English 
Portuguese 
Put up my sister’s stylish crib this year. It is really out of character with the rest of the furniture but the incandescent bulbs within it make for a very pleasant ambience.
Had a quiet and pleasant Christmas. December and 2023 draw to an end. Walking in the wonder of the land with the dogs. The mornings are bright and you warm up in the sun. A pair of mittens are useful early in morning. A fire too as my cottage is poorly insulated. No sleigh bells ringing as it is well above freezing in the Algarve, Portugal. I think the lowest we have had is about 6ºC .
Got a two small tangerine trees in fruit but they are not yet ripe. We planted one of these with my bro. Still no ornages. Eating my last diospiro / persimmon today. 🙂
It’s been more pruning. I have also been felling some decent sized wild olive trunks for fire wood. The Wesco 8303 chainsaw has been upto to job and works very well.
After extracting value from the cuttings in the form of twigs, which burn well even when green it was bonfire time.
Let’s Grunkel! My ‘Justin’ Beper resistive hot plate died. Amazon were good enough to give me a full refund as it was under warranty. After doing a bit of research, I decided to spend a bit more and get an induction hot plate. They generate heat by electro-magnetism. I settled on the Grunkel as the price and reviews were very good. All of these type of induction hot plates have cooling fans. The cooling fan of the Grunkel PIN-2000 is audible but does not scream like a sorrel mare. 🙂 . I am really impressed! It heats up liquids and food rapidly. The only issue I have is cookware. It requires simple steel or iron pots. The high quality cooking utensils with the heavy ‘Thema’ bases do not work on the induction plate. This, even though the utensil it’s is made of steel.
Happy New Year Everyone!