It’s been a cold winter in the north of Europe with snow and bitter weather making a mockery of the forecaster’s predictions at the end of last year and bringing misery to millions …. but that cold weather up north has meant that we’ve been having a soggy time down here in the south, and it seems to have rained pretty well every day since just before Christmas which the two pictures above and below, (taken from exactly the same spot), illustrate graphically. The lake in front of the Quinta has risen a good 12 mts already and it’s surely going to be full within a few days, even though all the sluices are open and they’re letting out hundreds of thousands of lts a day now.
Surprisingly - though I’m touching wood as I tap away - we’ve had no real disasters here despite the constant deluge, though I must admit we’re all becoming fed up of hauling the pontoon up the shore every morning!
However, in contrast to the north of Europe, where the snow melting brings further misery with slush and mud and then is quickly gone, the rain here during these last few months alters our lives for months and even years to come; the lake will be full again and water problems a thing of the past for the local communities, but, even better, this Spring should be absolutely stunning and the Summer … well, we’ve half the distance to go to have a swim!
It was Daniela’s idea and she should take some of the credit for this lovely shot. Every morning we wait with Carolina for her school bus to arrive, and it was Daniela’s idea to try to film some of the birds that wait with us. Unfortunately we didn’t get a film of them - they were just too flighty today - but we did get this lovely shot of a Blackcap while we stood there.
On holiday in Madeira at the moment and though this has nothing to do with the Quinta I couldn’t resist posting this little gem. Daniela and I were coming back by ferry last night from Porto Santo where we’d gone in search of some birdlife - check out http://www.birding-in-portugal.com/blog for the results of the day - and as we left the island for the return home this was the view of Madeira as the sun set behind it …
Most of the Quinta’s visitors see the lake during the summer when it’s warm and clean - and when we’re all swimming and boating on it it’s sometimes easy to forget that a huge swathe of countryside nearby draws its Life-force from the water stored here; it’s mostly used for irrigating the sandy soils along the west coast during the six hotter months of the year and the level drops on average an inch a day during that period. It needs a fair amount of rainfall to replenish it, so, unlike most Europeans, we pray for a wet winter every year! The last seven or eight years haven’t been that spectacular and slowly the lake’s dropped down to 12 meters or so below it’s level when full - but it looks as if we’re going to see it a lot higher by next Spring as we’re having a lovely wet winter this year thank goodness, and there’s more on the way if the forecasters have got it right ….
It started to rain here just before Christmas and hasn’t really stopped during the last ten days, so the little stream we cross every day, that’s dry for the majority of the year, has turned during the last week or so into the raging torrent in the video clip here; it’s hard to believe that the stream that you can see here flowing OVER the bridge was only a week ago bone dry …
The result? Well, this is just one stream out of hundreds pouring its offerings into the lake - and there’s a fair sized river as well - so the end result is that the lake’s risen four meters during the last four days … with an an average width of half a mile and a length of more than 25 miles that’s an awful lot of water. It seems we’re spending every other second pulling the pontoon further up the bank - but boy are we happy … a tad damp it’s true, but very, very happy!
This photo of the sunset must be viewed along with the one of the Moon below - ‘cos that’s how they were taken. I was at the Top of the World when I took the above and all I did was turn around to take the one below …. sometimes Life’s like that!
Though we haven’t had any rain to speak of yet - we’ve had one thunderstorm and two days drizzle since May - it’s just damp enough to produce a lovely early crop of mushrooms and we’ve been busy little bunnies making the most of them. A fantastic bonanza of Caesar’s mushrooms, (like the basket-full Daniela has in the picture above), as well as Parasols a-plenty … Wonderful to be able to get out and about in such clean air, warm sunshine and beautiful countryside with the kids and the dogs and grab dinner from amongst the cork oaks!
Many people have urged me to tell the Quinta’s story on this blog, and seeing as I haven’t written anything for, (heavens above!), two months, it seems only fair that I should do something a little special, so here’s a small video Daniela and I put together over the last week; we hope you enjoy it!
