Letting go of my own private Portugal — It was a bright and sunny winter’s morning in a quiet, peaceful corner of rural Portugal. I had just started exploring the area from the passenger seat of a car. The window was wound down, so I could feel the crisp winter breeze…

The wild winding lanes of rural Beira Baixa. — A trip to Beira Baixa is not always top of the itinerary for most tourists in Portugal. The remote farmland region lies in the central part of the country, on the border with Spain. It’s far away from the cosmopolitan bustle of Lisbon and the busy beaches of the Algarve. …

How I grow my own food, off-grid and on the move — I’ve often been called an oxymoron (or abbreviations of the word), but that’s never bothered me. The contradictions in people are what makes them human and some conflicting interests, like gardening and travelling, are not as mutually exclusive as they may seem. Since I embarked on my off-grid adventures in…

It all depends on how you grow them — The Brussels Tomato Festival was not originally on my itinerary, but when I heard about it during my short city break, I just had to check it out. I was living in rural Portugal at the time, growing organic food for my own consumption in an attempt to lead a…

Green manures that improve soil and attract wildlife — Green manures are often used by organic and permaculture gardeners to enrich the soil, suppress weeds or produce mulch. Some are edible while others make a great animal feed. You don’t always see the flowers when they are used this way because the foliaged is harvested long before they bloom…

A day tour of Portuguese garden heritage — The Bishop’s Palace Garden and City Park, juxtaposed in the centre of Castelo Branco, are two very different spaces that share a common past. Now divided by a short stretch of road, the two sites provide divergent narratives of Portuguese heritage, as well some lessons in garden design history. They…

Reflections of a solo traveller wandering in the dark — Travelling alone can be a joy, especially when you visit a city you already know. On this occasion, there was a purpose for my trip to Lisbon, which would keep me busy for a good few days. I was writing an article about the Parks of Sintra and was given…

How lifting water lowered my cholesterol — “As a civilization, we have made so much progress,” she said. Her argument was that technology and automation relieve us of mundane, time-consuming tasks. It frees us from primitive toil so we can apply our minds to more intellectually rewarding pursuits. Scientific advancements have improved our quality of life, increased…

What a day trip from Porto taught me about Portugal’s biodiversity — Extending along the River Douro, just a stone’s throw from Porto’s city center is the Gaia Biological Park. Giving you a tour of Portugal’s native flora and fauna, the park is an environmental education center, wildlife sanctuary, and nature reserve rolled into one. …