“Solitude, silence, and nature – these are the only real luxuries left on Earth, and all three are elusive to most humans.”
– Andrew Evans

I’m surrounded by the buzz of bees, as I move the hosepipe into a new spot. The sun is pleasantly hot on my exposed skin. Both the pineapple sage and rosemary are lifesavers this time of the year, but there are still some basil flowers left for the bees to enjoy, as well as some scraggly Mexican sunflowers and zinnias. It has been both the hottest and driest September and October since I moved here, but I must admit that I am soaking up the glorious warmth of the near perfect days, before the cold and rain of winter set in. I carve out time in my day to sit in the sun on the porch with an extra cup of coffee when there is no breeze, and enjoy those late afternoon walks with the cats in my flip-flops. These moments are few and far between, and I’ve learned not to squander them.

October has been busy a busy month, as I’ve scarcely found my feet after my trip to Uzbekistan, before I had to pick Michael up for a two-week visit. Our days were filled with work, but over time Michael has learned that one can only do what one can in any given amount of time, which means that mentally he has started to feel less frenzied and pressured, while enjoying the projects he is busy with.

Notes:
# Preparation work for a transition to 3 phase power was at the top of the list. It is something Michael has planned and applied for from the beginning. An electrician friend came over to work on that to free Michael up for other work, before we had our original Portuguese electrician over to explain that it was now time for him to take over the last step and to deal with the electricity supplier on our behalf. That part may take a while, as he is busy, but he has always come through for us in the end.

# The ring beam for the ‘office’ space was thrown, and steel beams put up. The next step is for Lawrence to build an additional small room to incorporate the electric boxes, but which we will also use for part of our mushroom project.

# As we are still waiting for the insulated panels Michael will use to build the grow rooms and lab for the mushrooms, he busied himself to build what we refer to as a ‘lung room’ for the project, which will house everything that is needed to control the temperature and humidity in the grow rooms.

# A lovely Portuguese guy, who has an air-conditioning business came over to install the air-conditioner in that room, as well as service the underfloor heating of the house, which has been on since then, as, although the temperature outside is still pleasant, a winter chill has already started to seep into the stones of the house.

# Other chores included fixing the pressure gauge at the well that has been broken for a couple of months, but luckily for us it was only that, and not the pump as we feared, as well as pulling water pipes and electric cables through already buried underground pipes, and drilling holes for the electrician to install earth spikes next to the workshop.

# He also managed to finally finish the steel table he now uses for welding, and managed to weld frames for holding the extra steel and wood we have left over from and already bought for other projects.

# All the cutting (both steel and wood) meant that I swept the workshop three times, and also moved out all the pipes and wood to be sorted and packed away in more permanent places. It is shocking how much rubbish one can accumulate, but the end result has opened up more floor space.

# Michael tend to relax when he does tractor work, which meant he often worked till it was almost dark, not only grading part of our access road, but also moving soil to fill up the gaps behind the dry stone wall, and trying to level the area in front of the house a bit more, although that was an almost futile task as the soil is still almost rock hard, after a long, dry summer.

# Although I am no fan of using a chainsaw, I did start my little battery driven one up to deal with a neighbouring tree that fell into our land a couple of months ago, and also cut out all the low hanging branches from some willow trees in our seasonal stream. The next step is to burn these cuttings, but as it hasn’t rained yet, that task will have to wait for a later date. And then there is always bits of strimming, but in general it is a task I love, and it was quite pleasant to start up my strimmer again.

# The sharka (seasonal pond) has finally dried up. Our rainy season usually starts in September, but like last year, we’ve had almost no rain. Only 4 mm in September, and 22 mm in October.

# The paperwork for the workshop is quietly chugging along in what feels like an alternate universe, and I recently picked up the official building permit (and folder with all the relevant paperwork for the project) at the municipality. It’s only lagging behind 4 years . . .

# The hawthorn trees are truly magnificent this year, and I’ve already done three batches of hawthorn ketchup. I suspect I will do another batch or two before the end of the season, as it is pleasant to pick the haws while out on a walk with the cats, and with the long winter nights setting in, it gives me something to do at night, as it is an involved, tedious process.

# I’ve also picked and dried Sichuan pepper corns and made a jar of rosehip jelly from the rosehips I picked earlier in the month. That said, it actually looks more like a syrup than a jelly, so I suspect I should have boiled it for longer.

# Matthias and his team came to harvest the olives on the 10^th, but as Michael and I were driving home from Madrid on that day, we just got the end of it. This was an excellent year, and we got 50 liters of oil (the most we’ve ever had), from 504 kg of cleaned olives.

A Moment of Joy:
This month really consisted of a myriad small moments of joy or gratitude – nothing specific or big. A big yellow moon gliding towards the horizon, just as the sky is turning pink where the sun will rise, or a Sunday afternoon, when the world feels devoid of people, yet the birds and bees create a sound track appropriate for what could otherwise be described as silence. Idling the car, while I wait for the Red Legged partridges to scramble over the stone wall, or pausing in the sunshine when I step outside. I never fail to appreciate that I live a life in which “solitude, silence, and nature” forms the backbone of my daily life.

Portuguese Traditions:
The 5^th is officially celebrated as the day in which the monarchy was overthrown and Portugal became a Republic.

The 13^th is associated with the “Miracle of the Sun”, or Milagre do Sol, as the final apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917 at Cova da Iria near Fátima, which subsequently became the most important religious site in Portugal, and a place of pilgrimage.

It is also the month in which the clocks move an hour back, and it starts to feel like autumn – not just as the weather begins to cool down, but also in the seasonal harvests that take place. The last grapes are harvested at the beginning of the month, and as the weather cools so are chestnuts and olives towards the end of the month, and into November.   

Written by: Jolandi