I step out the door. The sun is hot, bright, facing me as I face it and greet it good morning. There is a strong breeze blowing, reminding me of the ending of winter. Two dogs greet me, wagging their tails happily and lazily as they bask in the morning light. Their fur is soft and very warm. After weeks of grey overcast, it’s stunning how this sunny day can lift up my mood. I feel energised, light, social, happy.
The Daycare Centre of the village, which is run by ALASP (Association for the League of Friends of Sobral Pichorro), is made up of the most loving people, that every day are in charge of cooking the meals for the older inhabitants, delivering them to their homes, cleaning their houses and caring for the elderly. They are just a handful of female employees that do it, and many times they are the only people that the elderly sees all day, day after day. It is the reality of abandoned inland and generation, but courageously kept by those that stay for the love of the land, with all that she has.
There is something absolutely beautiful about seeing a building being built out of the same materials that compose the landscape. Sure, marble and mahogany island kitchenettes are fun, but have you ever picked up rocks from the ground and made a wall out of it?
Tadelakt is a very good word. I heard it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve said it or heard it every day. And what is it after all?
At Vale das Lobas, in the area above the village of Sobral Pichorro, there is an incredible forest of tall, thin trees, with light-brown trunks covered in green, fluffy lichen, whose floor is now covered in a bed of leaves representing autumn hues. They are chestnut trees…