Decisions....

Simon and Claire at the most westernly point of Portugal, near Sagres

On Sunday we had to say goodbye to our second lot of visitors, Claire and Simon.  It was most definitely a sad day.

The week did not start off with the best weather but we headed south for a couple of days and managed to find the sun and warmth, which we brought back up with us so all in all it was not bad. We do hope they had as nice a time as we did, and that they will be back soon.

Once our holiday with our friends was over, it was back to trying to make some decisions.  We now more or less know that building on our land is way off our budget and if we were to do so, it will be many, many years before we recover our costs, should we ever wish to sell. If we had an income and were 100% sure we wanted to stay for the rest of our lives, perhaps it would be an option.

We have been to view a few other places and have so far made one offer on a property further up north, which was rejected. We are currently considering making an offer on a place with a project in place (i.e. building permission has already been obtained) but in an area we don't really know. It is not too far from here and it looks lovely, but as we would build this one to sell and hopefully make a profit, we feel it is important that the area is attractive to buyers. From our personal point of view it would be perfect, as we could start the work straight away and get the caravan up there fairly soon to cut costs (but of course not until we have had our last visitors staying), so there are a few pros and cons....

Today we had an estate agent come to our land to value it, and it seems we could make a small profit. But it is still a tough decision to make, as it was not bought by practicality or with profit making in mind, but by the heart and for love of that particular spot in this world.  Sense, and most people we have spoken to, says to sell and leave all the hard decisions behind, heart says to keep... What to do?

We were hoping there would be an option of keeping the top bit of land and perhaps get planning permission to build there, or to buy the ruin next door to the plot.  Today, however, we found out that it is impossible to get planning permission for this part of the land, and also that the ruin next door won't sell, as it has multiple owners and they cannot agree on the sale.  Most of the time less options are good, especially if you are a female, but this time it was really two options we really wanted to keep.

So we have a few decisions to make and we need to make them fairly soon.  Hopefully the next post will bring some good news :-)

Spring?

After having some stunning weather in February with more t-shirt days than we expected, the weather has turned a bit grim. The temperature has gone back to 14-15 and there are too many grey clouds about.  All this just in time for our very dear friends Claire and Simon to arrive tomorrow.  Luckily they are the kind of people who will be happy just to have a week off and won't need too much entertaining, but this is also why we so wish the nice weather will return, they def deserve it! Anyone know how to change the forecast???

We went for another one of our language lessons today and must say that learning Portuguese is not easy.... It does not do wonders for the confidence to realise it is even hard to learn the pure basics.  We are, however, lucky enough to have found a very good and patient teacher, she is a star.  We just need to stick with it and learn how to be disciplined enough to spend our free time studying and hopefully one day it will click. The road to there feels pretty long though :-)

Apart from that, we are spending our days fishing (well Glenn is), baking our own bread (photo evidence of this to follow), draining the land of water (yes we are also bored of this subject) and trying to get some exercise and eat healthily.  That is one good thing with having moved to the house, we can now buy more food and keep it better so no excuses to go out for dinner or nip down the pub!

Anyway, best go and tidy up before our guests arrive tomorrow!!!!!!

Two mullet and a bream, we think...

Happy times

So, we have a few decisons to make re the land and the house.  We think and we think and we weigh up different peoples opinions and advice and make decision after decision.  Unfortunately it changes everyday so do not have much to say regarding this.

However, in between all this we have had a very good week and the sun has been out a lot. 

On Thursday our very good friends Jen and Fredde invited us around for a bbq at their stunning house.

Fredde and Jen

 It was a fantastic day and perfect for the first dinner cooked outdoors.  They put on a right feast for us, there were cocktails, wine, chicken satay, ribs, spicy chicken and more, all of it very, very tasty.



The man in charge, Fredde



Chicken Satay



 







Susie with Jen's mum and dad



Friday we went out with a few British couples for a Chinese, which was ok, but being no Chinese food expert didn't really have an opinion.

Today we packed the car for a day out and after having been to check and water our veg and trees up at the land, we went to the far side of the lagoon and spent the afternoon fishing. 

Glenn the fisherman

 We didn't catch much (unless you count the seaweed) but had a very good day out in the sun.  Think now we are starting to realise what Portugal truly has to offer.



Retaining walls.....

are things we do not like much at the mo.

We were chatting to this guy who said that he was sure he could get us a better quote for the retaining walls (we have been told it could cost up to 50,000 euros) and he arranged for us to meet with a guy, who works with these matters, up at the land today.  He had a good look around and was quite positive, until he saw the part in front of the house and the cracks in the ground.

He basically said he would not touch it, as it would only ever be a temporary thing and there could be no guarantees that it would hold, or even cause further damage. Fair play to him for being honest with us and not just grabbing our money and give us a false promise.  However, we were told that the Camra could possibly allow us to move the house to safer grounds, considering that it would be outright dangerous to build where it is sat now.  That is our new hope, as it would solve a lot of our problems and issues and save us a lot of money too.

So we're back at waiting to see what they say.... Woopidoo!

As promised, some photos of our little veg plot and our fruit trees.

Glenn's favourite, the lemon tree

In preparation for making our own Ginja, the cherry tree

Doesn't look like much but at least it is a start!



The Kiwi tree



Comments!!

We are so excited, have had 2 comments on our blog! Thank you Marie and Ingrid!  We were sort of wondering if anyone was actually reading it, or if our sporadic posts were just for our own eyes. Now that we know, we are happy.

Not much new to report (seems to be the way these days...) but yesterday we went to our future (??) home and started digging a corner up for our vegetable patch.  We (read Glenn) did some digging and turned a little plot of soil over and mixed it with some compost, before we planted our first seeds, some onions, aubergines and parsley.  There is space for a lot more but as the rain got pretty heavy we decided to leave the rest for the day.  However, the bad weather stayed so today we ended up going to the Monday market in Caldas da Rainha for some rugs and a good look around. You can buy more or less anything there, from socks, spades and furniture to live chicken, fruit trees and sausages. We got 4 good rugs for 15 euros, which we thought was a bargain, as that is what you'd pay for one in the shop.  Think we were meant to haggle but the old lady looked so happy when we paid her it was worth spending those few extra cents.

We also managed to get a fishing rod, with reel, for 10 euros! Not what we went for but a bargain all the same. Hopefully when the rain stops we will get a chance to try it out in the lagoon, with a permit purchased of course. we hear that the fishing shop here in Foz is run by a very helpful man so we are planning a visit there for some tips on what fish we can expect to catch and what bait to use.

The rain is due to stay for a few days but as soon as we make it back out we will get some pictures of our first attempt of growing our own vegetables, and let you know what else we have planted of course.  Keep all fingers crossed that our first seeds have not drowned yet.... So till then.... Cheerio x

Forgot to mention...

that we have also moved!!! into a rented house in the village, as it saved us 140 euros a month in rent. We thought camping would be our cheapest option, but how wrong we were!

So now we have plenty of room for visitors if anyone fancies a trip to Portugal?

It's over....

The blog break that is :-)

We spent 2 weeks with our first visitors and had a great time.  We had tried to save as much sightseeing as possible till Susie's mum and dad arrived so that we would all enjoy it, and we did! Well we can only speak for the two of us of course... The highlights for us were going to Batalha with the absolutely amazing monestary, which we didn't expect at all (see http://www.travel-in-portugal.com/Batalha/)

Batalha monestary

 and the San Antonio caves (see http://www.grutassantoantonio.com/en/index.html). 




The San Antonio cave



We also had some spectacular food at Solar dos Amigos (see http://www.solardosamigos.com/), which I think we were all impressed with, one portion was enough to share between the 4 of us!!!!

Re the house..... We had some bad-ish news re the collapsing banks and were told by 2 people it would cost us up to 50,000 euros to support them. We were pretty beat for a while but decided not to worry about it during our "holiday".  However, during this last week we had a man who does a lot of digging work, and deals with banks like ours a lot, up there and he did not seem to think it was as serious and had a few ideas.  We are waiting to hear back from him re costs and timing. He said the best time to do anything would be April/May time when all the rains have stopped.

Speaking of rains.... we have had fantastic weather lately.  While Susie's parents were here we only had 1 day of rain and a few days of clouds and cold but some really lovely days too, where we could sit outside for lunch and enjoy the sun.  This last week started off cold with 1 degree on the Tuesday morning but got up to 19 degrees by Friday lunchtime. So there is still hope that the summer WILL arrive!