Now that was a nice surprise

It's only three weeks since i had my 65 birthday and tonight the last worry i had has disappeared. I know that when you reach retirement age you get your well earned pension But a big worry. What if something went wrong and the payment didn't come through. What if because the payment didn't arrive I would i have to go back to the UK to sort out what every was wrong..

Well tonight at 12.06 i logged into my bank after ordering a card from Funkypidgeon and i only wanted to check the payment had left my back as it normally does. Yes Funkypidgeon had been paid and i had my pension paid in what a surprise. Wow i didn't expect that quite yet for a few  more days. By 12.10am i had already transfered some money onto my Euro card just in case they want it back.

That's a nice end to a worrying time.  I know i shouldn't worry but What If and now that's all gone life is back to the biggest worry each day is what to have for dinner.

To Celebrate i opened a bottle Of Courvoisier Cognac to toast the next chapter of my life.

Sunshine and rain both at the same time

It was an hour and a half before sundown a beautiful sunny end to a perfect day. I had spent a lot of time weeding and preparing my raised beds and putting loads of seeds into a seed trays.

I suddenly felt some rain drops, that felt strange it was sunny. I knew nobody was using a hose pipe as i had see my neighbours go down to the fields to work.

A stray cloud had decided to pay a visit just while i was planting out my seeds. Before long it was a downpour that lasted for ages or so it seemed.

Thank goodness it was soon over and the for cast is for a little drizzle over the next 10 days.

Now the sun is shinning my view is wonderful

I posted some time ago about my window and the bars that made my kitchen almost a prison.  Blocking the view from my veranda is this tree beautiful as it may be i do wish it was gone and perhaps in the near future it will be.

Below is the view from my prison window the tree may be in the way but it's still a view that many would love to have.

Almost a forest glad it's not my job to plant.

I went shopping with a friend on Sunday. We went into a garden centre to have a look at the trees for sale. i found none i wanted but the offer price was a bit much for my friend to pass by so he picked 27 trees that seemed a lot to me but at between 2.50€ and 3.50€ each he got himself a bargain. be rearranging the rear and front passenger seats we got them all in. 

I had wanted to go to another garden centre / builders merchants and my friend was again looking at the trees on offer 53 trees later we started to load the car again. I found 2 black cherry trees and 5 Shiraz grape vines and then we where on are way to his house. In total he had  80 trees all at 2.5€ each and that seemed as many as he would need, he has a large area of flat land and also a large part that is partly slopping so 80 seemed enough.

While having a cup of tea and a beer he asked if i could go back the next day to get more trees and i agreed but to save time and a lot of driving i suggested we went back after tea. This time my friend went mad in total he got another 100 trees again all cost 2.5€ each. All trees where between 6ft and 8ft and most had buds or blossom on them so the where all in very good condition. 

Here i have planted 3 Shiraz grape vines and a Red currant and a Black currant. In the middle of these i planted lots of onions after reading about companion planting some time ago.








Just look at this lazy chicken sun bathing in the afternoon sun, just as long as she has laid an egg first.

Nice weather just the time to get more work done

The nice thing about the good weather we are enjoying is i am able to get some work done.
By getting the hand rails done i am now able to enjoy the outside on my veranda. I do still have a little to do like the rope around the veranda and a top like on a Pergola. As soon as i have reason to go over to where the timber guy i use i will order the timber for the top and then it's about done.

The picture looks odd but they are straight because i used a spirit level to make sure that they were OK.

Next came to the bottom of the stairs and i had a door spare so it was another job that could be done. The mistake i made when i first moved in was not wanting to have jobs done all over the house so i kept to just the kitchen. As the winter was coming to an end i realised that there was a lot of small jobs i could get done. The width of the stairs being narrow i cut into the wall to put the door frame in position so i only reduced the gap on the stairs by only a little.

The biggest job has been taking down the wall to give me a bigger lounge.

Hand rails fitted to my veranda good job the rain kept off

We have had rain, rain and more rain thankfully no floods like in the UK but we now have wall to wall Sun and temperatures in the low 20's today.

I have waited for it to get dry to get the hand rails fitted to my veranda. In my cellar i had got ready my hand rails, i had molded the hand rails and cut them where they join the newell posts. Today was sunny and dry si it was time to start it only took a couple of hours and all my hand rails are now in place and from an off cut i made the first of the kick boards to go between the newell posts to stop anybody slipping between the newell uprights.

Just look at that blue sky and more days of the same to come.













Just because it's nice out doesn't mean i can't work inside. I have been taking a wall down in the lounge to make the room bigger and brighter.  I had to leave a column as you can see in the picture because in the loft here is a roof timber helping to support the roof. I have a friend who was a builder/ joiner all his working life and he came round to offer his advice. I want to have three chest of draws on one side of the loft room so it was decided to put a further five roof supports and when done i can remove the rest of the wall and start to make good. Between the roof supports i will build in the chest of draws as a built in unit instead of free standing units

 
In the long term there will be a set of stairs on the left going downstairs to the cellar. I intend to create two rooms for my Grandchildren to have for themselves. But that will be a while before they get done.

Weather Oh dear me

Being almost 65 years of age you would think i wouldn't fall for the Crap that weather forcasters say. Well i did fall for the Crap, a few weeks ago i checked the weather and for the following 10 days it said it was mostly sunny.  Having so much i wanted to do outside i looked forward to the days ahead. I found i had timber i could use to get more of my veranda done and it is ready but sitting down in my cellar waiting for the time i could put it all together.

I received a parcel from my son in Liverpool. In the parcel was a box of router bits i had been waiting for. I had been waiting for these to arrive so i could make the hand rail for the veranda and it didn't take long and the hand rail was done.

My veranda that i started last year has already weathered and the new look of the timber has aged. My hand rail i have ready for when the rain stops is already aged timber and shortly weather permitting my hand rail will be in position and then it won't be long and it will be finished.

An easy TV site for UK TV

TV is a hot topic here in Portugal now that the satellite has been changed and the old one is no longer used. Many people south of about Coimbra have lost all or part of the TV programs they had been using before the change. However some have reported some lost channels come back now and again but nothing permanent like before the changeover.


Since i have been here i have used Filmon and i have mentioned it often in answers on various Forums until now.  I was introduced to another TV service that offers UK TV and it's called Live.camposat.tv
 The picture below shows how simple Camposat is and if you put you cursor over a channel it tells you what is on and also what's on next. This really is so simple to use. For a larger  selection Food, News, Films etc then it's back to Filmon.com