Leaving Jersey, but not if the volcano has anything to do with it

The weekend was a little fraught to say the least. Not everything fitted in the van, so Peter played 3D Tetrus for two days trying to make everything squeeze in. Well the boy did it, apart from a couple of bits. I spent the weekend cleaning and getting stressed, although a drink at the Splash on Sunday afternoon revived the soul a little.

Peter went off on the ferry this morning, with Jono, and was so excited. I might have more of a problem though! I'm supposed to be leaving in 10 days time, but this damn volcano is causing me concern. Flights still grounded, and I cannot get through to anyone at eurorail in the UK (they couldn't post me the tickets anyway)! So, lets hope this cloud goes well away and we can start moving around Europe again.

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Building our Barrel Vault Wood Fired Oven

This is a short description of my barrel vault build that I have done here in Central Portugal. The final internal size is a 1m squared floor with a arch height of 50cm. I hope you enjoy and get some ideas from it. I wish to thank ukwoodfiredovenforum for their advice and support. • 1: First I dug out a hole in the flower bed, on top of the stone wall, where the oven was to be built • 2: Set up a form to pour in the concrete base • 3: Pour the concrete base, which was about 5-6 inches deep • 4: On top of the base I cast 4-5 inches of LECA (light weight expanded clay balls) mixed with cement to hold it's form • 5: Then I cast a 2-3 inch heat retaining base, to add to the thermal mass, using calcium aluminate cement with large grain sand, as a flat base for the hearth bricks to sit on • 6-8: I then dry laid the hearth bricks on a dry bed of fine sand and clay mixture, with th...

oh what a lovely bougainvillea

It was something I wanted to grow, a plant which would cover the wall, give shade, give colour and really stamp the fact we lived abroad. Bougainvillea. We have the other Mediterranean type of plants growing; we have olives in abundance, we have the grapes thriving, we have the figs establishing, but alas no bougainvillea. I looked up how to grow it and it says: Bougainvillea thrives in full sun. “At least 5 hours a day of direct sunlight is the minimal light required for good bloom. More hours of direct sun are better. Less than 5 hours and the plant may not bloom very well.” 5 hours of sun ‘check’, good light ‘check’, south facing ‘check’….but alas the Med we are not! This little peak of Central Portugal has cold air in winter (snow even), a vigorous breeze at dusk and is prone to a late frost. Our courtyard is just too exposed to the elements, there is no little ‘nook’ for a bougainvillea, there is no wall for it to climb...

Chestnuts and Saints

St. Martinho or St. Martin of Tours, became the first non- martyr saint to receive official church worship and became one of the most popular saints in medieval Europe. (Source wikipedia). His feast day is 11 November, deep into autumn and the chestnut season. In Portugal, as it's chestnut season 'Magustos'are celebrated in St. Martinho's name. A magusto is a group of friends and/or family who get together and bake and eat chestnuts. We have our village magusto at the weekend. Meanwhile at home I've been celebrating the chestnut instead of the saint. This 'celebration' involves collecting the chestnut harvest, splitting, cooking and shelling hundreds of these shiny brown chestnuts. Well, there's not much else to do on a wet Monday in these hills. Now I've got a bowl full of chestnuts I'm looking for recipes. Here's what I've tried so far: Chestnut cake. Made by using blitzed chestnuts instead of regular flo...

Helen and Peter in Portugal

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