The tram is back but you will need to be quick to catch it

During the summer it is nice to hear the little tram trundling along the line at the bottom of our valley.  However this year it has been delayed due to a tree falling on the line at the beginning of the year, and then the stealing of copper from the overhead lines.  This has meant that it only came into service about two weeks ago and will only be running until the end of September.

I think it is very sad that it is not something that runs for a longer period.  Normally it starts around June and finishes at the end of September or beginning of October but it only runs on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday unless it is hired out privately. I would love to see it running as often as possible as it is only 2 euros to travel from Sintra to Praia das Macas or 2 euros from Praia das Macas to Sintra.

The terminus at Praia das Macas.

Leaving Praia das Macas heading for Colares

The journey is about 40 minutes and trundles along at a fair pace but not so fast that you cannot thoroughly enjoy the views through the valley and the hills surrounding the Monserrate Palace.  At times it veers off around the backs of houses and you get a good view of gardens and if quick enough, you might be able to scrump a lemon from an overhanging tree or two.

Leaving the terminus at Sintra and being out-raced by a bride and groom!

The view from the front as you leave Sintra

Interior of the open sided tram

The controls

View of main road from Sintra to Colares

Just about to change sides to head for Colares

If you get a chance, do try it.  The trams run fairly regularly in both directions and more information can be found at www.cm-sintra.pt.  This is the main website for Sintra.  There is an option for English - just click on the Union Jack symbol and then the option for Tourism and Culture and you will find lots to see and do in Sintra along with the details of the timetable of the tram.

  



Help Save the Iberian Wolves

Last Saturday we went to visit the Centro de Recuperacao do Lobo Iberico to see the work that is being done to save the Iberian Wolf.

After a nice lunch and coffee we set off in search of the sanctuary.  I had a vague idea of where it was but was unable to print off written directions due a fault on my computer but thought "it can't be that difficult to find".  Hmmm.

We headed for Mafra and then took the road to Gradil and the Tapada (the old hunting estate of the royal family and well worth a visit).  We passed one sign and then.....  Now living here as long as I have, I am used to this but even I got baffled after driving through the centre of Gradil and out the other side with no other signage.

I pulled up next to a local who was selling fruit and vegetables out of the back of his little van and asked for directions.  Armed with these I did a U turn and went back into the village and turned as instructed, opposite the church that was hosting a rather glamorous wedding.  A sign pointing to the right gave us hope and off we went down the cobbled streets, past a quinta where I had been to a wedding and we carried on, and on, and on and .....By this time we were getting a tad fraught and irritable with each other and then the mobile went off so I hastily pulled over and whilst I was talking to the sanctuary, who had rung to find out where we were, Glenn was being waved at and directed by a local standing grinning opposite the car.  We had actually stopped next to the sign for the entrance!  Only in Portugal. 

Heading up the incredibly steep hill, and then up through what felt like someone's back field, we made it and parked.  Feeling like naughty children we were met by a lovely guide and made our apologies to the two other couples with children who had kindly waited for us.

Our guide then gave us a preliminary overview of the sanctuary in Spanish, Portuguese and English which was an eye opener.  The wolves had used to roam the whole of the Iberian peninsula but now due to the fact that humans had systematically destroyed their food sources, humans had hunted them for their fur - you know where I am going with this - the wolves were now very rare.  Luckily they now have protected status and it is against the law to hunt them.

The site is 17 hectares in size and split into sections.  An interesting fact was that in the wild the wolves rarely live beyond eight to ten years, but in the sanctuary they can reach 18 years due to being safe and getting regular feeding.

We set off with the guide to see whether we would be lucky enough to spot them.  The first place we stopped was where an elderly wolf lived happily on her own in retirement.  She was shy and her eyesight was not what it was and was possibly slightly deaf and unfortunately she chose to stay out of sight.  Apparently she was normally seen at dusk when she came down to have a drink from the water trough.  Her area was full of trees and bushes and looked rather good for a retirement home.

The next stop off was to see a wolf who had been bottle raised and who had just had cubs.  Our luck was in because she was watching our every move.  In fact she stared everyone out and it felt as if we were the ones in the sanctuary and she was the viewer.  Her name was Faia and she was stunning.  Her eyes were the most wonderful clear blue/grey and her colouring was what we would call 'brindle' but with dark stripes down the front of her legs.  She was much smaller than I thought she would be but Iberian wolves are the smallest in the wolf world.  We all felt very privileged to have been so close to this lovely creature.

I apologise for the quality of the photos of Faia but there are many more on the web site which do the wolves far better justice than my efforts.

Unfortunately she was the only one we saw but I imagine that later in the year, when the weather is cooler, the chances of seeing more of them will be higher.  There again you did wonder whether they were all sitting up under the trees in the cool giggling at the humans trying to spot them with binoculars:

The guide had some rather disturbing stories of how some of the wolves arrived at the sanctuary but the one that tickled me the most was the story of a man who rescued one from a drainage ditch and took it home as he thought it was a dog.  After six months he realised that it really wasn't a dog but a young wolf and brought it hastily to the sanctuary!

When the horrific fires of 2005 threatened the sanctuary, the wolves were sedated and taken for safety to Lisbon zoo.  We were interested to know how they did this and apparently it is done by blowpipe!  They will only use the tranquiliser gun in an extreme emergency due to the dangers of damaging the wolf.  It sounded like the blowpipe lessons were quite amusing.

The sanctuary has only two paid members of staff, everything else is done by a wonderful band of volunteers.  As long as you are over 18, you can go and stay and help out for holidays, staying in little rustic houses on site.

The worrying thing is that the owner of the land where the sanctuary is, wants to sell it and now it is imperative to raise funds to help the wolves remain in this wonderful place.

You can adopt a wolf for as little as 35 euros a year and there is an on-line shop with items to buy to help.

It is a very interesting place to go to and you could combine it with a visit to the Tapada.  It is open for visitors on Saturdays and Sundays and public holidays.  October to April from 14.30-18.00 with guided tours at 15.00 and 16.30.  May to September the hours are 16.00 to 20.00 with guided tours at 16.30 and 18.00.  You should always ring in advance to let them know you will be visiting.

The web site (also in English) is www.http://lobo.fc.ul.pt

The address is:  Quinta da Murta, Picao, 2665-150 Gradil, Mafra.

Tel:  (00 351) 261 785037

Email:  crloboiberico@fc.ul.pt

They also have a page on Facebook

Flog it Almocageme Style

It's incredible to realise that a year has flashed past and last Sunday 28 August was the 2011 Cortejo e Oferendas e Leilao in Almocageme (the fruit and vegetable auction).  For our second visit we were more organised (we thought).  Last year we took the bus thinking parking would be difficult and had to leave ages before the end, so this time we drove up and parked close to the square about 3.00pm which was the scheduled start time.  However, this being Portugal, things were still being organised so we chose to have a coffee in the coffee bar that gave a good view of the action whilst we waited for the start.

Nice coffee house (not on the actual day as it was much busier than this)

About 4.00pm we moved over to the square as the ritual of microphone testing had begun and out of the fire station rumbled the most beautiful 1950's fire appliance closely followed by a truck similarly attired with green branches,and set off down the main street to make the tour of the village through the one way system, up the main road and back down to the centre collecting other little trucks en route.  After about 20 minutes the procession of trucks led by the fire engine, made their way slowly and carefully into the laid out square ready for the start of the auction.  Each vehicle carries items from a particular area and they are sold in sequence.

Returning to the main square

Approaching the square

Side view of appliance

Goodies on board

One of the trucks

And another one

We moved into the main body of the square to get our seats and to check out the other vehicles and, of course, the bar/cake area.  It was a lovely day and it was noticeable that we were the only people who chose to sit in full sun - the portuguese choosing to shift their chairs out of the full sun leaving us rather exposed as the foreigners.

Cakes to the left, beers to the right

English in the sun, locals in the shade

The fire engine was unloaded first with all the goodies being placed onto a table in front of the bandstand and the same auctioneer as last year, who is excellent fun with great banter and teasing of the crowd, obviously knowing the majority personally.

Goodies being arranged ready for sale

As all the items are donated by invdividuals from the villages, they are sold village by village.  The auctioneer reads out the name of the donor and then whips up the crowd for bidding.  He has a helper to point out any bids he might miss, although the normal procedure for this appears to be whistling or yelling for attention.  After each vehicle's contents have been sold, the total for each village is read out and cheered. 

This year there was an abundance of pumpkins, melons, pears, apples, nectarines, peaches, tomatoes, onions, plaits of garlic, potatoes, dried beans, along with ducks, chickens, pigeons, cactii and other plants, wine, spirits, port, liqueurs, handbags, pictures, storage pots, champagne and sparking wines, cold box, cheese, homemade jam, grapes, copper jug, beer, large cake, traditional cakes, hampers and candles.

The pumpkins ranged from round to oblong, small, medium and large as in this photo.  This monster that took two men to pick it up, weighed 60 kilos and was sold for 11 euros to the great amusement of the crowd.

This beauty that need two strong firemen to lift it

I desperately wanted to buy the two ducks to release them into the river by us, by was prevented so they went for 10 euros for the pair.  The pigeons were bought by people who then released them up into the sky to rounds of applause which was a lovely moment.

The two ducks - fear not, the one in the bag is alive

He thought this was a great auction buy, she was not so certain

Bidding got rather heated when the alcohol appeared.  There was a great selection of reds from the Douro, Alentejo and Colares as well as the white jug variety.  Most went from between 5 and 8 euros a pair of bottles, the white, obviously not quite as popular either went for the same price or less.  The wine from Colares, an expensive wine normally, was rather interesting to watch.  We picked us this bottle for 7 euros (75cl) but the others went for between 15 and 25 euros.  Some to the owner of the local grocery store.

Our bottle of 1997 Colares wine

Interestingly it seemed to be our senior ladies who went for the sparkling wines.  One lady near us managed to get one bottle of sparkling and one of champagne and then went on to successfully bid for a rather nice pink, embroidered bag to put them in.  She was beaming merrily as she set off with her bargains.  Another senior lady went off with a very nice green, wicker bag which she showed off to her friends around the fountain for admiration.

One young girl was desperate to get her hands on a cactus and the first batch went without any success for her.  Suddenly whilst she was busy talking to her parents, another pair came up for auction.  They shoved her forward and a lovely man at the side, stopped bidding to enable her to get them for 5 euros.  She was estactic. 

The young girl trying to bid for her cactii

Amusingly there were two instances of couples bidding for the same item because they were so intent on bidding that they had not realised their partner next to them, also had their hand up.  Friends bid against friend but all in a lovely, friendly way, and in some cases you could see people divving up their spoils between bags in the time honoured 'one for you, one for me' tradition.

As the sun started to go down, so the pigeons started to swoop over the square and the temperature dropped and cardigans and fleeces appeared.  Next year, we must remember to bring one!

Pigeons flying over the square

About 8.00pm the auctioneer stepped down in after a strenuous couple of hours and handed over to one of the firemen to continue with the remaining two trucks.  By this time the light was starting to go so the firemen brought out a very flash floodlight.  It looked like a plastic bag on a stand, but then it slowly inflated until it shone brightly on the proceedings.

The inflatable floodlight

We left shortly after the floodlight went up due to being somewhat chilly.  Next year - cardigans and jumpers for bidding after 8.00pm.

So here are some of our bargains.  We also picked up 6 bottles of red wine for 15 euros and a bottle of Grants Whisky for 6 euros. A cool box, brand new, for 6 euros.

Tomatoes - 6 euros for the whole box

8 euros for these beauties

So for the next few days I will be featuring tomatoes and onions in my cooking.  Tomato Jam, Gazpacho soup, Tomato Sauce, Onion jam, French Onion Soup........

Next year, must remember - get there early to park and get chair in shade and bring a cardigan or fleece for the evening.  Can't wait.

Summer festivities

Cannot believe how long it is since I last blogged. This is not due to an over excess of sunbathing on white sand in front of blue seas, far from it.  This has been the most bizarre summer I have ever experienced.  We had rain on 1 August and again the following week and then thunderstorms and grey skies and hints of dampness.  Very unusual and precludes visits to beaches.

In June and July I had problems first with the internet and lack of signal.  Various excuses given over a period of nearly a month until it returned and then the phone vanished.  Reasons for this ranged from copper thieving from nearby villages, to trees!!!  The trees were dealt with a couple of weeks ago and guess what, the phone has died again.  The internet is always wobbly when we have large cloud formations coming in from the Atlantic as they like to perch on the top of the Sintra hills, covering our side with a lovely mystic mist and the other with rolling clouds that look like melting 99 icecreams minus the chocolate.

We have been busy on our garden bits and pieces and although we were given a piece of the estate for an allotment, we had to give it up as the battle against weeds inevitably beat us, but we salvaged what we had planted and transplated to large bins close to the house, where everything has taken very well.  Our tomatoes were not as good as last year but that could be because we used a different variety or the weather - who knows.  I have sourced some wonderful tiny currant-sized ones to try next year.

It is the season of village festivities.  The hills are alive with music is an understatement.  Living on a hillside we get the full benefit of the evening entertainments from across the valley.  Some is very good, some has extra loud bass lines, and some is downright funny.  All of this music does tend to start with rehearsals about 4.00pm with the usual "testing one, two" etc and then you get a minor blast about 8-9.00pm and then peace whilst food is consumed and then it starts in earnest around 11.00pm, getting louder until about 2.00am and if you are really unlucky and a light sleeper, you can get blown out of bed again around 3-4.00am.  The latest this year, so far, was an extra loud session at around 6.00am.  Good job we both like music and can manage to sleep through it although we often comment on how people who live opposite the social centre and surrounding houses cope - they must all be participants!

This coming Sunday is the Fruit and Vegetable Auction in Almocageme, that we went to last year.  This time I intend to be much more organised with what I want to bid on.  The car will also be coming with me.  Last year, because we did not know how busy it would be, we took the bus and then had to carry a large tray of tomatoes back with us!  Not this time!  Annoyingly it clashes with a festival in Praia das Macas which is a religious ceremony, where the Madonna is carried into the sea.  I really wanted to see this but will have to wait until next year.

Last Wednesday we went to visit the Sao Mamede de Janas Festival because we had been told how interesting it was.  Wednesday was the day for animals and a blessing and recommended by my friend in the pet shop, so armed with her directions on how to find it, we set off about 3.00pm as the blessing was due at 4.00pm.

Typical street decorations at Festa time

As we approached the road blossomed with decorated arches and lamps which most villages have for their festas.  One side of the road was a traditional fair with various rides, roundabouts, dodgems (and yes they do the same - stand on the side and check out which is the fastest), doughnut vans, cherry brandy stands (a shot of cherry brandy from Obidos in a chocolate tasting cup for 1 euro), and a couple of stall selling clothing, pottery and electrical bits and pieces. 

Dodgems!

The other side was given over to serious stalls of clothing, pottery, cake and bread vans, ice cream stands, food stalls etc.  Parking was down the sides of the roads (for early birds) and organised fields for the rest of us - all good humouredly monitored by the local police.

Bread and cakes to one side, clothing to the other

Very jolly and smiling police

Amongst the stalls were speciality food stalls like this one selling suckling pig, which is a much loved delicacy here and found on most markets.  You can have it in restaurants, and some shops specialise in takeaways of it.

A roast suckling pig stall

Could not resist a fartura - extremely tasty and no doubt very fattening but there are times you just need one.  They are like a doughnut mixture which is rolled into a large curled round and then chopped into pieces which are rolled in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.  You can also buy other versions which have a line of chocolate or jam up the middle, but the original are the best.

Naughty but nice

We wandered down to where all the animals were penned and bumped into our butcher and his wife.  He has English pointers which he was showing although one of them was making a concerted effort to tunnel his way out of the pen to meet and greet the people.  There were some beautiful goats - this one actually posed for me - some with pretty baubles attached to the ends of their horns. 

Ready when you are Mr de Mille

Some of the cows and sheep were sporting fetching multi-coloured ribbons - whether this was an award or just purely for cosmetic use, I really don't know.  There were cages of ducks, rabbits, a large trailer of exotic birds also selling animal feed, a cute donkey and cart, horses, cows (looking somewhat bored by it all) and the noise level was amazing with people shouting to each other, animals making animal sounds, and on top of this, was a rather impressive stack of speakers around the stage with an accordion player and keyboard player, blasting out.

He seemed very calm in all the confusion

 

Not impressed with her ribbons - perhaps wrong colourway

Good sound system

People seem to have either come for the week or the day and were camping all over the fields around the fair.  All very well organised with blankets, picnic or dining tables, chairs and even a sunbed or too.

Resting in the shade of the trees

There was a small area roped off for the mass with a set of bleachers for people to sit on and as it got towards 4.00pm, they started to fill up and people started to congregate around the area.  The priests were in beautiful robes and were led into the ring by a man carrying a large cross.  There was a lovely little choir who sang beautifully and then various ladies read pieces from the bible.  One priest in particular appeared to be rather shy and was mouthing the words to hymns.  The service continued with the backdrop of mooing, baaing and general chattering but it was a really nice thing to see.

Awaiting the start of the Mass

The priests following the cross onto the dais



It's raining again - now where are my wellies?

Whilst the UK has been basking in glorious sunshine and blue skies, we have been somewhat grey and damp.  As you can see from the photographs, I have nothing to complain about because it has done the tomatoes immense favours.  The tomatoes were like this in the middle of April:

And look at them today, 6 May!

They are already smelling tomatey when they are watered and we are encouraging Boris and Beyonce, the huge bees we have, to do their work.

Although it is a bit irritating when you have had some glorious sunbathing days and got the patio organised, we need rain badly for the crops and vines and, unlike the UK, you know the sun will return shortly, so a quick re-organise of patio to get sunloungers under cover, plants away from edge of cascades off the roof, means we are organised to get the best of the rain.  We are also utilising our spare wood bin as a water butt.  We have it under the edge of the roof and it basically fills in about half an hour when the rains come down heavily as it collects all the run off from the roof.  Excellent for watering the plants too as they certainly prefer it to water from the well.

I have not posted for a while because I seem to have been 'busy' but please do not ask me what I have been doing because I can't seem to work out why I have not had time to post!  Glenn went back to the UK for a few days and returned shocked at the price of things, and whilst he was there, my lovely friend, Wendy came in his place.  There is nothing better than having a girlfriend over for a good catch up session.  The weather was superb which was a bonus, the car playing up was definitely not!

My car is now nearly 11 years old and has been a wonderful purchase.  However, just like humans, cars start to get a bit cranky and mine is no exception.  It decided to throw a wobbler whilst Wendy was here.  We took the car down to a garage in Cascais that has successfully repaired it after a couple of altercations with other cars, and they checked it out and said it needed a new bit to sort it out and that they would call when the piece was in, but to be very careful as the car was actually in 'get home mode' only ie only drive when necessary. 

Even a local trip a couple of days later proved too much for it and it refused sulkily to start after another visit to Colares.  A lovely local man offered assistance and the name of an electrician, which was incredibly kind and shows how lovely the local people are here but we managed to start it and after a chat with the garage again who said the part had actually just arrived, drove carefully to Cascais praying there were no hold ups which would mean stopping and stalling!  We got there and the wonderful garage fitted the piece there and then with smiles and jokes and we were able to drive home again without any problems.

The following week I organised that the car would go in for a full service ready for an MOT, which is due in July.  We had to leave it overnight and when I picked it up, they had actually taken it for the MOT, therefore saving me from having to lurk about in July and apart from a couple of small things that need to be done before winter and the next MOT in 2012, everything had been done.  My grateful thanks go to Pires Auto Nova, Rua Jose Florinda, Cascais and in particular to Jose (the Fox), Diogo and the lovely Marina who is in charge of the paperwork.

The 'Fox' and Diogo

The 'Fox' and Diogo

The lovely Marina

 We have been extremely lucky this month as our lovely landlords offered us a piece of ground to grow our vegetables.  I think they thought we were running out of space on the patio!!!  I  chose a patch that had previously been a small allotment and then we got out our books to see what would be best to grow.  Ignoring all the advice in the two books I have, on the pretext of visiting the garden centre to give some cat sachets (a lovely gift from Aunty Wendy to my two, who promptly decided they did not like them - how rude was that) to their lovely little cat who has just given birth to a couple of kittens - the father having done a runner as per usual - we ended up (or rather I wandered off up the fruit section) with three raspberry canes, one blackcurrant bush and one redcurrant bush for our starter kit!  I also invested in some onion seed, some leek seed and was rather sternly told to resist anything else until we had worked on the earth!!!

As you can see from the photo, it is a rather large area, so we have chosen just to take a piece of it to begin with and see how we go from there.  We have dug a small section and planted the fruit.  It is full of little stones so that takes a bit of organising, but we are doing it in stages, helped by our two doggy friends who think its great fun to get in the way and sit on things.  Dread to think what they might do when we start using our compost!  The labrador already has a love of the open water drain and paddles through it or even lies in it to get the full benefit of rotting, dropped leaves. 

Looking up towards our new venture

New beginnings (fingers crossed)

Although it would have been nice to have the allotment closer to our house, the walk will do us good and we can use the car down the track when we need to carry the big stuff.  We are also lucky that there are plenty of gardening tools for us to make use of and there is a water supply just close by, which was obviously in use when this side was full of grapevines - it's now given over to growing pines.  Our only concern is the bunnies!  We appear to have three on the estate that I am aware of.  One close to our house who likes to graze along the sides of the driveway by the grapevines; one who lives up near our allotment and one who is over the other side of the grapevines.  I am hoping that there is enough green stuff for them to scoff without having a go at whatever we try.  The dogs often disturb them but don't catch them as it's too much like hard work!  They prefer to give chase for about 5 seconds and then sit and watch!

The spring rains have encouraged all the flowers to bloom beautifully.  I gave the roses I inherited a good 'haircut' as Ted Weeks used to say, and I have been rewarded by them coming out and looking far healthier than they did last year.  It is so nice to cut them and bring them inside and admire them.  I usually buy flowers at the weekend market at Almocageme but using your own is really nice.  The back raised flower bed still needs a bit of work but the wisteria, honeysuckle and lavenders are all doing well and the jasmine smells gorgeous.

One of my rose bushes

The first bouquet of roses of the year

The fireflies have been out again and caused a bit of amusement as Glenn got a bit over-excited as he had not seen one before.  There was one on our patio door so he decided to have a closer look and got the torch and shone it on the poor thing, who obviously felt humilated by the competition and promptly stopped flashing.  Luckily Frank, as we called him, returned the following night and brought his friend, Felicity, with him so we had a lovely light show.   They are so pretty to watch flying in and out of the hedgerows or sitting on the door.





A firefly in all its glory

So when the UK has finished with our sunshine, we would be very grateful for its return and we will send your rain to water your lawns.