OUR 2 YEAR MILESTONE

Today is New Year’s Eve and our 2 year milestone, gosh time flies when you’re having fun. 2 years ago today we jumped on a plane with 2 suitcases and a bike and never looked back. Tonight we are staying at home for our New Year’s Eve celebrations. We have tasty food, yummy Portuguese wine and a retro bar in our lounge fully stocked with Polish vodka and rum thanks to hubby’s amazing work colleague “Tiger” who sent us the alcoholic beverages as a Christmas gift. There will be no shortage of FUN at the Casa Valhal residence but I am going to need a hoist to get me out of bed and on my hangover hike tomorrow. I will update this post with my celebration photos once I have recovered from my vodka party (ha ha). I can’t believe that we have been living in Portugal for a full 2 years. 2021 has certainly been a strange yet fun year. The dreaded Covid that we all assumed would be a distant memory has lingered on and ruined more plans of family and friend get-togethers and it’s the second Christmas in a row that we have spent on our own, just the two of us in Portugal with none of our children visiting to celebrate together. Despite the chaos Covid continues to bring we have managed to have an epic memorable year. Lots of people are suffering from burnout and depression and I feel mildly guilty as my life here in Central Portugal is pretty damn amazing. I use the word BLESSED a lot but it sums up exactly how I feel about living in Portugal and it’s hands down the best decision I have ever made in my lifetime so far.

Highlight of 2021

The highlight of my year was certainly my daughters 8 week 2021 Summer visit where we got to explore so many new places for the first time together such as Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais, Ericeira, Óbidos, Peniche, Azenhas do Mar, Fatima and the Douro Natural Park. It was a family trip of a lifetime with the terrible trio causing mayhem (ha ha). There were trips to mountains and geosites, forests, palaces, castles, Roman ruins, bridges (including the famous 516 bridge), caves, museums, Portuguese grand homes and botanical gardens, monasteries and convents and so many famous monuments, way too many to list here. There was also wine tasting and a river cruise in the Douro Valley.

Our driver (hubby) was tried at the end of the 8 weeks!

Nata Eating

There was a lot of eating Nata’s in famous cafes of Lisbon and Porto.

He is trying to be posh and drink like the queen (ha ha)

Celebrations

There were birthdays, our wedding anniversary, valentine’s day, Easter, Shrove Tuesday and many other “stay safe at home” celebrations throughout the year. We even got to celebrate my daughter’s 19th and Milo’s 4th birthday early with a Sunflower themed summer garden party. It’s not often I get to dress up and wear make-up as I’m usually in my running and hiking clothes or gardening leggings so I like to make an effort a few times per year. I don’t want hubby trading me in for a younger model because I’ve let myself go. Good luck to him as the average age of the ladies in my village is 89 (ha ha).

Parabéns

Language Achievements

We completed a full year of Portuguese lessons at a local school and obtained our A1 certificate but unfortunately my Portuguese is still quite poor, not from lack of trying (ha ha).

First Times and New Hobbies

We tried out so many activities for the first time in our life. We embarked on a Kayaking experience, a SUP board lesson, purchased our own stand up paddle boards and explored many epic river beaches, coastal beaches, lakes and lagoons and our very own love island. I sampled my very first wild swim and near death experience (ha ha). Paddle boarding is now my favourite hobby along with cloud spotting and tree hugging. Hubby experienced a surfing lesson in Nazaré on the crazy huge waves which was super entertaining to watch. I am still very much in love with the panoramic views from my garden oasis and this year we grew sweetcorn, sweet potatoes, marrow, loofah and giant sunflowers for the very first time and experimented with different types of chillies and cooked many organic meals with home grown fruit and veg from our harvests. There was a lot of jam making and tomato & chilli sauce production in our little cosy kitchen. We had fun finding recipes to use up our surplus of eggs and made homemade custard and meringues for the first time in our lives. We also foraged for sweet chestnuts in the forest for the first time. There certainly were a lot of “First times”. We are feeling well settled in our rural little village and are part of our little community. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly. Country life suits us 100% and we adore our home, garden and frugal simple homesteading life. On a negative note I had my first ever major accident whilst running and ended up in hospital. I hit the pavement head first and injured my head, eye, shoulder, elbow, knee and basically my whole right hand side. I actually thought my first running accident would be a dog bite or being hit by a car but I’m special as I actually tripped over nothing (ha ha).

Christened our SUP Boards at Love Island

WhatSUP

Our final SUP for 2021, the boards are deflated, a bit like me, roll on Spring 2022!

Helen’s Happy Hens

We eventually completed the renovation of the old ruin into a chicken coop/run and purchased our 4 hens so now have the luxury of fantastic fresh eggs daily and are proud chicken Momma and Pappa. I am madly in LOVE with Carol, Michonne, Maggie and Judith, my new feathered friends. I never knew how entertaining chickens could be. They are so funny and each one has a different personality.

Happy Hiking and Keeping Fit/Healthy

There have also been a lot of hiking adventures and picnics to amazing tourist attractions including many scenic waterfalls, caves, mystic mountains, schist villages, abandoned mines and dolmens. We also have increased our running activity and now jog/run together 5-6 days per week. The steep hills are hard work, take a lot of effort and never get any easier but the mountain views and magical sunsets are spectacular. I did have a nasty running accident this year which resulted in my first trip to a Portuguese hospital A & E and further medical follow up appointments due to a shoulder injury but I am recovering well. I also managed to lose the excess 2 stone weight that I piled on since moving here and have kept it off for over 8 months so now I weigh a healthy weight and I have so much more energy and vitality for life. I have managed to tick several things off of my Portugal bucket list which is fantastic. We have also visited many Baloiço (Scenic swings) which are so much fun.

Post Running Selfies – Come Rain or Shine

When I used to go on my solo runs hubby made tons of little acorn men and strategically placed them at my resting areas to surprise me!

Christmas 2021

Christmas Day was a quiet stay at home affair. We awoke to spectacular views from our balcony and enjoyed our morning tea and coffee al fresco. We had plenty of fun and even managed to zoom call my daughter in the U.K so we could continue our family traditional game of Monopoly on Christmas Day. Without any of our children visiting it was a bit sad so we did the next best thing: A long hill run then Pet Therapy – Chicken and bunny fun. It was a bit of a wet Christmas week but we made the most of hubby’s week off of work. On the few days that we were blessed with sunshine we ventured out on awesome adventures which included a waterfall hike in Vila de Rei, the amazing Umbrella Sky Project and Urban art trail to the city of Águeda and we explored the stunning traditional rustic schist Christmas village of Cabeça which was breathtaking.

Christmas Day

Águeda – Umbrella Sky Project and Urban Art Trail

Cabeça Aldeia Natal

New Year’s Resolutions 2022

I don’t like to make too many resolutions that I may not be able to commit to as when I fail I am very harsh on myself. The 3 words I feel are BLESSED, CONTENT and GRATEFUL. I’m not making any silly unrealistic goal setting or giving up certain food groups, meat products, sugar, diet soda, alcohol or caffeine. I LOVE Portuguese coffee and I need caffeine to get me up the top of the hills on my daily run as I can’t rely on my legs alone. There will be no Veganuary or Dry January for me and I’m certainly not venturing on any weird ass detox programme. I’ve reached an ideal weight for a healthy middle aged lady and I hate the word DIET as so many people associate the word diet with restricting food when actually a diet is just the sum of food you consume and what you eat each day to fuel your body and survive. I’m going to enjoy everything in moderation and if I want a slice of cake I’m going to have it and enjoy every mouthful as life is for living. I just won’t eat the whole cake. The only thing I am giving up is FEAR and REGRET.

What do I wish for 2022? I firstly wish that Covid would be resolved so we can all get back to living a normal life whatever that is. It breaks my heart to read about so many Covid related deaths especially when a person is young, fit and healthy. All I really want for 2022 is for my health to stabilise and that I can manage my daily chronic pain with strength and courage and that I have minimal flare-ups. Other than good health I just want to live a simple happy life here in Central Portugal and be able to explore more of this wonderful country, especially places within nature. The Azores and Madeira are both on my bucket list and I also want to continue with house and garden projects like painting the outside of my casa. I can’t wait for Spring and to plan my garden for 2022. I have already ordered some seeds and saved a lot from last year so I am looking forward to our 2022 harvest and enjoying more organic edible delights. I also want to track all my exercises and runs. I don’t usually track my runs or hikes as I leave that to hubby. I’m not too bothered about speed or personal bests but I’d love to know how many total km I run in 2022. I am also already tracking how many eggs we receive from our gorgeous hens. I started this in October 2021 when they laid their first egg so I hope to continue to record our daily egg blessings so I have a year total in October 2022. I also intend to chase what ignites a firestorm in my soul, trying new things and stepping out of my comfort zone. Never be afraid to try something new because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know. A year from now you will wish you had started today!

2022 Plans and My Daft Donkey Dream

I am excited for 2022 and for what it may bring. I did have an exciting short birthday trip booked back to my birth town of Bristol, U.K for March but Easyjet cancelled my flight. To be honest it is a slight relief as I feel with the current numbers increasing I am safer to stay put for the foreseeable future. My only hope is that I get to return to the U.K in 2023 for my daughters graduation from university. We have been thinking a lot about the future and our forever home and although I could quite easily live here at Casa Valhal until my dying day we have been exploring other options. If all things go to plan we may be looking at moving in a couple of years to a house with a little more land as it has been my lifetime dream to rescue a couple of donkeys. I don’t want acres or hectares of land as we are not getting any younger and a lot of land requires heaps of physical labour and expense. We just require a bit more flat land and an out building to house the donkeys.

I LOVE this Donkey – He was so happy to see me!

Homesteading Helen

Currently we are just continuing to live a simple happy homesteading life and keep saving as much money as possible and see how things pan out. On one hand I would love to be able to have my donkey dream but I can’t ever see us finding a home as tranquil as Casa Valhal with no immediate neighbours with such great views and super fast internet (which is required for hubby’s work) and which is within our modest budget. I also love the size of my current garden as it’s manageable and fairly low maintenance. If my dream doesn’t come true it’s fine as I now have my beautiful chickens and I really do LOVE Casa Valhal so much that I would be very content to stay here, refurbish some more rooms and take my last breath in such an idyllic dream home. Did I mention how fantastic the sunsets are from our garden? Whatever your hopes and dreams are, no matter how big or small, I wish you much happiness and good health for an epic 2022.

UPDATE: New Year´s Eve Party

Hubby had to work until lunchtime then we spent the afternoon playing with our chickens and making our homemade rendition of Pavlova/Eton Mess – AKA Hadrian’s Mess as well as a lemon drizzle cake. We even had 2 candles to celebrate our 2 year milestone (relocation to Portugal). Our evening started with a Pizza extravaganza night accompanied with plenty of Portuguese red wine. We then had to summon up the courage to make the belly full penguin waddle from the dining table to the retro lounge bar to sample the Polish Vodka and Rum, a Christmas gift from hubby’s work colleague the amazing Tiger. Don’t panic that’s not his real name (ha ha).

Entertainment: the electric guitar from the world talented musician Adriano AKA hubby. On lead vocals: 3 sheets to the wind Helena, if only bunny Milo could play the drums we could form a band (ha ha). Hubby bought me a gift of a Garmin watch to track my running and hiking so it doesn’t use up my phone battery WOW! I didn’t buy him anything but he has the gift of living with me 24/7 so what more could he want in life, I’m a prize, the booby prize (ha ha).

Midnight came and went with a BANG! Is this the biggest party popper you’ve ever seen! We did a countdown from 10 and I enthusiastically accidentally flashed my pants but at least I was wearing some. I got lots of confetti in my mouth, I need to keep my mouth shut in future (ha ha). I then put my fur coat on to go outside on the balcony. All fur coat and no knickers (ha ha). We stood on the balcony listening to all the fireworks and car horns beeping in the distance. There were a few loud noises from pots and pans being hit and it reminded me of my childhood when my dad would make us roam the streets at midnight banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon. I have no idea why but it was fun until I got to be 12 then it was just embarrassing.

I hope you all had as much fun as us. Happy New Year to all our friends old and new and remember 2022 is a new year so follow your heart.

I faced the music and weighed myself before Helen’s Hangover Hike on the 1st January. Only a 1.2 lb weight gain and still keeping off over 7 stone yippee!

Confetti Chaos

I had so much fun with this gigantic party popper and confetti! I gathered it all up off of the floor and threw it back up into the air not once but twice, the photos say it all (ha ha). Hubby was slightly deafened by the loud bang. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!