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

24° in Nadadouro  16° in Portreath

I just want to wish Ana and Phil a big good luck with their house search on the Silver Coast.  

Your dream home is out there somewhere.  x

26° in Nadadouro  15° in Portreath

Sorry for the delay on the updates, at last we have moved in and have our home!  Boxes are unpacked, paintings are hung and a semblance of a real life is happening for us.  Jacob came back from the UK very excited to see his new room and sunshine!  It was great to pick him up from the airport and to show him our new place after 7 weeks away.  I miss him so when he's away from us.

So the kitchen is fully fitted and is such a dream to use.  But even better is having drains!  The council finally decided to connect us to the main sewer!!!!!  Please don't ask about our habits for the last couple of weeks, but needless to say, having a shower under a watering can has just about lost its appeal, even though bathing outside is quite a joy at this time of year.  The next time i shower outside i swear will because i've just had a swim in my garden [still to be realised], or at the beach, rather than for necessity.

Now my lovely Dave has tiled and fitted our first bathroom.  The beautiful tiles came from Spain only to find i didn't order enough, I need 12 more!  Doh!  We just have to add a glass shower screen, a few accessories and a bathroom door [!!!] and it's done.

We have also played host to our lovely sister Dianne.  She's been jet setting all over Europe this summer.  It was a great week of fizz, pimientos and laughter.  Come back soon Dodo x

Love x

21° in Nadadouro  16° in Portreath

Yesterday afternoon, after waiting all week the marble worktop came.  It was just in the back of the fitters' truck - six pieces of cream marble with the most amazing disco, glittery, white stripe!  A couple more blokes appeared and they all huffed, puffed, sawed, adjusted and finally successfully fitted our new top.

We are just speechless - really, really love x

25° in Nadadouro  16° in Portreath

Another tiring week in Nads!  So much seems to be happening so quickly, when all i really want to do now is retreat to the beach with a cocktail and a good book.  Ho hum - maybe next summer.

As i type my Dave is painting our other lounge/snug.  This is where we'll put the TV and my office for now.  This week he painted the old wooden floor upstairs.  We had some great guys come and sand it to death so now it's lovely and smooth, but still very very old, so a lick of white eggshell has done it proud.

Also Victor has made us an amazing Kambala [iroko] staircase to match our front door.  The handrails are up and i think this area will be our new bedroom for the foreseeable future as our bathroom is sort of full up of STUFF.

We also have our terrace cordoned off with new handrails, made by Mario and his crew from Foz do Arelho.  They are the same colour as the window frames and will keep us from any Kamikaze actions we might feel on a late saturday night - just for laughs of course!

To top the week off, we've had a festa in honour of Our Lady.  The pic below shows our local bishop trotting around the village under his sun canopy, followed by the majority of the village, well at least the God fearing ones.

Once again the music was booming and there's no sleep till well passed 3am!  Now this goes on for 6 days people.  However I did have a little outing at the weekend, which was a bit of a mistake.  We had already started moving house and had one more night in our rental, i needed my asthma pump and realised it was moved.  So i shuffled off around to get it and thought i'd make a detour via festa to see what was on.  Well 4 hours later, i was danced out and stumbled home, full of wine and smiles.  Until a few hours later of course when it was time to finish moving!  x

22° in Nadadouro  18° in Portreath

I've just ordered these beautiful tiles from Mosaic del Sur in Spain.  They do some variable patchwork assortments, i suppose from leftovers from orders.  Very very yummy i think you'll agree. This is the first time i have really really wanted to buy something for the house which is well over budget!  Having a shower will never feel so good  x

16° in Nadadouro  17° in Portreath

It's all go go go!   Today we are moving most of our stuff into our new house - hooray.  Unfortunately we can't stay in it as the council haven't connected our drains yet!  Slightly disappointing, but we still have a lot to do in the house, so we can crash around the corner at our mate's house.

Many more pics to come but here's some of my Dave doing his thing - love x

14° in Nadadouro  3° in Portreath [yes my widget seriously said 3°]

It has been another busy week at Casa Lemm.

No dramas thank goodness, just a lot of hard work.  The plaster masters Antonio and Pedro [i've nicknamed them Ant and Dec, and no, they don't know that!] have plastered the ceilings throughout downstairs and added the kitchen cupboard wall too.  A very crisp and precise job.

The sparky crew have wired up the place and very soon we will have light and power throughout.

Victor carpinteira [see how good my Portuguese is getting now!] came and measured up for the stairs and said they will be delivered on Monday!  Today is Friday and we need to tile the floor!  So this weekend will be taken up on our hands and knees.  He has cut out a tester hole and the light is flooding into the basement.  Although we have planned this for so long, it was a monumental moment.

Antonio [another one!] is cladding our feature wall outside with fantastic rusty coloured bits of slate.  And the rest of the boys have been sorting the outside stairs, drainage and patio area out ready for the Brazilians who will be laying the calcadas [cobbles] any day now.

Upstairs each evening the house was full of building stuff, but yesterday we went in and it was cleared out!  We seriously have so much more space.  This is going to be great.  x

21° in Nadadouro  18° in Portreath

Hooray, the terrace is now back to how it was a couple of weeks ago!  The guys only have to lay the terracotta tiles then it's done, phew!

Not much more to do now, i really can't believe that we're nearly there.  It's just the front door and stairs to be fitted and the second fix electrics to be sorted after the well insulated ceilings are completed, and then the calcada terrace outside leading to the garden!  Calcadas are little square cobble stones, which apparently will be laid by the Brazilians next week.  The kitchen is due mid July, so we have to get on and tile tile tile!

This week i had to get the tiles delivered from Lealmat.  They sent 130 60cm square boxes in a lorry with one [small] driver.  I suppose he was supposed to shift them on his own, which would have taken all day.  However our builders pitched in and an hour and 15 cold beers later the job was done.  We have to tile the whole downstairs next weekend as the kitchen and stairs must go on top, which will be fun.  At last we can do something, Dave is a tile master and i'm the queen of grout!  Now where did i put those knee pads ...  x

23° in Nadadouro  13° in Portreath

Phew yesterday was a scorcher and my Dave treated our wood wormed basement ceiling - twice!  They were really nasty smelly chemicals so they must be good eh?

Each morning i wander to our pad and open all the windows so the place can dry out.  All the new plaster and screed has a high percentage of water, so i suppose it will take a few weeks to cure.

We are surrounded by pine and eucalyptus forests and one spark could be a disaster.  So from Easter until the first rains of winter we live in a fire free zone.  But hey rules are made to be broken right.  Undeterred our neighbour thought she'd do a bit of weeding yesterday afternoon, while it was 31° and not a rain cloud or emergency bucket of water in sight ...

31° in Nadadouro  14° in Portreath

Last week was another monumental one in our lives.  The leaky terrace was fixed, hooray.  Two layers of black bitumen waterproofing, embedded up the sides of the house by about 20cm, was laid in a day.  Then a new screed will be laid and then finally our terracotta tiles.  What a relief to have this sorted, we can really relax about this now.  My poor Dave seems to be getting greyer by the day!

The other fantastic event was the delivery of our gorgeous windows.  We had chosen frames in granite grey [7026] from the RAL colour system.  I had noticed all the modern buildings i loved had grey frames, and wanted to emulate the same feeling in our little house too.  I think when we're finished it will give that really polished look that we're trying to achieve.

Our window supplier Telmo from Chaves Aluminos Oeste has done a splendid job.  He said that for our job he's made the smallest window he's ever made - 50cm square for the downstairs loo - and the largest window too - our triple sliding door nearly 5m across!  

I have a feeling that we are not tipico, c'est la vie! x