Whispers of Summer
From a Window The bedroom — my office — window is open, despite the downpour. At this side of the building it mostly flies beyond the eaves, lashing into the orange grove and obscuring all but the nearest hill. Such…
Tag alentejo
Seasons and Memory
Whispers and Seaglass No place has but four seasons, and Alentejo is no different. Summer, yes, of course it is, but it is no longer the days of the wildflower-rich, high-sun summer, nor the screaming swift summer, nor the misty…
The Owl and the Pussycat
And other nonsense I, like so many others, have done the vast amount of my recent nature observation from the windows of our home. Here, in the west of Alentejo, even on the fourth floor, sometimes nature also tries to…
Summer Reading
Running out of ‘Free Book’ titles here… This morning, as I draft this, it is raining, for the first time in weeks.* Everything is cool and crisp, the air fresh and clear. It is a joy to feel rain like…
Join me on Reddit (and Free Books, Still!)
Which is a long and unwieldy title, sorry. Hello It is Sunday. A glorious Sunday, where all I want to do is go and play outside, but instead I’m stuck inside doing homework. Namely writing this, building a couple of…
Free Books!
And a note on my birthday Hello, I did say there would be more newsletters this month, didn’t I? This newsletter is primarily for two things, a bit of personal news, and a bit of marketing — a shiny, all-free,…
Light and Dark
But mostly light My local world is bounded by windmills. Round hilltop towers, now shorn of their sails, some falling back to nature, others repurposed into circular homes. Many of the taller hilltops near this village are capped with a…
Stories of Life
Also featuring stories of drafts and edits Outside the window, the world warms, stories of life everywhere. Swirls of storks climb invisible spirals. Beneath, strata of swallows manoeuvre, twist, brake and snatch, manoeuvre, twist, brake and snatch. Lower still, plummeting…
Time-sensitive!
Money off, and housing news… Friends! If you wish to read Death & Taxes, or Une Seule Mort — both of which you have to part with (a small amount of) money in exchange for — here is a short…
A Return to Sea and Sun
(I have books for you to read!) In the last ten days, I have been joined by old friends: the salt-tang of the ocean carried on powerful, iodine-strong winds, the sun a force, capable of burning quickly, the roar of…