New year, new activities!

-
We have had the most gorgeous winter!  After the last two rainy winters, we have just enjoyed a solid month of sunshiny afternoons and cool nights.  Perfect for outdoor activities, such as walking, hiking, bicycling, sitting at outside cafés, horse riding, golfing... Last night we started getting some rain, which, let's face it, was already needed for crops, and it IS the season for rain, anyway, so we should not complain!  But it has been really nice to go for the walks and do many outside activities without having to worry about showers. And after today it should be nice again for a week or so! (You can always check out the weather here through the link  http://www.accuweather.com/en-us/pt/lisboa/sintra/forecast.aspx ).

The new supporting wall before it was painted

We have started this year with many improvement activities.  First came the new supporting wall for the level of the internet house.  The November rains and the roots of the Pittosporum trees together created cracks on the wall, so it is now iron and concrete re-enforced.  Thanks to the good weather, everything was done quite quickly and the wall is better than ever! The men will continue in a week's time repairing the wall under the pool - it is not cracked, just in need of a bit of a 'lift'.  

The next improvements can be done, rain or shine, as they are inside jobs.  We are going to redo a floor in Casa da Vista.   It seems that as the wooden floor was placed last summer, a nail punctured a heating-pipe.  No-one noticed it then, only when the heating was turned on and the dilating pipe started allowing for the water to leek.  It was noticed as a few boards started rising.  The carpenter is coming tomorrow to start those works.

Also, a plumber will be coming in to redo shower-floors in two Casa do Valle bathrooms. And a painter will be doing some touches as well in the next few weeks.  This is a perfect time for all of this, as it is the low season, and the workers can be more at ease with the noise they make. 
There are lots of lemon this winter!

The gardeners are busy as well.  The hydrangeas have been trimmed down and now we are pruning; this is the season and we have lots to prune!  First are the fruit trees, then the olive trees.  We will have a lot of firewood next winter from our own trees!  Also, replanting of agapanthuses will be done in the bottom part of the garden within the next month.  The garden is plentiful even now - the first roses are opening, the callas are in bloom, we have plenty of citrus fruits, especially lemon, the loquat trees are in bloom...  

The Clementine are getting sweet
The first roses of 2012!


We have also done a general yearly planning of the property, making more plans for future garden works.  I am making drawings for the pond we want to have near the bambus, and additional lighting plans are also ready.  New flowers will be planted and I am putting in an herb-garden.

We are planning a pond next to the bambus

So though it is a low season for the guest house, it is the busy season for all the garden work and improvement projects.  It is a fun change, and one of the reasons I love this job: though it keeps me busy year round, it is so varied you cannot get bored! 

This year 2012 is our 'wellness year' - I will let you know more about it in the next post.  We are going to have many wellness activities here through the summer, including exercises, massages and therapies. And if you have any ideas of what you would like that to include, please let us know!  There maybe enough time to include it in our plans!  In the meanwhile, please check-out our facebook page respond to an inquiry... We love to hear from you!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abandoned houses

-
Image
When you walk around Sintra and Lisbon you cannot but notice and wonder about some beautiful old buildings that look like they are abandoned and/or falling apart. It saddens many to see the potential of these houses going to waste just sitting there with broken or boarded up windows, roof half falling and the garden overgrown. Right across the street from us there is one such building and a few times a week I tell people the story of it. As the high fencing and basketball hoop lets you guess, it was 'Escola Academica' still about 20 years ago when we were building and moved here; a small private school. Once a beautiful building, full of life, the school mistress retired, the school lost its license, and for awhile after the death of the old school mistress, a family lived there with no rights to rental. When they were successfully evicted, we thought the house would be soon sold and were looking forward to new neighbors - with no luck until today. Many people wanted to
Read more

Chalet Biester - the film set for Johnny Depp's 'Ninth Gate'

-
Image
Just a bit above the village, in our view, there is a mansion called Chalet Biester.  Its black roof with turquoise trimming causes a lot of questions and awakes the curiosity of many Sintra visitors.  No, it cannot be visited; yes, it is a private house.  No, I don't know who lives there now; yes, it is where the Roman Polanski  thriller ' The Ninth Gate' was filmed, starring Johnny Depp.  There and a bit of everywhere in Sintra. The Chalet Biester as seen from our pool, circled in red Chalet Biester photographed from the Casa da Vista deck Ernesto Biester, a Portuguese journalist and playwright of German origin, famous in his time,  ordered this mansion to be built in around 1880 from the architect José Luis Monteiro.  Its interior was conceived by the famous Italian that worked on Quinta da Regaleira, also in Sintra, and the sceneries of La Scala Opera in Milano, and theater São Carlos in Lisbon: Luigi Manini - and the sculpture Leandro Braga.  Biest
Read more

Gluten or lactose free? Vegetarian or Vegan? Some choices in Sintra!

-
Image
Gluten free bread for breakfast Many of our guests are still surprised when they order their breakfast and we ask if they prefer gluten or lactose free products - or if they want tomato to substitute the ham when they say they are vegetarian.  This is not common in Portugal.  Though the Portuguese bread is fantastic and cheeses are really tasty, unfortunately many places in Portugal  fail to recognize that there are increasingly many people with a condition that prevents them from enjoying these things, and thus would like an alternative. We seem to make an exception here, offering both lactose free and gluten free products in our breakfasts. There is a similar situation with vegetarian food - if you want anything other than a salad, know that the Portuguese do have excellent soups, and often even the coffee shops have a soup of the day option. Many places in town offer an omelet or a pasta as a vegetarian option, but not so many where you can safely order your food if you ar
Read more