Category: weeknotes

weeknotes 52/21

– returning home safe and sound on the last week of the year, after being thoroughly avalanched in christmas sweets… felt great! i had a nice time with the family, but i was definitely ready to come home, think about the year ahead, and have a quiet entrance in 2022.

– i ate so many persimmons these past two weeks! it was brilliant! my parents have a tree that had lots of them this year, and were happy to load my trunk with some for me to bring home. they were amazing, so ripe and juicy! probably one of my top 5 fruits.

– the fireplace has been going full speed ahead, making the living room a cozy corner where we hide in the evenings.

– we had a new year’s walk in the salt ponds and spotted 2 new birds, which i think was a good omen! one was a common snipe, and the other was an eurasian stone-curlew. both are super funky birds, but the stone-curlew definitely takes the cake, with its angry looking “eyebrows” and a very yellow eye. :D

– this misty morning view in cabanas. shortly thereafter, the clouds lifted and it was quite hot for a winter day.

weeknotes

weeknotes 51/21

– christmas at last! we spent it with my parents & brother and the boy and his parents, in a bubble of 7 with lots of covid tests. we might not have seen as many relatives as we normally would, but codfish and sweets were consumed, and lots of presents were unwrapped. :)

– i got the beautiful kissa by kissa book, a guide book to taiwan (forever on our bucket list), fluffy peanuts-themed loungewear, and a bunch of yellow ffp2 masks! i had bemoaned the fact that there weren’t any yellow masks in pharmacies, and santa went out of its way to find some for me — they look like a bird’s beak and i love it! :D

– like a weird alien structure, the tallest christmas tree in the country landed in the town where my parents live. it’s 55 meters high and defies description.

– the sunset at my grandma’s place. despite the threatening weather, it didn’t rain that much over christmas, which was a small miracle in itself.

just life weeknotes

weeknotes 49-50/21

so much, so little.

– the most exciting thing about these past 2 weeks was that we finally did the marathon walk! omg, we did it. 42kms, lots of bakeries, birds and blisters too. more on that later.

– a local non-profit cooked a warm meal for their neighbourhood and i volunteered to help serve. it was a nice event, filled with music, laughing kids running around, and lots of elderly neighbours chatting and getting to know each other. i think strengthening the bonds within these small communities is super important especially in times of need, and events like these help that happen.

– we packed and left for the north, where we’ll be for the next 2 weeks. on the surface, i’m ready for christmas, as we did all the shopping in advance… but i feel tired and impatient. though i love family and seeing friends, it feels like this whole year has just been stretching me thin, pulling in different directions and not leaving me much room to process. i want some weeks to call my own, to recharge and recalibrate.

– plus, it’s cold here. :( my toes and fingertips are frozen and it makes me supremely grumpy. as an adult, i have very little patience for this kind of endurance sport that the portuguese turn winter into. sigh.

birdwatching weeknotes

weeknotes 47/21

– dani is visiting for a few days! :D it’s a little intimidating to have 50% of the blog readership in the room… but also a good excuse to cook new food, check out new places and experiment!
– it’s cold outside and so the fireplace has been working non stop this week. only the living room gets properly warm though, so we’ve migrated downstairs and set up shop on the dining table.
– i’ve finally organized and backed up my birdwatching photos, discarding about a million blurred pics in the process. our gifted camera is so good, that even without me having explored much of its features, i can still make pretty photos of young black-winged stilts.

– did my first refood delivery. refood is made of volunteers that get together at the end of the day to collect supermarket food leftovers and deliver them to locals that could use the help. we took a few boxes of stuff near expiration from continente to a community pantry that helps feed a local neighbourhood. felt great!
– the big marathon walk hasn’t been walked yet due to some wet weather, but there are plans to make it happen! we’ll probably walk from here to faro, starting before the crack of dawn and ending in faro past sunset. fingers crossed we’ll make it there! :D

weeknotes

weeknotes 46/21

so much going on this week!

– got some quotes to paint & fix the house, which felt very adulting. the last rains brought the sound of water dripping inside of the office wall though, so there’s that to fix too.
– we turned on the fireplace a couple of times this week, just because we wanted a bit of warmth and it was really nice. the logs last for ages compared to the previously opened fireplace, and the difference it makes in comfort is substantial. yay!

– i don’t play games but i watched a friend livestream his playing of life is strange, and it was both beautiful and heartbreaking. i didn’t even know games could use storytelling like this, in such a heart-wrenching way. also, i didn’t expect myself to be the kind of person who watches games being played in livestreams, but here we are.
– plus, the music used in the game is just the right combination of indie and instrumental that is perfect for work. i’ve been playing it non-stop since.
– i got myself a little fitbit, to count steps. with the treadmill and the long walks we’ve been doing, it’s kind of fun to try to see the stats at the end of the day. the new one feels much more advanced than the old one i had, and gives all kind of fancy scores, that i still have to explore.
– we also did a big walk… but i’ll tell you about it in another post. :)