Helen and Peter in Portugal

I’ve been debating whether to write this blog entry as death is one of those strange topics.   But the custom of notifying local people that someone has died by stapling notices up around town has had me hooked since we first got here. We all know we live in an aging population, well triple that for Pera!    Seriously when our neighbours moved here with their two young girls I think it was the first young children in Pera for years.   Simply by attending events, even I, manage to make the average age a little lower!   So, as in all areas the only people having a boom in this recession is the undertaker!    A death is announced (not by a notice in the paper as Agatha Christie announced) by posters going up around town, with the details, date of the funeral and often a photo of that person looking so young and healthy that I don’t recognise them!   Funerals happen pretty quickly round here.   Within a couple of days you are sleeping i...

It's about this time of year when Peter gets all excited and actually wants to go out for a walk in the woods. The rain has come, the leaf mould is all over the ground and the mushrooms have appeared once again. Parasol Mushroom This year, it's a bumper crop. From Fairy Rings in the garden lawn to Parasol mushrooms in the market. Next month Peter will be going on the mushroom identifiers walk once again and this book will be complete with notes on where to find the edible ones. Fairyring Mushrooms We had a bit of luck recently on our way up to the Coentral Chestnut Festival - we came across a large Cauliflower mushroom nestling in the woods. A gourmet delicacy we are told! This along with Parasol mushroom from the neighbour’s garden and some Milky caps from the roadside were cooked up for brunch with friends the other day.  Cauliflower Mushroom Beefsteak Mushroom Despite having a super book on how to identify the right mushrooms for ea...

Aldeia da Mata Pequena is a small rural village on the extreme outskirts of Lisbon. The village is one of only a handful of Portuguese villages that have been bought in total and restored as holiday destinations. This whole village (although only 7 or 8 houses) has been taken from the jaws of decay and restored to create a 'traditional' Portuguese village. Complete with little old lady, dressed in black from head to toe. We stayed there recently on a trip to the area for a wedding. The self-catering houses are basic but beautiful, resulting in some creature comforts (fridge, tv) but traditional features (two ring cooker, no fire place but a wood oven) creating what their website calls a 'balanced restoration'. http://www.aldeiadamatapequena.com/langEN/01aldeia/index.php The village has won awards for this balanced restoration, using traditional materials such as, lime mortar, poplar, cedar and pine timber work, barrel roof tiles, stone flooring, wood-fired fl...

The majority of village Festas (local festivals) focus around a lot of very poor music, from local accordion players thrashing out the classics, to middle aged men singing ‘party hits’ with scantily clad girl backing singers doing a few basic Wigfield Saturday Night moves. The normal Festa entertainment on offer The Candal Festa of Music was billed as something quite different, with   real music from Fado to a Portuguese Irish band (!).   Set in the mountain-top xisto   (pronounced shhisto) village of Candal   - now home to just a few full time residents, but home to some of the best holiday homes you’ve ever seen, the setting could not have been more beautiful.   Set into the hillside = lots of steps   In true Portuguese style we missed the first act but climbed up the village (set into the hillside would be a better description) to watch a Coimbra guitarist playing some melancholy Fado music while we perched on the steps in the aftern...

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...

We don't have much luck with our fruit harvest. Our trees have leaf curl are strawberries are eaten by the blackbirds, we've had one raspberry from the bush Lord has knocked down 100 times and the blackcurrants have given us just a handful of berries. So, with a poor crop of any single fruit and a bowl full of plums which only seem to get harder not riper, I decided to cut our losses and harvest the fruit to make squash. Simple recipe: I used plums, white currents, black currents and strawberries but any soft fruits would do. Wash your fruit, don't peel it, don't de stalk it, do deseed/stone it Dump all the fruit (between 1lbs and 1.5lbs) into a saucepan Put a few springs of lemon verbena or mint Cover with water (about 5 pints) Boil until the fruit is mushy (it smells fantastic) Mush fruit a bit more with the back of a spoon Pass fruit through a colander into another saucepan Pass fruit back through a fine sieve into the first sau...

The first Pera International Day was held on 16 June this year, it started out as a birthday party and book swap and ended up a day of friendship – local people and ex-pats from the surrounding area.    We’re quite an impressive bunch when we get together, from the English to the Americans, Welsh to the Australians and Dutch, there are plenty of us to go around…with a Brazilian thrown in for good measure! The event, organised by Peter WD, was an excuse to get people together, it came with the added benefits of supporting our local social club and encouraging everyone to speak some Portuguese. Our social club put on one of its traditional BBQ’s complete with Caldo Verde soup (cabbage with a spot of Chorizo thrown in) followed by pork, pork and more pork.   The ‘cheese eaters’ (how the locals refer to the vegetarians) had Peter made veggie lasagne and the quick removal of any chorizo slices from their soup bowls. I wondered how much we’d all conform to the ster...

Before you read this I feel the need to tell you -   it is only my opinion so don’t be offended.   I realise that there are many schools of thought out there and my research has come from various online sources.   Portugal sees many modern day pilgrims making their holy way to Fatima and in May the number of pilgrims making this trip swells to thousands.   The history of why people bother to walk miles to Fatima is intriguing: Back in 1917 three children (Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta) saw a series of ‘apparitions’ in Fatima, delivered by the angel of peace, you can read about these here .   I won’t comment, I don’t want to offend! Like any good story, the story told by the angel to the children was told in a number of instalments (kind of like Lord of the Rings I guess).   These stories were revealed to the world over a series of stories written by the then Sister Lucy (one of the children).   The vision confided three ‘secrets’ to the ...

After an absence of 3 months the rain returned last weekend.  Most of the country is in drought and a significant percentage in ‘severe drought’ despite the brief rainfall at the weekend it looks like we’ll be having a summer with water shortages and high fire risk.   Today we’ve returned to cerulean blue sky, really I should not complain too hard!   What is it about the weather, we all end up like Goldilocks, it’s always ‘too hot, too cold’ and never ‘just right’. But, Spring has certainly sprung.  From the mimosa in full bloom in the woods, causing people with allergies to cough and splutter to the killer caterpillars..(processional pine caterpillars) and the butterflies dancing around the garden.   Lord has already cut his face searching for lizards in the bushes, a sure sign that things are waking up in the garden!    Spring means we wake up the garden, the plants are starting to grow again and Peter’s been digging in...

When you live somewhere you never seem to make the most of the benefits of being there.   In London I never really went to the museums or galleries, they were always there so always something to do another day.    Now we live in the mountains, with time on our hands we don’t seem to make the most of the opportunities for making the best of the benefits the area has to offer.   Almost two years ago when we arrived we were out and about every day, exploring, walking and swimming in the local praia fluvial’s every day.    Peter promised himself that every morning he would walk to the top of the hill our garden backs onto and run down to the stream and take a swim.    It has never happened.     We promised that every Sunday we’d walk up to Coentral, about a 2 hour round trip uphill, stop for a coffee at the cafe at the top then walk back for a lovely hearty lunch.   It happened once!   I said I’d sit outside, learn my Por...