Wonderful Veg

After our disastrous blight on our tomatoes, which spread we think to our aubergines, it has finally sorted itself out and we are now harvesting all our goodies. For a first - it's taken four years - we now have about 200 kiwis off four vines and they taste beautiful. We offered some butternut squashes to our neighbours who were amazed - they had never seen them before and certainly never tried them. They being typical Portuguese farmers will grow everything from seed, and were horrified to discover there were no seeds in our squashes. When we remonstrated with them and told them there were definitely seeds, because that is what we had grown ours from, Isabela got a knife out and cut across, proving there were no seeds. Ah, we said, but cut lengthways into the bulbous end and you will find seeds. At the moment they are sitting in a saucer in her kitchen drying off for planting next year. We feel the whole of our village will be swamped with butternut squashes next year, but - and this is a first also - we were complimented on how good they were in soups and as a side vegetable.

Our swimming pool is now due for its annual update and with this in mind we have approached the swimming pool people to re-assemble all the runners for the cover so that the sections will run easier. Also, we are getting to that time of year for general maintenance and have a list of about 20 items which need fixing with our electrician.

The vines which we planted last year have not done very well but we expect better things of them next year. Our Americano grapes are full, juicy and nearly ready for us to harvest them and to that end we have been getting our adega ready, emptying aged Jeropiga out of the chestnut barrels and putting them into 5 litre garafoes, cleaning the footpress and greasing the wine press. We should be able to produce enough grapes this year for around 120 litres of Jeropiga. Watch this space. At the moment it is very windy and threatening rain at the end of the week which will be our first rain for over six weeks.

Full Swing

Since 8th August we have been fantastically busy - fantastic because both chalet apartments at Casa Sulo are full and will continue so into September. At the moment we have just said goodbye to four French people who took over one apartment from six French visitors and in the other apartment we still have five Parisiens plus a baby for a further week. They are all getting on incredibly well and the swimming pool is in constant use from 8 in the morning until 11 at night. We sometimes wonder how many people are staying in each of the apartments because the odd head count reveals 14 or 16 in and around the pool, but we know that they are here specifically for a wedding in Aveiro which they will be attending tomorrow.

We bought some Red Top fly traps from http://www.greeneyedfrog.co.uk/ because we had been having some problems with the little devils last year. Apparently they trap the female flies and stop the cycle of reproduction. Anyway, this year we re-introduced another three and, although the traps themselves are pretty full, the reduction in flies this year on our veranda and around the apartments is quite noticeable. Thank you Paul and Rachel.

Does anybody out there know anything about the wasp deterrent which imitates a wasp's next?

Our fig tree is just coming into fruit and within a couple of weeks we will be picking 3-4KG a day, which we will eat most of, turn some into fig and ginger jam, and dry some for the winter with our Stockli dehydrator which we use to preserve a lot of our excess fruit, herbs and vegetables although potatoes are really not worth it.

They've Arrived

Thankfully our latest visitors finally sorted out their new flights but they had to fly to Faro which is about a five hour drive from Casa Sulo. Sadly though one half of the party was unable to make the journey - they decided, because one girl was pregnant, that it was too much stress to rebook flights, car hire, etc. and then take a five hour drive. But with true English grit the group who arrived were determined that the previous problems at Stansted airport did not spoil their holiday and although they still have to get back to work on Monday they arrived in holiday mood ready for the three children to jump straight into the pool - where they've been ever since.



We do have a complete disaster on the vegetable patch and all our tomatoes are going black and slimy before they ripen. So we have been forced to dig them all up and destroy them, but here in our area of Portugal no outdoor fires are allowed between May and October because of the real fear of forest fires. The butternut squashes though are like trifids making a bid for freedom and taking over the veg patch.

Stansted - Porto

Well yesterday we said a fond goodbye to two fantastic holiday families. One Portuguese the other English the weather had been in the low 30's all week with "wall to wall" blue skies and sun.

We then spent the next few hours de-frosting and cleaning fridges, kitchens, bedrooms and of couse the usual 12 washing loads of bedding.

Finally we sat down early evening to have our meal with our daughter Lucy, who was on her last night's holiday with us, whilst awaiting our next visitors who were due in on the evening flight from Stansted to Porto, when our phone rang.

"It's us, we're still here at Stansted airport. The airline has really messed us and about half the rest of the flight passengers. They can't get us out untill Monday but with nine of us they don't know if that will be ok either". Said our next visitor.

They rang back later to say they had finally driven home and were going to try and sort something out on Sunday although though by anybody other than the original airline!

Ken and I are now awaiting a call to give us some good news ie: We're booked on the ??? flight and will be with you soon.

A First

We are Sue and Ken. We live in central Portugal in a delightful mountain village in our own home, Casa Sulo, with two holiday chalet apartments, surrounded by beautiful mountains and the fragrant smell of the eucalyptus trees.