Helen and Peter in Portugal

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 ...