“How we choose to organize our memories is in part how we choose to imbue meaning in the present moment.”
–  Rolf Pots

When we bought the land, and decided to document our journey, I never once thought that more than 7 years later it would still feel like a building site. Ignorant of the amount of time building projects take, I focused my dreams on how I would live on the land when it was all done. I’ve inhabited my oversight ever since, and have come to understand that life happens in all its messiness and joy exactly in the space we occupy while reaching for our dreams. Not in some imagined social media kind of perfect way, but clumsily bumbling along, trampling a path through the thick undergrowth of choices.

Both Michael and I have come to realise that it is important to occasionally step back and remember where it all started, and just how far we’ve come since then. Even though the main reason for this blog is to serve as the keeper of our memories, which can be fleeting or easily forgotten in the tumult of daily life, scrolling through digital pages can be fragmented and frustrating. I also prefer to limit my screen time, which is why I’ve made it my goal for the year to create a tangible memory for us by transferring the photos and stories contained here onto the physical pages of a book that we can hold in our hands and page through at random to remember and appreciate the journey.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to appreciate the different seasons for what they are, and not what I would like them to be – each offering their own beauty and special gifts. Winter with its short, often rainy days, is the perfect season for teaching myself how to use Affinity Publisher, and embark on such an ambitious project amidst the usual daily demands and chores.

Although it is slow going at the moment, I’ve at least started the process, which has been interrupted during the course of the month by a faulty underfloor heating system that coincided with me being sick, and the obsessive way I prepare and plan for a trip.

Michael and I haven’t been away together for a holiday, since our trip to Baku, Azerbaijan in July 2019, but we’ve finally been able to commit to a holiday, with my sister being able to take care of the quinta and cats for us. We will meet halfway in the city where East meets West, and cats are loved and taken care of – Istanbul.

A Special Memory of Moment of Joy:
It seems that I have started a little ritual without setting out to do so. For the second year in a row, I’ve made a point of visiting Lisbon in winter. With only handfuls of tourists scattered throughout the city, it is the only time during the year it feels like the place I fell in love with almost 8 years ago. This time I visited specifically to attend a candlelight concert, but also made good use of the scheme in which citizens and residents can visit all the state museums for free on any 52 days in any given year. And of course, I visited various wonderful restaurants to make up for the lack where I live. Although all of the above were wonderful, the moments that stand out has nothing to do with places, but everything with people. The little old lady in a passing car who made eye contact with me, and when I smiled at her, waved and smiled; the young French couple I met in Jerónimos Monastery; the various immigrants I talked to in the restaurants and cafés; and the bubbly, young Portuguese guy who works part-time in a luggage storage facility, while also pursuing acting.

Notes:
# January was marked by freezing nights and frosty mornings, and although temperatures in winter can dip to below zero Celsius, this year was marked with longer hours and lower temperatures than in any of the previous 4 years since I’ve started keeping a record.

# We’ve finally had the quantity of rain needed to fill up the sharka and get the seasonal stream running. It has been much later than previous years, and by far the wettest January in 5 years with a total of 327 mm (with more predicted for the 29th).

Unknown facts or quirks about Portugal:
Politicians the world over can get themselves embroiled in scandals, but this recent story is one I’ve never encountered before:  Chega MP suspected of luggage theft at Lisbon airport

Written by: Jolandi