Helen and Peter in Portugal

June saw Portugal's worst forest fires in living history....174 square miles of central Portugal burned and tragically, 64 deaths and people still in hospital. Area of fire damage We were lucky, the fire reached the top of our village then, as we were evacuated, took a turn and moved upwards...we were lucky. People have lost their land, their home, their family, their life. We were very lucky. We ran, we ran for the coast....away from the fire, away from the smoke, away from the fear.  But in making this trip we drove along the main road out of town passing the burnt-out cars where people died  in their cars, fleeing their homes as the fire moved at over 200 miles an hour, at temperatures which melted glass.  I try not to think too much about what that was like for them. The fear of being surrounded and trapped by fire was very real, friends of ours in other locations were already surrounded in their homes. What I'll never, ever forget is the smell of fire, ...

One thing you do on dog walks is notice things, from the people on the bus (which passes at 8.10am) to visitors staying with family, how the sun is rising a little bit earlier every morning this time of year. One thing that has always intrigued me is the initials and dates on house gates.  Once you start noticing these things then you see dates everywhere....and of course the JF initials on all the benches....who is JF......but more of that later. So as a result of all this noticing, I've been thinking about the dates and what was going on for Portugal when our neighbours installed their gates.  1916 The oldest gates I've found in our village.  The house is now abandoned, but it's a lovely place, with some great stone work.   This gate was installed during the First World War.  In 1916 Germany declared war on Portugal.   Portugal had honoured its old alliance with Great Britain by seizing...

Now we are in February it seems like the right time to write about a Christmas tradition in Portugal.  The Presépio translated in Google as 'The Crib' is firmly routed in the Jesus in the Nativity and not the Pimp my Crib show on MTV. The Presépio is traditionally a representation of the Nativity, from a simple Mary, Joseph and Jesus ornament arrangement at home on the mantle to a full on live procession  with donkey, cattle and shepherds. This year I spotted more representations of the Presépio around the district.  It seemed to me that each town had two or three interpretations of this traditional celebration of the Nativity. Presépio made from recycled materials seems to be the big hit this year, here are some that have caught my eye. All smiles and used car tyres... Tradition in a town church... Entrance to the Penela Presepio which included two iron cow statues humping (sadly not photographed) Very traditional interpretation out...

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...