Helen and Peter in Portugal

Harvest time here in central Portugal, with harvest festival celebrations, regional food markets and general thanking god for the harvest. Our village is no exception, with the annual harvest Mass and procession through the village at the weekend. So here we are, dressed up for once (yet un-ironed as we don't seem to bother with that anymore, in fact, Peter never did bother ironing, he told me only yesterday I didn't need an ironing board when I had a table to iron on). We decided to see the Mass, standing room only at the Mass and to be honest, thank god (no pun intended), after 30 mins I was a little bored of it. You think the priest would be a bit more engaging, but alas, alas he read from the bible without looking up, without emotion. Although top trumps gained by the waving of the incense, very cool and Gothic (well for me a non Catholic anyway). 30 mins passed and we hot-footed it outside to where all the men where (strange that the church full of women - maybe they j...

Meet Lord, our temp dog. We've adopted him until some neighbours return to Pera permanently in April 2011 or until some other neighbours arriving in October want to take him permanently. Lord was living in the village with an elderly couple who both had to go to hospital in Lisbon. Their neighbour looked after the dog in the back yard, by feeding him and clearing up after him. This was supposed to be a short term solution, but the couple are still in hospital and will be for some time. Poor Lord was left outside on a very short chain, never walked and surrounded by his own mess. Lord was covered in ticks and fleas and his ears and eyes were very eaten by fleas. In the end Jon and Laural cleaned up the area Lord was in, Joaquim and Ana gave him a new dog house and together he was bathed in de-flea solution. Peter and I started to walk him once a day and he was getting much happier, excited to see us, not nervous and really enjoying his walks. Peter and I adopted him last w...

It's been a busy time over here in Portugal. Peter surprised me with a trip to Porto, we stayed in a manor house castle which was at the top of the hill. We dumped our bags and went to explore this ancient and beautiful city, with small streets full of houses to the river front and the tourist restaurants and cafes with the bright coloured umbrellas and the ancient churches and buildings with litter the whole city. First stop, as always with us is the local market. Here this subterranean space was full of vegetables, fish, meat, olives, bread, garlic and plastic flowers! Yep, plastic ... maybe for all the saint shrines? Once the market was well and truly photographed we went on to explore the inner stree ts, it is totally stunning with the tram running up the cobbled streets. We had the trusty Rough Guide with us to help us, but as normal, hardly ever looked at it (only when we wanted a place for dinner really). Instead we climbed up to the look out point on the top of Port...

Most of the year, Pera is a quiet village with 100 or so locals going about their business and drinking in the club. Local men don't really put a lot of work into 'best kept villages' over here...in fact Peter and I walked past a dead chicken in a bag outside some old guys house yesterday...now that's rural Portugal for you! Come August though the village gets busy, with Lisbon(ites) coming for their summer holiday, staying with family or in the 'done up' houses in the village. We have a few from America too, originally from here but living in New Jersey. The village is more vibrant and things get done. In Pera we have a wall, it's a big wall, it's grey, not very nice and runs the length of the main village road. One of the ladies from Lisbon has been on at the local CAMRA (Parish Council) to do something about this wall. The CAMRA are not interested! After she went to shout at the men in the club drinking, telling them that they are lazy sods for ...

Pasteis de Bacalhau are my new favorite things, they are a staple here in Portugal and every household knows how to make them. Except me, when I tried to make them they just weren't as nice as the ones we've had in the pastelarias. When I explained this in bad Portuguese to our neighbours, Ana and Joaquim, they invited us and the neighbours over for a lesson. Bit of a shame that no one told me that despite the invite saying 6pm, they'd be making them at 3pm ready for the evening. At 3pm I was walking back up a mountain in blistering heat and my water bottle running low! But we have such lovely neighbours, Ana and Joaquim photographed the lesson and here it is, how to make Pasteis de Bacalhau Pera style! 250 grams of bacalha u (you get it frozen in the UK, but here they soak it for DAYS) 200 grams of potatoes half an onion and a clove of garlic pinch or two of spice one cap full of port 3 or 4 eggs salt pepper parsley oil for frying This is Joaquim, our neighbour - he sta...

Our very first visitors were the JWD family, they were with us for 8 days and it was great fun. Sam went down very well with the locals, all that blonde hair seems to work a treat. And Zack was learning four new Portuguese words a day - that's more than I can manage. I got them 'singing' Boa Tarde, Bom Dia etc after day one. These boys are quick learners. The week was spent visiting all the local watering holes, both fearless at diving in (along with Michelle who did all the jumping in despite what you may hear otherwise). I think everyones favorite place was Fragas Sao Simao, where it is idyllic jumping off the rocks into the clear (but cold) water. However, despite this wonderful vista: It is possible that the boys (grown up ones too) picked up on a different view of the local area....Sam seems to have his goggles focused on the lady in the background...my those are big! Now they have gone back to England, I have a cold (caught from Peter) and we are starting to get b...

We are learning that when you grow your own veg you need to plan carefully. If you don't plan, then you end up with a glut of the same veg all coming along at the same time. Take the simple courgette for example, everyone grows them so you cannot give them away (but we took some of our friends Jackie and Richards courgettes, so maybe that is not strictly true that you cannot give them away). The courgette needs to be eaten, it won't keep too long and we are starting to get monster ones! Our neighbour made a suggestion the other day, which was that at the start of the year we all get together and decide who is going to grow what veggies, then we share them out throughout the year. That way we have a 12 month growing cycle, never too much of one thing and everyone gets to have a bit of everything. Now, it is a good idea...I see the logic, in fact I applaud it. But isn't this how communism started...? These are some of the veggies grown by our fair hands (well Peter...