19° Nadadouro 12° Portreath

The first strawberry of 2013. The garden is slowly coming into bloom after a cold wet winter. Last night I picked purple sprouting broccoli, parsley, rocket, curly lettuce and my first strawberry. What a joy! x

16° in Nadadouro  9° in Portreath

After having a break from blogging I decided it was about time to fill you in on what's been going on in the magic valley.

So spring seems to have sprung.  On cue our neighbours have started preparing their land for this year's crops, and green shoots are appearing everywhere.  This has spurred us into action too.  After having one of the worst storms in recent history, the first task has been to clear wind-strewn rubbish from the garden.  I won't bore you with details, but our neighbour seems to have a large collection of corrugated iron [?] which my Dave carefully threw back onto her heap!

Yesterday we spent the day weeding, strimming, mending raised beds and deciding where to plant things.  It was so nice to bask in warm sunshine again.  This winter seems to have lasted way too long. It reminded me of being home in Cornwall - high winds, rain and cloudy days.  The lack of sun was affecting everybody.  But it's back, and we're smiling and looking forward to a bountiful year in the garden, because this year it's all about the corn! x

23° in Nadadouro  9° in Portreath

After a rather long absence [sorry], i'm back sharing a little bit of Silver Coast life with you lovelies.  It's been a hectic few months since Christmas.  Every little thing seems to take so much time and money, neither of which has been in abundance.  However, the results are mighty fine - well for us anyhow, more to come later.

We've bought some chickens from our local market!  The Portuguese don't have anything like our concerns for animal welfare, so we felt we were liberating these three.  Our last girls were named after Dave's twin sisters, but this time i wanted to honour the reggae queens i've danced to my whole life so world meet our 'Three Little Birds' - aka 'The I Threes' - or just plain old Rita, Marcia and Judy.  We've had them for over a month now and as yet no eggs to be seen!  I just can't wait for my first home grown spinach and parsley omelette!  Yum x

15° and very sunny in Nadadouro  10° in Portreath

I'm so sorry for the delay inbetween posts.  Life really has just got in the way.  Brrrrr!  We've been having some really chilly mornings, bright, crisp and festive but the afternoon light in our new extension has been sublime, really lifts my mood.

I've been preparing for our first Christmas in our new home.  So far it's been a piece of cake.  Firstly my Dave simply arrived with our tree one night after work with no prompting needed.  We are surrounded by lush pine forests and our little tree somehow just found its way into his truck.  Secondly, i don't really want anything as such!  [except some doors... etc etc], which makes life even easier.  For maybe the first time in my life i feel content with all i have around me.  I think a bit of a zen moment is coming on.

I'm really looking forward to some good ole family time, which obviously involves bbq, tv, fizz and a dollop of gardening.  Talking of which, we are now the proud owners of a lovely kitchen garden patch, on the edge of our patio, next to our neighbours house.

We were going to put chickens there, just temporarily, but thankfully decided not too fearing the smell would be just a little too fresh, and also our neighbour complained about our intentions.  How the hell she found out i will never know, maybe she understands more english than she admits.  We've now planted some rosemary, lavender, radishes, beans, lettuce, parsley and coriander.  How exciting, the magic valley is back.  x

16° in Nadadouro  14° in Portreath

November has arrived with monsoon like downpours and howling gales, but still between storms the sun beats down with enough heat to warm our bones.

This week has been 'finish painting the bloody house quick' week.  And Dave has been a star.  Inbetween working 6 days a week, he's managed to make a new drain, render the front of the house and paint the aforementioned walls beautifully - check out our new yellow stripe.  We also now have a mini front garden with a few spikey agaves and also some strong smelling herbs to hopefully deter the roaming dogs from using our plot as a toilet!

I really can't believe it takes so long to finish a house, but once moved in, life returns to normal, and all the things that need doing don't really look that bad.  I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to build our own home, finishing a few things off here and there can take all the time in the world.  x

22° in Nadadouro  15° in Portreath

After reading Miscellanie's blog about picking her olive crop i thought it was about time i harvested mine.  Unfortunately it's not as impressive as her 175kg, but my 91 olives is treble last years crop.

Hopefully by Christmas we will have a nice little nibble on the side.   x

still 24° in Nadadouro  16° in Portreath

Each day brings another thing for us to stand back and marvel at.  Yesterday's development was outside lighting.  I got these beauties shipped over from the UK by Amazon - free shipping really does add to the sparkle - as they were nearly double the price here.

Last night was such a wonderful balmy evening, my husband was strumming his guitar, and the wine really did taste of sunshine.  Cheers to more of these days, shouldn't they always be like this?  x