Month: July 2020

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in portugal just life

garden visitors

we found this little guy on our garden last week, and i was squealing so much that i think i probably scared him away…

but… IT’S A CHAMELEON! (insert 1000 heart eyes emojis) such a treat! the whole ria formosa park is supposed to be a safe haven for them, but with increased construction in the area, places for chameleons to thrive have been fragmented and keep shrinking. these days, it’s almost impossible to find them outside of specific conservation areas, so we were thrilled that this little guy has deemed our little garden worthy of a visit — i hope he’ll come around again, and bring the family!

praying mantis

little pale praying mantis, watch out! there’s a new predator in town!

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analogue wednesdays roll4roll

analogue wednesday #234

two landscapes: the cubist houses of olhão on the boy’s t-shirt from joana rosa bragança, and brisbane’s skyline shot by gianni, on R4R-97.

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just life

tomatoes!

it started a few months ago, when our neighbor gifted us some tiny cherry tomato plants he had seeded in a tray, since he had too many of them already. given our general lack of a green thumb (for anything that is not a succulent), we didn’t expect much of it… but still, this seemed to be the year to try things out, so i decided to give it a go and plant a few many of these along a wall in the garden.

lo and behold, they seem to have liked it and grew a lot over time! :D soon enough, small tomatoes started to appear in little bunches…

…and a few weeks later, achievement unlocked — we have perfect tiny tomatoes! since the boy doesn’t even like them, they’re aaaaall for me — they make the perfect snack food for a quick break, and i’ve been enjoying a few everyday.

in the mix came some gorgeous pear-shaped ones as well, but none of them has matured yet. i don’t think i’ve ever tried these before, so i wonder what they’ll taste like!

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just life one second everyday

one second everyday – june 2020

june! nothing terribly exciting happened, and yet it was a brilliant month nonetheless. i guess my brain has recalibrated its expectations for the year, and they are pretty low at this point… but this is probably why i’ll remember this month with such fondness. every day was sunny and had one thing or another that made us smile.

the pandemic gardening started to bear some fruits, and we i can now eat tomatoes, physalis and passionfruit to my heart’s content, and there are also 2 butternut squashes that are coming along nicely! i cut my hair and died it red. kept on studying chinese. mail services everywhere are struggling, and yet, postcrossing hit 57 million postcards. i turned 38 and ate a huge bola de berlim. we tried out kayaking in the lagoon after 5 years of living here, and it was fun! and on the deconfinement department, we had one game night with friends, and some socially distanced knitting.

pretty good, in my book. july, bring it on!

Categories
analogue wednesdays roll4roll

analogue wednesday #233

my kindle is turning 10 this year, and amazingly, it still lives!

these days, it’s mostly used to catch up on instapaper articles or to read some graded readers in chinese — the dictionary is a life-saver!

from R4R-97, double-exposed with gianni.