Thursday, July 11, 2013

Summer Paint Party

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Everybody dance now!!


Wow, fry an egg on my tummy hotsville... Thanks to the sixty or so who attended my birthday bash last week, especially to Jade who filled my ear with pink chalk dust, to Gina for the magnificent desserts and to me for being so darn good looking!!

Only the best looking are let through the doors of Quinta Stuart

With the exception of our bouncer Ricardo Carrington

And Ali Baba hypnotist Stephanos Shortarsest

Lovely cupcakes and specialist paint thrower Gina

The sexy boys! Stu and Slseta boss Simon

Simon and grand daughter Jade



Oh yes, it goes from great to greater - come and see!!

Stu and Owl x

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Quinta Stuart wakes up

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Sun, fun and sex (not) see lots of work getting Quinta Stuart into shape. A hard winters work and now with our fantastic helper Petra, everything is shining clean and weed free!

New flowerbeds edged in calcada

Large pea gravel and stepping stones to sauna and new solar shower


The tipi now surrounded by new planting and top dressing

Shade sails everywhere!!

Fresh herbs around the tikka bar

Our own spinach, brocculi and eggs




Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Spring Spring squelch!!

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The only good thing about all this darn rain is a bit of breathing space on my gammy ankle. Having bought a ticket to see Benfica v Newcastle in the UEFA cup quarter finals and now not going... may as well stand in the rain...
   
New steps up to future lazing deck!


 

The new security system


  
Hemmingways now sitting into the landscape

Sooty.


Kit kat




Monday, March 18, 2013

Norman Wisdom never broke his ankle

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WELL, if there is one thing I do regularly, it is go to Faro hospital. After slipping on my terrace and working the next day on it, the following morning unable to do anything but bounce on one leg, I headed to Faro hospital.
Norman Wisdom never tripped over but he wont too good with ladders...


Well in terms of idiotic actions, this is how to do it:-

1. Drive to hospital (fortunately my car is an automatic)
2. Try to park
3. As I park realise I have forgotten my health card
4. Drive home and back to hospital
5. Park about a mile from the hospital
6. Hobble on crutches (all landscapers own crutches)
7. Stop 20 times
8. On 21st stop, get covered in water from passing car
9. Check in to A and E (ten mins,  pretty good)
10. Wait for half an hour reading latest Sunday Times
11. Get called to "Triagem" to see what colour band I am awarded
12. Get Green for Gringo band
13. Get a wheelchair and a woman I vaguely recognised

Diazapam? Oh no mate we've got better than that....
14. Get wheeled to a boiling waiting room next to a man who reeks of wee
15. Realise have left a fivers worth of newspaper in previous waiting area
16. Wait for an hour or so dodging determined leg bashers...
17. Get called to Room 5
18. Go to Room 5 using my crutches as paddles as no helper (works well)
19. See doctor who looks younger than my daughter
20 Go to X Ray, using crutches to avoid chaffeur ramming leg off every corner

I suspected the porter had a grudge before he even pushed me....


well it goes on and on, net result ripped ankle ligaments, no pain killers and last six days in bed. Thanks to Sue M for the mothering, and Pharmacia Coelho for the industrial pain killers needed to sleep..

                               That's life

Monday, February 18, 2013

Summer in Peru

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 Well any excuse for a couple of weeks holiday in the sun, this year Owl chose Peru and a fairly painless 13 hour flight from Amsterdam
 Once the fog lifted, Machupicchu was stunning
 


                Still intact after 2000 years, and now a Unesco Workd Heritage Site
Our friend shuns away from the fresh meat stand in Lima

Mancora, north Peru. Warm seas and cheap beer
                        

Owl thought the hat would be enough to win the hide and seek competition
Reed boats in Huanchaco, 500km north of Lima

The finest motor museum in the world, in Lima. The is a 1935 Aubern Supercharger - regularly driven by Snr. Norelli, owner of 160 restored cars!!


Best use of a dead palm tree!!

View from our last hostel room

Tropical Peruvian restaurante

Thursday, December 6, 2012

A touch of Picasso

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Our latest room "Picasso"

Wood burning stove made from an old gas bottle, sofa and full double glazing, this will be perfect for the colder nights... if you can get Stuart and Sooty out of there!!

Alentejo iron beds and new matresses

Just awaiting a bit more planting

Hemmingway undergoing a makeover, climbers to provide more shade
More landscaping and planting should see Quinta Stuart near enough completed this winter, if it stops raining...

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Rains Drains and Autocrats

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An Irishman, A Greek and a Portuguese man walk into a bar and the barman says "That will be three pints of water then"...
The recession is biting here, even the village idiot has left. Speaking of village idiots, could you really imagine seeing Prince Phillip or Queen Elisabeth topless or naked? They simply didn't do things like that in their hay day. Why do Harry or Kiss Me Quick Katie believe they can? I costs every tax payer in the UK two pounds a day for Katies dresses - think she could actually do the decent thing and wear the darn things?

The Convento de Capucho, near Sintra, where stones blend seemlessly with thid convent




With over 200mm of rain this month, ginger nuts and cheese pasties are the order of the day!


Head high tree cabbages come to life after the rain.


New grass garden in front of Tipi

Finishing touches - fitting a woodburner in Picasso
Large vines will grow over the windows in summer for extra cooling

Very comfy inside, this room will be avaliable for a longer season
Always amazes me how late in the season Peppers mature






Tornados in Silves and trees thrown around like a rag doll - thank goodness it missed us! Our huge cisterna is nearly full, saving us several hundred euros next summer. The garden is green, and we are planting like crazy trying to harness the rains and fill all the gaps.

It's a dogs life, but not as we know it.....
And as a special treat, my video from the 2012 Burning Man Festival. Thanks to the big man Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic zeros. See you in Munich next year guys!!!

"Everyone and everything is interconnected in this universe. Stay pure of heart and you will see the signs" Anon.