A Creative Spirit
Praia da Ingrina is a Blue Flag beach located in an idyllic and unspoilt country setting "far from the 'maddening' crowds". As I sat on the beach enjoying the tranquility and natural beauty I could even hear a cockerel crowing in the distance. That's a first, I've never heard a cockerel crowing from my vantage... Continue Reading →
The theme for this week's WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is "Inside" In 2011, stranded in the UK due to the volcanic ash cloud we took the opportunity to visit many old towns and villages in the Cotswolds. Rather than taking their quaint charm for granted we viewed the architecture with fresh eyes and appreciated its... Continue Reading →
The UV levels in Portugal can be really high and because I have very fair skin (Piglet pink) I regularly apply sunscreen, even in winter. You can imagine I was quite perturbed when I read this article so thought I would share with my readership! By Leah Zerbe Not all sunscreen is created equal—some varieties... Continue Reading →
I love painting street scenes, however because I'm absolutely hopeless at drawing and especially "perspective" I needed to find a creative way to overcome my lack of talent. With this in mind I decided to cheat and with the aid of Photoshop created an outline picture from one of my favourite photographs which I could... Continue Reading →
Last week, on a grandparents day out, we took our little granddaughter to a huge lake with a beach and supervised swimming area. Once we'd found a suitable shady area to set up camp, laid out her blanket so she had a place to crawl, she sat motionless - almost mesmerised as she surveyed all... Continue Reading →
Orange trees grow almost like weeds here in the Algarve, except when I try to grow one of course! However, driving through the Algarve countryside it grieves me to see the amount of oranges that are just left to rot on the trees or on ground where they fall - what a waste! Still, hopefully... Continue Reading →
My monthly garden diary continues with my ongoing attempts to grow fruit and vegetables in pots and various containers. After various gardening disasters in May I learned some valuable lessons such as a basic understanding of soil nutrients, watering (under and over) and the size of the pots I should be using to name a... Continue Reading →
This post is inspired by the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's theme is "Fleeting Moment" Trying to take a photograph of this flower stand in a busy street in Lisbon, you can see what happened next! And in this case now you see them now you don't!
I discovered this one-pot recipe when we went to a friend's house for dinner one evening. I loved it - not only is it delicious, but also simple to prepare and cook. Over time I discovered other favorites and it slipped from the weekly menu plan. However, a couple of week's ago reading "Out with... Continue Reading →
On Monday I met with one of my blogging buddies Sami of "sami's colourfulworld". Sami lives in Perth, Western Australia and was in Portugal visiting family. When she suggested she delivered the prize I'd won on her 100th blog POST and GIVEAWAY in person, I was absolutely delighted! It felt surreal to chat face-to-face rather... Continue Reading →
Shame on me. I completely forgot to write my monthly vegetable diary for May and I only took one photograph of the raised vegetable area. In my defence, I was away for several weeks so my garden was left very much to its own devices. Unfortunately this created problems with bugs and of course my... Continue Reading →
Several weeks ago you may recall I published a joke email about the treatment of The Elderly in Nursing Homes v Criminals in Prison. Guess who receives the best treatment! The post resulted in one of my facebook subscribers posting a link on my Facebook wall: The Forgotten Ones: International Card Exchange for the Elderly.... Continue Reading →
Recycling in the home is one of my passions, so before disposing of anything from egg boxes and string to plastic bottles and containers I now ask myself "How can I reuse this item - either in its current form or in an alternative way?" It's amazing how creative one can be! Recycling and conserving... Continue Reading →
On Monday, I met up with Joan a fellow "container" garden enthusiast and a regular visitor to my blog. It was great to not only see all her wonderful pots of fruit, vegetables and flowers, ask numerous questions ranging from types of compost, worm farms to problems with insects, but also discuss our successes and... Continue Reading →
Inspiration for today's post is courtesy of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's theme is Today. I had scheduled another post, but could not resist posting the photograph of this handsome bug! While watering my vegetable garden today I was suddenly attacked by this enormous bug. Yes, it was GINORMOUS! Deep in thought and... Continue Reading →
There's certainly never a dull moment when you attempt to grow your own fruit and vegetables, especially on Piglet's plot! One minute they are all fine and the next... Before we returned to France I went to our local plant and hardware shop to buy liquid fertilizer for my fruit and vegetables. After performing various... Continue Reading →
Two years ago today my daughter Piglet in France introduced me to the WordPress blog platform, and Piglet in Portugal was born. She patiently (she is not renowned for her patience when demonstrating techie stuff on the PC to Mother) showed me how to make posts, include links and upload photographs, create pages and a... Continue Reading →
Living so far from my family I really treasure the time we are together. Last month it was our granddaughter's (Little Piglet) first Birthday, and all the Piglet clan gathered in France to celebrate the occasion. Not only were our children altogether, but it was the first time our grandson, who is seven months and... Continue Reading →
Recipe Brigadeiros are traditionally made from condensed milk, sweetened cocoa powder and butter. Cooked to a fudge consistency, rolled into little balls and coated in chocolate granules (sprinklers). Ingredients 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 1oz of butter 3 large tablespoons of cocoa powder Chocolate 100s and 1000s (chocolate granules) for decoration Method Place cocoa... Continue Reading →
April 23rd 2012 - My monthly diary for April continues with my ongoing experiment to grow fruit and vegetables in pots and various containers. This year I planted some orange and red peppers seedlings which I bought from São Teotónio Market in March. At 25cents each they were quite expensive, but still easier and cheaper... Continue Reading →
Piglet in Portugal 