CASA DO VALLE

Autumn has officially kicked in - and with better weather than July! Gone is the unpleasant wind, and the temperatures have risen to over 30 degrees every afternoon this week! It is true that leaves have started to fall, and the pool has to be vacuumed more often due to that - but wow what a goodbye we have for the summer. We still have an abundance of pears, still lots of flowers around the garden, but the sun IS lower and gives a nice, soft air about. The pool temperature is still 22 degrees, warm enough to swim. Inspired by the official start of autumn and plenty of guests asking what the weather is like in the winter or spring here, I placed an album on our facebook page called '4 seasons' with pictures of the surroundings from the last year. I also started a discussion on the facebook page regarding ideas for the getaway weekends we are planning to offer. If you have the time, please contribute and let us know YOUR opinions about what could and should be offered/includ...

The month of September has been for the last years the month with the most twin beds per room. We have chosen to have many rooms with the possibility of either twin beds or double beds - and this is really the time that it pays off. We have had several 'Girlfriend groups' recently 2-4 women taking an extended weekend holiday together - or even longer. This is the perfect time as the family holidays are over, and the weather is still lovely - and monuments don't have the summer crowds. This last weekend we had 4 ladies from Finland spend a couple days taking a break together. On Saturday they spent a 'cultural day'. Up the mountain with a horse and carriage to the Pena Park. They walked through the park to the Palace of Pena, then down to the Moorish castle and again back down to the historical Center for a lunch. And then they went to Regaleira and did some shopping. Topping it off in the pool and then a slow dinner at Tulha's in town. There was even an...

I have felt overwhelmed today with the notion of how much I love this activity of running the Bed and Breakfast. I love meeting new people - and I do meet so many! People from different walks of life: from farmers to doctors, air-hostesses to teachers, politicians to administrators - even a teacher in a circus school! There are so many wonderful conversations waiting to take place or to continue - so many different points of view and questions about the Portuguese life and culture - and reverting to conversations of comparisons of cultures and ways. Life never gets boring when you meet so many different people. And from so many different countries, too! 2008 summer the major part of our guests came from Spain, this year there has been a shift to more people from the Great Britain, Netherlands and Belgium. There are times when lots of people come from very far: Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada. And we have a growing number of Asian people too, from Korea, China, Jap...

For the first time our palm tree has two flowers at the same time! Usually in the fall we have the beautiful cascading purple flowers in one tree or the other but never two in one! They are truly beautiful and we feel lucky to have them. This has also been an extraordinary year for fruit. I will add a picture to show the abundance of pears: the heavy branches are nearly sweeping the ground. This weekend will certainly be jam-making time. Even our small apple trees are so full of apples for their size that the branches are bent to the ground. The fig trees are also promising a lot, lots of fruit to come - for those though we just have to wait another week or two. It is obvious that fall is getting closer. It is darker in the mornings and more humid at nights. The mornings now often have a gray mist hanging over the mountain until about 9 am, and in town there are some vines with a few red leaves already. Yet the temperature has been about 26-28º in the afternoons and our swimmin...