so, april!
april started quietly. we set up the irrigation system in the raised bed and battled the many caterpillars that threatened our crops. we studied, birdwatched, did some crochet carnations, went to a friend’s exhibition and found clothes for the upcoming weddings (not a small task!). we also found time to hike on our anniversary! and then we went north and spent a few days kissing baby LJ’s cheeks and being charmed by her 🥰
i’m way, way behind on these videos, but let’s catch up! here’s march:
march was the last of the quiet months — it feels like it’s been non-stop since then. in march, we hiked, watched a bunch of movies, voted, traveled to france to hug friends, got the yearly dust storm from the sahara, hosted game nights and started eating more potatoes!
we flew back on a monday, and went straight to the hospital for the boy to have the miracle injection, which will hopefully bring everything under control. then we were off to the north again, for the second wedding of the month! my godchild daniela got married, ahead of her move to belgium, and we celebrated with lunch at her parents.
her nieces (my cousins once removed?) are the cutest kids, and we spent time drawing together. the youngest made this adorable picture of paulo:
isn’t it just the best? :D
after the celebrations, we drove south, back home, at long last. our garden in the backyard had grown so much in the last month, and there were tiny tomatoes and peas! these are sugar snap peas, and i like to eat them straight from the vine, as a crunchy snack.
the newlyweds came south with us for a week of sun in the beach, and we cooked some nice food together — including some chinese and sri lankan dishes that we hadn’t made in a long time. it required a trip to the asian supermarket all the way in albufeira, but now the kitchen is fully stocked again and ready for more exotic cooking shenanigans.
and then, out of nowhere, a big dog showed up on our street one day!
he was really huge, but so quiet and friendly that no one was scared. we called the animal services and then the GNR at their referral, and they came to check him. they read the microchip and called the owner, who quickly came to pick him up. turns out, rufus is quite fond of escaping the farm where he usually lives. he was really peaceful though, and for a moment there, made me wish we had the kind of life that can accommodate a dog — it would be nice!
when we were away, my brother and his wife spent some time in our house, and they brought one of their nieces too. the kid left one of her socks here… so i made a little parcel for her, with a story about the sock going on an adventure around the world and writing her some postcards.
that was fun! i hope life slows down a bit from here onwards, so that i can have more time for creative endeavors like these. i feel like i need a whole month of quiet days to recover from the intensity of may.
two weeks spent catching up with the netherlands! i don’t think i realized how much i missed the country until i sat my butt on a bicycle and roamed the countryside. after you get over the pain of a different bike seat, it’s just pure bliss. you can get anywhere in the netherlands with a bike, and bike infrastructure doesn’t feel like an afterthought — it feels like the country is designed for this simple and human-sized means of transportation. i also tried an electric bike for the first time, and i think it has the potential to be a game changer in our hilly southern terrains — now i’m dreaming of my own.
flying to the netherlands was a painful experience though, courtesy of my ear infection, and my ears stayed clogged for the duration of our stay. our house swap in utrecht was a cute old house, on a quiet residential street in the north part of town, with a little backyard, wooden floors, creaky stairs, blooming roses and so much charm.
utrecht itself is probably my favourite city in the netherlands. it feels alive and livable. it’s central and has a modern train station (that puts you in amsterdam in 15 minutes). the old city center is made up of more than just tourist shops, and the countryside all around makes it easy to escape. the huge advertising banners that clutter portuguese cities are replaced here with old trees lining the streets.
since there are not so many cars in the city, the neighborhoods have kids playing in the streets, and people sitting in benches on their doorsteps. jackdaws and crows cackle constantly, and great tits flit around the trees. the museums (we visited the rietveld house and the self-playing instruments museum) were lovely and niche. and just imagine, whole shops dedicated to board games or selling just english books for kids!
and we went to keukenhof at long last! it was on the week they closed for the year, so the gardens were not as full of blooms as in previous weeks, but it was still nice, with plenty of tulips, daffodils and other flowers to show off.
we took a day trip to groningen to see my old haunts, which are still all mostly there. there’s a huge new building in the old town, a massive library and media center, with a terrace and views that stretch through the province — i would have loved working from there. the motto for this trip was the 20th anniversary of paulo’s erasmus exchange period in utrecht, so we went back to his old uni as well, and met some friends from back then in the same cheap greek-italian restaurant they all used to go to, 20 years ago. the place is still there, and still the same!
in the end, time passed quickly, in a haze of nostalgia and new discoveries. it’s nice to go back to these places that changed our lives, see them with our 40 year old eyes and realize that they’re just as lovely as the golden memories we had of them.
brother’s wedding (+ niece’s baptism), at last!
i got sick at some point during the week, and spent the whole wedding with a sore throat and a clogged ear, pumped with ibuprofen and paracetamol. it didn’t stop me though! it was a nice ceremony, and an even nicer party afterwards. we saw friends and family, talked to lots of different people, ate quite a bit and were happy! i forgot to take pictures, but here’s one our friends took of our little friend group + my brother:
during the wedding, i sneakily asked the guest to write postcards to the newlyweds with well-wishes, or to share a memory of the day or something they did together. over 40 people wrote a postcard, and a few children drew something too! i plan to send these postcards to my brother and his wife throughout the year, and i hope they’ll enjoy this extension of the wedding!
one of the guests of the wedding couldn’t make it, but had a non-refundable booking for a room in aveiro, which they gave to us. as a result, we unexpectedly spent one night in a 5-star hotel, being very pampered! the hotel was all about eça de queirós: there was a reading room with his books and some artifacts, the rooms were named after characters from his books, and there was even a vhils mural of his photo on the patio! 😱
i confess i would have enjoyed it more if i wasn’t feeling so sick. after checking out, we headed to the emergency room, where i was diagnosed with a throat/ear infection and given some antibiotics.