It’s Green Friday in Our World! Not Black.

By nature, I am a very optimistic person.  I will always be thankful for that.  Consequently, each morning when I awake and I look out the window and see the palm type tree outside my bedroom window swaying in the breeze, the birds flitting in and out of the fronds, I am grateful and thankful for this amazing life I get to live.  If I could, all my friends and family would be here with me but sadly, that is not possible.

Yesterday at the mall, when we went to the cinema, we were fortunate enough to see the handmade Christmas trees, each made from some sort of recycling product, that children from the various schools had made.  I took a few photos and forgot to post them yesterday.

Made from egg cartons.

Plastic cups and paper cut outs of hands to resemble birds.

Loved this one as it represents the silk floss tree, which I love.

Simple egg cartons, some of them painted. I loved the simplicity. I think it was my favourite for some reason.

This enormous metal tree sits outside the mall and is surrounded by a skating rink!!! So much fun to watch a few folks, on very wobbly ankles, practicing a dance routine. I love that they have a rink……..you can imagine they never get to spend much time skating like we do in Canada..

Today was gorgeous.   It hit 18 degrees but felt much warmer,  especially when I was tromping along a country road with my walking sticks in hand.  There is this part of my brain that thinks anytime I walk it MUST be exercise and therefore I MUST perspire or it’s not worth it!!!  I’ve learned to simply love and embrace that part of myself….LOL

As usual, there is always something new to catch my eye and demand to be photographed.

This garden, with the sun shining down on the greenery, really jumped out at me. I stood for a few moments to appreciate the simply beauty of the garden.

This tiny cafe, which I’ve never been in but have promised myself that I will this year, looked quite pretty from this perspective. I can only imagine how heavenly it is when the bougainvillea is in full bloom in the heat of the summer.

This is quite a large chimney by Portuguese standards.

This cluster of colour, and the way it had escaped the fence, was quite pretty.

This little house was beautiful. The garden is full of all kinds of knick knacks and plants and because it seems to be sheltered from the winds, everything was in bloom.

I love that the sorrel is already starting to bloom. This is happening six weeks earlier than other years that I have been here. I went back and checked my photos and I asked some local people.

Konrad tells me the sorrel reminds him of a spinach and eggs!!!

I look forward to my daily walks.  I wear a FitBit and my goal is to hit a minimum of 11,000 steps each day.  Since arriving here I am averaging 15,000 each day which makes me happy as it zeros out any calories I might digest from vino!!!!

Once home I cleaned up then Marc and I headed off for lunch at Ana’s and Simão’s.  Today’s prato do dia…..

Salt cod prepared with potatoes, eggs, onions and olives.

Absolutely delicious. I know that I moaned and groaned through the entire meal!!!

I love to add a litttle piripiri to spice things up a bit and  Simão was kind enough to share his very special blend with me…….I cannot tell you the secret ingredient otherwise he just might do away with me……trust me when I tell you…….amazing.

After lunch Marc and I headed off to São Brás de Alportel, which is about 12 kms north of here, in the mountains.  We had a couple of errands we wanted to run and we decided to make a stop at the local Intermarché, which is a French based grocery store.  We discovered a couple of years ago that they have a great selection of wines that we can’t find elsewhere and this was an opportunity to stock up.  The fabulous find…..we’ve been purchasing this particular vino for three years from this same market and the price is exactly the same, 1,99 euros.

The afternoon seemed to get gobbled up with some house-keeping, individual projects, cleaning out the woodstove for our next fire etc..  It’s amazing how the hours blend and merge and before you know it, it’s 17h00 and our habit has become to head back for an aperitif with Ana and Simão.

And our day is coming to a close.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer than today and although it’s a Saturday and there are markets to visit, we have decided that we might just enjoy a lazy morning as we know when we have visitors we will be visiting loads of markets……..time will tell…….but in the meantime, Paul Bunyan stopped by today…..