Firstly, I apologies for the fact that my blogs are limping behind time. Somehow the happenings taking place seem to turn up so quickly and the time to write is so precious that my words desert me for a while.

So here we are in December and I write about the past September, but that’s life, it happens and not always the way we like or plan.

What’s the saying? ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.’

But its not all that bad, here goes:

Our September turned out to be still Mid-Summer, just with slightly shorter days, which is a welcome relief; still no rain, still over 30 degrees.

It is also the month where the olive harvest for table, eating, olives starts here in this area. The Manzanillas are now ready to harvest just before turning purple and black. And when this happens, they are used for oil. Getting them harvested in their essentially unripe green state is crucial if we want to recoup the money spent on the spraying, pruning and paying pickers.

Here they do not eat black olives and the price for these is a lot lower than for the perfect, plump shiny green table olives. Mind you, they still need at least two months in brine before they are edible.

Nigel was lucky to get some Moroccans to help with the manual picking. This year we had also some women which are slower, but more careful when picking.

It is still hot, very physical and dusty work and six hours is all they do.

With the remaining black olives Nigel makes his home-made pure , unfiltered oil, which is on sale here at Casa Halcon. Together with my new venture, home-made soaps with natural ingredients. At the moment I am just playing with glycerine based soaps until I can source all the necessary ingredients to make a real soap from scratch.

Our ‘farm shop’ offers now honey from Almonte-Donana, our fresh eggs, olive oil, chutney, marmalade soon, and soaps.

Off to Lisboa

I got a surprise invitation to stay with my friend Fiona in Lisbon for two nights, coinciding with my birthday. She has started a new job that brings her to several cities in Europe, Lisbon being one.

It’s nice to get away and see some other view than olive trees and soak up another culture. As she is a wine aficionado this means visiting wine bars, of course, and why not?

And the two we attended were really a pleasure and surprise. ‘By The Wine’ [https://bythewine.pt/en/index.html (My photos didn’t do it justice, so look it up yourself)].

It has an amazing vaulted ceiling decorated with hundreds of wine bottle strung along the whole lengths of the bar and the food is as good as the wines. It has a lovely atmosphere, book in advance or come early to get a table.

The other was ‘The Old Pharmacy’ with a serious detailed wine list and prices that make your eyes water. But you can also just have a decent glass of wine without any pretence of wine knowledge and just enjoy the lovely old glass-fronted cabinets full of wine bottles. Again, the food is delicious, so make a nice evening out of it.

Both wine haunts were in walking distance of our hotel ‘Residencial Florescente’ in R. das Portas de Santo Antão 99, 1150-266, which had just been redecorated and we enjoyed a small suite with three little balconies.

This is a touristy area and has seemingly thousands of restaurants, so be a bit picky. They all appear to offer to the same dishes anyway; the Italian restaurant ‘Locanda Italiana’ just down the road was decent enough, good food, quick and friendly service.

Our first day we just walked around the old town and the seafront, the second day it was raining. For me a novelty after a whole six months without rain. So we boarded the tourist bus for a drive around the six hills of Lisbon, nearly missing our booked experience into the past.

There is one experience that I would recommend everyone to visit, it’s the QUAKE museum, Quake – Lisbon Earthquake Centre which is as far away from a standard museum as a fish soup is from the ocean. It is an immersive, interactive experience OF THE EARTHQUAKE in 1755 and you learn everything there is to know about earthquakes in general and how people then coped with their lives suddenly reduced to rubble. How were the relief efforts organised? You can actually make the decision sitting around a table with the then influential people like the mayor, architect and wealthy merchants.

https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/about/quake-project (please paste and copy the links into your browser):

Here is one article you can download during your walk through 1755:

https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/scanner/the-german-merchant or this one:

https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/scanner/carpenter-accused-of-bigamy

I have gained a deep respect for the city that is now Lisbon, the people that created this new old town and how this blueprint was used for many towns we take now for granted. It was a revolutionary effort. Go and experience it yourself:

R. Cais de Alfândega Velha 39, 1300-598 Lisboa, Portugal.

This is situated a little outside of the town in Belém, but bus or tram will bring you there easily.

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We have actually worked quite hard between Nigel amongst the olives and me keeping the house, the pool and the larder in good shape for the rotating arrival of guests since the end of June. So I was ready for a little break.

My daughter spent a weeklong holiday in Lisbon with her boyfriend. I took this as my cue to visit her there (‘If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain‘…).

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So we went on a whistle-stop tour to Lisbon with our trusty Toyota. This took us 5 ½ hours, including an hour lunch break in a small but dear town, whose name I forgot. It was a prosperous town because of the quartz mine and the aluminium factory nearby. Hence the prices were surprising steep for a countryside town somewhere off the main motorway.

We arrived in Lisbon via the A2 over a bridge, that spans the Tagus river and gives a nice view of the town.

We had managed to book a stylish Airbnb in the heart of the Alfama, the old town, not far from the Church of São Vicente of Fora and the flea market on the Saturday.

Lisbon has a different feel and flair. I like its shabby chic, the bygone glory of a different era still visible in its architecture and the antique shops. It is of course a tourist trap and hence expensive in the old town quarter, the Alfama.

We had only one day to spend and went to Sintra. Definitely worth a visit, but bring good walking shoes. We drove to Sintra town with our Toyota and parked for free in the town. We then looked for a bus to bring us to the mountain top castle. Waiting at the bus stop a Tuc-Tuc, the Portuguese Rickshaw, came by and we hitched a lift with the second, as the price was a lot better than the first chap quoted us. He also lied about the price of the bus ticket, but we are not that gullible. The way up is quite long and steep, so if you want to last the whole day do yourself a favour and take a lift.

Horse drawn cart ride through the Park of Pena.

In the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park is situated the fairy-tale looking Palace of Pena, a feast for the eyes and a breezy spot up on top of the turrets and wall-walk. The whole park is made of wondrous winding paths and surprises like fountains, a cute Chalet which belonged the Countess of Edla, stables for the amazing looking draught horses and randomly scattered seats of stone or carved wood. Within walking distance is the Hilltop Moorish Fortress, which also grants views over the whole National Park up to the coast.

On the way back we started walking but were a bit discouraged by the distance and again a Tuc-Tuc came puttering about and we got a real speedy, cheap ride to the car park for €10. It was a bit like being on a rollercoaster, speeding downhill around the sharp bends and the wind whistling in our ears.