A vida portuguesa for home
1. This cup has a long life behind it before I found it at the little vintage shop Muito Muito in Lisbon at the LX Factory and it already experienced new adventures with me as noodle pot, fresh verbena tea cup and herb holder during our road trip. Now it’s a plant pot for one of my succulents.
2. From which house of Porto might this tile be from? I will never know but now it will be at a special place in my home. I found it at a really cool little shop in a quiet side-street of Porto called Coração Alcerim.
3. This soap from A vida Portuguesa is made of donkey milk which is meant to keep your skin not only clean but moist. We will see. I just liked the design so much.
4. A little box made from a shell. A very clever idea. It will shelter my most important ring when not on my hand.
5. I really like the design of this postcard featuring a children’s book illustration. It says: What’s difficult becomes easy. Well, is life not just a game where we constantly enter a new level getting new challenges to overcome? I will try to constantly remind myself of this picture which symbolizes confidence: Don’t worry you will make it. I found the postcard at A vida Portuguesa.
Some kind of (Portuguese) nature
Our nature escape in Portugal: Bubulcus and Bolotas Camping
Travelling Wes Anderson style: Nature camping with our equipment packed in an old Remowa aluminum suitcase. I guess they don’t know: But those wheels work perfectly off road.
Glamour Camping for me: Enjoying amazing light at sunset and sunrise, sleeping in our tentsile, getting the feeling of remoteness yet finding a breakfast basket underneath our tent upon waking up including homemade tomato jam, freshly baked bread and oak meal muffins, hot tea, juice and local cheese.
Actually nature life is really tiring and time flies by for the fundamental needs of surviving: setting up the tent with a plan B for rain at night,
improvise an outdoor kitchen and cook cowering down, sipping on a Sagres beer not realizing that a wasp is already drinking it without my permission (well, I got stung and had a massive lip lasting three days whereas the evening of day two was the worst. At least I know now that I am unsuited for Botox lips), eating, doing the dishes (it is really interesting to watch the animal cycle when you are not fast enough doing the dishes: first come the wasps, then the flies and an then the ants, first the big ones and later the tiny ones…),
wrapping up all groceries and hanging them in the tree to be protected from being consumed by other cohabitants, put on sunscreen, relax from the above mentioned things and the sun and fresh air, maybe going for a short walk,
start cooking again, making tent ready for night, taking a shower (optional, as you are in nature),
brushing teeth, watching sunset, going to bed.. waking up with sunrise and repeat…
Maybe city life is not too bad for every day life. But on the other hand in nature you focus on the essential things…
Listening: to the night rain or Some kind of Nature by Gorillaz
What I learned from Waldemar who shaped this part of nature in a sustainable way and named it Bubulcus and Bolotas: oak meal muffins are pretty yummy, yes, there are snakes and scorpions in Portugal and you can put cork in brick form and get a perfect material for moisture-proofing of houses and by the way – it looks really designy. Bubulcus Ibis is the name of a local bird and Bolotas is Portuguese for acorn.
Great features at Bubulcus and Bolotas: Getting as close to nature as you can when camping in the wilderness yet having access to amenities and the great option to get a breakfast basket delivered if you are too lazy to make it yourself. The campground is designed in a way that you can hardly see any neighbouring campers. The idea of sustainability is constantly worked on to be as little invasive as possible to mother nature. I hope Bubulcus keeps this spirit.
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