A Creative Spirit
For this week's Food on Friday, I want to discuss managing obesity, successes and weight loss failures, and the latest trend in what I have heard tagged as fat jabs to help you lose weight. I am obese and have been for years. Despite my best efforts to exercise (I have limited mobility), the excess... Continue Reading →
If we were having coffee, I'd tell you it's been a long week with hardly a moment to catch my breath! I don't know about you, but for me, some weeks drag as one day slowly melds into the next, and while I set out with good intentions that a quiet week at home should... Continue Reading →
We are still waiting for rain. While the Ventusky weather App promises rain for Sunday morning, I won't hold my breath. The surrounding countryside is burned to a crisp due to a lack of water, and it's only thanks to the weather Gods that last week's winds blew from the north, making the massive wildfire... Continue Reading →
Luckily for me, a close neighbour is an artist and has begun offering lessons. Delighted, I immediately enrolled and started this painting back in March. After showing her some rough sketches, we laid down a textured surface on the canvas using a combination of Gesso and Crackle paste. In the following lesson, after I'd sketched... Continue Reading →
Another week and we continue to plod along, crossing jobs off our never-ending gardening To Do list. Early last week, the hedgeman finally arrived to cut our monster maleuca boundary hedge. Phew! It is a mammoth task, and one Mr P, after years of self-maintenance, was relieved to outsource. We enjoyed a brief spot of... Continue Reading →
Yes, this is a serious question. I ask because whenever I see something sweet, it triggers an irritating voice in my head, which keeps niggling like the spoilt toddler intent on getting its own way until you lose the will to live and comply just for a quiet life. Recently, the niggling came in the... Continue Reading →
I don't know what I expected, but my expectations were way off target. You know when you have a romantic idea fixed in your mind? Well, mine was that a candlelight concert would be held outside under the stars as I'd seen on my FB feed. Or did I imagine it? Now I don't know... Continue Reading →
Apart from a few hours of rain last Sunday, the sun continues to shine, albeit with a cold bite to the breeze and a fall in nighttime temperatures. The humidity is palpable, and some flowers, such as the Oleander, have suffered from black mould on leaves and rotting flowers. Meanwhile, others such as the Plumbago,... Continue Reading →
Do you prefer to use recipes you've sourced online, cookery books or both? Last week, during my shift at the charity shop, I spotted a vegetarian cookery book for sale. 'The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking with Roz Denny and Christine Ingram'. I do love books where each recipe is supported by a... Continue Reading →
They say a way to a man's good books is through his stomach. This is what I was banking on when I offered to make Mr. Piglet some Cornish pasties in return for his driving me down to Lagos once again on Saturday night to enjoy music at the Marina. I mean, how hard could... Continue Reading →
At last—it’s September and sanity slowly returns. When we first came here, the Western Algarve was still undiscovered and far removed from the well-worn tourist hotspots further east. Now, summers are chaos. The great migration is ending at last: kids back to school, and the zillions of sunburned, flip-flop–wearing visitors have packed up their inflatable... Continue Reading →
No, not ours, at least. It is a creative space and an extension of our hobbies. Even our swimming pool is not the conventional, tiled, oblong or kidney-shaped pool plopped in the garden, surrounded by tiles and a manicured lawn. We tried to create a sunken oasis with a waterfall. Waterfall and Rockery * I... Continue Reading →
Do you ever put things away in a safe place and then can't remember where you've put them? A few weeks ago, our family came to stay. The grandkids use my studio/office as a bedroom, so I cleared my desk and put everything away, neat and tidy, including all my Portuguese notes and homework. Two... Continue Reading →
For this week's gardening post and coffee share, I decided to focus on how I use containers to create an inviting illusion, particularly when approaching our entrance door. I have been told that it feels like you're walking into a secret garden. I will add that, unlike the UK, we do not have a traditional... Continue Reading →
I am fooded out. My head is spinning like a whirling diva and my Facebook feed is jammed with this or that expert telling me NOT to eat certain food combinations or it will cause x, y or Z. These so-called experts are all pulling silly faces to attract your attention. Claims such as if... Continue Reading →
I swear, flipping APPs will soon rule our lives, and we won't even be able to do our daily ablutions without consulting and plugging our butt into an APP. Are we sleepwalking into a new era where if you don't have a smartphone, you are screwed? Yes, screwed. Consider the elderly or the technically challenged... Continue Reading →
The temperatures this week have still been so intense that I've struggled with the fierce heat, and so have some of the plants. With temperatures regularly reaching the high thirties at times and indoor temperatures in the high twenties and no air conditioning, I've sadly not had the energy. I have given up on some... Continue Reading →
If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that when the day for my scan appointment at Luisades Private Hospital in Albuferia finally arrived, I swear this was the hottest day ever. Our car, at one point, registered an outside temperature of a mere 47 °C. (116.60°F) ... Of course, I was far too early... Continue Reading →
If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that we've had a fantastic couple of weeks! The vacation I'd planned over the last year to bring the whole family together to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary and joint 70th birthday year at the Alfagar Resort in Portugal proved to be a great success. Phew!! The... Continue Reading →
If we were having coffee or sharing a bottle of wine, I'd tell you it's been one of THOSE weeks. CHARITY SHOP: This week, I once again worked in the animal charity shop. The heat in the shop was unbearable, so between unpacking and sorting clothes donations, tidying shelves, sorting hanging rails and serving customers,... Continue Reading →
Piglet in Portugal 