“History is a never-ending chain of events, but it is hold together by strings. If we cut one of the strings, we can no longer take any event for granted.” – Rui Tavares Perhaps the most defining moment impacting and shaping Arraiolos’ history was a decree by King Manuel I, who inherited the Portuguese throne in […]
Not far from the historic village of Sortelha lies the ruins of a towering granite building. Visible just above the tops of some pine trees, as one approaches, and against the flank of the Serra da Pena, it can easily be mistaken for a scene from the pages of a fairy tale. The origin of […]
“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” – Jessica Hische I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, yet, at the beginning of every year I do tend to spend some time thinking of various things I would like to either learn, […]
“How we perceive our surroundings is only ever a reflection of our state of mind in the moment.”– Clare Dimond To help banish the grey days and long dark nights, I wrapped 50 metres of Christmas lights around the big olive tree next to the house, where they now sparkle like my own special constellation […]
“. . . it’s the human-made landscape, not the natural one, that will shape our actions – including the ways that we’ve remade the physical environment. Geography isn’t ‘unchanging’, as Kaplan writes, but volatile. And where we’re going, the old maps won’t help.”– Daniel Immerwahr After having lived on the quinta fulltime for two years, […]
“I think landscape is an incredible, mystical teacher, and when you begin to tune into its sacred presence, something shifts inside you.” – John O’Donohue October flew by in a succession of gorgeous days. It felt good to be outside strimming away all the dead grass of summer, getting ready for the winter rains, and […]
“If you’re a farmer and you are not an optimist, you are not a farmer.” – Glenn Roberts When my father, who has been a farmer his whole life, asked me what I was going to do in Portugal I told him that I was going to farm. A bit ironic really coming from someone […]
“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 16th of August, the strong smell of smoke made my heart skip a beat. I stopped to stare at the […]
“We must strive to become intellectual nomads, keep moving, keep learning, resist confining ourselves in any cultural or mental ghetto, and spend more time not in select centres but at the margins, which is where real change always comes from.” – Elif Shafak July’s heat has weighed heavily on my soul. Chores were centred around the […]
“Nature isn’t ‘out there’ – someplace to go on a weekend. As food, nature is coursing through us. Our guts and the soils are intertwined, both alive with microorganisms doing the work of transforming organic matter into strong plants, trees, and bodies.”– Vicki Robin With the sun gathering strength and the daylight hours stretching out […]
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