Seemingly that's what seems to happen here, a lot. The time flying part, also the fun, but more the time flying!
It's long overdue that I did an update, I have finally managed to acquire some time to sit at a computer and blurt out my brains thoughts into the wilds of the internet, so, here goes...
August 2017 Mum moved back to the UK to help a friends Sister as a live in carer. It all kind of just happened and at what seemed to be perfect timing as our funds were dwindling for the house improvements/renovations (it costs more than what we had imagined/had) and with the amount Mum can earn vs what I can, plus the ability I have to look after the farm (which, would be very hard/nigh on impossible for Mum to do on her own). Also with the new venture of a 6+ month relationship with a girl I was lucky enough to meet in the Nov of 2016. Things seemed to pan out just nicely...
As luck or timing had it, in that same August, Carly (the girl) and I found ourselves at a friends wedding a few days after Mum had left. To our shock & horror Portugal was still on fire, not only was it still on fire, it was on fire in our villages! So much so that our farm was merely 150 meters away from being burnt to the ground. I could share pictures of the devastation, but it really doesn't do it any sort of justice. Pretty much over half of the entire Gardunha was blackened and burnt.
Carly and I were on our train back from Lisbon to Fundao when the train announced that it was stopping in Castelo Branco and would not be moving on from there. We had been trying to reach friends in the villages, but no one answered, replied or got in contact.
I am lucky enough to have a good relationship with our estate agent aka my Portuguese Uncle, Louis, whom I phoned and as luck had it managed to answer and eventually came to our saviour from the train station and gave us a place to sleep for the night. All the while Carly majorly freaking out at the events unfolding before our very eyes just 30 minutes away. We could not get hold of her parents and they were in the thick of it, quite literally. The scene from where we were, was something you could only imagine seeing on LOTR or some other blockbuster of equal proportion. The mountain a blaze, such a vast amount of smoke. Somewhere in that smoke Carly's parents & farm and also our farm! There was little to nothing we could do, no means of getting there until the next day and seemingly no way of getting in contact with anyone there either.
As luck had it, Mums car had been in the VW garage in Castelo Branco, I got a lift from Louis's son and picked up her car. We drove down the main road, all the time trying to get in contact with anyone we knew. Our first thoughts were to get to the farm and see if it was still standing or was a pile of ash. To our amazement, it was totally fine, not even a single sign of fire.
However the story was a very different scenario at Carly's parents. All of their land had been burnt to a crisp, Tina (her Mum) had been battling the fire with a hose in flip flops & a summer dress for over 36 hours, keeping the fire back from the mimosa that wanted to explode into a fire ball and engulf their house. Carly burst into tears the moment we came to their land!
We were safe, no one had lost their lives, but the damage had been done. Some we knew had lost their houses, all their fruit tree's, years of work, all gone in a matter of days.
All that we knew were the fires had been started, for what reason? We may never find out, but in my own opinion there is a dastardly plan of sorts playing out and unfortunately we were the collateral damage.
This fire & the fires that had happened that year certainly brought everyone closer together. It has been a life changing event for a lot of people. We, fortunately yet also unfortunately did not get to witness it first hand. It is the most bizarre thing to see the gardunha being this enormous green mountain, just smouldering away, the ground still burning. Helicopters flying around assessing pockets of smoke, only to vent the downward force of air into blazing fires once again. It seemed the Volunteer fire fighters had way too much on their hands to handle such a mammoth task, but they did and for that we are all grateful.
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September 2017 - Carly moved into the farm with me and we decided to have a move around!
When I say move around, I mean I literally moved the entire house around. I took a wall down where once was my room and we jigged our furniture around until we were sort of happy with it. This process went on for a month or so until we were comfortable with what we have today.
Oct - I got a help from a friend, we shifted a lot of soil out from one of the store rooms in the house and poured a foot of cement to be able to utilise the space more effectively. It is now my "studio".
We started work on creating an outside wet room to be able to have showers... It's still not finished! However, it's not far from done... It's Portugal, what's your rush? Calma...
Nov- Some guests came to stay and help us with the olive picking season, to our dismay the olive oil mill wasn't open until late in the season, so we entertained our guests. Having met them at Being Gathering that same year we spent some time going to Monsanto, the Serra da Estrela and generally hanging out. (Thank You Jenna, Carrie & Faran)
2018 - This year has sort of just happened quite rapidly. It's been a very dry winter leading into a very wet spring! The blossom has come and gone/been beaten off the trees by the wind and rain... I mention the wind, WOW... with little to no trees on the mountain anymore, that wind is vicious!
I am going to write more and have been considering starting a vlog of sorts as more and more things are happening in our lives here. I hope you have enjoyed my story, there will be barrage of photos at some point along with some video's aswell.
Peace 1 <3
Will & Carly xoxo
