Cherries in the Sun

It’s been a great week. The sun burst out last week and with it, came Spring’s final vivacious splash of meadow flowers and fruits before it inevitably and gracefully bows out to make way for the impending arrival of Summer. It sure is already hot in the middle of the day, but the mornings and evenings are still, thankfully, refreshingly cool. Even nippy.

Josh with Eli kindly assisting, made the first pass at "Tom and Jerry"'s cherry trees this week. Oh my days are they delicious! Half a bucket went in a couple of days. Here’s proof….

Von planted in some extra veggies into 4 more of her new beautifully crafted permaculture compost beds. I think we now have hot peppers, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, butternut squash, red and white cabbage, cauliflowers, more broccoli, more lettuces and strawberries all in situ happily growing. I’ve also seen evidence of seed trays planted up with yet more goodies and a sack of tatters ready to go in once we’ve worked out the best place for them to grow in the heat of the next few months. The guys round here plant their potatoes in Jan or Feb and are now harvesting. So we might be a tad late. We’ll see.

Von has also impressively transformed Harry’s house this week in 2 days flat. It now resembles a kind of Moroccan boudoir. Seriously, it does. Have a sneak in the video below. It’s a wee bit surreal cos suddenly we now have a proper home to enjoy with all our stuff from our old life in London surrounding us. Yet when you look out the window it’s not really very New Cross is it? The cherry on the cake (alright enough of cherries already) is our beloved bed. For 4 nights now we’ve slept deeply, and boy what a difference it’s made to rejuvenate properly at night.

Last Sunday, we went for an outing to the pretty little nearby xisto (pronounced sheestoo, means slate stone) village of Alvaro organised by ‘Champagne’ Ines who works in Oleiros council. Much of the village has been restored with European funding and they’ve done a top job. We picked up a few cool ideas on how to restore our own xisto houses too. After the walk and the lunch, we went kayaking down this curvy and picturesque stretch of the River Zezere. The kids did great paddling a few kilometres downstream and did heroically well paddling back upstream into a fairly stiff headwind. Nice one kids. You rock.

Finally, an update on Moses. The place not the dog. For those who don’t know, we are staying (some would say squatting) now in Bacelo which is the house (sorry, Estate) of "Tom and Jerry"  Moses is another place separate to Moses, almost bordering it but not quite, consisting of 4 falling down old stone houses in 2 hectares of forested terraced land, 10 minutes walk down the valley, a little more remote, with no roofs or water supply or electricity connected yet. Which is why The Winters and Michelle are currently staying (squatting) at Bacelo until we’ve finished (to do that we obviously need to start at some point) renovating everything there.

Anyway back to the plot (assuming there is one), I think we are now waiting for a couple of things to happen. As the rains have stopped, Pedro the road maker can finish his other projects and begin ours, carving out the new terraces we need for the green houses, water tanks, sports area and, of course, the yoga sala at the very top of it all. Sounds like the road work could begin July, sometime, maybe later. Not holding our breath though. We also found cool carpentry and building firms that seem to understand what we want to achieve restoring our houses using mainly the materials we can find on the land and are prepared to work alongside us to do it. But we’ve yet to see a budget. If the budget is good, if we see it, we hope to appoint them and they might be able to start in August. Possibly. Depending on other things apparently. We’ll fill you in on when we know anything more (which implies we know something now, which we don’t really).

However, and it is a big ‘however’, the land down at Moses is looking utterly outstanding. All by itself. With no help at all whatsoever from us. These last 7 photos are just a few of the many we've taken this week, although they simply don’t convey the experience of being in a place that is so inherently magnificent. Truly breathtaking. We love Moses. We really do. One day we will live there. And grow more things there. And entertain there. And make new friends there. And grow old there. And eat more cherries in the sun. And olives, and other tasty home grown stuff too. But as you probably can tell, it’s just we’re not entirely sure when that day will be. It doesn’t matter though, cos the journey to get to Moses is already proving to be a whole heap of fun.

There's no rush, so we ain't rushing.

Work in the Spring Rains

Hello folks. Just a quick update on a few bits and pieces. It has been raining here for most of May. It's a bit odd as usually the heavy rains finish by end of April in Portugal. They have a saying here to describe every month. For April it is "Abril, aguas mille" the month of the thousand rains. But the climate is changing rapìdly and unexpectedly all over the planet so I guess the old sayings might have to be reworked in future. The plus sides of all this rain are the gigantic size of our veggies (the broccoli really are mahoosive), and more importantly, the risk of fires this summer in Portugal is now zero as the land has been soaked so deeply. The down sides are that we've all been a little under the weather with colds and coughs, and the vines and olives are at higher risk of catching blight. Apparently, their foliage requires lots of sun at this time of year to dry them out ready for fruiting over the summer. But we'll wait and see what the effect of it all will be later in the year. For now, the downpours haven't dampened our desire for cracking on with the work around here and below are a few pictures to show you what's been going on.

This is the first structure we have erected for shade on the terrace of what will this summer be the restaurant. Peter and I used the trees we had cut down in March that had the dangerous caterpillars nesting in the top of them. When he returns in a couple of weeks we will finish it off with some green material hammered in over the top. This space will double for a while as a yoga space. Now the sun is beginning to shine a bit stronger, this shaded flat area will be perfect for practising.

Harry's house has had a fair bit of work done to it in May. We finished rendering the internal walls in a lime, sand and cement mix, which as they are all now dry, Von, me and the kids should be white washing this week. Peter had made new barn style doors and shutters the week before he left. Von had been wondering what to do with all the mimosas we cut down last month. Thought about buying an industrial strength shredder, but as seems to be the emerging way here, Von found another more creative solution for all that waste wood that doesn't actually involve buying anything. The large mimosa branches have been set aside for building future structures - pergolas or possibly in the cob houses. The straight branches we have chopped up and inserted in between the beams that support the tin roof of Harry's house to act as bit of insulation and cos they look well pretty. The long thin bits we are weaving together to form the sides of new beds on the veggie terrace. And the small end pieces will be used for dry matter on top of the beds.

The latest bit of new thinking came from a trip we made to Barbara's (the one with the chopsticks) place last weekend. There we met Josh and Rosie, a young couple from the UK who've been in the Algarve for a couple of years but recently met Barbara and decided to move in with her. They are fascinating people. For work, they are clowns. No, really, they are. And their hobby is Permaculture. We've heard a bit about permaculture from a few people but to speak to these guys and see the start they have already made at the Mount of Oaks was really inspiring. Here's why. With all this rain, the weeds have sprung up everywhere at bacelo. It was a touch disheartening cos I only strimmed the whole terrace 2 weeks ago and now it looks exactly the same as it did then - hip high bracken and grasses all over the place. But with a system Josh told us about and then Von researched more on the web, it's all really cool that there are so many weeds growing here.

All those weeds are not pests that need to be battled with for the next 20 years, they are good things. They are in fact nitrogen fixers, and you can cut them, leave them where they are and layer above them with green veg leaves (to encourage the worms), a neutralizer like wood fire ash (plenty from our fire that we weren't too sure what to do with either), then a layer of damp cardboard that controls the weeds underneath from emerging on mass (we have all those moving boxes), above that a layer of chicken manure in sawdust or straw (we have bucket loads of the stuff from the chicken coup that has been nicely maturing for 10 years and we will have more from the chicks we want to buy soon), and finally a layer of bracken or pine needles for the top. Hey presto you have a foot and half high compost bed system ready to go for planting into immediately (as you can see from the new cabbages plugged in this evening). Any weeds that do break through the layers, can be cut and laid over again with more dry matter. This has taken a huge pressure off us. No back breaking digging, annual preparatory rotorvating or endless weeding of exposed soil required. Phew, what a relief that was to find out! We are all hoping the system works as sweet as it looks too.

A couple more pictures for ya...this is Ellie enjoying painting a few prayers in a well cool prayer space that Barbara created out of living, bent mimosa trees and added some plastic sheeting to keep it dry. It was lovely to see all the contributions people had hung up over the months from a whole range of religious and cultural perspectives. (We want a space like that!) And her underheated bath, although a little small for giants like me, was surrounded delightfully in mosaic and recycled bits and bobs. (We want one of those too! in fact, we want to be like Barbara when we grow up.)


On Sunday, I took the kids with Jorge and Filipe (our neighbours' lads) for a trip down to the River Zezere. The fishing season kicked off May 15th and with the waters as full as I've ever seen them, the whole place was in fantastic nick. As it's a little remote down there, about 20 minute drive from Amieira, only a handful of fisherman and noone else. It is such a peaceful place to stay for an afternoon. We promise to take you down there when you come. Moses of course, spent all the time chasing sticks thrown for him. We'll buy our fishing licenses this week too (only 10 euros for all of Portugal's rivers and lakes - cool eh?) so if you fancy messing about fishing, swimming and maybe even on a boat (if we can find someone selling one), any of us, including Moses, will always be delighted to accompany you down there.

On the way back home we stopped again at a beautiful estate Von and I had previously stumbled upon in the week, with 6 or 7 cute old stone houses on a lovingly cleaned piece of terraced hillside and views to die for down the river. Got a tingling feeling that one day it might just be the home of John and Caroline Purday, their kids and their kittens. I have no idea who owns it now or even if it is for sale, but it would make a remarkable artist's retreat. Now wouldn't that be another lovely dream to happen one day. Purdays will be here end of July, so we will let you know how that little adventure pans out.

Need to go now as Slinky is mewing constantly next door for yet more food. And sounds like the kids are running down the hill after been dropped off by the school bus (yep it's definitely them), and Von could do with a cup of tea after hours of toil in the rapidly taking shape kitchen garden. More updates next week.

Slinky

So this is how the story goes. There was this cat, who lived with a sweet family in Oleiros, together with their dog. The cat and the dog become pregnant at the same time. The cat produces her kittens a little while before the dog gives birth, but disastrously suddenly dies in a road accident a few days later. The dog, while still pregnant, (hope you are still with me) heroically takes it upon herself to nurse the motherless kittens from her own teats, otherwise they would surely not have made it through their first 6 weeks. Raquel gets wind of the valiant tale and leaps into immediate action, galvanising the support of friends and family to provide as many good homes for the kittens as she can find. And so it came to pass, that Slinky, with the milk of her adopted canine mother still warm in her belly, found her way into the home and hearts of this crazy gang of English people in the village of Amieira. Although Angel is taking a little longer to get used to the idea than the rest of us. Bless.

That’s the top news story of the month. Below is a video of the wee thing in action in the garden which Von and "Tom" created outside Harry’s house last week after our stuff and plants finally arrived from London.

Second news item is that Josh and I made contact with the emerging cricket scene in Portugal. And we both actually managed to play a game last weekend together for the first time, on a sweet ground on a converted field, bought 2 years ago by a nice South African guy called Sandy. The pitch is only 90 minutes drive south of here in the village of Albegeria near Santarem. The teams seem to be a mixture of Portuguese, Sri Lankans and other South Africans but I will let you know more about the other teams when the league (yes apparently so) starts later in the summer. Before the big event we obviously had to have a knock about practice, that as you can see from the picture was on a makeshift strip outside Kahn cottage. Didn’t do us much good as we lost the first game of the season. But at least there is a season here. We both can't wait til the next game.

For the last few weeks, Von has been sifting soil to create the optimum conditions for veggies in the ‘horta’ , and I have been working hard with "Tom" restoring Harry’s house. Which, I am glad to tell you is now complete. Well, the building work is done. Now we just need to paint the insides and make it our home for the next year or so. We’ve had so much fun doing this restoration work that Von and I have decided we will restore our houses down at Moses by ourselves as well, with a lot of help from "Tom" and a little help from local builders and carpenters when we need them. So watch this space.

"Tom" just went back to England at the weekend to kiss his mrs and bring her back with him in a couple of weeks. It will be so nice to have "Jerry" here with us all. It’s not been the same without her here. Kind of like watching “To The Manor Born” without Penelope Keith. Anyway, comeback soon guys, we don’t like squatting here without you.

Finally, some friends of Ian and Merle (the tipi people), Elisabeth and her friend Oriel, popped over to see us in the week, and stayed with Eugenia and Joao for a couple of nights. We really enjoyed their company. Elisabeth is a Emotional Freedom Technique practitioner from Hereford with a 12 year old daughter called Tara and they are considering moving to these parts as well - or at the very least spending their summers here until Tara leaves school. More lovely people. And English too. Soon we will simply have to raise a union jack somewhere. Or maybe not.

A Wedding, April 25th and maybe new English Tipi Neighbours

Ola! Tudo Bem?

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks here in Amieira land. 2 weekends back we went to the wedding of Sara (the local yoga teacher) and her lovely hubby Antonio Miguel, 10kms east of us in Estrieto. It was a delightful affair and a real privilege to be invited to be part of such a wonderful day. 270 people. All the bells and whistles. Food was lavish with awesome creative sculptures to fruit and meat, To’s old university fraternity mates playing guitars and singing at every available opportunity, dancing late into the night, loads of kids free to run round and be themselves. Everything was a treat to witness. Thanks guys we had a ball. Who's getting married next?

The following weekend was a big one here in Portugal. It was only 34 years ago, on April 25^th, that they had their last revolution. It was a bloodless one but like many other revolutions round the world, holds little real meaning for country people like those out here in the sticks. Nothing really changed for people here. Just a different regime with another name. But the date is still a good excuse for a party and I am sure over the years I will understand the significance of the strategic change that took place in 1974. Anyway we were invited by the inimitable Raquel and her hubby Francisco to spend the weekend with his parents at their family home in Gafete, in the heart of the Alintejo region.

It turned out to be quite an education (as well as a mighty cool weekend party). Francisco’s great grandfather had built a charming house for his wife Anna, with fascinating orange gardens and sculptures. But most interestingly for us, he also created a fabulous pleasure garden together with summer houses and irrigation systems on 250 hectares of nearby farm land. Now all the buildings are a little rickety and the irrigations systems no longer in use because Francisco mainly uses the land to raise 91 cows, but the place has heap loads of character and inspiration for us. If it was possible to do all that a century ago, surely we could do something equally as incredible today with our little 2 hectare patch.

Below is a sneek at part of the gardens with Moses loving the lake obviously. Coincidentally, when we travelled this bit of portugal last year, we actually stopped for a break outside this farm and Von marvelled at the land and wanted to go explore it. So when we arrived it was a bit spooky to realise we'd been here before - it was Francisco's farm.

Last Tuesday we had an email from an English couple, Ian and Merle, who said they were thinking of buying a place round the corner from us and would we be interested in meeting them. They currently run a tipi company in the UK and are thinking of relocating here in Amieira! Well, what a blessing they were. We had a fantastic day (which also happened to be Ian’s birthday) with lunch at our place and then being shown round their potential new home that has hundreds of fruit tree laden stone terraces and awesome views down the Rio Zezere valley, just 5 minutes drive over the hill in Eiro do Miguel. We really hope they buy the place and get over here as soon as they can cos they are proper lovely. There could be some interesting synergies between their tipi retreat plans and ours as well. Triffic.

David and Pam Pott came last Thursday (which also happened to be David’s birthday) to stay for a few days in the middle of their own trip round Europe. How gorgeous was that? Catching up on their travels and their emerging plans for their new life when they return to the UK, revelling once again in Nanny Pam’s story telling, and just their company has been a great blessing for us all here. We were sorry to see them go, but we know we see them again. Hopefully Pam caught the bug of this place and maybe she can run creative retreats here one day soon.

While David and Pam were here we explored a bit more of this region of Portugal. We went with them up to Santa Comba Dao on Mothering Sunday (a month later here than in the UK) with our neighbour Eugenia and family to see her mum as she had no transport to get there. Its only 60kms but took nearly 2 hours as it is directly north and we had to pass over 3 mountain ranges! And then on Tuesday we nipped over to Barbara’s Mount of Oaks retreat space near Fundao for lunch shared with 15 or so guys who had joined her from the recent Rainbow gathering in Portugal. A most hippy affair but we are really pleased we now know where Barbara is and we will be back many many times. She is a remarkable lady and doing extraordinary things with her land there (see her Shanti Pilgrim blog). It was a little bittersweet though as Vonny went with her to the Vet where her poorly cat actually died on the table. Barbara was totally gutted and our thoughts are with her cos she loved that cat something bad.

"Tom" returned from the UK on Wednesday and has been hard at work on Harry’s house since. I will post up some pictures of the work next week. It’s been fab to have him back with us. Sad "Jerry" is still in the UK but we hope to see her and maybe her mum in a few weeks when "Tom" plans to return to give them both a little break from caring for "Jerry"s pops.

So as you can tell, an eventful fortnight. Here's a little something before you go. After a typical hard days work in the sun last week, I saw a rare sight. There in the bush, exhausted from cutting brambles since dawn, was a Vonetta, asleep in a wheelbarrow. That’s all for now folks, will write soon.

we love you grandma!!!

Porco! And the loggers.

This is just a quick post today. Last weekend our lovely neighbours, Joao and Eugenia (who have fed us with lavish generosity at least one meal every day for the last 4weeks plus coffees and cakes and and and...), killed their 2 pigs early on a Sunday morning. It was difficult for us city folks with our vegetarian tendencies to deal with the proximity of the death of the animals we'd actually known, even if only for a little bit. But equally it was a remarkable occurrence to witness, because of the energy and life that the death of the pigs released to the family and wider community in the process. The meat will feed their family for a long time so it was a big deal. It was also both an impressive and exhausting biannual ritual for our neighbours. For the next 3 days, from morning til night, 6 or 7 people were in their house cutting and chopping and stuffing to make an enormous quantity of various kinds of chorrizo sausages, some with onions, some with bread, some just with the meat.

They are an outstanding family who we feel honoured to be getting to know. Joao has worked on this land his whole life and Eugenia knows all the medicinal qualities of the local plants here. They are teaching us so much every day, including, with immense patience how to actually speak Portuguese. They are a godsend in so many ways. Anyway, this is the video of Eugenia's incredible mother, Albertina, just minutes after gutting both pigs, shown in this clip with her 17 year old grandson Filipe. This little piece made all of us giggle, as I tried in vain to encourage Albertina to say a few words after the slaughter of the pigs. As you will see, she stoically resisted, saying nothing until the last moment when, with all her might, still waving a pretty sharp knife, she exclaimed just a single word. "Porco!" Or Pig, in Portuguese. Spectacular timing. Watch that knife. I was moving backwards the whole time, trust me.



And here's a brief skit from the kids too. Sorry for the swearing involved in this clip. Blame the home education for the exuberant levels of confidence beginning to be exhibited.



One final clip we had to take, as we drove on the winding road to Oleiros last week, we noticed these 2 huge machines chewing their way through the Eucalyptus forests. It was sad to see the trees destroyed so easily like this, but also somewhat amazing to see what machines in the hands of skilled operators can do. As you can tell we are learning heaps about rural life.




Next posts, I promise to update you with pictures of Sara and To's wedding and our 25th April Revolution weekend celebrations with Raquel and Francisco on his 91 cow, 250 hectare farm in Alintejo. Also met 2 new remarkable and delightful English neighbours yesterday just over the mountain top towards the Rio Zezere valley, Iain and Merle, who are planning to set up a tipi retreat there over the next few years. Will tell you more about all these adventures next time.

Spotty Salamanders, Deadly Lizards and Spitting Snakes. By Ellie.

Hi Guys!! I know its been a while since I last wrote, in fact, its been so long that we’ve been through 1 whole country of Spain so you’ve finally prompted me to writing a blog. So I thought just to make it easer I’ll make you a list of what we’ve been doing, and then write up about it. So here I go:

Seeing London, and my big brothers b-day!!
Hearing a meeeeeeoooooowwwwww under the deck of the plane
The trouble with caterpillars
Building a compost bin
Meeting High Hedgy the Hedgehog and Sir Sammy the salamander
Finding the snakes’ skin and Meeting the deadly lizard

Now I have a loooooot to write so I better get going!!

Seeing London town

When we got back all of our stuff was really dusty after 9 months of being in a loft and I’m allergic to house dust, so I had to sleep in my brothers bedroom and you must know how bad that’s got to be………for your brother.

Almost every day since we left grandma and poppops´s house to go and stay in a million pound yes, one million pounds rented by papas old boss, anyway we went into the centre of London and we saw: flat in central

The aquarium,T we played hide and seek in the trees in Hyde Park and went to the Princess Dianna childrens Park and saw the sights that you absolutely have to see.

#Happy birth day to you happy birth day to you happy birth day to Joshi happy birth day to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you guessed what day it is JOSHI´S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great time speeding down the river Thames on a super fast speed boat!!

Then enjoyed sandwiches and cake made by my mama! Then we played tag in the top room of ahoy the Thames Sailing and power boating voluntary school.

The meeeeeeeeoooooooooowwwwwww under the plane deck.

Now you’re probably thinking what the hell is she talking about well if you would stop interrupting me I could tell you!!

It was a hectic morning the morning we were going to go back to Portugal, because we had had a party not a very big party but a party all the same. And we hadn’t seen angel for all of that evening so mama and papa though well we will leave her out to poop and then find her in the morning but dum dum dum duuuuuum

We could not find her and -because I had my shoes on- I went out to look for her.

But when I came in I still hadn’t found her! So mama got all hysterical because when she had left for England (bless her) she was a teenager and she had to leave her cat behind. So mama went outside and shouted at the top of her voice ANGEL!!!!!!!!!!! And o Meus Deus she came up and started meowing at mama’s feet. So we got her into her cat bag put her in the car on our laps and in time she crawled out of her cat bag and onto the window!! Oh my days she was mesmerised by the car and every thing rushing past her, her head going back and forth back and forth!!!!!!

When we had to say good bye to Moses and Angel as they were taken to be put in the heated hold.

(I need to go now but will finish this off after the weekend. And add more photos. Bye for now!!)