the traditional chimneys of algarve, as seen through the holga’s plastic lens.
Category: algarving
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8 o’clock
we called her “8 o’clock” because that was around the time she landed on our balcony. a tiny little swallow that gingerly hopped onto paulo’s open palm and wasn’t eager to leave. she seemed okay, though perhaps a bit lost. she drank water, ate all the ants she could reach… and stubbornly refused to fly. our more knowledgeable bird-watching friends suggested we give a call to the animal rescue center in olhão, which we did and they promptly took over.
RIAS (aka the Centro de Recuperação e Investigação de Animais Selvagens) takes care of all sorts of wild animals from the southern region that were found hurt or mistreated. things like wildfires, birds falling off their nests, road accidents or the idiot that decides to keep wild animals as pets… they were happy to take care of our tiny swallow for a while, feeding it and patiently waiting for it to gain some strength to fly, before it was ready to be released. they gave us a tour of the place, and we got to peek at all the birds and other animals they were currently nursing back to health.
we were so impressed with their operation that we decided to sponsor 8 o’clock’s recovery, becoming her “godparents”. one of the perks of being an animal’s godparent at RIAS is being able to be there when it is released into the wild — so when they called us some time later and asked if we wanted to come and see it being released, we jumped at the opportunity!
it was over in the blink of an eye, but the feeling of having done something good lasted for a long time afterwards. it might be just one tiny swallow… but did you know that a single swallow can eat up to 300,000 mosquitos per year? i bet you wish you had saved a few of them too! :P
mmm… where were we? april, was it? well, better late than never, i suppose! here it goes then:
april was the best — the sun was shining and there was a bit of everything! lots of time with friends and family, ice-creams, postcards, productive workdays, ikea finally opening nearby… and then in the end we went to morocco, which was brilliant! more on that in another post. :)
the days are longer, the sun shines and we breathe a sigh of relief. this is definitely the best part of the year.
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folar de olhão
folar is a traditional portuguese easter cake — the equivalent to hot cross buns. there are several different types of folar here in algarve, but they’re usually a layered cake, cooked in small pots. they do a delicious version of it in olhão that is so good they sell it year-round in supermarkets!
granted, it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but when you slice through it…
… magic! layers over layers of moist cinnamon-y goodness, compacted over time under a thick syrup. it might be ugly, but it’s oh-so-good. don’t knock it until you try it!
ps — well, i’ll be damned — looks like we’ve been eating it wrong all along… this explains so much!