Monday, June 3, 2013

SUMMER!!

Finally it´s got hot!  The sun is UP there, and the pond and river become beautiful places as the grass is goes to seed and turns brown. This is the pond....


....river?

...the peaches are nearly ready..


Bees are foraging on the last flowers of the spring abundance - you have to imagine the buzzing foragers, but the hives are pretty busy...

Tranquility abounds for a week here, after a full-on week before and during the European WWOOF convention - an EVENT!   Really it went in an uncannily relaxed and stress-free way.  We had 45 people from 28 european countries, with Kris, and Jade helping, doing the catering.  A great and varied collection of people.  Here is a snapshot of a general scene...


 It was great to see all the different spaces at the Varzea working and everyone so relaxed here.

- 'course I had to show the chessboard in the foreground! - it got a lot of use, not just by Cornelia, our polar-bear-lookalike! Here's me painting the chain-sawed pieces - note the free-ranging cluckers - this pair kept escaping the chicken area so eventually earned their freedom...



Kris and Megan are away visiting friends in central Portugal for 10 days, and we had a great Polish wwoofer - well, he wasn't a "wwoofer" really, he just turned up one day, and helped Jade and myself for a few days, and is gone to Lisboa to fetch his girlfriend to come back for a few weeks - André by name - pics when the couple return.     Now just Jade and me at the Várzea, Jade busy in the garden doing splendid things, and the garden providing most of our food, and I have been spending the last days cutting on the várzea and doing the fittings and drippers and tubery for the 70 new trees, and for the first time mapping the trees and tube-work for the bottom land - 224 little trees, ranging now from first to 4th year.

Here is a random picture looking up the valley from the top of our little hill - "Monte de Várzea da Gonçala" as it is listed on the map, but we know it as "Hill"....




Finally.... we had Luke and Fiona and Max and Lux here again in our guest-house....


.... and they brought their friends, Tim and Hannah and 3 children with them - but they left before I took pictures of them.  Brilliant people all, and they make top pizzas!  One of the most  inspirational things about being here is all the variety of people who come, each with their own multi-faceted stories.

Even finallier, Thursday nights of kids' and documentary films are becoming an established weekly event already - the idea is for everyone to bring something as a contribution, food and drink and films, and music-players always most welcome.....   Rick and Sanna came along -they and I built the rammed-earth building here last summer. over many weeks.   Here is a picture of them, in their bus passing down the valley -


just because its a a nice pic...

That'll do for now....

Love to all.