End of season

A gentle October

Lovely weather and no guests gave us time to take down the shade sails and hammocks, prune the vines, get new chickens and take a few days off. High on my list was to find a small caravan and convert it into new volunteer accomodation, with the view that it must be as comfortable as our own room.

New in 1971, this poor baby was left under trees for the last ten years

One careful owner?

A few hours jet washing later

And now tucked into a snug spot

  Now up to Owl to strip out the inside and redecorate, and me to build a deck and shade area. Watch this spot!

 

Summer Time

Hi Guys!!

Just thought I would post a few photos taken by a lovely French lady who was helping us last week... man do I get spoilt!!

Red onion head.. two days on a roof....

Great door stop

new pool table, cervical view

Shearer in new 2013 strip, currently unbetean

No metal is safe with Silvey!!

First prize in hunt the gnome goes to.... Silvey!!

The best way to win at darts is to sharpen them.

Yes!!! My washing machine broke down!!

Well, technically it didn't... I won two broken ones from a pal, but if the truth counts, ours is on its last legs, so if it breaks during the reading of this blog, then the trutch beholdeth..

Matched with spanners, angle grinders, advice givers, a stray dog, a dog with sarcasm, a girlfriend with attitude, a hangover, and 30 plus degrees in the shade,  I set out in full sun...

A nice thickness to cut with a small angle grinder, to make the walls of the solar cooker

Solar cooker at work baking a ginger sponge... it gets to about 100 celcius, a bit low for baking so admittedly had to finish it in oven

Window from washing machine door, in our previously dark ladies loo, care of Petra!

Weight ring creates a nice surround for a Portulaca

Sundried tomatoes, temperature is perfect!

Drum makes a spectacular light or fire pit... I will wait until winter to try this one..

 The alternator could be used as a bicycle generator and various wires for a controller but I opted to sell them for scrap as they are heavy and worth 6 euros each. There was lots of body work left over - I learnt to use the creases and corners on the solar oven to save time.
Now, why is there an enormous pile of clothes in the sink...

Summer Paint Party

Everybody dance now!!

Wow, fry an egg on my tummy hotsville... Thanks to the sixty or so who attended my birthday bash last week, especially to Jade who filled my ear with pink chalk dust, to Gina for the magnificent desserts and to me for being so darn good looking!!

Only the best looking are let through the doors of Quinta Stuart

With the exception of our bouncer Ricardo Carrington

And Ali Baba hypnotist Stephanos Shortarsest

Lovely cupcakes and specialist paint thrower Gina

The sexy boys! Stu and Slseta boss Simon

Simon and grand daughter Jade

Oh yes, it goes from great to greater - come and see!!

Stu and Owl x

Quinta Stuart wakes up

Sun, fun and sex (not) see lots of work getting Quinta Stuart into shape. A hard winters work and now with our fantastic helper Petra, everything is shining clean and weed free!

New flowerbeds edged in calcada

Large pea gravel and stepping stones to sauna and new solar shower

The tipi now surrounded by new planting and top dressing

Shade sails everywhere!!

Fresh herbs around the tikka bar

Our own spinach, brocculi and eggs

Spring Spring squelch!!

The only good thing about all this darn rain is a bit of breathing space on my gammy ankle. Having bought a ticket to see Benfica v Newcastle in the UEFA cup quarter finals and now not going... may as well stand in the rain...

 

 

 

New steps up to future lazing deck!

 

The new security system

 

 

Hemmingways now sitting into the landscape

Sooty.

Kit kat

Norman Wisdom never broke his ankle

WELL, if there is one thing I do regularly, it is go to Faro hospital. After slipping on my terrace and working the next day on it, the following morning unable to do anything but bounce on one leg, I headed to Faro hospital.

Norman Wisdom never tripped over but he wont too good with ladders...

Well in terms of idiotic actions, this is how to do it:-

1. Drive to hospital (fortunately my car is an automatic)
2. Try to park
3. As I park realise I have forgotten my health card
4. Drive home and back to hospital
5. Park about a mile from the hospital
6. Hobble on crutches (all landscapers own crutches)
7. Stop 20 times
8. On 21st stop, get covered in water from passing car
9. Check in to A and E (ten mins,  pretty good)
10. Wait for half an hour reading latest Sunday Times
11. Get called to "Triagem" to see what colour band I am awarded
12. Get Green for Gringo band
13. Get a wheelchair and a woman I vaguely recognised

Diazapam? Oh no mate we've got better than that....

14. Get wheeled to a boiling waiting room next to a man who reeks of wee
15. Realise have left a fivers worth of newspaper in previous waiting area
16. Wait for an hour or so dodging determined leg bashers...
17. Get called to Room 5
18. Go to Room 5 using my crutches as paddles as no helper (works well)
19. See doctor who looks younger than my daughter
20 Go to X Ray, using crutches to avoid chaffeur ramming leg off every corner

I suspected the porter had a grudge before he even pushed me....

well it goes on and on, net result ripped ankle ligaments, no pain killers and last six days in bed. Thanks to Sue M for the mothering, and Pharmacia Coelho for the industrial pain killers needed to sleep..

                               That's life

Summer in Peru

 Well any excuse for a couple of weeks holiday in the sun, this year Owl chose Peru and a fairly painless 13 hour flight from Amsterdam

 Once the fog lifted, Machupicchu was stunning

 

                Still intact after 2000 years, and now a Unesco Workd Heritage Site

Our friend shuns away from the fresh meat stand in Lima

Mancora, north Peru. Warm seas and cheap beer

                        

Owl thought the hat would be enough to win the hide and seek competition

Reed boats in Huanchaco, 500km north of Lima

The finest motor museum in the world, in Lima. The is a 1935 Aubern Supercharger - regularly driven by Snr. Norelli, owner of 160 restored cars!!

Best use of a dead palm tree!!

View from our last hostel room

Tropical Peruvian restaurante