if june had a theme, it would definitely be friends & family. the month was spent catching up with dear friends both local and from abroad, tearing up in weddings, visiting family, and then hosting family here in the south. in the in-betweens, we wrote postcards, enjoyed being tourists, tested recipes for meatballs (for friday night meatballs!) and admired the new world map that now hangs in the office! :)
Tag: friends
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ana vs. cataplana
makes me laugh every time! hugs to our friend A, who caught this gem on her phone over dinner. :)
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lynda’s care package
our canadian friend lynda, whom we hosted late last year, sent us a lovely care package for christmas. with the inevitable delay in portuguese customs, the parcel arrived only in february… and suddenly, it was christmas all over again! :) this was the bounty:
lots of pretty stationery, tea, chocolate coins and balls, pecan nuts, maple syrup, toffee, and even a beautiful stained glass ornament she made herself!
oh, and a mountain of crispy crunch, probably one of the best candies out there! peanut butter and salt flakes, folded in crispy pillows of goodness and covered in chocolate… so, so good! plus, these are tiny, so you don’t feel like you’re over-indulging when you reach out for one. we’ve been rationing them so that they don’t end too soon…
thank you so much lynda — it was perfect, all of it! :)
in november…
… our friend lynda introduced us to the legendary nanaimo bars and we showed her around the south for a few more days, including visiting sevilla and zip-lining across the border. my brother stayed with us for a short while too and we took him hiking on the via algarviana. and towards the end of the month, we spent a weekend hiking some more and exploring portugal’s stunning southwestern coast.
mostly though, we worked, ran errands, and got life back on track… the kind of stuff which is never featured, but is still the bulk of our days! :)
so, october!
once the boy recovered the use of his legs, we jumped to london for a few days. we hugged our friends and their babies, chased after dogs in the park, ate lots of good food and then, too soon, it was time to come back home and catch up on everything: work, laundry, gardening… speaking of which, we planted an olive tree and some passionfruit and bougainvillea vines — fingers crossed they’ll survive our black thumbs! towards the end of the month, we did our annual trip to bielefeld to catch up with friends and for some postcard-writing time as well. and then, we came back home and hosted our canadian friend lynda, on one of the last legs of her month-long trip around europe.
it was a good, full month… but now we’re glad to be home-sweet-home, with no trips on the horizon! :)