End of housesitting ready to be back on the road - Days 184 to 188

No matter what you're doing Baby wants to be on your lap

I never thought I could love a pug, but how wrong I was. Baby, named when she was a baby, not when she was a 14 year old grande dame, is just the sweetest thing. Our ‘old’ cats from last year, Frodo and Gypsy just had so much character, and Baby is the same. She’s 95% deaf, 50% blind, but loves nothing more than a snuggle. She snores like a trooper, and once she goes to sleep, on the sofa, in front of the TV at 19.00 she can sleep till 09.00, oblivious to Brian making coffee, turning off the watering in the poly tunnel, or anything else. Tonight will be interesting, if Mike comes home after she’s asleep (which is highly likely, as she’s dribbling on my leg as I write) he’ll suddenly be here in the morning and she won’t know how....

Even down at Big Ted she wants to be there - as long as she can sit on something 

We did remove this tick from her one day though. Nasty little things!

She can look at you with big brown eyes, or a look of E.T., and if you get that look on a walk you know that enough is enough. She doesn’t quite understand Ted, but has been very happy to walk down to him with us, be tied up, on her extendable lead while we potter, and come home again.

I have to say, we really will miss her.

So whats this bird then? I'd like to think it is an eagle, but I think it's probably a buzzard

Chinese banquet - yummy!

Since the last blog, cooking has continued, hollandaise sauce, twice... and the Chinese banquet was spectacular, lemon chicken is something that is never on my radar, as ooh, one of those gloopy sauces, must be MSG. Well not this time, fresh as fresh can be, thanks Crystal.

Apart from cooking, we’ve done little since the last blog, the weather has been pants, so we’ve lit Esse, the log burning stove and stayed in. The biggest excitement has been one of the peahens laying in a perfect viewing spot outside the window. 

8 eggs in the nest - there's now 11!

And here's devoted mummy peahen, sitting on the eggs 23 hours per day

Not sure how she will get on as the first couple of days sitting seemed to be just that, days, she went back to the tree overnight... I have learned that they can lay one egg, every other day, up to 10ish eggs, and it’s not till they then start to sit that incubation starts, which I never knew. I thought once they’d been laid they had to be kept warm, or that was it. But where does 5 hours fit in that scheme of things? There was a bit of a todo yesterday, when someone else came down and nudged her aside to lay another egg, so we’ve got two hens, one nest, 11 eggs and one (I think) sitter. We want regular photo updates.....

She has a nice view though. She's in that bush bottom centre. She can see Big Ted at the top of the photo

Prior to all this they were getting a bit wayward, down on the cycle path

So, the ferry is booked, Wednesday the 17th, back in the UK Thursday night, in the Midlands Friday. Well it saves worrying about campsite space over Easter, to start work, serious work by the sound of it, on my old house on the 23rd.

So here's Brian after he'd run down to the cycle path after seeing them disappear off there, herding them back

Here's a YouTube video of their antics:

More meal photos: Butternut squash, chickpea and espinacha curry

Steak, dauphinois potatoes, watercress and asparagus with hollandaise sauce

Smoked salmon and asparagus risotto with watercress garnish

Mateus Rose. Well, while in Portugal it's a must isn't it? It has a bit of history attached to it for Brian. It was one of the first meals I took a girl out for, in those days to a Berni Inn (now part of Beefeater) in the early 1970's. Not really being experienced in this lark I asked my sister Denise what I should have. Prawn cocktail starter, rump steak and chips with button mushrooms and a bottle of Mateus Rose she said. So that's what I ordered. Did I feel grown up! Bit put off when the waiter asked if I wanted to try it first. What's all this I thought. And then he only poured a bit in my glass and then looked at me. Seems I had a lot to learn in those days. It was also memorable in that my mum and dad ran a ballroom dancing school and they used to have little tables with chequered tables cloths on and table lamps. The lamps were Mateus Rose wine bottles with a light fitting in the top and a lamps shade. When I started a dancing school some years later I had to obtain Mateus Rose bottles and make table lamps myself. No other wine bottle would do!

Its been raining here almost continuously for 4 days. Today it brightened up a bit but then rained again. Here's a lovely rainbow seen from the balcony, right over Big Ted.

And finally (if you've read this far): Having UK TV to watch at this housesit we caught a couple of episodes of Race Around the World, about 4 couples racing from London to Singapore without using any aircraft. They were each given money equivalent to a flight there (about £1300 I think) and they had to do it on that, working if necessary to supplement the money. No phones, internet or bank cards were allowed and they had 50 days in which to do it. When we saw it we both said how we'd love to do it and then we found out they are taking applications for the next series. So, we've entered. We had to do a 1 minute video to send in and I've put it on our YouTube account. When I asked Jackie if I should put it on here here said no. So I haven't. However, if you'd like to see it, drop us an email and I'll put it on the next blog (we'll see who really reads to the end of each blog now!). I suspect we won't hear anything, but you never know. We might be famous yet!