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.

May 2017 — So much progress and a PUPPY!

What incredible progress Rory has made at our Mimosa Project. He's been quite busy building temporary facilities to make living on the site possible. A rustic kitchen and toilet are in the works, as well as a workshop/tool storage shed. We camped out on the site a few nights this week, and sleeping to the sound of the river is magical. Friends from Tomar came up one of the evenings, and we made a fire on the river beach to cook some skewers over. We can’t wait to be living down there full time. The existing water mines need some more work to be functional, and then the water needs to be tested. Once we have those going we’ll really be in good shape to be able to be live down there.

We also happen to be looking for things needed to live off grid at a perfect time. One of our neighbors across the river lives off grid, and is selling his property and all the things on it. We’ve bought amazingly priced second hand utilities like a gas fridge, gas stove and oven, a generator, as well as an extra tent, and an outdoor table and chairs. It helps to have our recently purchased 4x4 1986 suzuki to get up and down the steep dirt track, and to transport things around the property with our trailer.

new tent on the river beach

Val, a friend and our first “volunteer”, arrived and started this week which has been great. She has an abundance of knowledge and experience with gardens which is perfect since neither of us know much about that. We’re looking forward to working with her and learning from her as well over the next couple of months. We’ve been working on our work away host page too, so will likely have other volunteers starting some time at the end of the summer. 

top down in the jeep! 😎

Plans for the existing ruin and accommodations are coming along. Based on Rory’s sketches, an architect has worked on some plans to propose over the last few weeks. Rory’s making some edits and adjustments, but it’s a nice start. And based on the architect’s personal project home he brought us to, we like some of his style.

Architect's project

with swings and a hammock and gorgeous views

Besides the structures, we have another very exciting addition to the Mimosa project site… 

Nearby an Anatolian Shepherd mama dog had a litter of 11 puppies with a Black Labrador dad. After the Sunday market in Tabua we figured it would be fun to spend the afternoon going to see them. We’ve been planning on getting a bigger dog to keep the “Javali” (wild boars), and other potential predators to Hugo and Harvey away once we’re living down on the property. No shocker that we fell in love with a chubby little white fluffball of a puppy who we decided to take home. At only 6 weeks old, he’s about the same size as Hugo and Harvey. We named him Hank, not only because we have an H name trend going but also because we figure he’s going to be quite the tank based on the size of his paws. Hank was the biggest male in his litter and is such a great dog already, following us all around the site in between his siestas. He’s really playful with Hugo and Harvey, who aren’t quite sure what to think of him yet. Rory and I are so in love with him, and I’m sure Hugo and Harvey will warm up to loving him just as much. Hank did so good getting his first puppy vaccinations, and got a great bill of health from our vet. 

Neither are too sure about Hank just yet...

Stay tuned and keep reading as both our project and Hank grow!