Fall is here again on Ilha Terceira. Rainy, cool days are disrupted only occasionally by little bursts of sunshine (often with simultaneous mist). And let me tell you about the wind! It gusts through our little gully like a wind-tunnel, howling through the rafters in our attic and rattling the reed grass that grows along the stream. One upshot to the cool wet weather is that the landscape has become incredibly green again.

Kitchen Update, Part 2

Having modernized our stovetop from gas to electric, we decided to do the same for our old, rusty gas oven. The vent fan rattled loudly and, for some reason, the burner was not able to regulate its temperature (it was just ‘on’). So Raymond and I shopped around a few appliance stores and found a Black Friday deal on a nice convection oven. We baked a delicious apple crisp today it works like a dream!

Out and About

One particularly sunny day, Raymond and I took the opportunity to visit a forest park near our house that we had driven by dozens of times. The trail wasn’t very long, but it did reveal the tallest tree fern we had ever seen (note me standing next to it). Another day with especially big surf we visited the swimming area in nearby Biscoitos to see and hear the waves crashing on the dramatic black lava field. The last three photos are snapshots taken from the car – just some local scenery on the way to get groceries!

A Day in Angra do Heroísmo

As is so often the case, our cloudy, misty side of the island is juxtaposed with the sunny, bright south side. On a recent trip to Angra we got a dose of sunshine and visited a fabric store we know to check out material for curtains. Back at home I sewed the fabric into three handsome curtains: one for the main bedroom (see below), one for the living room, and the remnants fit precisely in the guest bedroom window.

Garden Projects

The fava bean garden bed in the back yard is doing well – great germination rates and lots of leaves from the chestnut trees for mulch. The black plastic was to cover and help compost the yard and garden waste we had filled alongside the logs (it also helped to kill weeds and opportunistic tomato sprouts).

In the terraced garden near the house we are still harvesting beets and carrots (and occasionally black-eyed peas from a grouping that seems to have found its second wind). We replanted more beets, along with lettuce, in the near half of the lower terrace and dug up and transplanted an araçal tree to make way for an expanded planting of carrots in the far half. In the middle terrace the potatoes are doing well and the leeks are ever-so-slowly reaching maturity (I need to start replanting there as well to replenish what we’ve harvested).

The upper terrace, once full of yellow pear tomatoes, is now entirely covered by sweet potato vines! They are growing remarkably well despite the cooler weather and less sun. As I understand it, the plants require a soil temperature of 70+ degrees to produce sweet potatoes, but I’m hoping that by establishing themselves so well now they will be primed for producing by Spring.

Traffic jam on the way back from Praia.