August 2017 — Digger Dreams Do Come True

Yup -- Rory's digger dreams have come true! The project now has a digger on site, which has expedited all the progress made over the last few weeks. It’s old and a little rickity but digs like no other and was crucial in laying some foundations and clearing the pathways and roads around the site. 

With the new foundations laid and plans and drawings finished, we’ll be submitting for planning permission to renovate and extend the two existing structures as well as submit planning for an ellipse shaped yoga studio. 

We have lots of designs done for the cabins as well; but since they'll be built using specific methods they're mostly “planning exempt”. 

We’ve enjoyed and appreciated all the fabulous help we’ve had from family and friends lately. It was wonderful having Rory’s nephew, Dylan, here. Dylan helped Rory with wood stacking and some clearing. He enjoyed Portuguese culture; learning some of the lingo, eating goat for the first time, and even seeing Xutos live — a Portuguese rock band.

When we brought Dylan to Porto, we picked up Carla, a friend of mine from San Francisco. Carla’s been adventuring around Europe "volunteering"/working on farms for the last few months in exchange for food and accomodation. It was fun hearing all of her stories of working on a goat farm in Montenegro and a bee farm in Ireland among many other things. 

Carla stayed with us for the last couple of weeks to "volunteer" on our project. Besides having Carla on site helping, we've also had a brown dog stray intruder making visits to the site lately. He sneaks up to steal trash, dog food, and even hid my yoga mat behind the stone ruin one of the days. As Hank's bark matures he's been more and more successful at scaring brown dog away, but meanwhile Carla and I had many laughs plotting how to keep brown dog away. Besides brown dog plots we had a great time setting up an area for the chickens, stripping wood for posts and building a second Hugle bed for more planting. 

Hugle bed number 2

stripping wood for posts

On our time off from working on the project we showed Carla our favorite spots in the area -- river beaches, Torre, and a few of the wineries. We also took a fun road trip to Salamanca, Spain. It's only about 2.5 hours from the property and well worth the drive for it’s beautiful plaza and incredible dance nightlife. 

River beach break

Plaza Mayor - Salamanca

Dancing the night away in Salamanca

I also had the opportunity to break the ice in teaching my first "real" yoga class since recently becoming a certified yoga instructor. There was a 3 day mini festival nearby, and I was asked to come hold morning yoga. It went really well and I'm looking forward to organizing regular classes in the village until we have a studio built on site. Rory and Carla have also been getting private yoga lessons.

Just after teaching my first "real" yoga class

Since one of my best friends was traveling in Spain with her new baby, we couldn't resist the quick and afforable flights to go meet them in Mallorca for a little mediterranean break from the project. I loved seeing how natural parenthood has come to both Samantha and Aaron and getting to know the extremely loveable Naia Rose. Carla came too and is continuing her euro adventure from there. We enjoyed every minute of spending time with them!

Meanwhile on the site, two college kids from Porto came to "volunteer" to dog sit and look after our garden in exchange for a break from the city. Hank and Harvey enjoyed taking adventure walks with them, and Hugo finally warmed up to them by the end of their stay. We have exciting weeks ahead. We'll be getting chickens, submitting for planning permission, and are extra excited about Rory's son Rafa visiting from Scotland this week. 

July 2017 — Design Drafting, Fun with Family and Friends, and Learning to Teach Yoga!

It has been a beautiful 6 weeks to say the very least. It has brought lots of exciting progress with designs for the project as well as some wonderful times with friends and family. I also spent the last couple of weeks completing an intensive 200 hour yoga teacher training course at a retreat centre near the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland.

Conor and Ariane do Portugal!

After wrapping up my contract at Boston Children’s and spending some quality time with family and friends in Boston, it was time to head back to Portugal.

My mom came along with me back to Portugal this time around. She adjusted wonderfully to the rustic lifestyle, and fell in love with both the property and the area quickly. She enjoyed helping maintain the little food garden we have and helping around the property. Hanging out in the hammocks and canoeing were a couple favorite activities too. It was really great having her, and I’m hoping she’ll be back sooner than later!

My mom and I canoeing along the Mondego River

My mom hanging in the new hammocks on the property

Beautiful stop off on the way to Torre

A few days later our friends/business buddies Conor and Ariane arrived from New York, with Ariane’s mom too. The 6 of us had a great time doing river activities — kayaking, swimming, sunbathing. We did some touristy things as well like taking a drive up to to Torre — the highest peak of the Serra da Estrela.

Kayak break for a picnic

River Beach stop off along the Mondego

All excited for kayak trip

Laughs at the top of Torre

It was great to have Conor and Ariane to further brainstorm ideas for the designs all together on the property. The 4 of us met with our architect to review the drawings he’s done so far based on the designs Rory has done. In the next couple of months the drawings will be finished and submitted for planning permission. Stay tuned!!

One of many design drafts

The last couple of weeks, I’ve spent at the Cliffs of Moher Retreat in the west coast of Ireland. Trina and Matthew — Rory’s sister and nephew — drove me down to Clare and we had a great night in Lahinch and day around The Burren before they dropped me off to the Retreat Centre.

Trina and Matthew somewhere in the Beautiful Burren

Talk about a gorgeous setting to learn how to teach yoga with Yogacara Global. I had 2 incredible teachers and 11 fellow yogi students — all of whom I learned so much from. I couldn’t imagine a better group to learn with from 6am to 9pm for 16 days. The glass paned front wall of the yoga studio overlooked green fields of cows and the ocean in the distance. We also took some class time to the Cliffs and the beach nearby. We did about countless hours of yoga and meditation between class times and I enjoyed every moment of it.

The studio for Yoga Teacher Training

Cliffs of Moher

Action shot

Classroom on the Cliffs

Atlantic House Bindhi Selfie post Graduation

View on the strolls to the beach

While I was away, Hank has grown quite a bit again. But it’s clear he has no clue how big he is because he still lets the 2 little ones boss him around all day long.

H cubed

Hank and Harvey

We have another guest — Rory’s nephew Dylan — now for the next week or so who we’re really happy to have.

Dylan and Hank getting to know each other

Stay tuned for more updates on fun times and progress in Portugal over the next couple of weeks.

June 2017 — Frequent Flyer Miles Galore

The amount of traveling we’ve done over the last several weeks has made them fly by in every sense of the word; however, along with hectic flight and travel schedule there has been lots of positive and exciting progress made at project mimosa. Temporary structures like the kitchen, toilet, and tool area are up and fully functional. Rory did a really awesome job on all of them, and much of it built from the property's own trees. We have a few single solar lights around the site, and one panel for power at night. Even with it being quite livable down on the property, we’ve kept the cabin in the village to store most of our belongings, hot showers, and an occasional nights sleep on a real bed. 





Hugo enjoying a lazy morning in bed at the cabin

Adding a roof to temporary kitchen/tool area

shelves, gas stove and gas fridge all installed

Fully functional and ready for a get together

Sunday lunch get-together after Tabua market

We’re grateful to have had Val to help take care of the 3 doggies while we were so back and forth. She weaved the temporary toilet walls, which came out really nice. And she helped us to get better set up down on the site — including planting a few veggies in the garden. 

weaved walls and green roof by Val




a mini garden with some herbs and veggies planted

The 3 scamps working out their roles in the pack

We have another friend from the permaculture design course that Rory took last year, who arrived this week and is with us for a “work holiday” for a couple of weeks. Mary’s got some awesome gardening knowledge to contribute, and most of all she’s really fun to have around. We’re thrilled to have her, and so are the dogs.

lunch time with Mary on the property

Mary at the cabin after a bike ride



cycle around Fiais

Over the long memorial day weekend, Rory and I met up in New York and spent it up in the Catskills with friends. We had a relaxing weekend in Woodstock at Ariane and Conor’s house, all while being entertained by the Foley triplets. We spent some time looking at the plans and drawings so far, and discussing ideas for the the property with Ariane and Conor. We're really happy that they’ll be joining us in the business. Ariane’s fitness/nutrition business out of NYC and experience with hosting retreats is invaluable, and we’re so excited to be working with them. They’ll be coming out to Portugal in July to spend some time together at the project, have some fun and continue to evolve our ideas. 

After the weekend, I drove back to Boston from the Catskills to work a few shifts, Rory flew back to Portugal for a couple of days before we both caught more flights to meet in Ireland for a friends wedding. James and Claire's wedding was gorgeous and a lot of fun. We're really happy they'll be coming for part of their honeymoon to Portugal later this year!
After a weekend in Ireland we were ready to get back to Portugal and our doggies. Hank has doubled in weight, and every morning he seems to have grown more overnight. Hugo and Harvey have gotten used to having a puppy around who is at them constantly to play. Harvey is the best big brother. He seems to love having a puppy look up to him and follow his lead. And Hugo is loving the sole attention from Rory and I when the other two are keeping each other busy playing and exploring.

We’ve become well accustomed to working as the Portuguese do. Which in the summer means getting all your work done in the morning so that the hot afternoons can be spent cooling off in the river with friends. Our friends Ana and Hugo showed us an especially gorgeous spot with beautiful waterfalls and swimming area.

I arrived back in Boston this week to wrap up the rest of my contract at Boston Children's Hospital, and catch up with family and friends before heading back to the other side of the pond for a more permanent stint.

We’re looking forward to a summer full of many more riverside afternoons.