Still hot and Dry

It's been a long hot summer and the heat has not lessened as the season changes. Now the sun slants in under our hats and we all squint to see. Cars are dusty, windows are dusty. Trees are dusty. There has been no rain for four months and the reservoirs are at their lowest in 20 years.  We pray for rain. The olives are dropping off the trees, shriveled and too early. Not good.

My massive building project has reached a good height. The top! I am now working on the roof. My sudden impulse to build another story has proved to be a major campaign. It is much harder to get the cob on the walls when they are nearly four meters high!  Also, I damaged my shoulder, mixing too much cob, which slowed things down considerably. Hmm, I'm beginning to feel a bit older... Now I will get the roof on before the rains (if they come) then I can work on plastering the inside.

My garden has suffered from 40 degrees all summer and my neglect, but still there are a few valiant vegetables. Tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. The figs also suffered from the heat but the ones that we managed to pick were tasty. I would say that the grapes were the best crop. Every vine had a different explosion of taste. I haven't made wine this year, but it looks like next year it will be possible.  The 'morangeiros', the wild grapes, which I planted a cutting of, did very well. Lots of fruit for a three year old plant, and no water! They are called morangeiros as they have an almost strawberry flavour.

We live 25 minutes from the beautiful west coast but I seldom go, especially during July and August as the beaches are packed and the seaside towns are too, but now it is back to almost empty and we are coming out of the woodwork to enjoy what the tourists enjoyed earlier. I went for a lovely walk along the coast near Cavaleiro the other weekend. All the coastline has been marked as a massive footpath from Alentejo through to the Algarve to Spain and it is becoming very popular throughout the year, so I passed a lot of walkers with their boots and backpacks. Everyone very content, it seemed. The cliffs are quite dramatic and the sea air a relief from the heat inland.