A Creative Spirit in Portugal
This year I plan to photograph the plants in my humble vegetable garden on the 19th of each month. This will give me a better idea of what's growing when, and how well. Hopefully, it will act as a record for next year and I can learn from my successes and failures. The broad beans... Continue Reading →
Sometimes we set ourselves personal goals swept away on the crest of a wave by a moments reckless enthusiasm or, as in my case on this occasion, after a glass or three of cheap heady red wine. We believe anything is possible if we put our minds to it and of course it is if... 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 →
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 →
My diary continues... Despite earlier problems with white cabbage mold Piglet's plot continues to yield a modest crop of lettuce, carrots, leeks, cabbage, spinach and radish. The brocoli and cauliflower have now finished, and it was rather a challenge to eat them all before they ran to seed! I like them but not THAT much!... Continue Reading →
Piglet is going green! No, that's not green with envy of EC's wonderful zucchini and squash. But I do feel I can at least make a small contribution to help reduce global warming by cutting down on my personal carbon emissions. How? By not growing zucchini (courgettes) What...has Piglet gone mad? (probably...) How will not growing... Continue Reading →
A friend sent me a "joke" Grumpies of the World Unite, but far from making me laugh it made me extremely angry because the words hit home and made me pause to reflect. The more I read about care or lack of care and respect for the elderly, the less enthusiastic I am for my... Continue Reading →
The monthly diary of growing my own fruit and veg continues... - What grows well (God grant me the serenity to accept dispite my best efforts SOME vegetables will not grow well in my garden) - What to plant and when. (Next year I must leave space for broad and green beans and NOT fill... Continue Reading →
Can you spot the carefully arranged pebble amongst the many thousands of pebbles at Praia da Canal, in the Western Algarve? Did we stumble across a Geocaching clue? I wonder... Arranged. Sometimes you chance across things which were arranged on purpose, or on a whim – find something in your environment which was arranged by... Continue Reading →
Every now and again something unexpected makes you stop dead in your tracks. "...errrr...WHAT?" you think as you press your rewind button because you can't quite believe your eyes. You rub them, shake your head and then take a third look just to make sure. You then burst out laughing. I experienced one of these "...errr... Continue Reading →
My personal diary. Over the next year I will be keeping a monthly diary of all the fruit and vegetables I grow in my urban garden here in the Algarve. Gardening is one of my passions, and although my efforts are not always successful my tenacity makes up for what I lack in knowledge. I'm... Continue Reading →
Shortly after we moved to Portugal we discovered a gift on our doorstep - an old coffee jar containing a strange liquid. “What on earth is it?” I asked Mr. Piglet as I opened the jar to smell its contents. “Smells interesting” I proffered the jar to Mr. Piglet for his opinion. He sniffed, then... Continue Reading →
The last two weeks in France have literally ‘flown’ by! Looking back it seems like only yesterday we were eagerly driving to Lisbon Airport to catch a plane to Lyon. Our daughter, husband and Baby Piglet had just moved to their new home in the French countryside and we'd volunteered our services to help them... Continue Reading →
Here we are in June and I feel rather despondent. Even my inbuilt tenacity is beginning to wane. Why?, my pigging vegetables just won't grow! My motto has always been "If at first you don't succeed try and try again". Yes, I'm trying I've read several interesting posts on growing vegetables recently by fellow bloggers... Continue Reading →
The "foodie" highlight of my trip to Devon in England last week, to visit my Mother, was to disappear for an hours peace and quiet and seriously indulge myself with a "Devon Clotted Cream Tea". I had not intended to succumb to temptation due to my expanding waistline, diet, sense of guilt etc, but as... Continue Reading →
Baiao kindly shared this picture of their family Folar! This recipe also uses almonds. Shopping at the local farmers market a couple of years ago I could not help but notice a crowd of women gathering round a particular cake stall. Curiosity eventually getting the better of me I went over to investigate and squeezed... Continue Reading →
OK, OK so I win no prizes for my food photography! I promise it tastes far better than it looks in this picture so any food photography tips gratefully received! One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to research and cook one new recipe each week. This weeks recipe "Savoury Pear Delight" was kindly supplied... Continue Reading →
