torsdag 21 januari 2016

Two and a half dog

In June last year we lost our very much beloved dog Herman.
Herman on the beach-Foz do Arelho



We knew it was coming since he was almost 13 and was a quite big dog. But it was hard anyway-so hard. Afterwards we were devestated and took some time off. We didn´t have many bookings for June so when we had the feeling that he wouldn´t make it much longer we didn´t accept any more bookings and closed the place down for a couple of weeks,

Then we only had two dogs. Also very much loved of course but we said that we didn´t want another dog, at least not for a while.

In November I saw a dog that I had seen before. A dog with a broken leg. This dog was so scared and shy and wouldn´t even come close to get some food. It looked miserable and dragged his broken leg behind him in a twisted angle. I went out to try to catch it again. If it wasn´t possible to fix his leg maybe I could go to the vet and put him to sleep and put him out of his misery.

Unfortunately I couldn´t catch hime this time either. But when I tried to call him softly another small dog appeared. He had a friend. A small dog, clearly some podengo mix. This little fellow was super friendly and not afraid at all. I decided to catch this one. Maybe he had a home somewhere and maybe it would be easier to catch the other one too. But he ran away and I was left with the small friendly dog in my arms.

He is hard to catch-full of energy
We took him to the vet who stated that he was around one years old, healthy, had no chip and a wound around his neck. Probably from a chain that had grown into his flesh. I asked if we should try to find his owner but the vet didn´t think so. He said that if you leave a puppy with a chain around its neck and let the chain grow into the puppy the n you don´t deserve the dog. I just love our vet.
Who can chain a puppy?

So friendly

Not still for long


We took him home. The thing was tha he disappeared. Where was he?

To be continued.......

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söndag 17 januari 2016

Isn´t yoga supposed to give you harmony?

I found this wonderful young lady who offered yoga lessons to people living around Caldas da Rainha/Peniche. Excellent and wonderful yoga teacher She wanted to start  a yoga course and wondered if people here were interested to participate. She also was willing to come and give private lessons if needed. I signed up for one lesson since I am very tense and also have got problems sleeping.
Last Sunday she came and she was marvellous. Patient, soft and encouraging. I signed up for another private lesson this morning. It was even beter this time so I will absolutely continue the course which starts next Thursday.

After the yoga I felt great and had alot of positive energy. Since it was very cold outside I decided to bake cakes. There are two reasons why I wanted to bake cakes 1) We will be starting with some activities here on the vineyard next summer. We will offer our guests guided walks and afterwards there will be coffee/tea/homemade lemonade and home baked cake.  So I thoght it would be nice to try different recipes out and see what cakes will work, 2) We have a lot of eggs at the moment.

So I started to bake. I started with an orange flavoured sponge cake. We have a lot of oranges so it was a good idea. This cake came out not really cooked so it turned out a little soggy.
Cake number two was a spiced cake, with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon. This cake I forgot to put the melted butter in before putting it into the oven. (turned out ok anyway)
Cake number three was a sponge you put in a flat tray to bake. I took a too large one so this cake was thin and not very impressive at all. The last cake was a lemon sponge.This cake was flat baked or dead baked as we say in Sweden.
So I succeeded with absolute zero of the cakes.I don´t know what went wrong. i can normally bake a sponge with no problems at all. Today all four became failures.

Isn´t yoga good for you after all?

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fredag 15 januari 2016

Death of a palm tree

You might have read about the little bug that kills palm trees aroung the Mediterrenean. This bug is one of the nastiest little creatures, the red palm weavel. We have five of those palm trees that this little bugger likes, the Canarian date palm. See in front of our farm house how two of them majesticly stand on either side of the entrance in the front picture of this blog.

About a year ago we started to notice dead or dying palm trees in Säo Martinho bay. We also got warnings from people living in the Algarve area. It was time to take action.Us trying to take action about a year ago. We sprayed all our Canarian palm trees and they all seemed fine.

In October, our neighbour Paulo passed, he is working in a garden/landscaping company, and shouted that one of our palm trees is dying. It is almost impossible to get rid of this bug once it has settled. What this little bug does is to use its trunk and dig into the top and goes inside the palm to lay its eggs. The larveas eats the flesh of the palm and it dies. To get rid of it you have to strip the palm fron its leaves, almost like shave on the outside and slice it from the top until you can´t see anymore affected or bugs. It is hard work because you don´t just have to to all this but also burn everything and dig it 2 meters under ground. Have you ever tried to put fire on a palm tree before? It akes forever because of its high water content. The garden companies charges 550 Euros to take down and destroy a palm tree.
so nasty

So we took all the leaves down on our dying palm tree. Kind of shaved it and also sliced it. This is the only way you can save it. Afterwards you have to spray it and also inject some stuff into it as well. To finish it off we put ahes on the top so it wouldn´t bleed so much. 
Then we just had to wait to see if it had survived. A month later we could see new leaves growing out. So it survived after all.

Then the next blow struck. During the renovation of our bathroom we found that the roots of this very palm tree have gone in to our house so we have to take the palm down anyway. Oh how it sucks.
A bit religious feeling

It is more job than you can imagine

Here you can see where the monsters have been eating

This is what our magnificent palm looked like after

One more is trying to get in

The leaves are coming back

Red palm weevil






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onsdag 13 januari 2016

Getting there-little by little.

2016
In a distance I see the tractor. It is one of those tractors that the Portuguese farmers use around here, the Portuguese farmers that grow fruit that is. Around here it is mainly apples and pears. There is another kind of tractor around these areas, a much slimmer variety which is used between the rows of grapes.

The tractor is getting closer. It is hard to see it now because of the sun in my face and in my eyes. I am walking my dogs on this gravel road along the Rio Tornada, Tornada river, which isn´t a river but more of a stream, at least here.

Around me there are fields with apples and pears and some super food as they call it in Sweden, the ever present Portuguese kale. The thing is the Portuguese don´t even know it is fashionable to eat it. A trendy thing people pay a lot for in Sweden or USA or England. Here they don´t care. They eat it because they like it, it´s cheap and they can grow it year round.
Not trendy


The sound of the tractor is getting stronger and it is almost impossible to hear all the birds. The flowers are visible still. Poppy and a pretty little yellow type of clover which are growing in abundance.Soon enough they will be smothered in all fumes and smoke from diesel from that tractor.

yellow clover

View from a farm.
Now the tractor is clear to see and it isn´t new or clean. There is a little man driving it. Now when he is getting closer I recognise him. He has some fields near us and he has always looked very grumpy. Every time we have passed I have always tried to smile my widest grin and shouted Bom Dia! He has never once looked at me nor said anything.

This time I can see that he had spotted me, this strange foreign lady, clearly crazy. Why would a sane woman walk big dogs in the middle of the day and not growing...kale for instance if she wasn´t complete nuts?

I smile my biggest smile and shout Bom Dia, again. He slows the tractor down, lifts his cap, and well doesn´t exactly smile but...

Then as he passes I can clearly hear a vague Bom dia!

It only took almost two years.

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