Looking up in Porto at facades and roofs

Ah, just look at those blue skies - I was editing my photos and could almost feel the heat from our trip in October, either that or I had the central heating up a notch or two higher than normal. We've had blue skies here, but they've been distinctly lacking in heat haven't they?

I've already shared some of my tile pictures from Porto, and they are the most obvious part of its charm but as we wandered I was looking up and started to notice some strange going ons on the roofs of Porto. Like many cities many properties are unable to expand outwards, in London there's a trend to dig down, but it seems in Porto for many years the attraction has been to extend up. 

But not just extending, we also spotted plenty of roof lanterns, there's three in the photo below - and yes, you can only just see the top of the third, it was on a relatively busy junction and I didn't get too many chances to get the best shot and live to tell the tale.

I couldn't help but wonder what they were like on the inside. It wasn't long before we walked past our first facade, and in our short time there it turned out we would walk past many.  I had to do a double take to see where the rest of the building was, but the giveaway was the very top floor and being able to see the sky through the openings. 

Even with the graffiti many of the facades are still beautiful, and by retaining the frontage it's most likely what's led to the higgledy-piggledy-ness nature, which is spectacularly charming. I'm sure the recent years and hardship haven't helped many in Porto and of course for some the buildings will also fall into disrepair. 

There was evidence though of building projects which is always a good sign, we know that from redevelopment in London too. The hardship isn't restricted to any one area, although clearly some have been more affected and less affected than others. 

There's a mix of materials used too, just look at the yellow, red and black building below. I think its unusual to have the darker colour at the top, but - and I know it's a smaller footprint - but it doesn't dominate does it? 

Even on the more touristy waterfront there's also upward extensions - my favourite part of the photo below is the pink drainpipe on the black roof extension - quirky isn't it?

Also on the waterfront, snuggled alongside the bridge over to Gaia was this small three storey property - obviously the colour caught my eye, but look at the tiles on the property next door.  In Porto, any colour, any tile pattern really does go!

I lost count of the number of these shed-like extensions, many clad with corrugated steel, some weathering beautifully.

I'm a big fan of looking up - and in Porto it really did pay it was much more rewarding than I ever expected it would, and we noticed parts of the city that I suspect passes many people by.  

My handmade Advent calendar

A few weeks ago I shared my prototype box for what I hoped would be my advent calendar.  The good news is that it's finished, but a few days into December. In preparation I'd bought a new die for my die cutting machine from Tonic Studios. Initially I was looking for a pillow box, but when I saw the Marquee Box I realised its potential and my plans changed.

I sussed out how it could work using the prototype, which I cut from the header page of some Christmas scrapbook paper, and as a fan of patchwork and colour, liked how it came out so have kept that in the final design.

Twenty four boxes is quite a few though. Each box needed two cuts of the die, so after a small workout for my arm and forty eight cuts later I was ready to assemble my boxes. The sheer number of these put me off for a bit, despite the start of the month looming. But with some pre-folding and a tray in front of the TV I set about sticking.

I'd tasked MOH to buy contents for half of the boxes, and I set about buying contents for the other half. Somehow all of our boxes have ended up with chocolate fillings, but that's no bad thing.

It did feel like a bit of a production line, and on more than one occasion I did wonder why I'd started, and if perhaps doing something for the twelve days of Christmas instead. But I'd started...

And so I finished. A few days in to December!

I was able to make use of lots of things I had too, which is always a winner for me. I had the scrapbook paper, I recycled tissue paper inside the boxes, the stars which I used for the numbers were from many years before - I'd previously used them as decorative touches on gifts, tags and cards, and the ribbon that I used to close the boxes were left over from an earlier craft project.

So apart from the die cut and the contents it turned into quite a thrifty project. 

I considered hanging the boxes, and wanted to use the silver pegs - that I've had for ages, and would you believe it there were 24 - and some bakers twine, which I've several reels of. The weight of the boxes though didn't really work for hanging vertically as I planned, and as we don't hang things on our wall, I was after another solution.

In the end I kept it simple and strung them together placing them under our television - the other place I'd considered was on top of a radiator, but knowing the contents that wouldn't work!

But I'm pleased with how they turned out, and it looks as if we've a village of festive boxes. Although not all of the paper I used was Christmas paper, however it all works together, and you can see the prototype box taking pride of place in the photo below (day 6).

A longer project than I expected but one that will provide fun - and chocolate - throughout the month. 

I love it - and I even got MOH involved too, as well as buying some of the contents, he was also chief number sticker on, as I thought I'd remember what was in each box, and so would lose the randomness of the contents! 

What do you think - would you make your own?

On the plot: Potatoes, borlotti beans and apples

We'd been meaning to get over to the allotment to dig up the rest of our potatoes for a while, but with four weekends away from home it was much later than we'd hoped by the time we got there last weekend. Our potatoes were late in anyway, as most of them didn't make it into the ground until after our party in June. I've no idea how I managed to be so late with them, but I was hoping that they would recognise the earth and do their growing thing, even if they were a bit behind everyone elses.

And they did.  Phew.

It's our second year of growing potatoes and once again we weren't disappointed. We ended up growing them in the same part of the plot as last year, as, well as you're coming to know my plans to dig over the allotment, complete the circle work in our garden and everything else, were a tad ambitious!

But they grew, and last Sunday we dug up our second batch of potatoes. Almost 10kgs.

FRESHLY DUG SPUDS

Which is a lot of potatoes for someone that rarely buys potatoes! 

Digging them up was quite addictive, and it wasn't long before our paper carrier bag was heavy. The challenge then was to get them home without them dropping through the bottom of the bag. That would have been disastrous, but no doubt funny afterwards.

They have done their magic though and improved the soil - the picture below is where they grew, and while there are a few weeds (ignore the edges, where there are a lot of weeds!) there are significantly less than on other parts of the plot. Plus the soil is soft and crumbly and full of large worms, which must be good. I think some of those large worms got a bit peckish as some of the potatoes had large worm shaped holes in them, but I guess I can spare a few when they've put in so much work on our soil!

Elsewhere on the plot my tardiness is benefitting other wildlife, the birds have started nibbling the sunflower heads, and I'm more than happy for them to do that. I only saved a few of the sunflower heads last year and still have lots more sunflower seeds than I know what to do with. I will save some of the smaller sunflower heads, because, well... free seeds!

This year the sunflowers on the allotment have grown super thick stems, some have had a single flower at the top like the one above, but others have had smaller flowers all the way up the stem like the one below.  I like both types equally and it'll be interesting to see what kind I end up with next year!

I was pleased to see the rosemary cuttings thriving, in fact no longer cuttings and more like a bush. They've grown so well that I plan to take cuttings from this and plan to grow a rosemary edging to our plot.

Before leaving I stripped the small apple of its apples and while some of them are small the colour - and taste - is fantastic. And while they look good on our table, we will be eating them!

The potatoes also got another look over once we were home - there's three different types in here, two whites and a red - and I'm loving the colours in the box. They're now in double paper carriers in the shed, and I'm hoping that they store well. Last year we stored them in the house and even though we'd chosen a cool place, they still sprouted. 

It could be that we'll be eating our home grown spuds at Christmas if I'm lucky. I'll also be looking out for some potato recipes!

There were also more borlotti beans left than I'd thought, no longer fresh though as they'd semi-dried on the plants. They're all podded and drying fully so they can be stored. They also made for a great picture!

Being back on the plot was great, but there was also a reminder of how much we still need to do. We're aiming for our next few visits to be much sooner. We've a few more potatoes to dig, and I want to weed the edge of of this section and put down some membrane so we can avoid repeated weeding here. We've already weeded it more times than we need to, so this time we're taking further precautions.

I want to take some cuttings from the rosemary, I'll take more than I need as I expect I'll lose some over the winter.  And while our potato growing area is clear, unless we get some garlic and onions to plant there we plan to cover it with tarpaulin, which of course we need to buy.

The central bed which has been covered since we inherited the plot is on our list to dig over.  The optimist in me thinks it will be an easier dig, but the realist isn't quite so sure.  We'll see, and you never know by the start of the growing season we could end up with another section semi-tamed.

I mean, stranger things have happened!