CASA DO VALLE

This spring and beginning of summer, the question we have answered the most to our guests is 'What's with the weather?' Or 'Is this weather normal here this time of the year?' Mostly we answer 'No, it's not normal' or 'Well, there is really nothing we can do about it'. It really has been much colder and wetter than 'normal'. In March it rained 4 times the normal average amount, and it was the second coldest March in the history of Portugal (since the measurements begun). It HAS been cold.  It HAS rained a lot. Yes, we still have heaters on in the rooms in JUNE! Unheard of! But it is not raining continuously. Luckily it is nothing you cannot cope with, with a coat or a sweater. As we are entering the month when summer officially begins, we keep hoping that the morning shower of each day will be the last one. And we also keep hoping that the fall will be like last year - beautiful weather until the end of November! To me the wea...

The year 2017 is our Wellness Year.  At Casa do Valle we are focusing on being green, sustainable and well . With wellness, we mean a sound mind in a sound body .  Our first step of holistic wellness approach is a retreat for women of all ages with Conceição Espada 20-24 April 2017. The objective of this retreat is the finding of oneself and balancing it as nature intended. The retreat program consists of group and individual sessions on ‘The ecology of being a woman' and 'Nature and the Feminine Being' with Conceição Espada, Hormonal Chi Kung practices, walks and meditation in nature, relaxation exercises and massages, and especially planned out meals to help detox the stress of our lives and awaken our inner being. Chi Kung on our lawn with Conceição Espada The nature of Sintra invites us We will feel the strength of nature in this retreat Hormonal Chi Kung is a combination of movements that work the body, muscles, breathing, emotions and c...

Sintra is a challenge to photographers. A challenge well worth attempting, as once it is succeeded it is really worth the while. And it is fun trying.  The nature is sepectacular.  The architecture phenomenal. The fantastic light makes it a challenge. The green and the mist of the mountain.  The colors and architecture of the villages. The wild strength of the coast line. The splendour and uniqueness of the architecture.  The poetry of the sceanery. Winding roads. Overgrown passages. Granite boulders casting their shadow.  Splashing waterfalls. Rising  mist. Ivy covering the tree trunks.  Groups of bicycles climbing up and down the mountain.  Bread being delivered at the early morning hours. Vendors setting up the antique stalls. Surfers waiting for THAT wave. The sunrise burning through the morning mist.  The sunset painting the mountain orange in the summer. The winter winds bringing the promise of the spring flowers. This ...

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how much I enjoyed the dry, cold winter.  Naturally, February was supposed to rain quite a lot, but it didn't.  Not at all.  We enjoyed warm, sunny afternoons, had lunch on the balcony and the garden was blooming.  That was supposed to happen in April - and now we are having the February weather in April.  And it seems like we will in May as well.  Temperatures are below the historical average, and contrary to other years, we are still heating the rooms. Of course there is nothing we can do about the weather. What we can do, is prepare for it so no matter what the weather, there are things to do.  So here are my suggestions to a great holiday in Sintra, for every weather.  1st - Pack accordingly .  Remember that no matter what the weather, Sintra is on the mountain and has a micro climate. Though we have beautiful beaches, Sintra is not primarily a beach destination.  Even in the heat of th...

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how much I enjoyed the dry, cold winter.  Naturally, February was supposed to rain quite a lot, but it didn't.  Not at all.  We enjoyed warm, sunny afternoons, had lunch on the balcony and the garden was blooming.  That was supposed to happen in April - and now we are having the February weather in April.  And it seems like we will in May as well.  Temperatures are below the historical average, and contrary to other years, we are still heating the rooms. Of course there is nothing we can do about the weather. What we can do, is prepare for it so no matter what the weather, there are things to do.  So here are my suggestions to a great holiday in Sintra, for every weather.  1st - Pack accordingly.  Remember that no matter what the weather, Sintra is on the mountain and has a micro climate. Though we have beautiful beaches, Sintra is not primarily a beach destination.  Even in the heat of the...

Summer is here. We have temperatures of nearly 30 daily, and have had a few thunderstorms, which is great to get rid of the heavy humidity we have had. Plus it is giving extra water to the garden! It has been very busy here in many ways. The rooms have been quite full, and we have people from all over the world: from Australia to America, Belgium to Holland, Norway to Singapore. We start having 'regulars', people who come every year, and it is very nice to see their faces time after time! We are busy 'up-keeping': several of the rooms have gotten a cote of paint - there are always marks from the suitcases on the walls and stains that do not come off. This has been quite a challenge, to find a day when the rooms are empty and the painter has time, at the same time! Mainly we have been busy in the garden. We have planted 60 new fruit trees: apricots, peaches, lemons, passion fruits, apples, pears, grapes, oranges... (...

Every spring there is a purple tint to Sintra. The glicínias bloom, their flowers cascading down from the vine, for two to three weeks. They frame gates and pathways, covering arches, giving shade from the first warm sun. They grow wild on abandoned properties and in the middle of forest climbing to the highest point of the trees or electric poles. And then, the flowers f all and leaves are formed. But the weeks of flowers are magical! They give a special fairy-tale look to the places they surround, and transform the abandoned properties, giving an attractive look to the gray of the walls and rust of the gates. At the same time as this is a beautiful time, it is also a time with lots of allergies: there is pollen all around. Normally, the plants on the Casa do Valle property are not high-allergenic but up in the mountain and parks there are a few plants that some people do feel in their eyes and noses. (All of the following pictures were taken within a walking distance of Casa...

In one of my early blogs I mentioned that when we bought these grounds, they were an abandoned wine-yard. In fact, around 1890 a family of army officials built a house across the street and our ground were the 'quinta', the farm, they had. On these grounds a wonderful wine was grown; it is said that the wine from here won several international prices, even. A hundred years after the building of the original house, another house, our house, was built in the quinta. There was nothing here, really: a broken down pig-dwelling, a broken down ruin of a greenhouse. And the patio. The patio was, and still is, under huge trees, Cassias and Pittosporums, in the middle of the grounds. Perfectly placed so you see the palaces up on top of the mountain, get the afternoon sun in the winter and the afternoon shade in the summer. There was a type of iron structure to train the branches of the trees to form a sort of a gazebo, a protection and a shelter. During the years, however, the gr...

We have certainly had our share of rainy days. So what to do when your sister, niece and great niece are visiting and it just rains? Well, no worry. We spent an afternoon at the Modern Science Museum 'Centro de Ciência Viva de Sintra '- only 500 meters by foot down the hill from Casa do Valle. This interactive center is one of the 'new' museums of Sintra, opened just a few years ago. I confess, I had never been, though I had been in the large ones of Chicago and Helsinki. This one is a small one. You spend between an hour and 3, depending on your age and weather... What do you see? Actually, what do you do ? You can make a simulation of wave energy movement; make up your genetic DNA and find out how many people are out there with your combination of eye- and hair color, nose and jaw shape etc; test your short-term memory and reaction skills by part-taking in games that use sounds and colors; take a picture of your body to find out which parts of your body are w...

Yesterday a client asked me when the famous second spring of Sintra that she so much has heard of is. It was the day when I noticed the beautiful roses opening again by the pool. This morning as I took the dogs out early I started cleaning the agapantos, pulling out the already whitish tall flowers; and noticed the dozens of new flowers shooting up. And just a few days ago the palm tree set its flower free, dropping the protective cover from the trunk. We are getting our second set of fruits, too - after a few weeks of nearly no fresh fruits from our garden: pears and apples are getting ready, and some passion fruits, too. The weather has been over 30 degrees, with very little wind. The pool is warm and very popular, especially after 4 or 5 pm after a day of castle-visiting. The streets are full of cars and parking is nearly impossible. Every day people ring the doorbell to ask if there are free rooms. So that would say summer is at its best - but there is definitely spring in...

Continuing on the swinging theme - it has now become warmer again. It has been a beautiful day, after a few days of half winter, half summer. I guess it's typical here, too: an older Portuguese saying goes 'in the morning it's winter, in the afternoon summer!' They of course meant March. Anyway, we had Belgian guests this week and as they were leaving, I asked them a bit apologetically about how they had liked it here, with the strange weather and all. And they said it had been fabulous - less tourists, and they had gone in to the palaces / monuments when it rained, telling me a story about rain pouring down when they were in the warmth of a restaurant, how bizarre it was because they had had sunshine just a moment before. And I was thinking how nice it is when you come to holidays to relax, to be with whoever you are with, to visit new places, to enjoy new foods - independently of the weather. So if it rains, it does not bother you, and when it's sunny, it...

This title is Finnish and means in a very rough translation that 'spring swings in'. Our spring keeps swinging in for sure, back and worth, back and worth. On Thursday it was so nice and sunny that even my husband's 103 year-old grandma lifted the legs of her pants to feel the warmth of the sun on her legs - 26 degrees, sunny, and a barely noticeable breeze, just enough to bring the warmth closer. Yesterday the wind blew the pillows of the chill-out sofa all around the garden - today it feels like winter with a cold wind and rain, once again. We are hoping that the swinging will do its 'back and forth - thing' again and bring the warmth back soon - otherwise I don't know what's going to happen to all of the baby-fruits that are filling our trees! Today I posted an announcement on the bulletin board of the internet house - normally it has things of upcoming concerts, weather reports from the net and so worth . This time, however, I posted an apology for ...

I am originally from Finland, and in Finland, normally, all you need to do in the garden in the winter is shovel snow. In Portugal, winter is the busy season in garden work. There is lots to cut, prune, trim and even plant. Cleaning up seems to never end - and it continues on to the spring. Today I was planning with the gardeners: where to plant the cleavias that have overgrown their space, which part of the ramp will be covered by the lavendar, how to bring in the watering for the newly acquired plants in vases... And very importantly, how to hang the hammock between the palm trees. This is one thing I like about the Portuguese seasons - most of them, at least partly, give you a chance to relax in the nature in your t-shirt. The chill-out sofa is wonderful all year around. Even in the winter when the sun is low and hits the sofa, many people take their afternoon coffee there. And in the summer, when it is in the shielded shade of the trees, it is the haven from heat. This year...

It is obvious that we are officially in the spring. This weekend we had very strong winds that brought the temperatures down, but the green keeps on coming! The leaves are opening, the flowers are blooming - and the sheep on the other side of the valley are pacing up and down happily 'singing' away, to the delight of many of our guests. (If you look carefully you can see a few of them in the lower level in the picture - this is a view from the pool). At times like these it seems like we are really in the country, though we are only 400 meters from the center!

The Roses are starting to bloom! This is the time of the pink roses, large and small. On the ground where we have the fruit trees we also have old, old roses. Some are the wild bushy-kind, some are nice to cut for vases, but they have all appeared after we cleaned the grounds two years ago. The other picture is a view from the window where I am sitting writing this post.