In 1963 Hans left his home in Denmark to become asst. engineer at United Plantations, a Danish tropical plantation company in Malaysia. The oil palm and coconut plantation where he was to be stationed was surrounded by dense tropical jungle and only accessible by riverboat or by air, making flying a necessity, not a hobby. The company was founded in 1905 and the flying tradition dates back to pre-WW2, when many of the mostly Danish staff were pilots and had their own aircraft.

After a short time, Hans was offered by one of his superiors to ‘have a go’ with his own aircraft, an Auster. After a few runs up and down the grass airstrip, Hans got the nerve up to try to takeoff on his own without an instructor, and that was how he started his flying days! During the next 21 years in Malaysia he flew/ owned a Chipmunk, Super Cub, Beachcraft and aPiper Cherokee 235 and logged over 3000 flying hours over tropical jungle and Malaysian plantations.

When we left Malaysia in 1984, Hans changed his airplane out with a sailing boat which we used to travel around Europe looking for a new home.  After settling at Cortes de Cima and planting our vineyards, Hans got busy on bulldozing a runway and……you guessed it!…. he bought himself an aircraft! As the first runway (just 50m from our front door) was short, he settled for a FK9 ultralight. But as our family grew with 2 kids, he extended the …

In the vineyard the long winter task of pruning is soon coming to an end, while the days get longer and the sun gains in strength, the long, wet cold winter begins to peter out. Early morning frost has been a common phenomena this January, freezing the fingertips of the women pruning in the vineyard. On the way to Vidigueira, the roadside almond trees have now blossomed, heralding budbreak in the vineyard only some short weeks away in early March. The vineyard workers need to step up their tempo, none to soon to finish the long task of pruning!

Not in the past 30 years have we received so much rain as has fallen in December and January (645mm). Since October an abundant 890 mm of rainfall has fallen, twice the annual average of 450mm! Portugal is not alone in having experienced extreme weather this winter, witness the November floods in the UK. Climate change predictions warn of drier summers and wetter winters, with more intense rainfall the likely consequences. Is this climate change at play? Can we expect a hot, dry summer? Well, if so, at least we now have sufficient water resources for this year to help our vines through the long summer months.

(”Warmer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more water vapor - 6 per cent more for every 1ºC increase- and give it more energy, amplifying existing weather patterns.2009 had the sixth-highest ocean …