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 →
A Great Sense of Achievement
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 →
Portugal: Growing Fruit and Vegetables in June
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 →
Piglet’s 2nd Blogiversary
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 →
Portugal: Growing Fruit and Vegetables in April
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 →
Global Warming and Zucchini
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 →
The Elderly in Nursing Homes v Criminals in Prison
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 →
Portugal: Growing Fruit and Vegetables in March
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 →
Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged
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 →
Sexy Toilet Paper – They MUST be Joking!
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 →