In the middle of the night, when I was about to go for a pee - as that works wonders to fall asleep again - I managed to pull my mosquito net off the ceiling ( for the umptieth time ) and drop it on my bed.
So, after peeing and drinking some water, I probably spent about half an hour trying to set it up, again, while waving away some hungry mosquitoes.
As an effect of this - and a myriad of other reasons - I woke up tired, once again.
I felt like visiting my twin sister but wasn't sure whether I could handle the energy of her kids, my niece and nephew, who had spent two days at my place last weekend.
I decided to go, anyway and just stay for a couple of hours over lunch, as I could use some social time and the exercise and I felt they would enjoy my visit.
I drove my E-bike to her place - a 20 minute hilly ride through an amazing landscape - and had decided to not bring my phone for extra relaxation. For a change, I didn't tell my sister about my visit.
Although I usually tell people that I'm about to visit and when, she, on the other hand, is the kind of person at whose place you're always welcome. Their one hectare of land doesn't even have a gate, since a year or so. I feel it's a metaphor for my sister and brother-in-law's hospitality - two extremely social, extraverted people.
When I arrived, just before 11:00, it almost seemed like nobody was there, it was extra-ordinarily quiet.
Their labrador quietly welcomed me, I parked my bike, patted Mungo ( pronounce as Mango ) and walked up to my sister's little house.
She appeared to be at home and was pleasantly surprised to see me and told me the kids weren't around ( they are being homeschooled ) but on this Friday they were trying out some kind of forestry project hosted by friends/ acquaintances living in the area.
Perfect! I thought, as this is just what I needed. Peace and quiet with my twin sister.
She had just made coffee and I enjoyed my first cup of caffeine in 6 days ( more on that in my latest posts ). After the coffee, I walked to the nearest village, 15 minutes down hill and bought a bunch of baby veggies, as depicted on the photo, while my sister took a shower and enjoyed a bit of rare alone time.
The baby plants and veggies that I picked were green pepper, red pepper, carrot and courgette,as well as a piri piri plant and a strawberry plant.
In fact, I bought double the amount, and later gave half of the plants to my twin sister. She has way more space for veggies, a bunch of decent sized raised-beds, and we just love to gift each other things.
She told me that I can harvest from her place, in the future, and that she's interested to find out how different the growth will be in both our gardens.
She also showed me all her veggies and crops, from onions, to cabbage, to potatoes, to lettuce, to beetroot and so on and so forth, as well as all kinds of herbs.
If I would have brought my phone along, I could show you how great most of these plants were looking and I would probably have photographed her blossoming cherry tree too.
The weather has been pretty amazing here, lately. We've had an abundance of rain and sun, after an extremely dry Winter.
Although I hadn't posted a gardening update, in a while, that doesn't mean that I haven't done any gardening. In fact, I (re)moved loads of smallish cut down mimosa trees that I plan to turn into sawdust ( my neighbor has a machine for that ) soonish. The sawdust will then mainly go to him and his family, in exchange for using the machine and I might go for some kind of Hive deal too. I will probably gift him some Hive, in exchange for his help.
I also cut away a bunch of branches of two of my olive trees, so they will grow better, as well as to give more sunlight to the left side of my veggy patch / tea garden.
And, last weekend, I planted an orange tree, near the house.
I pee on my olive tree and apple tree on an almost daily basis, while humming or saying kind things to them.
It also seems like the favas ( garden beans ) and another type of bean ( that I like to call 'magic bean' ) are pretty happy, sprouting up out of the earth and almost visibly growing, day by day, as depicted here:
So, the snails might have eaten almost all my lettuce, the rest of the veggies seem to be pretty happy. This photo shows my beetroot and leek. The lettuce was growing here too. I also added compost, last weekend.
I feel as happy as my plants, right now. Today's little outing, consisting of 2x 20 minutes of cycling, 30 minutes of walking, two hours spent with my sister and buying, as well as gifting, plenty of edible natural medicine to look forward to, was the best thing I could do.
We should all listen to our intuition a lot more. Wake up, people. Our brains only now so much.
It's now almost 3PM and I feel energized enough to focus on finishing the second edition of my book. Awesome!
This is just what I needed!
Sending you much love and good vibes from rural Portugal :<)
Vincent aka Hypersensitivosaurus
P.S. I'll leave you with some pictures of my garden view, taken this afternoon, my strawberry and piri piri ( hot pepper ) plants, the view yesterday, photographed from a hill near my house, the strawberry plants that I planted in a dead tree trunk on my terrace, a while ago ( they are developing more flowers ), as well as my baby orange tree.
Looking great Vincent! Magic beans and all ;)
The most obviously overlooked cycle in our crazy modern world! We collect all our urine in the Summer and return the nutrients back to the garden. Though we do water it down as I read somewhere that pure urine can have a detrimental effect on certain things. I guess you will know pretty quickly if your trees aren't happy.
Love the terraced mountain off in the distance.
I'll keep that in mind, although I like to think that my urine is already pretty watered down. I mainly drink tea and water ;<)
That's one of my favorites too!
This post makes me so happy! I know what you mean about homes being symbolic of personalities! Our environments are mirrors of our souls.
I love the thought of you humming and pissing on the trees - one should always whisper kind things when you pee on living things lol. MAybe next time plant the lettuce bigger and put some cucumber slices for the snails to eat first. And go out in the middle of the night and find them and PIFF them as far as you can bahahahaha....
You're so lucky to have your twin.
And I'm so glad you are growing things.
I knew you would like this :<)
Haha!
Good idea. They actually seemed big enough, I didn't know snails could eat this fast.
I'll keep the cucumber idea in mind. If I add some onion and tomato into the mix, I've got garden salad ;<)
Fabulous. Have you also heard of the beer method for snails?
You stand in garden with a beer, find a snail, and throw it as far as you can.
Hahaha!
You're funny!
I actually read about the beer method, heard snails are attracted to yeast
but beer traps might actually attract more snails - from arund - and intoxicate other animals,
like hedgehogs.
P.S. I hardly drink alcohol these days. Had my last glass of wine last year ( New Year's Eve )
xx
I'm not drinking much either. I had a couple of ciders llast night and woke feeling crap..
Hii @vincentnijman Life around with nature is such a bless. I really enjoy the life like this.😍
Thank you and I agree :<)
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Congratulations @vincentnijman! You received a personal badge!
Participate in the next Power Up Day and try to power-up more HIVE to get a bigger Power-Bee.
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Where did you end up ion the world, werent you in holland ?!
I left The Netherlands early 2018, to move to Portugal.
I see you made your way to Mexico :<)