the veg garden near the house has been blocked off with corrugated iron (not the prettiest of sights but will have to do for now), so fingers crossed! (And we are perfecting a wonderful Nigel Slater rabbit dish just in case…)

The second cloche remains up for the mo protecting onions and carrots although it seems to get very hot inside. I opened one end up the other day and my glasses immediately steamed up… the plastic covering is lifted when we’re around but until I’m convinced that Brer Rabbit and his friends won’t be round for a sneaky supper it’s staying put. We’re really looking forward to having a barbecue in the garden in the not too distant future – coelho kebabs, perhaps?

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung

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As predicted, with the roof completed, the weather remains fine and no rain forecast. In fact it has been glorious weather to do a bit of gardening. Jackie is now worried that it may be too hot for the spuds which are coming on great guns under the cloche. And most of the fruit trees have now burst into life with blossom all over the garden. Soon we may even be able to tell which fruit trees we actually have.

Despite threats from the builders that work would stop on the house for another break, my pleading seems to have done the trick and we still have two workers continuing on site. They have started on the rendering/plastering the walls inside and out.

living room and kitchen

We’ve also got the electrician/plumber starting soon. The forward slash is because it’s actually the same person. It seems strange to me but apparently it is the norm in Portugal. Anyway, he has been round the house with us and now knows where all the plug points, sockets, sinks etc will be. Hopefully he will be starting work very soon…

A roof over our heads (part 2)

A roof over our heads (part 2)

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Finally, we’ve got the tiles on the roof! Now they are up I don’t expect any more rain for the rest of the year. I can’t understand why the builders didn’t put up them up earlier as they only took a day to do it in the end. Ah well, done now – so hopefully the inside can now dry out.


The extension is also taking shape. After finishing the walls to the study downstairs, the bricky is now working on the bathroom upstairs so that should be ready for the plumber soon.

Meanwhile the garden is blooming wonderful. The fruit trees have sprung into life with buds appearing everywhere. In fact, our first plum blossom is out (proof below) and the others are not far behind.

We’ve also built a small fence. It separates the veggie patch from the rest of the garden. Jackie reckons it will keep out the rabbits and javeli (wild boars) and keep in the sheep (we plan on getting some of these at some stage in the future). I’m not so sure but as we’ve planted vines and a redcurrant bush against it at least it should provide some fruit.