Quinta das Abelhas

We went to Coja river beach, to use our new handheld GPS to find the geocache.
Coja river beach, next to the camp site, is a beautiful spot, so I took a few photos.

Just a little way along the river you can find quiet shady spots to relax.

After some time figuring out how the GPS works, we found the cache, wrote in the little book in it, and added our packet of bean seeds (ethical geocachers we are!), and then retired to the cafe for a beer and a plate of caracois (snails). I have to find out if we can eat all the snails that eat my seedlings in the spring.

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7 people (an assortment of family, friends and wwoofers) from Termas da Azenha came to lunch yesterday.  We’ve been in contact for some time via email and it was great to finally meet them to share food and ideas.  I hope we’ll have more contact with them in the future and be able to work more closely, especially through www.ecolivingportugal.org

After lunch “Team Azenha” went off to explore the local river (Rio Mondego) and then we all went together to a Donkey Derby organised to raise funds for the Aniplus Rescue Centre.

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We’ve just discovered geocaching, since some guests introduced us to it (inadvertently, by leaving some printouts in the yurt when they left!).  We thought it looked interesting so looked it up on the internet and found the geocaching website and were pleased and excited to discover there are a number of caches in our area, some of them even close enough for us to ride to on horseback! So, we’re going to give it a go …

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I love May. Its rarely too hot, rarely chilly, seedlings are coming up, chickens are laying and sitting, and the odd rain shower saves us the job of watering the garden. And plants are in bloom all over the quinta.

These are beautiful spreading succulents that started as one small cutting a year ago:

These also started as a small cutting, spread like mad down the stone walls:

This was a plant bought at market. I don’t know what it is called, but its pretty and doesnt require much water:

And finally, heres some really stunning poppies that came up within the bed of broad beans:

Everywhere you go in Portugal at this time of year you will see splashes of colour from all the flowers. Not only in peoples’ gardens, but also the fields of wild flowers - corn marigolds, chamomile, lavender etc - its all eye candy and puts a smile on my face!

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Heres a couple of photos that I took early one morning recently, which illustrate that it does indeed get pretty cold here sometimes.

The pipe is an overflow from our tank, fed by a spring that runs through the 
whole year.
Below you can see a beautiful ice garden - the photos dont do it justice. It was truly beautiful,
but i wanted to rush up for my morning coffee and to get out of the cold.
An hour later it was sunny and warm - I was back down to a t’shirt, and the ice sculpture was gone.

Personally, I hate the cold, but I like the fact that we do get proper seasons here in the mountains. Just so long as it continues to be only a few weeks a year of cold and rain, and sunshine the rest of the time!

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