I just came from a supermarket. I was looking at all the seafood that was available. Not just the fresh catches, but also the frozen food. Large containers full of prawns of all sizes. Containers full of shell fish. Containers full of parts of other sea animals. I found it really quite something to behold. What a rich variety of species live in our oceans.
I was looking at this display in a fairly average sized supermarket in a small town. My mind then started extrapolating that quantity of sea food in food stores across the world. How does the natural world keep up with that kind of demand? I guess that current environmental measurements suggest that it isn’t, or at best is struggling.
We took a drive today out into the Alentejo countryside south and west of Alcácer do Sal. What with the time of year and the recent rains, the land was very green and the spring flowers were out in abundance. Once the summer sun arrives this land will become golden and parched.
🥱 I woke up late this morning, for me. I went out late to listen to music and watch fireworks (after having already fallen asleep). It was a pleasure to see families out and about enjoying themselves. And the fireworks were good.
🥱 I woke up late this morning, for me. I went out late to listen to music and watch fireworks (after having already fallen asleep). It was a pleasure to see families out and about enjoying themselves. And the fireworks were good.
Just home from an evening walk along the Sado River. Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution here in Portugal. In Alcácer do Sal tonight Rui Veloso will be on stage beside the Sado at 10:00pm with fireworks at midnight…and then the party goes on until the early hours.
I don’t know how much I will manage to see tonight, but we were treated to a sound check by Rui on our walk. The first time that I have heard his music, and I liked it.
I just watched The Elephant Whisperers on Netflix. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get round to seeing this short documentary? Beautifully filmed - the scenery, the wildlife - and holding the simplicity and yet depth of the heartfelt human/animal interaction.
Monday April 22, 2024 Olá Friends,
This letter is coming to you from Portugal. I arrived here from England two days ago. I had a good time back home but as always found it hard to leave. Hard to leave the UK, hard to leave my mother, hard to leave familiar surroundings and places that hold memories…but life moves on and I had to get down to Portugal ahead of my wife’s arrival this coming week.
I sit here in 2024 in a house in Portugal, and a piece of music transports me back to 1985, to a hiking hut somewhere in mountains of the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Almost forty years have passed, but the memory is vivid and the effect of that time on my life feels as real now as it did all the way back then.
Let me give you some context.
