GLASS and COMMISIONS

I have managed to make quite a lot of glass pieces over the last year or so. I completed two pieces for our house which I'm very happy with. The first was the replacement for my degree piece that I dropped in my eagerness to see it in place! I actually think these pieces suit the space better than the original work would have. The flora and fauna (and farm animals!) are all indigenous to the quinta. These panels are in the dressing room (sounds posh but it's just a cupboard!).

Photos taken at different times of the day.

The other piece (my favourite) is in the bathroom door.......

Again photos taken at different times of the day.

I have also had a few commissions, this was a very special one - it was a wedding present from the groom's mother which had to be shipped to Australia (unfortunately, due to covid, she was not allowed to travel to Australia to attend her son's wedding) .........

The images for the flowers (three blue pieces) came from an heirloom plate which belonged to the groom's great grandmother.

HOMESTEADING and PREPPING .......

The two lean years in the garden meant that the cold store didn't get replenished much, but that has been addressed this summer and autumn - we have prepped, bottled, pickled and brewed no end. 

The latest crop we are processing are the quinces. We are rather excited by our experiment for quince cider, especially as we have utilised our redundant garden shredder (it didn't work to shred wood!) to chop up the quinces, saving loads of labour .......

So far we have made 40L.

I've also made some really pretty quince cordial ......

It's olive picking time. The first olives picked are for curing, we are experimenting (again), this year - we are curing the olives with lye (drain cleaner!!!!) instead of brine, as we are not fond of the brine cured olives. The next lot picked will be for taking to the mill to make into oil.

Picture of Netty (who will be 3 on Christmas day!) and Dennis the Menace (just because I can!) ........

I WILL TRY TO DO BETTER .......

 Oooops it's s been over 2 years since I updated my blog - I just got out of the habit! But I'm going to try to update on a regular basis from now on.

2019 - 2021 a quick update of the last two and a half years ........

• We rescued a donkey (Alfie)

so had to buy another donkey (Dilly) to keep him company.

• I dislocated my shoulder - trying to catch a goat! It was bloody painful .......

• I had my 4th episode of Bell's Palsy.

• Covid & lockdown!!!!!!  No face to face socialising but lots of internet interaction ....... 1st lockdown: we took part in a weekly lockdown quiz, 2nd lockdown: I took part in a weekly craft challenge - I thoroughly enjoyed that, all the challenges are documented on my Facebook page 'Quinta Glass & Crafts'.

In 2019 we decided to move the vegetable garden nearer the house, our first year wasn't very productive and the second year was even worse as we had a month of rain just after we had planted out all our vegetable plugs, potatoes etc - the land was underwater and it all rotted in the ground so 2021 we went back to the old vegetable garden and had a wonderful harvest, in fact we are still harvesting a lot of vegetables.

We have had no visitors for 2 years (covid!) so we treated ourselves to a new swimming pool as compensation. This winter we will build a decking around it ..........

• August: TWO rescues in the same week .......

1. Walter, a very old dog who had been abandoned by his owners.
2. Dennis the Menace, a kitten who had been dumped in Penamacor.

Walter is on a lead as this was the first time he was meeting the poultry!

Almost up to date ....... 

• September I had to have an emergency appendectomy (at my age!!!!) spent 3 nights in hospital - that was an experience as my Portuguese is still atrocious, but the doctors,  nurses and staff were wonderful and tried their hardest to communicate with me even if the only language we had in common was mime!

HOT, HOT, HOT ........ draft post that was written 2 years ago

JUNE:

SUMMER COMES EARLY:
We haven't had rain for over a month, the temperature in the last two weeks of May was in the high 30s and we're already discussing setting up the pool and our outdoor sleeping .....

NETTIE:
Poor little Nettie came in shaking her head a couple of weeks ago, as luck (bad luck as it turned out!) would have it we were taking the dogs for their annual vaccinations the next evening. So we asked the vet (in Penamacor) to check her ear. First off he didn't have the correct instrument (the thingy that goes in the ear with a light attached) he used something that stretched open the ear canal and a hand held torch! Our poor puppy was whimpering. Then, after saying he couldn't see anything, he started digging around inside her ear with cotton buds!!!! After a couple of days her ear started weeping badly so we took her to the vet in Castelo Branco. Her ear was so badly infected the vet couldn't see down the ear canal (with the correct instrument) so Nettie was put on a course of antibiotics, ear drops, and ear drench. Yesterday we took her back and the vet extracted this (see below) grass seed from her ear, Nettie was so good she didn't even require sedation.

Two weeks in Nettie's ear and it hasn't deteriorated at all

She's been getting rather unresponsive recently; instead of coming, when called, she lies down or rolls on her back and, the other evening, she actually tried to run back down the track rather than going into the sheep shed - we think it could be because whenever we call her to us something negative happens like ... a visit to the vet, ... administration of medication (in an already painful ear), ... being locked in a shed away from the other dogs etc. so we're going to have to make it a more pleasurable experience (with lots of treats).

She's growing rapidly, she's already bigger than Lily and fast catching up with Looby.

"you called ?" ...

I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT ....

The old bathroom is going to become our dressing room; at the moment Brett's clothes are on the mezzanine above the kitchen and mine are in a chest of drawers in the living room and hanging from two hooks. Brett has been making doors for the ... new bathroom, ... dressing room, ... our cupboard bed and the cupboard above, ... between kitchen and living (this one is a stable door). Two of the doors have been made for me to install glass in (bathroom and dressing room), the dressing room for one of my degree pieces (the other piece is going in the dressing room window).

The two kites were to go in the door.

Brett made, and hung the door; I was so excited, I picked up my glass (without waiting for Brett ... guess where this is going ...), the glass slipped through the door, I couldn't save it, it landed on the concrete floor and SHATTERED !!!! I was rather upset for a couple of days but now it's turned into a positive as I'm designing a couple of pieces now, for the door and the transom window above, 

BATHROOM

I found some beautiful handles on Ebay for the bathroom cupboard, really cheap with free postage from China. They arrived within a fortnight - I gave them a 5 star review. Brett just attached the handles to the cupboard's doors .....

They sent two different styles of handle !!!

I order two of the one on the right.

The supplier offered a £2.00 refund after I'd asked them to send me the second handle I ordered. I'm hoping if I threaten to involve Ebay they will sort it out, because they don't look good as they are! Update: I got a full refund (and to keep the mismatched handles!).

LIVESTOCK: 

Haha, we have a crowing hen! I googled the phenomenon and it's actually not that uncommon. It was hard to tell fact from fiction (everyone on the internet speaks with such conviction), some sites implied that they could actually change sex - I don't believe it ......

MAKING HAY:

Brett had just started cutting the hay when the belt on the drum mower went. We went to several tractor places, to replace it, to no avail (will look on the interne)t. We had to get Antonio, the man who bales our hay, in to cut it. 

Brett raked it into lines with the wheel rake then phoned Antonio to let him know it was ready to bale. 

We went to Bar do Clube for a couple of beers (with the local crew, plus Helen who was visiting), when we got home OMG disaster ...... a whirlwind had torn through all three hay fields, destroying Brett's lines and taking away about a third of our hay!!!!!