Categories
algarving in portugal

anatomy of summer

summer came late and then all of a sudden. the roads and the beaches filled with tanned bodies, the scent of sunscreen lotion permeating the air. new voices and accents and honks invading our quiet bubbles, their cars parked every which way down the street.

the hills have gone dry and the children cries alternate between pool-side delight and tired tantrums. grass trimmers and pool motors buzz away, giving the cicadas a run for their money. the swallows come and go, like pendulums over our heads. our bodies stick to chairs during the day and to sheets at night.

our favourite restaurants are full, as are the supermarket’s tills… but we don’t really mind. far from invaders, tourists are powering the workforce of the local communities who live for the summer months. they drive the boats, cook the meals, clean the houses and everything else — and they need these months of business to get through the rest of the year.

but for us, summer is the time to leave it all to them. “when the heat dies down, i’ll be back in town”, as they say. :)

Categories
analogue wednesdays roll4roll

analogue wednesday #151

more funky stuff from the last frames of R4R-32, that timm and i collaborated on.

Categories
in portugal just life

passionfruit update!

around the end of june, some of our passionfruits started turning purple. i confess we’ve been quite anxious for this last step. the vine’s many fruits been growing for over 2 months now, and with an upcoming trip fast approaching, we were running out time to actually taste the literal fruits of our labour.

so when the first mature fruit (a tiny perfect one) fell on our hands last week, we rejoiced at last. let’s open it!


(pardon the dirty fingernails, i was gardening)

look at that! :D it was just as juicy as promised, and immensely satisfying to finally taste something that was 2 years in the making. there’s plenty more on the vine, but sadly i don’t think they’ll ripen before we have to go. oh well, hopefully there will still be some left for our return — and if not, there’s always next year. i don’t think we’ll get tired of passionfruits anytime soon!

Categories
stationery sundays

field notes

i always have a small notebook on my bag. it’s handy for lists, notes of random things we see or hear, stuff we need to remember or to jot down impromptu flying lessons. these get filled and replaced rather quickly… but luckily there’s never shortage of small notebooks around the house. from tombola gifts to conventions’ goodie bags, they have a tendency to pile up faster than we can use them, so i have absolutely no excuse to buy them.

but that doesn’t mean i don’t get super excited when people gift them to me, which was the case of these field notes that i received from my friend addis last year! they’re some of the sturdiest little notebooks we’ve ever had, and a pleasure to write on. not too big, not too small, smooth paper and tough covers that can take the constant jostling of a bag that at any moment contains at least 2 cameras.

the first finished one took quite a beating, but somehow the weathered look only makes it more beautiful. i’m a fan!

Categories
in the netherlands

below the canal

long story short: to build a new metro line in amsterdam, a tunnel was dug in the city center through a riverbed of clay and sand. over millennia, the river amstel had been accumulating all sorts of things dropped or thrown in its bed. some things are recognizable to us now, but the deeper you go, the more intriguing it gets.

it’s astonishing the amount of bank cards, phones, keys, coins and buttons, guns and ammunition, skulls and bones, so many spoons and knifes… but also cannon balls, vases and they sieved through tons of stuff, scanned every last bit of broken porcelain and put everything on a website where you can see and search. when i searched for “film”, a few results popped up, plus a few cameras:


i find the whole thing fascinating: from the engineering feat of this metro line to the contemporary archeology done in its wake. so many layers of history, hiding just underneath the surface!