Winter outdoors, a walk in the park up in the hill and making me happy

Hello everyone! How are you doing? We are almost in the middle of February, are you keeping up all your new year wishes and goals? Days here are lived at the pace of our newborn sweetie and being enjoyed with all of what that means. She started to smile intentionally this week and we were delighted!

On the opposite of this week, last one we had some lovely sunny days so I took the chance to walk with my sweetie in the park nearby and the one situated up in the hill. I placed her in the baby carrier and off we go enjoying some nature sights. Luckily, I took the camera and shot some images. Here are few: the camellia flowers, the mosses growing on the trees branches (humidity is high here), the light opening space through the vegetation and the lake with its colorful boats. It was such a relaxing, inspiring afternoon!

Images: Maria Miranda

One photo per week: week 9

Happy Monday everyone! Last time we had a "one photo per week" we had a tree with multicolored leaves that I spotted in my neighborhood. Today we have a photograph from a gorgeous magnolia bloom. I love to watch magnolia blooms this time of the year. What about you? Can you already spot blooms around you?

Have a nice week!

Images: Maria Miranda

Sweet treats: Holidays Season

Hello everyone!

This year we started the Advent with a special treat for our sweet tooth and since then we haven't stopped. Hmm where will this lead..! When we reach this time of the year I always have a desire of having "rabanadas" (french toasts in English, I think). Changed the milk for almond milk and they were delicious. I forgot to take pictures so no images at all, but there are testimonials that they were yummy!

A few days later, another desire come up: Aletria, a typical Portuguese desert for this time of year. Aletria... hmm how would it be named in English? Sweet pasta, maybe. It was my first attempt ever and I made it with almond milk also. Next time I will do it more creamy, for sure!

For the second Sunday Advent we tried a not Christmas season desert but incredibly delicious. For the first time we made tiramisu and we loved it. That mixture of coffee and chocolate! We followed the recipe from Jamie Oliver that you can find here, with some minor changes: we did not had any alcohol and we bought pasteurized eggs. We already have some ideas how to improve it for the next time: maybe a double layer?

And you? What sweet treats are you making this time of the year?

Images: Maria Miranda

Our Urban Garden: Our most recent creative project

Hello everyone! In the past years, urban gardens have become common in Portugal. That I am aware there are quite a few in Lisboa, in Porto but where we live there were not so much and mostly located in small villages outside the city. This is not such a big urban city and the countryside is just around the corner. 

However, last October for our complete surprise our parish council created an urban garden with 16 different sections with nice areas. When we saw we couldn't believe and applied immediately for a section. Luckily, we were given a nice piece of land and it is all for free. Yep, the land and the water, no rent at all. It is awesome for us to have this chance so close home, specially because we are so picky with food buying as much as we can organic vegetables and fruit. We didn't know exactly how to start so we had the luck to have the help of my Dad. Great! So far we have planted or seeded, snow peas, turnip greens, different varieties of cabbages and spinaches, lettuces, garlic, leek, a lemon and a specific specie of mandarin orange.

As herbs we have lavender, oreganos, thymus and rosemary so far. We planted hydrangeas hoping for a nice fence with flowers next Summer. And we still have a big wishlist for the next weeks! 

 Here you can spot lettuces, spinaches, leek, onion, cabbages

 Snow peas with 15 days old

 Rosemary plant

 Turnip greens with 15 days old

A close-up of our lemon tree

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Images: Maria Miranda

The Norwegian Secret to Enjoying a Long Winter : Fridays here at the blog!

Hello everyone. The other day I came across an article, written by Laura Vanderkam, based on a study done by Leibowitz, that I found quite interesting specially if you do not like days getting darker as I do this time of the year. Approximately, in one month and a half time we might start to see a slight daylight increase. Until then, there is some valuable ideas in the article. Don't forget "have a positive wintertime mindset". 

The conclusion from Leibowitz study is that: "But overall, mindset research is increasingly finding that it doesn’t take much to shift one’s thinking. "It doesn’t have to be this huge complicated thing," says Leibowitz. "You can just consciously try to have a positive wintertime mindset and that might be enough to induce it." 

Have a lovely weekend!

Images: Maria Miranda

Autumn Outdoors (2)

Hello everyone! After the first signs of Autumn in this post, we can spot other nature changes. The vineyards leaves that turn in stunning red colours, the birds nests that were unrecovered all of this time and the appearance of these "berries" on the trees in my neighboord. Quite nice!

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Have a nice late Autumn day!

Images: Maria Miranda

One photo per week: week 8

Hello and happy Monday!  Last photograph was from a blossom tree in Porto. It was a long time ago! Today I am sharing a photograph from a tree in Braga. I particularly liked this one. You can still spot the leaves in greens, yellows and red hues.
Have a nice week!

Images: Maria Miranda