14 day solo mission back to England - Saúdades for Portugal

 I missed my husband, I missed the sun, I missed speaking Portuguese - loads!  But there were a few compensations.  30 day matured sirloin steak which I cooked on a griddle in my woodburner.  

90 seconds each side and 90 second rest.  Perfection.

Any tame Portuguese archeologists about??

Whilst digging my vegetable patch, deep deep, down I have been coming across various shards of pottery.  As a potter I recognise it isn't an even manufactured clay, it is a mix with bits of tiny stones in it and an uneven firing temperature which suggests a basic kiln type and very clearly isn't glazed or to do with drainage.  

I have often thought that cultivation of our land here dates back centuries, with wonderful terracing and water well which possibly might be pretty ancient.  Now I need to find an expert who might date a few shards of pot.  There is also a stone I found which isn't like our local stone, and I think could possibly be an ancient axe head - my husband thinks it's a ...stone.

Here are my prized finds.  Any positive helpful comments please send to rachel@rachelbarker.com

  

As Nossas Queridas Vizinhas

 Somos abençoados com uma família encantadora ao lado da nossa casa.  Estou sempre interessada em ver como eles estão a cultivar as coisas, e aprendemos muito ao olhar para as suas vinhas.  Este ano cultivaram abóboras enormes que se tornaram cada vez maiores a cada semana.  Hoje, elas desapareceram!  Queria tanto tirar uma foto de Sónia e Andreia, as suas filhas com os legumes.  Aqui estão elas e não tenham um ar tão angelical!  Tiveram a amabilidade de me deixar tirar-lhes uma foto e interromper as suas vindimas.

We are blessed with a lovely family next door to our house.  I am always interested to see how they are growing things, and we learn lots from looking at their vines.  This year they grew huge pumpkins that became ever bigger every week.  Today they were gone!  I so wanted to take a photo of Sónia and Andreia, their daughters with the vegetables.  Here they are and don't they look so angelic!  They were so kind to let me take their photo and interrupt their grape harvest.

Finally some rain

After months of absolute drought I awoke in the night to hear rain on the tiles  - and over the course of the day rain cells have been passing over with sometimes heavy showers.  The trees and plants breath a sigh of relief!

Here is a departing storm over Alvaiazere Hill down from our valley towards the coast.