Aveiro and Costa Nova beach..

This is Costa Nova, just outside of Aveiro - approx 1 hour from us. We love the beach up there as it is big, unspoilt and beautiful with great surf. There is a good selection of local restaurants and some trendy beach bars where you can lounge and chill out. The pretty beachlined street is lined with gorgeous candy striped houses and palms. Although this is not our nearest beach it is certainly our favorite so far although we have lots more to find.. ! We found this summer that as long as we avoided the weekends it was really easy to park right next to the sand.

We ventured into Aveiro itself once and I can't wait to go back and spend some time photographing some of the incredible tiled pavements up there..... I was very impressed with the Aveiro Forum there too... would love to do some shopping up there ;o)

Carnage......

Well, an interesting weekend with a mixed bag of carnage... !!! we went over to Ad and Lisa's on Saturday to celebrate her Dads 60th birthday along with Mickaella's (I think it was her 21st)....

So we all got together a 70's buffet and had a lovely day.... we went on to celebrate at Paulinho's in Mortagua having tucked all the kids away in bed...

Had a very funny evening and stayed out way past my curfew.... all getting rather drunk and doing our best to mix with the local lads and speak Portuguese... ! - anyhow we stopped out overnight, then woke up to rain which was odd after so long without it and arrived home at 2pm the following day to total carnage... it looked like some kind of mini tornado had been through..... chairs had blown off the roof.... shutters ripped off their hinges, tables on their sides.... half of the roof on Ades balcony had blown off and was scattered across the lane and terrace.... then the icing on the cake.... one of the toilet windows had blown in, coming totally off its hinges and smashed the toilet cistern off on its way down to the floor... the water had spread out of the en suite and across the bedroom floor to the doorway by the time we arrived back.... just what you need when you have a hangover huh ?! I would like to lie and say I was cool calm and collected...... but I totally lost the plot and got hysterical for a few minutes..... then Lee cut the water supply off and the smashed cistern fell down and sliced through his thumb.... oh happy days. Anyhow it looked much better once we had cleaned it all up -ooh then we noticed that our peach tree had blown over and was no longer.... :o( The following day it was 27 degrees and beautiful. Ho hum !!

Hello..... is there anybody out there ??

Or am I talking to myself again ??? !

Cruz Alta

On Tuesday we took a trip to Luso with Lee's Grandparents and drove up to Cruz Alta to check out the view. WOW.
We didnt make it up to the viewpoint when we were there earlier in the year with the camper in Luso as we were cycling with the kids and it is 6 k up from the Bucaco Palace. 2 hopes.
Anyhow when you reach the top the views are breathtaking. I took photographs but they would not do it justice. This is one you have to see for yourself to appreciate. This giant mosaic cross is mounted on stone steps - presenting an even greater view.... Lee thought he would check out the view from the top of the cross..... no he never made it !
There was a chap sitting at the base of this cross with his ipod plugged in, having cycled to the top having some serious time out - then we arrived. Note the blue sky and shorts..... it is almost October !!!

September.....

Well this September weather has been pretty

gorgeous so we have been able to take our

visiting family to the beach and river beach

for days out..... its a hard life ! :o) It is grey

today but we are still having the odd high of 44..

Goatlings....

These are our new amiga's who joined us about 3 weeks ago.... they still have no names !! I want to call the brown one Denver and the white one Scout but nobody likes my name choices..... we tether one goat at a time and the other gets to roam free..only they stay with each other all day... they are very lovely and are beginning to trust us now. Tonight they went back into the barn without leads.. they just followed us in.... I have really enjoyed watching the white one run and skip / jump in the air today.. very cute.

Poor neglected blog ;o)

Oops.. it has been a while..... have had a busy Summer, fantastic weather, blue skies... good food. Festa's, beaches, family visiting, 2 new goats (very cute, with no names as yet), now living next door, house sitting for 6 months.. kids still on Summer holidays :oS... Lots of forest fires..It has begun to cool down a little now - it even rained today! We had a bit last Tuesday along with a thunder storm but prior to that it had not rained in months. Last Monday was HOT here 44.8 degrees.... thankfully we were by the sea for the day. Downside ? flys.

Anyhow.... I need my bed now ! I'll be back !