Blogging the stories of our family life on a yoga retreat in the magical village and valleys of Amieira, Central Portugal. Everyday we are tending this beautiful land and its stone dwellings in our journey towards self sufficiency. Moses is the Portuguese name of this place, meaning many mill stones. And, providently, is also the name of our beloved golden retriever, without whom, we'd never have found it. We love you Moses.
Today summer feels like it has truly arrived. Bright blue hot hot Sunday. The mountainside and pathways are bursting with yellow and blue flowers and the wild white rock roses are ready to put on their impressive annual display.Just chilling out after a scrumptious Sunday lunch, I thought I'd upload some vids from the last fortnight. The professional bit of the works on the house is drawing to a close. Another fortnight maybe at tops. All the windows are in, just waiting on the doors.
Tiles are on in all the bathrooms and kitchen. Supporting walls are all built and rendered and tiled where required. Wooden rough cut pine tree boards are nailed in to the apex of the gable end. Just waiting for the 100 sq metres of natural cut multi coloured slates to arrive and we can lay the remaining floors. And waiting for all the sinks and taps to arrive so we can call in the local stone merchant to measure up for the granite worktops.
Built a concrete fossa (water tank in the photo) to house any grey water from the house not usable on the land - for example from the soak sink in the kitchen for when we'll need to wash out the salt from the eating olives and a second drain from the washing machine if we ever need to wash anything in bleach.
We spent most of last week clearing the kitchen terrace from all the rubble and wood mounded there and to make space to begin what we thought would be the long process of restoring the dry stone terrace walls. In fact after just 2 days with the lovely old stone mason João, we've built over half already (he tells why he likes dry stone walling in the video below).
So in a fortnight, the builders will hopefully leave and we will be able to put the finishing touches to the shell, thus beginning the lifelong task and joy of creating; for me that will start with converting the old floorboards from the house into beds, cupboards, book shelves, shutters as well as a pergola on the kitchen terrace. River will continue to be besotted by all things gardening, but her inside time will probably become more focussed on mosaics and fabrics. All lovely stuff. But that is all to come.
Right now we're enjoying the final phases of the restoration work and sensing the pleasure that awaits us when its all done and dusted ready to move in. In the meantime teaching is going well, kids are still top of their classes at school and River has staked more trees on the road (a tractor video tour below if you fancy it) and covered the potato field in more donkey manure and pine needle mulch.
I have a sneaky sensation that River might be at this very moment suggesting that perhaps this afternoon "we" could nip into the forest and cut some Mimosa trees to make the dozens of pea stakes she will need shortly.
"We could dear. Good idea. I'll be there in just a tick."
Oh by the way, Chris Stewart's Driving Over Lemons series, is a must if you've not already read them. Lovely tales from his family's adventure of a remote mountainside rural Spanish life.
Here's the link to the blog showing a video of the the day we first started back in July 2008 with the arrival of the diggers, Demolition City!
Just a couple of quick videos today. We have been manically painting for the last fortnight, as you know, with paint made from 18 month old slaked lime. Each wall needs at least 4 to 6 layers and we have a lot of walls. Arms are a bit tired as you can imagine. The tiles for the bathroom and kitchen walls and the slate for all the ground floors should be delivered this afternoon too. So next week we'll be tiling and laying floors and building walls to support the granite worktops. Not long to go now before we're in.
(In the vid above I promised to link to the blog post where Von started slaking the lime way back in November 2008 "Horses and Nuclear Waste Monkey Suits")
Von's mum Arlene finally made it on a plane back to London last weekend after the craziness of Iceland's revenge on the rest of Europe. It was so lovely to have her for one more week enjoying the grandchildren and the gardens and the cooking. Come back soon Mum.
Josh and I are off to play our first cricket game of the season tomorrow. We'll post up some video action of the boy. All very surreal. A delightful white picket fenced cricket field in the middle of the Portuguese countryside about 2 hours drive south of here with a real multicultural bunch of fanatics messing about with a bit of leather and some willow. Can't wait.
While we're away, Eli and Von will be at home having fun with the new iron oxide pigments making deliciously coloured wall paints. (I tried to make that sound like there might be some kind of equilibrium or reciprocity in this weekends' activities, but failed miserably. The boys will in fact be playing while the girls are working. "But Cricket is so much more than just a game ma cherie...")
We can make out the finishing line, we sense the day we will live in the houses we bought in the Autumn of 2007, is just round the corner. Still an enormous amount of work left to do. But the structure is in place and the rest is really a matter of decoration: laying stone floors, tiling, building the kitchen and bathrooms, painting. And yesterday was a big day cos we made our first lime paint after slaking it over 18 months ago.
Anyway have a butchers, we're off to Tia Laurinda's Café now to buy some local goodies for Arlene to take back to London with her tomorrow.
Hey peeps. Hope you like the new look to the blog. Felt it needed a little refreshing and chose autumn leaves cos one day its gonna feel like that here with the new forest Von just planted!
Anyhow, big news this week is that Von's mum Arlene is with us. And its fabulous to have her here. The kids are stuck to her 24 7 like little fluffy limpets. Adorable. Well just look...
Other big news is that we began the green roof today. It's been so so long since we first imagined a green roof and it was beginning to feel like it might never happen. But then today came. And all doubt dissipated into thin air.
Von and I watched the Grand Design series back when we were in London, always fascinated by the way people with a passion could, sometimes against all odds, transform ruins into beautiful homes and works of art with the same stroke. Today felt like one of those episodes. Except we were the stars of the show and, thank God, no one was watching. A most excellent day. One to be cherished for a very long time. 3 vids below let you take a peak. Middle one's in Portuguese but you'll catch the sentiment.
Von will post up something on her rampant gardening endeavours. As soon as I can actually get her to come inside. She's weeding the veggie patch as I write. Don't expect to see her before sunset. A taste of things to come me thinks. And quite rightly so. She's pouring herself into this land with every bit of strength and love she has to offer. Enabling nature to put on such a show, the like of which I don't think we will have seen before.
Our builders return, the sun comes out and renovation work starts up again in earnest, while Vonnie continues to open up more holes and plant more trees along the road and sow more seeds in the lounge. Snow still on mountain tops of Serra da Estrella here in the photo in the distance.
Coming to the end of term so kids and I are a bit whacked, as is River, as you can imagine, after planting for so long. We are all looking forward to the Easter hols next week in which we will have Von's mum Arlene over for a fortnight as well as John and Caroline Purday and their girls for an extended weekend.
Some videos below on the restoration update but first one is an inside view of our compost heap. Making your own soil, or at the very least improving and caring for what you've already got, feels like one of those things that is going to become increasingly important for humanity. Can't explain that. Just feel it.
I will write something more substantive over Easter. My heads spinning a bit right now with all that's going on here. It's full on, and of course it's all delicious.
Turned 38 on Tuesday. Very sweet day. Eli drew me this lovely card because Von had planted me 50 plus fruit trees in all the terraces along the river at the bottom of the land here. Think she had wanted to do that ever since her and Perdi murdered a couple of plums and pears I had planted in our garden in London. That well makes up for it babe. Cheers.
Von then came with me to school and I had prepped the kids to ask her loads of questions in English. They did great and so did she. I left with a stack of birthday cards they had all made for me. Returned home to find electricity was being repaired by two guys up poles in the dark and pouring rain. Only lasted the night though as we lost power the next morning again, and found out it blew out more machines once more. Just got fixed today, but still no running water as the bore hole pump got blown out as well. Again.
Kids bought me a waffle maker which I am sure is a present with huge vested interest for them! But they've promised to christen it this Saturday morning for breakfast before we head off to Orvalho to choose tiles for the floors of their house and ours. Builders returned today to get the window frames all nice before the windows arrive next week, and to build the green roof structure and lay all the floors. I am a very happy man!
Too wet to work. So fun and games with water. In the video below the applerazzi chase River past the waterfalls to the new apple orchard. Its another rainy rainy day. Building work stopped. Tree planting in breaks between showers. Lounge converted into a temporary seed shed. Love it.
Got to give a big shout out to an old friend who facebooked us last night. Becky Crow, now Gooden. Check out the stunning jewelery pieces she designs and makes in Brighton. Outstandingly beautiful.
Other big news is that we began the green roof today. It's been so so long since we first imagined a green roof and it was beginning to feel like it might never happen. But then today came. And all doubt dissipated into thin air.
Von will post up something on her rampant gardening endeavours. As soon as I can actually get her to come inside. She's weeding the veggie patch as I write. Don't expect to see her before sunset. A taste of things to come me thinks. And quite rightly so. She's pouring herself into this land with every bit of strength and love she has to offer. Enabling nature to put on such a show, the like of which I don't think we will have seen before.
