a busy work week ahead of world postcard day, with a lot of things to get done… but also a lot of brain fog lately. :( it’s been hard to focus and push through.

last weekend, i listed a flower vase we didn’t like and a pair of shoes i had not used in years on a second hand website, and i sold them both this week! it felt great to declutter a tiny bit and get rid of stuff — it’s kind of an addictive feeling!

i started watching “crash landing on you”, a korean series that friends recommended. i finished reading the second volume of the thursday murder club series, which i still enjoy quite a bit. i also finished listening to “die with zero“, a book about how we should aim to die with as little money as possible (within reason), as to maximize our enjoyment of life. it’s an interesting premise, and one that i subscribe to in principle… but as usual with the genre, the book was needlessly long.

we’ve been eating all the food that my mom left on the freezer, taking out the tomato vines outside, using the swimming pool’s water to water stuff… we’re wrapping up the summer and getting ready for autumn adventures, which will start next week!

a week of quietness, all to ourselves. i love having people around all summer, but i also love these buffer weeks — weeks of recharging and doing things at a slower, less intense pace, focusing on ourselves. weeks to read books and sit down to enjoy the mail that has been arriving.

the chinese classes started again this week. the group is a bunch of 20-something year old girls and me, plus the teacher who seems very nice. we’re repeating the same hsk5 book, but since i started already midway through the second semester last year, i still have a lot of stuff to catch up to. hope i can do the exam sometime next year… we’ll see. i hope we don’t reach the end of the year with just me in the class, like last year 😅

i convinced the boy to participate in the “corrida entre pontes” (a 10k race that crosses 2 bridges in tavira) and despite some grumbling about not being in shape, he did it! and of course he did brilliantly, at a speedy 4:12/km pace. afterwards we went for pizza + dessert, and admired these huge, magnificent trees in our neighborhood:

i’m planning to ask the association that owns that house if they’d be cool with me putting a little free library in their front garden. 😍

this week was little niece’s introduction to kindergarten, and oh boy, did she hate it… she cried herself hoarse every day, and decided the only safe person in the middle of that madness was the teacher, whom she refused to let go of. it’s was a little heartbreaking to follow my brother’s reports. :(

this week was also the mediterranean diet fair, the highlight of the season. we saw concerts, ate nice food, peeked inside churches that are normally closed, bought spices and seeds and just enjoyed the last warm summer nights.

a swiss friend from our “quiet study room” came to portugal and we went birdwatching and visited a few places around tavira! this brings the total of friends i’ve met from this group up to 3 now (which is remarkable, considering they’re all spread out around europe + usa and i’m here in the west corner).

our friends left, and then the parents came towards the end of the week, and brought aaaaall of the farm produce with them! love is a trunk filled with veggies and fruits, grown with love and delivered 600kms away. <3