change the energy in (my) life

Life is big. Life is H-U-G-E. ( sometimes unfortunately so is my ego). I am small in the big picture. Sew beautiful patterns.

is it me?

Originally uploaded by Saloia.

..or is the idea of constructing the largest golf course in Europe on the edge of the only National Park in Portugal a really really stupid idea? Who is this mayor of Arcos de Valdevez, anyway? Last year I heard this for the first time but thought it so ridiculous and I thought it would go away. But I heard today they are still considering it. Why?

Romaria d´ Agonia

It is over today the most beautiful festival in Portugal which happens in Viana do Castelo. How is it possible that I never went to it in all of these years!? To dance the traditional and pimba dances of the bailaricos is fun and I don´t care if there are crowds and alot of confusion. I love the people from the Minho region. The embroidered vest is from the days when I danced in a traditional portuguese dance group. ...next year! :) http://www.festas-agonia.com/

the Sunday paper

Every Sunday we have the Boston Globe newspaper delivered to the house. The news content is reader worthy but it is the more than 20 store inserts advertising the weekly sales that clutter the morning breakfast table. Before living in Portugal I did not think anything of it but now I see that it is a bit exagerated. It is funny this observation but this time in America again, living and working and observing is special in that I am developing a different appreciation of both my countries. I love both of them and yet feel I belong to neither of them. What I am trying to say? I think it is just something that has to do with living in two very different cultures, simultaneously.

places to go

The cerulean waters of Naxos, Paxos or Mikanos! ;) The pine green of beautiful Peneda. The cerise, razzmatazz, brink pink, wisteria, burnt sienna, scarlet, blueviolet, royal purple sunsets of Sintra. :)

names of colors by Crayola crayons@ http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/americas_favorites/index.cfm

Ó Maria cotovia! Põe-te a pé que já é dia!

The title is a rhyme my grandmother has always chimed. I love hearing her use it but now I say it to her every morning when I see her and now I call her minha linda rolinha ( my little turtle dove) like she did me. Today after work, on this perfect summer day I gave her a haircut! I have been cutting her hair for the last few years when she is in Portugal in the summers and I used to cut my grandfather´s hair as well. I wish my grandmother remembered more about her grandmother and grandfather but she really never talked about them and my mother was young when her grandparents died and so I know little about my maternal family history and almost none of my father´s. I have no pictures of either side of the family of great grandparents or great great grandparents and only a handful and not even that of pictures of my grandparents on either side of when they were young. They were poor and lived in small rural villages, but mostly because they were poor...no pictures survived or were ever taken. Only when my great uncle ..my grandmother´s brother ,went to Portugal in 1955 did he take the two pictures that have my grandparents and my mother and her brothers as children. I know from my 78 year old American cousin, Mary, my great uncle´s daughter ,that he was so impressed with the poverty that he saw that when he was able to bring them to America he did. Ó Maria...és linda!

News from home

...everyone I know who is Portuguese has RTP International and the Portuguese soap operas are carefully followed...recorded if necessary to watch at another time! Love it.

Diogo and Lucas

Sei que as primas...Sofia e Bela e a avos em Portugal visitam o meu blog. :) Portanto aqui vao mais algumas....Prometo algumas do Miguel tambem em breve!

11 books!

My visits to the library the past few weeks have me bringing home books everyday and I think I have overdone it! Time to bring some back...will do that tonight. In The Spirit of Folk Art : The Girard Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art, I found many Portuguese examples of course, among them pieces by Domingos Goncalves Lima, also known as Misterio from the city of Braga, Portugal. A gorgeous collection I hope to visit before going back home...

106 degrees in Norwood

1 /2 ===It is quite hot here with temperatures in the 100´s degrees fahrenheit with 77% humidity...feels tropical or worst so tonight after work I went for a raspberry lime rickey (refresco de groselha.sprite.gaseosa e lima) at Perks ..a great coffee house where I get my coffee every morning! When I buy 10 drinks they give me one free ...I like that and besides I need the ritual/3»»» the main street in Norwood...Washington St.....very spacious streets here and one of my favorite places to go ...4»»»the public library where I can borrow tons and tons of books for weeks free.

discovering grass!

piece by piece

...still working with scraps and have my dolls with me to work on.