OUR LATEST ACQUISITION!!!!!..

Hi all we found this little cutie on the way down to our allotment,it works better than the wheelbarrow and we don't need to make as many trips now! We also seem to have adopted a lost racing pigeon, it has been in our garden now for three days and doesn't seem to want to leave .

Hope we don't make you all jealous with this but we are now into our third week in a row with endless sunshine and clear blue skies and temperatures averaging around 80degrees, Wonderful. Alas, though we are only really enjoying it of an evening as work is priority at the moment and we have our hands full painting and stone cladding the exterior of the house, it does look awesomely different now though and we are over the moon with how it's turning out. Hopefully it should be fully completed in about another four weeks time. . It's a funny old world ain't it sometimes, glorious sunshine and new sunloungers but sadly no time to try em out!!!!!!!. As it is cherry season, not only have I been busy eating them by the handfuls, I have, for the first time ever, made some cherry jam and a cherry crumble is to be made tomorrow to be tried and tested by our neighbours who we have invited to our BBQ tomorrow night . Cant wait to try the jam it looks so delicious! Anyway that is all for today hope you like the pics and we will update again shortly.

Our little cutie .....

Sorry no blogs, we have been away .......

Hi folks, We are now back at home and ready to resume where we left off!!! We have been back to the U.K. to pick up a V.I.P (my mother) to be our first guest in our new home. After a well deserved little holiday and the pleasure of showing mum around and looking after her (unfortunately we picked up a chest infections but now on the mend) we have decided to spend the summer months outside where we can concentrate on painting the exterior of the house and getting the garden into some kind of order!!! The guest bedroom was completed on time, and is just lacking a few soft furnishings and pictures, etc., to finish it off. On our way back from Faro we stopped off at a huge store to pick up some items as locally we don't have as much choice, so took advantage of being in that area and will be putting the drill to some use now to display the new fittings. Here is a photo of the guest room and hopefully will soon be posting pictures on the progress of our exterior restoration. The weather is excellent, full sun and hot so we will be able to crack on with our work.

Whilst back in the U.K. we sadly missed our village's annual Cherry Festival (our village is famous for its cherry trees) but we are enjoying eating the cherries being given to us by our friends. On our first evening back we strolled down to our village cafe bar and was invited back to a friend's wine cellar where we enjoyed eating bread and cheese and drinking some lovely home-made red wine, had a jolly sing-song with a couple of friends playing an accorddian and mouthorgan (they do a version of rapping between each other! which is always a laugh) and that was before we had dinner at home!!!!

Bits and Bobs, odds and sods ............

Bit of an odd week, doing little jobs which have been put to one side until now, have been working in garden, strimming, pruning our very large orange and lemon tree which is quite close to the house and although it still bears a lot of fruit the new blossom is flowering and the bees are well humming, planting flowers and carrying on building "Rob's great wall of Portugal". Our first guest bedroom is now finished, apart from a few soft furnishings and wall decorations, etc., photos will be posted soon. We have laminated the floor in a rustic colour and have chosen a warm pink and cherry theme colour for decor (which is in-keeping with the local traditional style in this area) but have put our own stamp of modernism at the same time (sadly Ikea). Rob broke off walling to watch what appeared to be 2 queen bees having a right set to over territorial rights, they were having a mega go at each other!!! (I think what he meant was he was having a "fag break"!!!!!). Due to the unseasonal weather we are having at the moment, i.e. cloudy, a few sunny spells and rain showers, sometimes heavy (similar to the U.K.) it is colder and we are needing to light the log fire to keep warm in an evening which means we will soon be having to replenish our log supply!!!!! A couple of photos of a local river beach we took on the way to Castelo Branco (our nearest big town) and a more

recent picture of Rob's wall.

We have been busy ...................!!!!!!

Hi folks, sorry we haven't updated blog recently but we have had a busy time schedule. We had a delivery date for the sofa and chest freezer for the 12th April but the week before the store rang to say they could deliver that day. Hey ho, no chance! we hadn't even laid the floor tiles, in fact we hadn't got any even though they had been on order for 3 weeks, they still hadn't arrived. So off we went to find a tile warehouse in Castelo Branco so we could choose some and bring them back with us. We did get lucky and bought the tiles which meant we could start laying them 4 days before delivery date. We chose a terracotta tile for a border and a plain cream for the inset. As delivery day approached we were still grouting the last half of the room, but time waits for no man so we had to grin and bear while the delivery men put together the sofa (walking on my wet grouted tiles which hadn't even been wiped clean). At the end of the day it was all worth it because after four weeks of sitting on a naff old sofa when the old bones are creaking it was bliss to be able to put the old pins up and relax in comfort!

Our next mission was to go and buy the TV. Very easy, went into store and walked out with new T.V. Lovely, lovely, can now lozz on our new sofa and watch the T.V. Now, bored with the five portuguese channels we arranged for the satellite man to come so we could have english t.v. channels through freeview. Unfortunately, (for us) Portugal changed over from analogue to digital on the 26 April and we have to wait now till first week of May to have satellite installed. So, nice new sofa and t.v. but from yesterday, no signal means no telly!!!!! We are now addicted to watching the logs burn on the fire for entertainment!!!

__ Rob got lucky 2 nights ago (Portuguese Bank Holiday) and was at 8.30 pm invited to a party (men only). Off he trotted with my new umbrella (it was pouring with rain) and came back looking very happy. The party was in a local man's wine cellar where wine was flowing freely and the food prepared by his wife was home roasted barbecued pork, home-made bread and home-produced goat's cheese. The entertainment was the guests singing and playing accordians and various percussion instruments. He came home a happy chappy and had made lots of new friends.

"Nipped down to Ikea for some bits and bobs"!!!

A trip to Ikea has been on the cards since arriving here but with being so busy we have kept putting it off plus Rob was secretly dreading it as it wasn't a favourite pastime of his when we had one on the doorstep!

Off we set last Friday morning with me at the wheel (in the van, not my pedal pusher!!!) I haven't done much driving here as I'm not used to driving on "the wrong side of the road", but as we are in our english van somehow it seems easier with the steering wheel being on the usual side. A lot of the motorways in Portugal are on tolls, and the major motorway down to Lisbon (the A23) is an unmanned toll which means as you pass through the tolls your number-plate is filmed on camera and you pay the tolls locally. On a manned motorway you can pay the toll direct on the motorway but as we have a british number-plate we are unable to go on the A23 without shelling out 60 euro to have a costa verde box fitted on the dashboard. So off we proceeded on the "B" roads with our (not always to be trusted Sat Nav, especially in Portugal)guiding us. Well, I will cut the story short there and just say that it took us 4 and a half hours to get there. After a 3 hour mad shop we filled the van and set off back home. We took a different route this time using a motorway which we could pay on and got back home 3 hours later!! At least the ordeal ended with us being happy chappies with our goodies. Apparently when we can use the A23 the trip would take us 2 hours!!!. Can't believe we had to endure that ordeal when we used to live 2 mins from Ikea at home!!! How ironic!!!!

That evening the winds got very strong and during the night the much awaited rain came lashing down (sounded worse than what it was) and the rest of the weekend the weather was very windy. The sun came back on Tuesday so we treated ourselves to a 2 hour break and sat in the garden relaxing. With bright red faces we decided we had better head back indoors to get back to some hard graft (decorating the front bedroom). We still had the need though to light the log fire in the evening.

The next morning's work schedule was another day on the "electrics" the kind of day which Rob wishes he could hide under a rock as he dreads the horrors of the portuguese wiring techniques. After several hours of pulling out his own hair (and there isn't much of that) he has now discovered that a portuguese electrician will often use any spare wire lying on the floor as a "make-do" so sometimes what you perceive to be an "earth" could be a "live" and a "neutral" could be a "live", but after plenty of fun and games (translated means cursing and swearing and the occasional kick) the job was a "good one".

Pulling Power!!!!!!

Instead of buying me an egg for Easter, Rob spotted this "must have" jalopy and thought I would be so happy to be its new owner!! (Forget a Prada handbag, he thinks this is more me!!!) At least I don't have to insure, tax or M.O.T as it is exempt because it runs on battery power!!!!! and if it runs out of juice I can always pedal it home!

One of it's great advantages is that I can park it on a sixpence, it also has great all-round visibility and I am sure Jeremy Clarkson will be well jel!!

I know it is not quite (max power) but I am sure I can pull one of the old chaps or the odd stray dog or goat!!

Honk if you see me, ha ha!!!!!

Domingo day (Sunday)

Hi all at last a long awaited day off on sunday, our first one since arriving three weeks ago,and well earned we think.We spent a lovely morning chilling out at some friends house,and then they came back with us for a quick view of our new home,then out for drinks at our local bar, and afterwards had dinner out,grilled marinated chicken with all the trimmings,followed by pudding, a litre of wine and beers for two all for 15 euro, amazing and, scrummy delicious food,there will be more sundays off were sure!!!!.
Whilst eating we met up with some very nice dutch people who had been driving for two days solid, and were on their way to open up their campsite for the new summer season,it was lovely to meet you and we hope you are reading.
We are currently in the midst of re-tiling our lounge, and ordered the three types of tiles we are using two weeks ago, but so far only the terracotta tiles have turned up, but it doesn't really matter that much as we still have plenty to keep us occupied for the next couple of years!!!.
Our delivery of the pedra (stone) for the patio terrace did arrive though the same day we ordered it (see attached pictures) and we are sure it will look fantastic when we get around to laying it.
By the way if you single click all the attached photos they will expand to full page size.
On tuesday rob's new besty, called Joakim (batatas man)brought us yet another 5 litres of vino ,thats 10 litres in total now!!. He,s a lovely chap in his 70,s and our nextdoor neighbour, his hospitality is amazing love him to bits.
That's all for now, keep viewing to see how we are getting on!