The second of our black and white pictures

Last Monday I shared more about the first of these photos which now hang framed on our bedroom wall, today I’m revisiting another holiday memory and strangely also from 2014.

It was also a place we were revisiting, but somewhere we’d first visited together in the autumn of 2012. We’d booked a walking holiday on one of the new holiday’s offered as the Rota Vincentina in Alentejo had only recently opened. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but a week away in the relative warmth of Portugal’s sun in mid-October sounded like a good plan. And it was, we had a great holiday in 2012 and fell in love with the region as a whole, and actually with Portugal too.

We vowed to come back, and two years later we did just that. This time our visit was in June, rather than October and instead of walking between hotels we hired a car and based ourselves at the mid-point of the route from that original trip, using that as our base to revisit many of the places we’d visited before, and even retracing our steps along some of the coastal path.

We’d seen some storks near to our hotel on our first trip and we were mesmerised and amazed, and a little bit scared of walking too close! On our second trip we weren’t expecting to see such a fantastic sight as we drove back along a quiet road to our hotel. So we pulled over and had our own personal photo shoot with the, what I imagine, are the proud parents.

Again the photo is great in colour, and it’s full of warmth from the sun but somehow in black and white the main subjects stand out even more.

Portugal is such a beautiful place, and we’ve been back to visit other parts of the country - including Lisbon, Porto and the Douro valley - many times since, but the Alentejo region holds a special place in my heart, and I suspect it’s about time we made another visit there.

But in the meantime we have a second great holiday memory right there on the wall as part of our series of four black and white pictures, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

The first of our black and white pictures

I can’t believe that I shared our four black and white pictures last June, I’ve no idea where the time has gone - but back then I planned to share more about why we chose the pictures we did, so finally here’s the first in that series.

It seems right to start with the rock formation in Cornwall, a picture I snapped on our holiday back in 2014, which despite being almost eleven years ago remains vivid in my memories, or most of it does, I think!

We had an AirBnB in Newquay which turned out to be in an ideal spot, and in the week we were there we certainly packed things in visiting some great gardens including Bosvigo gardens and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and some pretty towns such as St Mawes and Tintagel. We visited National Trust properties - Lanyhydrock is a stand out memory, and the castle at Tintagel managed by English Heritage.

As well as the sunsets from our apartment we enjoyed natural spots such as Carnewas and of course Rough Tor and Brown Willy Tor where this photo was taken. And while I’ve shared a lot of those places here, there’s some that I never got around to - let’s be honest after eleven years, I’m unlikely to now aren’t I? Though never say never as if we revisit these places it’d be interesting to do a compare and contrast - but please, don’t hold your breath.

Brown Willy has always raised a smile here, for its schoolboy humorous name and also because it was a regular place to visit during MOH’s childhood family holidays. It’s a hill in Cornwall and is the highest point in Bodmin Moor. It was great to revisit one of MOH’s childhood memories with him, though if I’m honest I was much more interested in the rock formations and the rugged natural beauty!

The surroundings were great in colour, but actually I think they’re much more powerful and dramatic in black and white.

And it definitely looks even better framed, and on the wall in our new house as part of our series of four black and white pictures.

My garden in March

Last month there were hints of colour starting to appear in my garden, this month there’s been a lot more. It’s all been about the daffodils and the pops of colour they’ve brought to the border, the wallflowers and the start of the tulips.

Back at the start of the month, this is how it started.

But by the end of the first week, our first daffodils flowered. And the others weren’t too far behind them either.

Not all of the garden is back alive yet though, the fuchsia bushes - but I’m hopeful they won’t be too far behind.

The viburnum though is already flowering, and it’s great to see.

It was great to spot that my new-last-year wallflowers started to show signs of flowering, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them.

But we’ve also had some early blossom from the peach/nectarine tree - it’s not that surprising really as it’s much warmer by the old brick wall. It seems happy here - it’s still in a pot - so it looks as if it’s decided on its long term garden position, which is where I hoped it would be happy!

It was a month of surprises though as some daffodils sprung up amongst the wallflowers, and I’m not really sure where they came from. I’ve not had daffodils in that pot before, and it’s unlikely that they were in the pot with the wallflowers when I bought them, so it’s a garden mystery.

The tulips started to show themselves too, peeking out from their protective leaves. I really need to find a better place for them as if it stays windy they won’t last for long, but wherever they end up I want to be able to see them from the house - it’d be a shame to miss them wouldn’t it?

I had another surprise bulb appearance too. This time a bluebell in my rhubarb pot, this could have been in there a while as we had bluebells in our previous garden, although not knowingly in this pot - but the leaves don’t look like those bluebells, so maybe this one was a present from the birds. I’m happy it’s here though.

The wallflowers have been slow to show their flowers but they are finally starting - they’re a variety called ‘Chelsea Jackets’ and are a mixture of pastel colours.

And what a way to end the month, with the first proper tulip flowers growing taller, but not flowering just yet saving themselves for next month I’m sure.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!