Helen and Peter in Portugal

Every year our village holds its 'Harvest Festival' a procession through the streets with the villages, the local priest and the icons.   Serenaded by a local band who play those religious classics such as 'Yellow Submarine' and the song I know as 'Hitler only has one ball/ Dad's Army theme tune'. It's a time when the village fills with people once again, as the Lisbon dwellers come back to take part in this traditional annual festival.   You can spot the Lisbon dwellers by their shoes....honestly, you can. After the procession, band performance and general standing around waiting for something to happen comes the annual harvest auction.  Money raising for the church and to pay the band fee! Local people donate their home grown produce, usually string upon string of onions, and the biggest squash you can imagine.  These items are then auctioned to the highest bidder as our local shepherd and honey maker tries his hardest to get money ou...

It's been hot, too hot for too long - 35 to 37 degrees most days, making it impossible to do much at all.  It's strange that you end up wishing for a cloud or two.   Massive thunderstorms brought some much needed rain the other night, but by morning the ground was bone dry once again. Needless to say there has been no gardening done since June when this hot weather came to stay. Except emergency watering, which is done every two days.   Not that it seems to have had much impact.  The grass (well the weeds in the grass) have turned brown and dust is forming where grass used to be.  The upside - no need to mow! The African daisies which usually look wonderful have turned a brown colour and need a massive chopping back once the gardening weather improves and the oregano which grows like a weed has given up and is starting to turn a brown/grey colour. The birds stay in their hiding places during the day, but I keep the food and water topped up...

In a world before fridge/freezers how did you store your food?   Peasants used salt and created 365 recipes for salted cod fish, but royalty used ice.   Ice houses were built in locations around Portugal and snow compacted within them to form large blocks of ice.   This ice was then transported by donkey or cows to the river, then onwards to the royal family.   Santo António da Neve in the hills above us was one of the places famous for ice, ‘ Neveiros’ the snow farmers (so to speak) worked all year to cool the food of the high born.   The ice blocks made a slow journey from the top of the mountain down the donkey tracks to the river.   How the ice didn’t melt in the heat of the day is beyond me.    There are still hundreds of ancient tracks in the mountains here and I recently walked one to take a donkey to his new home.   Friends of ours rescued an old female donkey last year and have been searching for a ...

‘Entrudo’ is a traditional shrovetide celebration in Central Portugal.  Up in the mountains of Central Portugal they are trying to keep this typical village tradition alive by keeping up the annual Entrudo and encouraging new people to join in.     Celebrating Entrudo means cross dressing and making your own cork mask (a local resource in the hills of Portugal).   Once suitably disguised you go and make some innocent mischief in the neighbouring villages.       It’s harmless enough; moving flower pots, creating barriers in the quiet village roads, throwing cob nuts at people and generally making a noise.   The sounds of the accordion are never far from the ears and traditional limericks and bawdy rhymes are recited telling the story of the villages, it’s history and it’s residents.  The group of revellers was organised by Lousitanea , a eco business set in one of these traditional hillside villa...