home alone

When Tom left in the end of January we were alone at the land. I don't know if you can really be alone in the place with one donkey, two dogs, five cats and six chicken, not counting the wild animals, plants and trees. Living some months by ourselves during Winter is part of the community rhythms we have. Following Nature, we "hibernate" in the Winter to come back to action in Spring. But this Winter the weather was so nice (sunny and cold) we enjoyed being with neighbours, celebrating Eric's birthday, visiting Serra da Estrela and starting to work on the garden.

 

 

click below to see more of the pictures and follow the story...

Things started not so well with a fire next to our forest. Our neighbour decided to "clean" his forest with a fire that got out of control. Thanks to the Firemen everything was extinguished and only his land got burn. Please pray for rain, it's still pretty dry here!







Poo to almonds, cherries, oranges, peaches...

Ever wondered what happens to the "gifts" you left in our compost toilet? After more than an year decomposing, the compost is ready for going back to the soil. We choose to fertilize trees, as we pruned them, they received some poo-love.

Receving friends for Eric's Birthday Party!

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures... who wants to take pictures when you're having fun? We shared a great meal and had a nice time with our lovely neighbours.










Going out of the land

Sometimes we come to the point that we see just work all around us. It is easy to get overwhelmed with possible future project, priorities, responsibilities and unexpected things which will happen. On that point it might help to leave the land for some hours, see a different surrounding and meet friends.
So we did on one morning with Tyra, her kids and dogs.
We went up the mountains of Serra de Estrela. It was really windy up there.

On a more sheltered spot we stoped to enjoy the view. Even though it was still pretty windy we enjoyed this time a lot.

Another day we went to Alpedrinha and witnessed a traditional event happening on the streets: Carnaval! Children from different ages dressed up in their costumes. 
It was nice to see lots of people on the village streets on a Thursday morning celebrating together with the kids.

The kids looked so cute dressed in the traditional Rancho clothes



Life is all around us

One of the things our friends and family from the North countries ask us is if we can tell that Spring is coming, since we don't have a proper Winter. This year we did had a cold Winter and Yes! We can enjoy the beginning of Spring because there is so much life around. The trees are blooming, the birds sing louder and the garden comes back to life.

Thank you so much for reading. We are excited about receiving our new visits, meeting old friends and partnering with Nature in the following months. If you want to know more about Wild and Medicinal Plants, come and join our weekend workshop 18th - 19th of April. Contact us by email for more info: mount.of.oaks@blogspot.com




















"...community cannot feed for long on itself; it can only flourish where always the boundaries are giving way to the coming of others from beyond them – unknown and undiscovered brothers." Howard Thurman