JUST NATURE
Exposure to nature not only makes me feel better emotionally, it contributes to my physical wellbeing. Portugal’s nature is incredible and you think I would be used to it by now but I am not. I am surprised on almost a daily basis. I love the wildlife especially the birds, butterflies and bees, the sun, animals, amazing forests, trees, greenery, landscapes, waterfalls, sunsets, stars, rocks, caves, beaches, natural streams, the sky, cloud formations and the rainbows that follow the rain and even the weeds are pretty. I love not only the views but the smells and country air that hits my face during a hike up the hill and the sounds of the birds waking me up each morning or sea crashing against the rocks. Nature is one big enjoyable sensory overload. I hate wearing shoes and socks as I enjoy the feel of grass, warm sand and the sea beneath my feet. This post is all about nature and photos from Portugal. I will update regularly with all my amazing treasures of nature. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. A lot of people are currently talking about back to ‘normal’ or back to ‘nature’. For me it will always be back to nature.
Here are a couple of wonders that are growing out of the side of our wall. Weird how you can love and cherish and tend to seeds and encourage them on their journey to grow into beautiful plants then these plants just grow out of the side of our wall with no effort or looking after at all. It does make me smile, natural beauties of Portugal.
Here is a tiny frog I found in a rock pool at Avo river beach, I named him Freddy.
Serra de Estrela
Peneda-Gerês National Park
Douro Valley
A local park
One tiny cloud in the whole sky
Coimbra Botanical Garden
Penedo da Saudade – Poetry within nature
Buçaco National Forest
So many mushrooms growing everywhere. Here are a few I found on my jog around my village. The jog turned into more of a mushroom walk. One day I must go on a group mushroom ramble with an expert as I have no idea which mushrooms are safe to eat, which ones will put me in an early grave and which ones will take me on a magical trip of a lifetime on a sparkly rainbow coloured unicorn (ha ha).
Daphne the duck
This duck turned up in our little village and I pass by and say hi whilst on my daily run. I named her Daphne and the cutest thing happened today. Someone built her a little house! This has absolutely made my day. I’m a bit hot and sweaty after today’s 7K run with hubby, I might join Daphne in the stream to cool off.
Daphne has mates
We now have a trio of ducks! Now I have to come up with 2 more names (ha ha).
Pumpkins galore
Neighbourhood pumpkins. The future is bright, the future is ORANGE!
The friendly lobsters
Met some friendly lobsters whilst SUP boarding in the Dão river! WOW.
Garden Snake
Snakes LOVE our garden as we have many schist walls and they find great hiding places between the stones in all the crevices.
Bright Bug
Wow! Just look at the colour of this bug, WONDERFUL!
6 Comments
Bollinger
4 years agoLove your website. My wife and I are a couple of years from retirement and will be starting our research soon to find a place to live abroad. Currently in UK.
I couldn’t find an email sign up. Would be great if you had one so I could get blog updates!
Thanks again
Bollinger
Helen
4 years agoHi Bollinger,
I am glad you enjoy my blog. Portugal is such a beautiful place to live and retire to and properties are very affordable too. I am sure you will have fun planning your well deserved retirement. Thanks for the reminder about email sign up to alert when I have new posts. My husband is the IT guy so I will ask him to add this ASAP.
Many thanks,
Helen.
Bollinger
4 years agoThanks Helen. If you feel like doing it, it would be helpful to see an example of a breakdown of monthly/annual costs. Couldn’t find one and always intrigued in the comparison with blighty
Best, B
Helen
4 years agoHi Bollinger,
If you have a look at my ‘Utilities’ post it lists what we pay for council tax, gas, elec, water, logs for fire etc. then it’s just petrol and food for the two of us. Petrol is quite expensive here but difficult for me to give an estimate as sometimes we can go days without leaving the house and using any petrol but we mostly take rare infrequent long journeys (1hr each way) so I would give a rough estimate at 50 euros per month. Food we do a monthly shop at Lidl 120-140 euros per month and then we used to do a weekly shop at Arganil market for fresh fruit, veg and bread and butchers in local village for meat but currently we are visiting nearby village shops to buy these items (hubby usually cycles as 10 mins each way) or buying from the food delivery vans who drive through our village. They excessively beep their horns and you run out and flag them down. I hope this helps you. Cost of living is so much cheaper here. The main saving is council tax which we just paid 67 euros for the whole year! We used to pay £1700 for the year in UK for a 2 bed flat! Most importantly wine is very cheap here (ha ha).
Many thanks,
Helen.
Bollinger
4 years agoThanks Helen. I live in rural Bedfordshire in a small village and so not dissimilar to your current situation. Our council tax is £3k per annum! Ouch. Very pricey.
Best, B
Helen
4 years agoHi B,
I feel your pain! IMI is the equivalent of council tax here and the rates of the Tax are fixed annually by the Municipalities in the area. We are lucky as Arganil is one of the cheapest.
Thanks,
Helen.