Author: ana

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PR13 LLE, serra e montes

this is what usually happens: i start the year filled with good intentions, and ready to keep good track of our hikes. then, i write about a couple of them, on the blog or on a notebook… but then life gets busy and i miss one or two, and it all goes downhill from there.

then one day, the weather is nice, we pick a trail to walk, and a few kms into it we notice a peculiar vase by the side of the road, or a house that looks vaguely familiar… and wait a minute, haven’t we been here before? 😅 of course we have.

this is the story of PR13 LLE, which circles around querença in 2 loops, one gentle first part and one in which you climb up and down and then cross the little river three times, stepping on the carefully put stones.

it’s nothing special perhaps, no sweeping views or exotic birds, but it’s still nice, with the almond trees doing their thing, the gurgling of the streams and the tilled olive fields that look like japanese zen gardens…

and then, out of nowhere, a pack of puppies spots you and comes running, demanding to be cuddled!

ahah, this was so much fun! 🥰 i’m very skittish around dogs on the hills, because they’re usually aggressive and bark at any stranger intruding on their territory… but these were such an unexpected pleasure. the highlight of the whole trail!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 3/23

– the week started with a nice breakfast at the french bakery, which is always a good start of any day. portuguese bakeries and pastry shops in algarve are a disappointment for the most part (there are no good brioche croissants!), but “la baguette” in tavira always delivers on the french goods.

– we’ve now booked all the accommodation for our stay in taiwan, and are still as excited for the trip. 9 weeks to go!

– chinese new year! we didn’t do a bit feast this year… but still, there was fishball soup, dumplings and my favorite corn pancake.

– this weekend was the traditional festa das chouriças in querença, so off we went for a hike and some sausages. it was brilliant, as always, and we even made some new friends… i’ll tell you about them on the next post :)

– it looks like this week’s notes are mostly about food, so here’s one more: we started watching salt fat acid heat on netflix, and it’s been a delight. samin and her appetite for good food, and especially for learning about food with others are a joy to watch. more of this!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 2/23

– after much frustration with credit cards, finally WE BOOKED THE TRIP TO TAIWAN!!! i’m relieved and über-excited! the whole week, i’ve been floating in this happy haze of knowing we’re going to asia again, watching youtube videos about night markets and street food, and taking virtual walks through the neighborhood on google street view. the trip is still 10 weeks from now, but already i’m in a buzz of anticipation!

– the boy wanted to check out the cerro da cabeça, a small hill nearby, so we went for a tiny first hike of the year on a cloudy weekday. i don’t usually think of karst landscapes when i think of algarve, but they do exist!

– i got a delightful letter from my 9-year old cousin francisco, in response to the pintarolas i sent him last week! he told me about all of his christmas presents, and asked about mine, and to which countries i’d been to so far. it was unexpectedly sweet, so of course i replied back with another letter. :) i might get a new penpal!

– december rains gave a considerable bump to our local water reservoir, which is a relief. we’re not at the average level yet, but things are looking much better.

– we wrapped up our two weeks of eating “mostly potatoes”, which was an interesting experiment! i lost almost 1kg, and surprisingly, i didn’t even get sick of potatoes! interestingly, our favourite recipes all involved the oven and some form of dairy, and all had french names: the dauphinoise, boulangere and the tartiflette.

– i finished joe sacco’s first volume of palestine, which is like a punch to the gut. and we watched three thousand years of longing, which started well, and then turned a little absurd.

foooood weeknotes

weeknotes, 1/23

– what a difference a week makes! last week, there were no flowers anywhere, and this week, as if in tune to the movements of a silent maestro, the almond blossoms are here! still shy, still only starting to peek, but they’re here, and it makes me so happy. i know spring is still very far away, but this feels like a prelude, some hope on the horizon.

– the whole week, we’ve been trying to (finally!!) book some flights to taiwan, only to be foiled by my credit card company. researching and booking flights is already something the boy and i both dislike, but these recent hiccups (and watching the prices increase daily while we wait) make the whole ordeal extra frustrating. we’ve been waiting for this trip for years now, and i just want to get the flights booked, so that we can finally start making more concrete plans.

– i slapped some stamps on this box of portuguese smarties that i randomly found at the supermarket, and sent it to my cousin francisco this week. they arrived 2 days later and he was over the moon! :D now i have to try and find more, to send to my other small cousins. even after 70 million postcards, the postal service still feels like magic!

– i finished listening to joan didion’s audiobook, “the year of magical thinking“, which is about the year after her husband passed away. it’s a stream of consciousness, the kind of things that go through one’s head when a beloved person suddenly disappears — the giving oneself to grief and mourning and the irrationality of it. it’s hard, and heavy, and a bit clinical… but also frank and cathartic.

– we’ve still going strong on potatoes and this week we’ve experimented with a couple of recipes from this bbc list. the hasselback roast potatoes and the domino dauphinoise were clear winners!

pretty things

hobonichi 2023

new year, new hobonichi! this year, my friend jifeng (who always offers me one planner every christmas) picked a one-piece themed techo weeks for me, and even though i’ve never read the manga or seen the anime, the cute little embroideries just make me happy.

plus, this year is the first time ever that i have an hobo in english! the planner is easy enough to navigate even if one doesn’t speak japanese, but the novelty of actually being able to read it is something else. the quotes are inspiring and sometimes delightfully quirky!

i’ve copied some bullet journalers from instagram and decided to do a little habit planner on the free pages at the end.

ahah, looking at it, i need to make time for the back exercises, and also to go back to the swimming pool, once my ear unclogs and goes back to normal… 😅