CASA DO VALLE

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!

This week we had guests from Hong Kong - for the first time. They were very nice and very enthusiastic about Sintra and its surroundings. So much so that the 4G of memory in their camera's memory card was quickly filled, and they still had a week to go. Luckily the situation was resolved by our internet house - they used the computer available for the clients and transferred the pictures on to a DVD I provided them with! At the same we had American guests who ran out of battery in their camera while up the Moorish castle. They were very resourceful and asked fellow countrymen they met on the mountain if they could use their memory card on the other people's camera to take the few pictures they wanted to but didn't have a battery for. They did; pictures were taken and a friendship formed. These two unrelated stories reminded me how important it is to try to be prepared in the Guest House. We do have empty DVDs and a computer with NERO to help you save your pictures if ...

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.

The last couple of weeks we have had three families with children under 10 visiting. Our pittosporums have been popular not only for the great, sweet smell of the flowers, but also for climbing. Even more popular, however, has been the swimming pool. With water of 17 and 18 degrees, it is not a great pleasure for many adults yet, but all the children have spent an enormous amount of time jumping in and out. Followed by a warm shower, needless to say. The weather has been over 20 degrees every afternoon this week. We have truly had a lovely taste of spring. In addition to the blooming pittosporums, the jasmine has opened up by the pool and the late-blooming fruit trees of peach and cherry are also releasing their scent. Magical! This week the hydrangeas have also opened their leaves quite big, though no flowers yet. It is really difficult to sit by the desk and work on days like this, especially after winter when all this seems so new! The gardeners have finished pruning the fruit ...

While I was away in February, I read the weekly magazine Styles of L'Express (France) . There was an article about Sintra in the spring. At the end of the article, there was the travelers' advice part, of how to get there, where to eat, where to stay. I am pleased to tell you that Casa do Valle was one of the 3 suggestions of Where to Stay , the other two were 5-star hotels. It is good to know that whoever stayed here from the part of the magazine had liked it! Thank you for recommending us. From the article ' Premiers soleils à Sintra , Styles L'Express, nº3007 of February 2009: 'Où dormir á Sintra: ...Casa do Valle - Charmant bed and breakfast aux ravissantes chambres meublées, avec jardin et piscine...' (p. 59).