Sophie and I have just got back from our weekly horse riding lesson at Quinta da Pombal in Beijos (half an hour away from here). It is a ‘proper’ Portuguese stables with stallions and mares and they do Portuguese Dressage there. We have about an hour with a teacher for a very reasonable price and [...]
Posts from ‘April, 2010’
Little Ladies who Lunch
Our weekly gathering of ex-pat Mums and Kids in the village continues and we are growing. Last Friday we met here on the quinta and had lots of fun painting and going on the new Pirate Ship Slide. We have also started to go to Carregal do Sal to a lovely swimming pool on Wednesday [...]
Seedy Sunday
Thanks to everyone (about 60 people!) who came to Seedy Sunday, it was a great day and much fun was had swapping seeds and plants, talking, eating, and making music! Obrigado a todos (cerca de 60 pessoas!) que veio para Domingo Sementeiro, foi um dia de muito divertido – troca de sementes e plantas, falar, [...]
Blue Salad -Borage Flowers
Last night we had borage flowers in our salad which is a first for me. Borage can be used as a fresh vegetable or a dried herb. The flower has a sweet honey-like taste and is one of a few blue-coloured edible things. (Although maybe you shouldn’t eat tons of them as they contain a [...]
Working Hard!
We’ve all been busy the last couple of days bringing up wheelbarrows full of rotted horse muck up to the gardens. And today we’ve been working on the new kitchen garden at the side of Andy and Sophie’s house. The first stage is to clear the land of the rubble the builders left, and move [...]
More on the bees
The second swarm are now settled in the apiary which makes 3 hives there (see photo below) plus Andy’s hive which is near the pond. All the hives so far are standard Portuguese ones, adapted to have open mesh floors which helps control the varroa mite. Matt is also in the middle of making a [...]
Asparagus and poached eggs for breakfast
This morning we had produce from our chickens and vegetable garden for breakfast. …served in various ways. My friend Zoe got me in to this combination but I have never had it so fresh before!
Black Caterpillars with red ‘eyes’
Hi does anyone know what these are? Found them about a week ago and would love to know what they turn in to!
Bee Update
Matt the Bee Keeper has been very excited in recent weeks…the original swarm of a few weeks ago didn’t settle at first, but they kept coming back (depleted in numbers) and eventually have settled in a new hive in the apiary. They have a queen and are laying eggs. Meanwhile we have noticed scout bees [...]
