still 13° but now sunny [yay] in Nadadouro  7° in Portreath

I met our kitchen designer Catarina yesterday and now we have a final plan for the kitchen.  Dave and I  decided to not have a utility room as it was going to be tiny.  So there is now one less room to construct and the kitchen is definitely big enough to swing a cat in!

The cupboard doors are called 'Olivio' a sort of olive wood /zebrano design and are glass coated, so the whole kitchen will shine.  We'll have a white marble worktop which has a brown/grey vein running through it and I've even managed to get one of those tall pully out larder cupboards.  I've always wanted one of those, and everything else is hidden away, lush x

13° showery in Nadadouro  7° sunny in Portreath

Oh my days.  After the xmas hols we've had no workers at our place.  We started to feel a little despondent and felt like we'd been put 'on hold'.  However Thursday morning was another story.  I was awoken with serious drilling, grinding and demolition sounds happening from the back yard.  I peered out the windows and couldn't see anything happening.  After a couple more hours of the same I couldn't take it any more and had to go on site.  OMG!  there was daylight coming into the basement and 3 massive holes had appeared!  The plan was moving ahead, take a look  x

14° sunny in Nadadouro   6° cloudy in Portreath

New Year's Day was a scorcher in Nadadouro, i think we may have reached 18°.  With the temperatures improving I've decided that more exercise is needed for us Lemms!  God i hate exercise!  So a leisurely stroll along the Lagoa was just up our street, and you know what, it was lovely.  The beach was empty but the prom was packed.

The portuguese take their promenade very seriously.  All the women are in their sunday best which amazingly includes the highest, tartiest boots you could ever imagine.  They don't just stand still being gorgeous in them, no, they actually stroll for miles on the cobbled pavements!  My feet ached just looking at them.  In the UK we would expect the majority of walkers to have dogs, but i can't remember seeing one!  They must have left them tied up at home i suppose.

We enjoyed our first barbecue of the year, another divine cumin lamb [our favourite] and i watched one of my pressies on the box, a fabulous dvd based on the life of Julia Child, 60s american tv chef.  I feel inspired to get in the kitchen and create lovely, yummy things.  Shame i don't have a kitchen yet, but you know we're working on that one!

We have been having the most amazing skies for the last couple of days.  Burning sunsets with lilac clouds, absolutely stunning x

15° in Nadadouro  10° in Portreath

So i managed to wear my flip flops on Christmas Day, but my tootsies were a bit nippy.  But what the hell, another fizzy drink helped me on my way.  We had a lovely time, just the 3 of us.  Dave barbecued some divine cumin lamb and peppered steak, and we ate it!

On 30 December 2010 we finally had our top terrace slab poured.  Oh happy day.  We watched in awe and silence as Sergio and his team used three loads of concrete, which is somewhere in the region of 50 tons!  The next morning - early - we ended up in our pyjamas on the slab in the sun.
[By now i really don't care if the neighbours think we're crazy.  These ladies walk around in polyester pinnys all day, come on!]

This ensured a rather celebratory New Year's Eve.  We were going to party with our friends down the coast in Peniche.  Good intentions however not attainable after the 2nd bottle of fizz by 7pm.  We ended up eating chocolate cake [homemade courtesy of Betty Crocker] and dancing around to the wonderful Toots and the Maytals on Jools Holland's Hootenanny.

HAPPY 2011 MY LOVERS x

12° in Nadadouro  6° in Redruth

thanks for following our blog.  

we are still having an eventful time in portugal but can't wait until the sun starts shining so we can feel the heat again.  the build is still cracking on, and we dream of being in our new home by the middle of next year.  

i spied this little xmas tree in sintra - which was the king's summer palace.  when i took the pic last year i knew i had this years card for you all.  now that's forward thinking!

i hope you all have a wonderful christmas, wherever you are.  may 2011 bring health and happiness  and may we all have peace and good fortune.

i look forward to seeing some of you on our shores next year, you're always welcome - love ya

feliz natal e bom 2011  xxx

16° in Nadadouro  7° in Portreath

Well things are moving on swiftly with our build.  We had our first site meeting with our architect Jose and he reckons the roof / terrace of our new extension will be on by the end of the year!  As you can imagine big smiles in our household.

Today the weather here in Portugal is glorious, although my widget says 16° in the sun it's boiling!  Yay!  The flip flops are back on and it's less than 2 weeks to xmas.  Now i really know why we moved here.  I'm loving it.

Here's some more pics to keep you up to date with our progress.

Our builders work at break neck speed.  Everyday when we go into our garden something else has changed!

So this is when our pad turns into acro city and we have a build like all those ones you see around Europe and wonder how on earth that all works.  Even scarier is that there's not a hard hat to be seen on site!

As you can see this is a rather large footprint being laid down.  Above will all be a fabulous sun terrace, ready to be 'tropicalised' - ok so i've coined a new phrase, but i think it will catch on.  We came here for sunshine, blue skies and lovely plants [not forgetting wine of course].  So the terrace will be full of palms and grasses and lovely hot weather plants.  All with a view to this, life is sweet ...

11° in Nadadouro  0° in Portreath

Last week while i was rushing around the UK our little house got started.  Since then there's been a flurry of  workmen and 'truckage' in our garden.  I'll let the pics tell the tale as i'm too excited to comment x