Not enough hours in the day !!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can't believe we are almost at the end of August and are sat here wondering why we haven't had the time to get out much and see and enjoy what this country has to offer us. I can't believe we have a beautiful river beach 5 minutes away and several more locally and we just don't have enough spare time to get out and enjoy them !!!

Longing now for the days when most of the renovation jobs are complete so we can take time out to do other stuff. Whilst its immensely satisfying and lovely when another room is "finished" I can't help but feel a bit niggled because there isn't enough time for pleasure. I can think of a at least a dozen places or things we were hoping to do this summer and haven't got round to doing them but, hey ho we will get there at some point in the future! Having just said that, we have spent the last two weeks partying at the festas in our local villages and having a blast, so I'm thinking now a holiday to recoup from that would be a jolly good idea!

The garden has been quite easy to keep on top of, and we have had good results and disappointments! The good results have been the peppers, leeks, onions and tomatoes - ooooooooooh so pleased, plentiful and delicious. I have peeled and chopped lots of tomatoes and frozen them ready for the winter months. Peas, courgettes and beetroot have done well, parsnips now (I think) are ready to be pulled.
My biggest failure has been the runner beans. They were growing at an amazing speed, well leafy and lots of flowers but no beans!!!!!!I am a novice at growing runner beans (I can remember my Dad having lots of success) but here in Portugal I now realise that beans and peas, although they like the sun, they have difficulty tolerating the immense heat and need gallons of water to keep them going. I would appreciate any advice on growing this veg if anyone has any! We need to read up on the planting times in Portugal as they differ from the UK to tolerate the weather. I have noticed in other gardens too that the sun has burnt the runner bean plants but have also spotted a lovely row with lots of beans but this plant has white flowers so maybe its the variety of bean I need to be looking at. I have now planted butternut squash, cauliflowers and cabbage for the winter and they are doing well so far.

The fruit trees have been pathetic this year owing to the amount of rain we had but the one that has come out tops (in our garden) are the pear trees. Although we only have two small ones they have been loaded down with fruit.

I took a trip back to the UK in July and whilst away Rob (never one to sit idle!!!) got stuck into "ripping out the bathroom suite". How nice was it for me to miss out on that fun!!!! Thankfully the loo is in an adjacent room and the shower is usable until we reach the point of refitting a new one, so being without a bath, bidet and sink basin is do-able whilst the work is in progress. We are tiling the whole of the room and have built a wall to turn the shower area into a double shower space. We decided to go with a double shower and do away with the bath and the bidet. A new toilet is to be fitted inside the bathroom and a vanity unit with basin is to be fitted.

We have completed the wall and floor tiling of half the bathroom and (all being well) will see the toilet fitted by the local plumber and the vanity unit and sink purchased this week and, dare I say, "fitted" but we shall have to see how well we achieve buying the vanity unit etc we want. A trip into Lisbon we think will sort that one out.
A couple of pics of the original bathroom:-

Thw picture below shows where the vanity unit and basin will sit, on the right-hand side of it is the next area to be tiled, and will become the shower area. The existing shower area is inset and now the separating wall is built it will give us double shower space. Opposite the vanity unit will sit the toilet.