“Soils, like people, are transformed by the company they keep. They develop slowly, over time. Top soil, the upper, most productive layer of soil, takes over 500 years to form. That precious inch – and all remaining layers of soil – evolves in response to the climate, terrain and organisms with which it comes in […]
Category Archives: Our Journey
Preparing for Michael’s Next Visit
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden A soft rain is falling this morning on the quinta. Midnight is curled up on the bed, while Lily restlessly dashes in and out the door getting wetter and wetter. I’m sitting on the couch writing while trying my best to […]
June Update from the Quinta
“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour […]
Cleaning the Well
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” -Benjamin Franklin Michael likes to get his hands dirty and be involved in almost every project on the quinta, but when he and Tim decided to clean one of our two wells on the last day before he left, I just shook my head and muttered under my breath […]
Spending Time in the Vegetable Garden
“When we eat good food, we smell and taste the earth, and thereby reconnect with it: that is what it means to eat with grace.” – Darra Goldstein I stood amazed this morning as I looked out over my veggie patch. The transformation from a piece of sloping earth into something filled with edibles brings […]
In Search of a Simple Life
“Do we have the strength within ourselves to slow down, to make the necessary changes personally, structurally, and institutionally…so the life around us can flourish?” – Terry Tempest Williams Michael and I, over the last couple of months, have had various discussions about what I’ve always termed as my quest for a simpler way of […]
A Busy Week on the Quinta
“It is not speed that matters, it’s persistence.”– Abhijit Naskar The past week was an exceptionally busy week on the quinta, and both Michael and I were exhausted yesterday. We told a friend on Saturday that no tool will be lifted on Sunday, as we were planning to make it a rest day, but nothing […]
Night Building
“Remember to look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exists. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”– […]
Stopping for Tea
“. . . each of our lives traces its own map onto the shared terrain.” – Rebecca Solnit A couple of olive trees in Portugal are said to be older than 2000 years. One of these can be found in Mouchão, not far from the highway that links Central Portugal to Lisbon. Millenial olive trees […]
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosarrio de Fátima – Lisbon
The striking modern design of Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosarrio de Fátima (Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima) in Lisbon, with its plain, mostly white exterior, single geometrically shaped tower and horizontal roof, caused a stir and heated public debate when it was built. Unlike older churches it is surrounded by […]
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