The fishery

Hi everyone well at last I can now report that the fishery has finally been dug out with the JCB and the help of some of my nearest and dearest neighbours.
It has been a lifetime ambition of mine to own and run my very own fishery, and only by coming to live in Portugal have I been able to achieve this.
It has taken a full week for the digger to complete the task and now we have to await the winter rainy season(hopefully, I may hasten to add,)to see if the fishery will fill up with water naturally, or whether we will need to line or concrete the ground.
It is a bit of an unknown quantity as some locals have said yes no problem it will retain water whilst others have said not,so fingers crossed I won't have to dig into the piggy bank, or worst case scenario - it may cost another couple of thousand to shutter and concrete only time will tell.
Either way and, ever the optimist, I know in my heart it will become a success as having done more research and networking, there are people lining up waiting to fish.
Obviously it will take time for the fishery to settle down and mature,but I am very happy with the layout of deeper contours combined with shallower parts, and two raised islands with trees and one that will become a submerged island for the fish to bask in and of course breed.
Just a few pics for now with progress reports and more pics in the future .....

Motor cyles, motor bikes, vintage motor bikes and quad bikes ...........

We have noticed that there seems to be a passion here for vintage motor-cycles. Rob was invited to go and watch the start of a Motor Bike Rally which was taking place at a nearby village "Atalaias" on the last day of their Festa. However when he got there (on his quad-bike) he was invited to take part in the rally so he decided to tag on and "ride it out", not having a clue what was to happen. For the pleasure of joining you pay 15 euros which enables you to consume copious amounts of refreshments ranging from water, soft drinks to vino and beer, (very thirsty work is riding for fun in the midday heat on a hot summer's day!!!!!) sandwiches and savouries during the journey, a T-Shirt with the name of the event written on it and then lunch which is usually chicken, chips, rice and salad. The Rally takes a route through many towns and villages where the riders stop, pap their hooters for people to admire their bikes!!!!!! He came back 4 hours later (was supposed to be a half-hour run out on the quad-bike) with a huge grin on his face after a fun morning.




Unfortunately Rob forgot to take the camera with him (usually my job) so we are not able to post any pictures from the event !!!!!!!!!!!
FREESTYLE MOTO RALLY - VALE D' URSO


We also went to a Moto Freestyle Rally, again not knowing what to expect but was told we would enjoy it, and we did! There were two professional bike riders performing tricks on motor-cycles and quad-bikes an it was very entertaining, a tad on the dangerous side if you ask me (but I am a girl!!) Rob didn't think so but then he did go on to say he wouldn't like to try any of it!!!!

Too busy to blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly we feel we need apologise for the lack of blogs this last couple of months (getting complaints now we are not keeping you up-to-date with our blogs!!!!!) Well, we don't really know where to start this blog as over the summer months so much has happened, its difficult to decide where to start so will just say a bit about what we have been up to.

We have taken time out this summer with a visit back to the U.K. for lots of reasons. We have had two lovely celebrations in the family, one being the birth of my great nephew Max, so adorable and cute I just want to cuddle him all day, and the other the marriage of my lovely neice to her fiance which was a wonderful occasion and so enjoyable to be with all the family and have a great day catching up, eating and drinking plenty and having fun!! What a fabulous day we all had!!!!!!!!

Being in the U.K. also gave us a chance to do some shopping, for lots of lovely, lovely goodies which we cannot attain in Portugal easily (only at an extremely high premium price!!!!!), which is mainly sauces, certain foods, t-bags and cooking ingredients, which although we can adapt to living without, after a lifetime of using these products one tends to crave these things and this was a perfect opportunity to stock up on them!!!!!

Back here in Portugal we are seeing the onset of Autumn. We had our first taste of wet weather after months of glorious back to back sunshine and boy did it rain!!! Almost a full week of incessant rain which has totally transformed the look of our surroundings. In just over a week the terrain has changed from dry, burnt out grasses, to a beautiful carpet of lush green grass with the vines and tree leaves turning beautifully from green to a variety of autumn colours. I am pleased to say now though that the sunshine is back and we are basking in temps of 25/26 degrees and we are loving it. Sadly though the nights are drawing in quickly and it starts to make you thing of the winter months ahead. We should really be making the most of this sunshine instead of grabbing an odd hour pinched whenever possible as no doubt the heat in the sun will soon be fading away. The locals have been busy reaping their harvest of grapes, brewing up gallons and gallons of the red wine and Jeropiga, which is a desert (sweet) liquor made with Aguadente (a national drink - otherwise known as Portuguese fire-water!) and partially fermented red wine and is very nice in small doses (for me anyway!).