“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
– John Muir

As I stepped outside into the cool of the early morning on the 16^th of August, the strong smell of smoke made my heart skip a beat. I stopped to stare at the haze, and it took a couple of seconds to dawn on me that it wasn’t mist rolling in, but smoke enveloping the landscape. I turned back to check my phone, and my heart rate only slowed down once I realised that the wind has turned and the smoke was coming from a huge fire that started mysteriously at 3.18 am, ten days ago on the south-eastern flank of the Serra de Estrela, mainland Portugal’s highest mountain.

The fogos.pt website, which shows in real time where fires are burning and how many resources are being used at any point in time, at some point, when I sent Michael a message, listed 1595 firefighters, 493 fire trucks, and 12 aeroplanes. These resources fluctuated through the accumulating days as the fire’s status flipped between burning, under control, resolved, and under surveillance, until on 20 August it was declared as resolved at 20h42, although on the 24th the status again changed to ‘vigilância’, or under surveillance, but luckily it hasn’t flared up again.

Rumours spread as quickly as the fire itself, including the ‘strange’ coincidence of this and other fires this year being so close to sites that are earmarked for lithium exploration, something the Portuguese government consider vital to the economy, but has locals up in arms. The system and how fires are dealt with have also been criticized, but the truth can be as hazy as the smoke from this fire that travelled as far as Madrid. What cannot be disputed is the amount of damage and loss that has been suffered to one of Portugal’s most beloved natural areas, and which was classified as a UNESCO World Geopark in 2020.

The drought and heat waves that plagued Portugal this summer made the possibility of fires more likely than usual, and according to one newspaper article 68 people have been arrested for starting fires, although mostly unintentional. According to a study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the Iberian Peninsula is the driest it has been in 1,200 years. In the tourist dependent Algarve where water is scarce in general, this year has, for instance, seen the closure of swimming pools and a ban on watering golf courses and public gardens.  

It is said that 99% of mainland Portugal is suffering to some extent from the drought. We are lucky that we have ample water on our land, or at least it appears like it. Our well from which I water the orchard and vegetable garden, still has 2.5 metres of water left in, while we also have another well, we’ve never used. I’ve been told by someone recently that the well from which he waters his vegetable garden is completely dry. Having grown up on a farm where we didn’t have an abundant supply of water, I still get agitated when taps run a little too long to my liking, so I guess being water-wise or obsessed is in my DNA.

On my Plate & In the Garden
My vegetable garden has not been doing well this year, which I put down to a combination of the weather and my fledgling knowledge. I’ve eaten the occasional zucchini and tomato, but there have been no tomatoes to preserve, and I am ready to pull up the plants to make space for something else. The eggplants and peppers de Padron did much better and found their way regularly onto my plate.

I am busy drying some chillies and have been experimenting with chilli and peri-peri sauces. I’ve even thrown some into aguardente, as I find the thought of chilli liqueur exciting and adventurous. The rocket is growing well, but as it is far too peppery to my liking, I’ve started using it the way I would use spinach to great results. There has been pasta with basil pesto on the menu, and I’ve even gone so far as to create a chive pesto with sundried tomatoes and sunflower seeds, when I, a couple of days ago, split the chive plants.

I have also started grinding small batches of powder from the paprikas that I dried last year, which adds an exciting, vivid red colour to the dishes I add it to. On the foraging side, purslane has started growing in patches where I’ve sown a mix of flower seeds, so I’ve been sprinkling some of their leaves over my food providing a bit of crunch and a hint of sourness.

Although the bees on the land have not yet started to produce honey, as they are still getting settled, our lovely friend, the Beekeeper, has kindly been keeping me in a good supply of honey, which lately made its way into my new favourite summer drink, shrub that was popular in 17th and 18th century England, but has been made trendy again as an ingredient in cocktails. It is esssentially a mix of equal parts honey or sugar, apple cider vinegar and fresh fruit, which is mixed and steeped for a couple of days, before being used like a cordial with soda water or water. Unless of course you are into mixing up experimental cocktails.

My biggest chore this month was to cut the suckers off the base of the olive trees. It is a job I despise, and one I could only face in the relatively cool early hours of the morning. Because of the heat we experienced in spring when they were flowering, this year is looking more and more like we are in for a dismal harvest, as there are almost no olives on the trees. I still have to count the trees which actually has some olives on, but I suspect it will be less than 10 out of a total of 40 trees, and just the thought depresses me.

Weathering the Weather
August was not as brutal as July, but still 0.7°C hotter than last year. A total of 21 days (compared to the 11 of last year) were between 35° and 42°C, while 2 days were below 30°C, and the rest between 30° and 35°C. The hottest day was 41.9°C, and the coolest 27.4°C. With the temperatures reaching its zenith sometimes only between 6 and 7pm, it meant that I spent many evenings relaxing outside long after the sun has set and the sky was sprinkled with stars. I also ended up waking up with a sky full of stars so that I could open all the doors to cool the house down, before the heat descended upon me again. Luckily the day is getting shorter, so I am starting to feel slightly less sleep deprived and don’t crave an afternoon siesta, although I am still making time for it, even if it is just to relax for 30 minutes or so just reading.
Something interesting I’ve noted this summer is that there were hardly any mosquitoes. I can’t say that I’ve missed them, but I do wonder if it is just because of the drought and weather or something else that accounts for their absence.

Officialdom
I never know if I should laugh or cry every time I am given a different reason for why my residence visa hasn’t been issued yet. The latest email from the lawyers said: “We will continue to chase SEF for an answer since the last information we have from SEF is that they are waiting for new legislation to come into force regarding this.” I am by no means the only one frustrated by the current situation, as there are people who made huge investments (between 350,000 – 500,000 euros) under the Golden Visa system who have also been waiting for over a year, and who often haven’t even been able to get an appointment at SEF yet. Even the Brits who had legal residency before Brexit are still waiting for their biometric appointments (except for the Azores and Madeira) to be issued residence cards, where the rest of Europe finished the process long ago. The latest news is that those residing in Cascais will soon (although one hesitates and has to wonder what this means) be notified to make appointments for it. So, let’s see, like I recently told friends, I have no idea if I am “legally illegal” or “illegally legal”.

Midnight & Lily
I have no idea why these two are still at one another’s throats, but I when their fighting stirs up a dust cloud on the neighbours land, or Lily ends up with the end of a piece of barbed wire curled around her neck, both my voice and heart rate are higher than normal. Lily did manage to reverse easily out of her wire necklace, but tufts of her hair were sticking to it and hanging like seed pots from the dried plants, where the altercation took place. For the first time she had a cut above her right eye (I suspect from the barbed wire), which I’m keeping an eye on, but luckily so far looks fine.

Visitors
The cattle of our one neighbour is grazing close to our land again, which always warm my heart, and makes me feel I am living on a real farm, as the sound of cattle and sheep remind me of my childhood on the farm. Early one morning I have spotted two deer and the fox made its appearance a couple of times on my neighbour’s land, while I’ve also enjoyed the presence of a couple of bats flitting through the darkening skies.

To Read & Listen to
# Read my latest article for Migrations Review in which I write about my foraging journey: Foraging – A Sense of Place
# Article on the Serra de Estrela Fire in Portugal Resident
# Article in ZME Science on the drought and the projected impact of climate change on the Iberian Peninsula
# Good Food podcast, episode 155 titled Insects, salmon farming, chemicals in food, ‘true’ prices. It is a thought provoking look at our relationship with the earth through our consumption of different food, and how our choices impact on various aspects of the environment.

Portuguese Words
This month’s song is called Cada Lugar Teu by Mafalda Veiga
(The translation is under the Portuguese lyrics)

Sei de cor cada lugar teu
Atado em mim, a cada lugar meu
Tento entender o rumo que a vida nos faz tomar
Tento esquecer a mágoa
Guardar só o que é bom de guardar

Pensa em mim protege o que eu te dou
Eu penso em ti e dou-te o que de melhor eu sou
Sem ter defesas que me façam falhar
Nesse lugar mais dentro
Onde só chega quem não tem medo de naufragar

Fica em mim que hoje o tempo dói
Como se arrancassem tudo o que já foi
E até o que virá e até o que eu sonhei
Diz-me que vais guardar e abraçar
Tudo o que eu te dei

Mesmo que a vida mude os nossos sentidos
E o mundo nos leve pra longe de nós
E que um dia o tempo pareça perdido
E tudo se desfaça num gesto só

Eu vou guardar cada lugar teu
Ancorado em cada lugar meu
E hoje apenas isso me faz acreditar
Que eu vou chegar contigo
Onde só chega quem não tem medo de naufragar

Mesmo que a vida mude os nossos sentidos
E o mundo nos leve pra longe de nós
E que um dia o tempo pareça perdido
E tudo se desfaça num gesto só

Eu vou guardar cada lugar teu
Atado em mim, a cada lugar meu
E hoje apenas isso me faz acreditar
Que eu vou chegar contigo
Onde só chega quem não tem medo de naufragar

I know your every place by heart
Tied to me, to each place of mine
I try to understand the direction that life takes us
I try to forget the hurt
To keep only what is good to keep

Think of me protect what I give you
I think of you and give you the best that I am
Without having defences that make me fail
In that innermost place
Where only those who aren’t afraid of sinking can reach

Stay in me that today time hurts
As if they tore away everything that once was
And even what will come and even what I dreamed of
Tell me that you’ll keep and embrace
Everything I’ve given you

Even if life changes our senses
And the world takes us away from us
And that one day time seems lost
And it all falls apart in a single gesture

I’ll keep every place of you
Anchored in every place of mine
And today only this makes me believe
That I will arrive with you
Where only those who are not afraid of being shipwrecked can reach

Even if life changes our senses
And the world takes us far away from us
And that one day time seems lost
And everything will fall apart in a single gesture

I’ll keep every place of you
Tied to me, to each place of mine
And today only this makes me believe
That I will arrive with you
Where only those who aren’t afraid of being shipwrecked can reach

Written by: Jolandi