A not so busy week

Hi guys,
In case you've been wondering why I've been so quiet this week it's mostly just because it's been a pretty quiet week. Except for the odd panic moment life here at Casa Pedro is fairly tame - and I mean that in the best possible way!

The main project of the week has been to freshen up the little apartment where Linda's dad used to stay. We moved everything out and before we knew it Muhammad - the husband of Fatna who's worked here for years - had the place painted. Unfortunately, while his speed painting was fairly impressive, it was also pretty messy. The last couple of days have been spent trying the chip, sand and scrub excess paint off of wooden beams, wooden furniture and tile floors. At least now its finished and the place is looking shiny and new ready for it's next inhabitants.

Although we never got round to buying any new plants I did spend some time preparing plant pots and flower beds just in case. Although weeding perhaps isn't the most exciting job but when its gloriously sunny and warmer than any Orkney summer it's great to have an excuse to be outside.

One of my specific jobs here last year had been looking after the donkey - feeding him, taking him out and cleaning out the pen. This year I got to keep the job - mostly I think cause the other helper, Mac, is just a little scared of the big guy. Normally Donkey is the perfect example of a good friendly donkey, but typically, the one day I decide to show Mac bow nice he is, he decided to act out.  After a good headbutt to the face and kick to the hand I finally got him tied up before he tried anything else but I think Mac will continue to keep his distance - oh well. Thankfully Donkey's aim wasn't great so he didn't do any damage to my hand but I have been left with a black eye that's now starting to look like very badly applied eye makeup.

Other than that there hasn't been too much going on here - I've had plenty of time to catch up on some emails and even spent a while yesterday just chilling out by the pool!
I had a chance to Skype the other half a couple of days ago which was nice since it's the first time I'm away myself for about a year.
Linda's son Dani arrived last night for a visit, having just arrived from Sweden. I think he's leaving again today but it's been nice to have a little catch up.
It's also been quite how people seem to have remembered me from last year - even the two mechanics who worked on the car last year remembered me!

Pictured below is my good friend Donkey...

Well I can't think of anything else to say so I guess I'll go find something useful to do.
Next time you hear from me I'll probably be either in Barcelona airport or CUZCO, PERU!! :D
Speak to you soon!

Sunny, sunny Spain!

Well I made it successfully through the next leg of the journey.
After a but uneventful trip I made it from Edinburgh to San Martin to rejoin Linda and Pedro at the hostel. For any new readers I spent about a month here last summer working in the the garden and had such a great time that I promised to return as soon as I would. So here I am.

The flight from Edinburgh was pretty smooth and apart from two screeching kids sitting opposite me it was a decent flight. At least the grandmother apologised about the noise...once she realised I was actually British and could understand her...
I spent the night in the airport and after a kind cleaning lady pointed out where the divider-less seats were I actually got a couple of hours sleep.
First thing in the morning I gt a bus into the city and the the direction of another kind local I made it to the bus station with plenty of time to spare!
Two buses later and I was in Olite - the nearest town to San Martin for the bus where Linda met me to take me 'home'.

The rest of the day was spent quietly pottering about, catching up with everyone and getting to know Linda's latest helper - Mac.

Friday came and it was like I'd never left. I grabbed some breakfast before getting to work checking up on the donkey, surveying what to do in the garden and reorganising my bag after it'd exploded over the room.

We also spent some time cleaning up a couple of disused rooms in preparation for an English immersion course that'll be running here soon.
Linda ran Mac and I into Olite for a couple of hours as they're having their fiestas at the moment so we hung out and listened to the music for a bit before heading back for lunch - couscous with vegetables - yum.

The afternoon was pretty quiet with us mostly chilling out for the siesta time but in the evening we got changed into out fiesta clothes - the traditional red and white - and headed back to Olite. They had the young bullocks out in the street getting them excited for the bull run. It was a bit confusing to be honest since they would bring one animal out for 5 minutes to win it up then stick it back inside and get another one. After about an hour of this they finally got them all out to run through the street but it was quite a bit smaller then Tafalla. One the plus side - by not bringing them into the ring and taunting them hat way the animals did seem a bit calmer in general.
Next came the dancing. Everybody and by everybody I mean lots of the girls and the occasional boy plus a few older couples - gathered together under the pavilion to dance to some traditional music. From our spot on top of one of the bull-barriers it looked pretty impressive. The kids are obviously taught the dances at  young age and everybody was keeping time and moving together - laughing and joking as they went.
By the time this had finished it was around 10p and the people were disappearing - obviously heading off to find food. We took that as our cue to leave and after a quick call to linda it was home to bed.

This morning has been a semi-productive one at least. I did some research into what plants to get for the garden again (since last years ones died) and I cleared the dead plants out of the pots so they'll be ready for the next attempt at growing in them...see how long they last this time!
Linda's grandson is staying at the moment which is nice since they don't get to see him often. He's about 2 now so it's kinda cool seeing him try to learn new words, though he did decide this morning that it would be fun to throw the calculator around outside - oops.

The photo is of me, Pedro, Linda and Rex just before I left last year

Well that's another post done. I'm off to grab a coffee then it's back to work in the garden!
Speak to you all again soon! :)

Back on the road

Hi everyone!
So for those of you who don't already know that's me already on the road.

I got the ferry down from Orkney on Friday night and arrived in Edinburgh Saturday morning to meet Courtney.

On Saturday we mostly hung out at her apartment while some guys from Sky came to sort her TV then went in search of food. After wandering about for  a while we finally decided on a local Indian place with proper Indian food - not that British-Indian stuff you normally get! We had a quite night after that after a long day.

Sunday got off to a slow start but once we finally got going we headed over to her uni so Courtney could get a head start on coursework while I scrounged some internet time.  By the time w'd finished it was getting on so we headed back into town. I needed to pick up a couple of last minute things for Peru so we ticked a couple of other things off my to do list there before dinner. we headed for a place called La Favorita over the road from Courtney's flat. The food was amazing; we both got a small pasta starter each followed by a split pizza and a caramel fudge sundae - so good!

On Monday Courtney had to go to uni so I hung out in the apartment for the morning before heading in to town. I didn't get much done to be honest but I did have a nice time sitting in Waterstones for a while reading with tea and a fruit scone until the rain passed.
Courtney and I met up again, along with her flatmate Ellie, and we went out for dinner with their friends to a Japanese place across town - the food was pretty good but couldn't quite beat the Italian from the night before.

Yesterday was spent up any loose ends before my flight today so I was sorting things like money exchange as well as seeing some different parts of the city. I met up with another best mate - Rhona - who'd come across from Stirling for the evening. We had dinner and happened to end up in Tron, a bar that does karaoke on Tuesday's . With that offer we got Courtney to come out and we had a good time chilling. They both got a bit of singing in while I played cameraman - which suited me fine!

So my flight is today which means I've spent the morning milling about watching TV and getting packed up again. Now to finish up and grab some food before thinking about heading to the airport!
Speak to you all again from Spain! :)

The return of the Gipsy

Welcome back everyone!!!
And hi to any new readers!

So it's been quite some time since I last posted anything to this blog - a whole year in fact - but that's because I've not been on the road much. However as of Friday I'll be off on another new adventure.

I'm going to be making a couple of stops in Edinburgh and Spain but my big trip will see me flying out to Peru at the start of October. Now for those of you who don't know, Peru has always been that on country that I've always dreamed of visiting - even back as a scrawny little kid in combats - so the fact I have the opportunity to make this trip is just amazing and I can't wait to get out there and see the place in real life.
And to top it off, while I'm there are I'm mostly going to be working at a Biological research center right out in the Amazon rainforest - dream come true!

I'm going to be away about 4 months so of course I'll also be sure to go across to Machu Picchu and hopefully a couple of other important sites over there - so let me know if you have any 'must see' suggestions!

In the mean time I've pretty much got most of my paper work printed and I've already checked into my flight from Edinburgh to Barcelona, so I guess I'd better get started on packing!!

Speak to you all soon - and don't worry - I'll hopefully be showing you some amazing travel photos very, very soon!

Blood, sweat and almost tears

Hi everyone!
There's been so much going on in the last few days that I've really only just found time to blog so I warn you it could be a long one!
When Caroline and I arrived on Thursday afternoon we were shown around the house and the land and got to know our hosts a little bit. There are two adjoined houses that have already received a lot of attention - one is virtually finished and the other is getting there bit by bit. Mandy and John also want to turn some of the outbuildings into small rental blocks too. They've been trying to do a lot with the land in the time they've been here but due to unpredictable weather many of the plants are really struggling. After the tour we had dinner and I discovered that Mandy's mother actually lives in Orkney - I just can't escape!! We didn't stay up too late because we were working in the morning but we bad a good chat and watched the sun set from the terrace.
On Friday Caroline and I were quite happy to have a lie in and got up at 7.30am to start work after a quick breakfast and a mug of coffee each. Our mission was to paint as much of an outbuildings outside wall as possible. The wall joins with the white boundary wall so we wanted to make them match and make it look like someone actually lived there. We had a nice morning working away with a quick break for home made grape juice (made from home grown grapes) and we finished our working day at around 1.30pm.
After a nice lunch with salad and quiche Caroline and I opted for playing tourist in the town. She was only there for the one night and was leaving that afternoon so we made the most of out time and headed to the Convento de Christo (Convent of Christ). It was build back around 1160 and was the home of the Portuguese sector of the Order of the Knight's Templar for two hundred years before Order was dissolved and the Portuguese section became the Order of Christ. It's one of Portugal's most important historical monuments and is really is impressive. Looking up at it from the town you get a good idea of it's size. As we wandered around it was difficult to even work out what part of the castle or convent we were in. Old dormitory rooms filled three or four corridors, cloisters are to be found here , there and everywhere and despite the fact that the main church was undergoing restoration work from the outside you could see huge paintings covering the walls and ceiling with intricate stone carvings at every corner. We walked around for a good couple of hours before we finally decided we much have seen everything so we drove down to the town and went and explored the gardens below the castle.
We didn't spend long there however since we were both suffering from the heat a little and Caroline thought an old ear infection had returned - it was causing her some serious although slightly humerous balance issues. We drove back to Carril afterwards and I got dropped off at the have before Caroline drove off for some goat festival she'd agreed to go to.
The evening was spend chilling out chilling out and swapping travel and helpX  stories mostly since Mandy and John have done quite a bit of both.
Saturday started off with breakfast and the mandatory coffee fix before getting to work. Mandy and I spent the morning in the garden, first clearing weeds in the flower beds and the vegetable plots and then planting. We put in some coriander, rocket and spinach and had a rummage for what else could be planted next. We finished up then got a quick lunch before Mandy and I headed out for some time away from the building dust. We drove down to the lake nearby for some downtime. We spent most of the afternoon swimming - well I swam, Mandy thought the water was too cold - and reading on the Head in the sun. We got home around 5pm but we didn't stick around long. There was a living statue exhibit going on for a few days all around the town so we went into Tomar for a look around. The statues were brilliant, I felt sorry for the people having to stand around all painted up under the hot sun but they were really interesting and represented real statues and moments in Portuguese history. As we walked around looking for each one we also found examples of traditional folk music and dancing. I think we spent about an hour looking around before we returned home for dinner and another quiet evening at home.
On Saturday I returned to my painting mission. We'd gotten just beyond the half way mark last time although there had been two of us then. But I thought I might still be able to get finished so I stuck my head phones into John's iPod (since he wasn't using it), turned UB40 on to full volume and got to work. I managed to get almost all of it done although when i got called in near lunch time i still had a large chuck at the top to finish. However I needed to get scrubbed up and get ready to go since we'd be invited to Mandy and John's friends in another village. Wendy and Will are also expats and they invited another friend of theirs too. Our 'lunch' actually went on almost 8 hours! We ate, talked, laughed and drank (all in quite large quantities) and all had a great time. But eventually it was time  to leave - after all, the plants hadn't been watered yet!
We just had a pizza for dinner since we'd eaten so much already then I wandered off for a lovely Skype call from back home before bed.
Monday started of in the normal fashion then it was into my painting clothes to do some more work on the wall. I managed to get it all finished and still had time to draw up and paint some nice yellow borders around the windows and paint the metal work on the mains water tap box since it was next to the path outside the land and looked pretty grotty. After a few busy days I decided to stay home for the afternoon and evening in an attempt to find some helpX projects for October...no luck yet though - maybe cause I slept through half of that time!
Our work plans for Tuesday were a little different to normal. We were up bright and early to arrive and start work at a local vineyard - Casal das Freiras. We were shown to the field were we would be working however nobody had thought to tell us to bring our own secateurs... when the other pickers heard our situation you could tell they thought it was pretty funny - this silly English folk haven't even brought anything to work with! Luckily one old guy just happened to have three spare pairs so under his guidance we got to work. We worked for the first couple of hours before heading for a quick break then we realised that everyone else was parked right next to where we were working...we were on the other side of the field. However we hurried off for a drink and a quick snack before getting back to work. During this second stint I managed to find a young Portuguese guy who spoke English so we chatted when we were working on the same row of vines. We thought lunch would be provided for the workers but we quickly realised that we were fending for ourselves. Luckily we did have some more cake and some bananas in the car so we made do with that and relaxed a little before heading back into the field. When we got back I ended up working by the guy I talked to before, Tiago, and we ended up just teaming up and working along the rows chatting as we went.
Around 3pm however I was starting to feel a bit funny. I hadn't been wearing a hat and the portion size at lunch probably didn't help. I kept working despite it until I tried to cut a rather awkward bunch of grapes. Not only did I finally manage to cut through the vine, I also sliced right across the top of my finger - ouch! Definitely the most painful injury I've had in a while and it was gushing blood - nice. I was feeling dizzy before and, despite the fact I don't have a problem with blood, this pushed me over the edge and I had to carefully sit down before I fell down. After a bit of fussing and staring from the experienced workers, a couple of cups of water and the offer of Tiago's hat I got back to work - with my shirt wrapped around my head instead since the hat wouldn't fit over my hair.
Just before 5pm Mandy shouted over that she had to leave. She'd managed to cut through her thumb and was suffering even more than I had been. We drove back to the vineyard's owner's place so she cut get her hand seen too properly since the grape pickers hadn't done the best of jobs with the first aid but as we were finishing up the truck arrived with the grapes. We watched the grapes getting taken off their stems by the machine and had a look around the production room before being handed a box of wine for our efforts and heading home.
The evening was spent redressing work wounds - Mandy got hers properly cleaned and dressed it to my standards - then we all had an early night.
Today's work load was a little lighter after 8 hours in the field the day before. Mandy and I cleaned up some more of the garden and planted pak choi, carrots and beans before digging out around the fruit trees so that water would stay by the tree where it could be used instead of just running off  to other parts of the land. We also spent some time picking figs and by the time we had all those jobs done it was lunch time once again.
After lunch we decided to go on a little field trip. First we drove out to see the aqueduct which originally supplied the convent with water. It's still in almost perfect condition and the view from the top is pretty spectacular. After this we drove out to the Grutas de mira de aire - the largest caves in Portugal. They were first discovered back in 1947 and the cave system stretches along over 11km (although only 600m is open to the public) and over 230m deep in some points. The caves are amazing, they're huge! There are some brilliant examples of stalactites, huge caverns, flow stones which look like waterfalls made of rock and loads of other impressive geological structures - brilliant! Unfortunately the tour guide only spoke Portuguese during the tour but we still got a lot out of the trip and I really enjoyed it.
We got home around 6.30pm and had a nice quiet dinner, except for the dramatic moment when I apparently had a mouse by my foot. Since then I've just been super busy getting this written. However I've now told you all about my adventures so far here and I really should decide where I'm going after the Algarve next week.
So, until next time!

Emergency Exit!

Hi everyone,
Been getting a little behind with posting at the moment due to lack of facilities and/or time so this one should cover the rest of my time up in the hills and maybe a little bit more if I get time tonight. Sorry for the irregularities but that's just part of being on the road.
On Monday afternoon I spent some time sitting reading a bit more of Sherlock Holmes and chatting to the other helpers mostly about past travel and adventures - the usual topic. In the evening though we lost running water. The tap water is pumped from the river every 3 or 4 days but the switch is in the boss' house and the boss was still away. However after all the work in the field a proper wash really was necessary so I wandered up the riverbed looking for a bit of water. I did find a big puddle a fair way up which I could and did use although it was overflowing with pond skaters and tadpoles. So after getting kind of clean I returned back to the quinta but was sent straight out again to collect water from the spring back up the river - never mind.
We ended up having a sort of duck stew with rice, melon and orange for dinner although the whole kitchen smelt very strongly of goat cheese and I think the smell had contaminated the duck stew cause it did have a bit of a wiff...I mostly kept to the rice and fruit - nice overall though.
After eating and clearing up it was time to move out to the 'patio' to "enjoy the ambience" as Fredrico loves to say. We sent the last of the electricity time power went off at 11pm - watching The Real Dirt on Farmer John. It's a film documentary about the history of a Midwestern American farm and what happens when the extremely eccentric son becomes the owner. Some parts are a little slow but it's a pretty interesting documentary.
Tuesday morning started much the same as Monday, up at 6.30, stumble around in the dark for half an hour until the power comes on, breakfast, off to the field. We spent the whole morning sickling once again although the progress seemed to be a bit slower than the previous day. By the end of the 5 hours work I was suffering quite a bit so I ended up spending most of the afternoon resting - after I'd stunk the room out with deep heat for my back and threw down a couple of painkillers of course.
Over the evening I got a bit of studying done and tried to talk trees with Caroline but I couldn't give much input as she knows way more than I do on the topic. After dinner Fernando eventually arrived although our first meeting was pretty short - just a "hi nice to meet you" sort of thing then off to bed...oh well maybe there would be more conversation the next morning...or not.
I got up and followed the usual routine but my back was unbelievably stiff and painful. We went out to the field and got the first two hours done before Fernando arrived on his tractor to come and collect the cuttings.  Unfortunately it seems he was allergic to the grass cuttings - hayfever - so he left the work to us three girls while he watched from the tractor. I kept cutting  while Caroline and Elizabeth put the grass on the trailer. It took a good hour to fill it but once we'd finished we headed back to the house for a snack. During this time Fernando discovered my back injury and thankfully put me on light duties. I spent 2 hours peeling cloves of garlic.  The idea was to preserve them in salt, paprika and oil, but first the whole bag needed to be peeled. I think I managed about 30 overall and it wasn't a bad job, better for my back at least, although I did smell of garlic for the rest of the day.
We had lunch then all sat out on the patio for a bit discussing loads of organic farming and sustainable living ideas although Fredrico and Jerome had to go and see to the goats every so often. In the evening Fernando offered to take a couple of us into the nearest town so me and Elizabeth went along - I needed to find an internet connection and Elizabeth needed to restock her fruit and veg supplies. We were meant to be meeting a new volunteer there, an American backpacker, but since we couldn't find him or contact him we gave up and went back to the quinta. As soon as we returned he called but luckily he was only at the end of the dirt road so Fernando went back out to collect him with Caroline. It turns out she had been at the same place with the American, Alex, before! Neither of them had enjoyed the previous project since the guy was really weird (in a bad way) but they both knew about this quinta and ended up meeting up once again.
Now, Caroline was leaving on Thursday and after a bit of discussion I decided to go with her. I can't stand giving up but I needed to give myself a bit of recovery work and I wasn't going to be able to do that there. Caroline also wanted to check out my new project and see a bit of helpX variety so we decided to stick together for a bit. It's a bit of a shame that I couldn't stick around because the other volunteers were great people and the location was beautiful but I nowadays I know when to call it a day and be sensible with my health.
Before we set off we went for a bit of a wander up the river. There was an abandoned house a little way along that we wanted to explore. Building regulations are much stricter within the national park and it turns out the owners had used concrete in the roof which was illegal. Instead of altering it they just abandoned the place so now it's sitting there, half renovated and half furnished but totally abandoned.
After walking around a bit we finally got ourselves organised and after saying good bye to the farm residents - the humas, the pigs, the gorgeous and very friendly young Siamese cat and all the other animals - we finally got on the road around 11.30.
En route to the new project in Carril we stopped off at a lake near Castelo Branco for some photos and a snack. Although it took us about half an hour to find the place the view was definitely worth it! We spent a little time there before carrying on up the road with windows wide open and Bunny Wailer blasting out of the CD player.
The location of this new project is a little village called Carril, near Tomar which is about an you north-north-east from Lisbon. We arrived around 3pm to meet our new hosts and find out what we would be doing.
Look forward to finding out what the work plan was in my next post. I'll be updating again very soon then hopefully we'll be all caught up and up to date - I'm confusing myself with so much backtracking at the moment!
Until next time!

Deeper into Rural Portugal!

Hi everyone,
So I actually wrote this on Monday but I couldn't get online until now. After this will soon follow the post for the last few days.

it's been a while since I last wrote but things have been relatively busy yet unexciting
Tuesday morning consisted of a couple of hours at the grandmother's coffee shop followed by cutting and collecting more branches and bracken for the goats. After a typical lunch of kale soup, salad and salted cod we drove over to a nearby village and spent the afternoon collecting apples from their orchard - again for the goats. The evening was spent milking before heading back to the coffee shop for dinner - basically the same as lunch but the fish was made into fritters.
During the night there was a huge lightening storm which lasted for hours. We were all kept up by it - me because I love lightening storms and everyone else because the thunder was so loud it was almost impossible to sleep.
In the morning all was calm again but it was a pretty quiet day with not a lot of work. Just milking, refilling water buckets, distributing some more of the food we'd cut the day before and organising bailing twine...I think we spent an hour winding lengths of it onto a long stick before we gave up and milked again. By this point it was raining again so there was nothing else to do but finish up and eat.
On Thursday after milking we helped moving breeze blocks to the new little shed Agnostiho is building to cover the well. The breeze blocks are used for the first part of the roof so we spent a good amount of time hauling wheelbarrows of blocks around as well as doing the usual  feeding, refilling water, etc. Nothing exciting but lots of good hard work.
Friday was day off number 2 but it was about as eventful as any other day. My morning was spent getting ahead with reading for Uni, learning some more from Mr Holmes and generally pottering about. I made a salad with some food I'd been given the day before then I got on with some more productive things - sewed up a few holes in my clothes, did some washing, swept the floors stuff like that. Around 5pm I was able to go to the cafe with the internet and had a nice walk down while it was still hot. I spent about an hour online before a new lightening storm appeared. It was fine until the storm was right over the village, afterwards though things went a little down hill. Lightening struck the power lines the the backup generator wasn't working so well either. The internet obviously went off and after about 20 minutes of waiting j decided to call it a day and head home. Unfortunately the storm was still overhead and with no jacket I started out to brave the weather. As I got to the door the bar owner insisted I take his umbrella but I still kept up a fast pace on the way home - being caught in a lightening storm with an umbrella isn't great either!
By Saturday morning the weather had improved but it still looked a little dubious up on the hill. Instead of driving lol the way to the normal spot for the goat food we just drove to their nearest other bit of land with only the small trailer - much better than taking the big one and having it only half full as the rains start. We ended up making two trips since the weather held out despite the constant tears from the daughter - some were deserved after getting scraped and scratched by branches and sticks but I couldn't even figure out what the problem was half the time. We ended our second trip as the wind started to pick up and headed back for the house. It was nearby an since Agnostiho had the petrol strimmer he decided to walk and carry it while Anita drove the tractor. Since Kiara stayed with her I had the trailer to myself so I spent the ride lying on top of all the branches trying not to bounce out but enjoying the tearless, peaceful drive back. We finished up for the day with milking and dinner at the grandmother's before parting for an early night.
Since I was leaving that day Sunday morning was spent packing up my stuff then returning the borrowed umbrella to the cafe with the internet. Typically nobody was there but Figueiro is the sort of village where it doesn't matter so I left it at the door before heading to the grandmother's cafe for coffee. Anita and Agnostiho arrived with Kiara around 11am and after saying goodbye we headed east. They had offered to drive me to my new project since it wasn't too far away and they hoped to swap ideas and knowledge concerning goats with my next hosts who have about 120. We stopped for a snack in the supermarket then headed off to our meeting point. It turned out the projector wasn't actually around and he didn't mention the proposed knowledge swap to the worker who picked me up so they missed out there but I think they enjoyed the slight change of scenery and when I left they told me to contact them if I didn't like the new place - they would come and bring me back!
I did have a good time with them although the language barrier was a bit of a strain sometimes since Anita had to translate everything from her third language - English - to her second language - Portuguese - and visa versa  but considering how I was the first helpXer they'd ever had they managed pretty well.
So, I arrived at my new project on Sunday afternoon after a bit of a meeting point mix up - we stopped a junction short of the place the worker, Fredrico,  had stopped. The quinta is a few miles up a dirt track, really up in the hills. It's totally off grid and runs on solar power and drinking water is collected from about half a kilometre up the currently dry river. The goats are walked up and down the hills during the day and guarded by traditional Portuguese shepherding dogs, one of whom is apparently rather aggressive and only subdued when Fernando - the owner - is here  which he isn't... it turns out he's away seeing family for a couple of days or something like that.
Staying at the quinta at the moment is Jerome who I'll mention first since he's currently snoozing on a rock nearby. He wants to try shepherding here first before possibly returning to France to take up a proper job working with goats in the alps. Next is Caroline, a forestry student from Brighton who's here getting some hands on experience for a while before driving her van back to England and returning to her coursework. Then there's Elizabeth (although the German spelling might be somewhat different). She's studying linguistics near Berlin but she seems to be quite interested in sustainable living too and is here to work on her knowledge of that as well as Portuguese. Since I haven't met Mr Boss Man yet the last person to mention is Fredrico. He's been here a year but working properly as opposed to volunteering. He's travelled a bit but still has some pretty impressive travel dreams to achieve such as travelling from Portugal to India hitchhiking - now that would be one amazing trip...although I think there's a couple of countries which could make it veeeery difficult to complete. If any of the above read this I hope you don't mind the very brief, first impression descriptions!
Anyway, yesterday afternoon was mostly spent meeting the people, goats and dogs and giving Elizabeth some dreadlocking tips before a pasta salad dinner, some time 'enjoying the ambience on the patio' and an early night.
This morning we were up at 6.30 - it turns out its pretty cold here in the morning - and started work around 7.30. Jerome and Fredrico headed off to the goats while us lasses spent the morning cutting the long grass with sickles. Rural Portugal really does seem to have been lost in time - crops and grass are still cut with scythes and sickles, water is often collected from the village fountain or a local spring and no one seems to know or care about the outside world. But I seem to have gone off topic...again. We worked until around 1pm with a half hour break before finishing for day which is the general schedule around here. So this afternoon I've  just been chilling out, wandering around a bit and writing. But now I'd better go and see if I can connect to this WiFi network or all this writing will have been in vain!
I shall tell you more about this interesting little place soon so until next time!