The heat is on

It is getting warmer outside which is really nice, at least like this in the beginning of the summer. Eventually you will probably get tired of it but for now it is wonderful. I have missed sitting outdoors at night. The wind has been so chilly so we have mainly been indoors in the evenings.

My youngest son and his friens are here for a week and they are helping us fixing the chicken coop. We are going to build a nicer one later but this one will do for now. This afternoon we are going to pick up 6 young chickens that are going to move in to the chicken coop tonight.

fixing for the chickens

arrival in Caldas

 It is lovely to have family here because I have really missed them. I hope all of them will visit soon. On Monday they are going to Lisbon for three nights so we have to hurry if they will explore the area. Today we are heading for the beach anyhow.

The new pool is coming along nicely and we think they wil be ready this week with the construcktion work. Then they are coming to put the new overing and all the equipment in. Then it will look better and more apealing then it doea right now.

one day´s work. Not bad.

School is nearly over and after tonight I think we only have one more lesson left. I miss it already and hopefully there will be another course next semester.

Take care
Ase

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cork oaks

There are many cork oaks where we live. I hold a fascination when it comes to ork oaks. I don´t if it is the romantic view I got when watching the cartoon, Ferdinand, on Christmas Eve. Ferdinand was one of the strongest bulls but he didn´t want to participate in the bull fights. The only thing he ever wanted was to sit under his cork tree and smell the flowers. He was a peace lover of a great kind.

Ferdinand under his cork tree

The other romantic aspect is that the cork from the the cork trees has been used for a very long time for wine bottles. And I do like wine :-)

Since coming to Portugal I have learned that you can use cork for many other things as well. Belows  is a bag I got on my birthday last year. They use it a lot here for bags, wallets and many other things since cork is durable.

bag made of cork

I learned that a cork tree can become 150 years old and a good one can give you many harvests. You can start to take cork from the tree is about 20 years old and then you can harvest every 7-10 years.

beatiful cork trees from my morning walk

this one has ben peeled but it is time to do it again

newly harvested ones

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Ase

mysterious animals

I know.
It´s been a while.
I am not even trying to catch up but rather write what´s on my mind right now.
I have now lived in Portugal for seven weeks. Seven different, extemely busy and fun weeks. Some days I have almost lost my mind when nothing works as you are used to and most things are so complicated. For instance it took me 10 visits to PT, the Portuguese Telephone company before my tv, telephone and internet was working.

On my morning walks we come across new things every day. The first days we only noticed the wonderful smell of eucalyptus

The ivy is taking over

 Then we started to notice other things, dogs barking far away,chickens in a yard and lizards running up and down the sides of the road. One day we saw something on the side of the road. It was some kind of animal. First we thought it could be a lizard, but no it moved differently. Could it be a rat or a baby boar?

apples and pears

 We just ouldn´t figure it out. The next time we walked the same way I spotted something white running in to the bushes. A boar or a white rabbit? Then another couple of days passed before I saw the mysterious animal again. Now I saw it for sure. It was a guinea pig, and not just one. We saw one white and another yellowish. But I think there are more. The reproduce themselves quite quickly, right?
The dogs are VERY intersted in them.
How do they survive? Did someone, who just got tired of them, just let them out to fend for themselves? It must be tough for them out in the wild, being the preys of cats and wid dogs.

not ready to eat yet

beautiful walks

I will try to catch them with my camera next time.

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Ase