Happy 2025! We hope that your holidays were merry and bright.
Looking back on 2024, we are grateful and blessed as it was another very good year for us. Not only another year living abroad but a year filled with new journeys, good friends, fantastic experiences, and great food. We were able to take several trips and visited nine countries: Italy twice (Piedmont and Tuscany), France twice (Cote d'Azure and Basque), Africa (South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe), Copenhagen Denmark, and Spain twice (Basque country and Seville), and a trip to California to spend time with family and friends. We also spent more time exploring Portugal on the water with our new boat, with our nephew Jaden, who spent a month with us in Portugal, and with friends in the Algarve. It sounds like a lot when I put this into writing, but the benefits of having all of this so close to us is the primary reason we decided to move abroad. In comparison, most of our travels are the equivalent of crossing a few states in the US. You can read more about these journey's by clicking here.
It was a tough way to begin 2025 for thousands of Southern California residents. Watching the raging firestorm across Altadena and the Palisades has been surreal. The vast devastation is really hard to wrap your head around. I can only imagine what those in the area are going through and will experience as the rebuilding moves forward. Our hearts go out to those who are impacted.
We've learned that several friends and former work colleagues who lived in Altadena have lost their homes. The entire neighborhood and beyond where we used to live has only a few homes standing. One of them is our former home. We've learned that some neighbors have chosen not to rebuild while others are planning for the rebuilding process to take several years. We received an email (below) from the couple that bought the house in 2017. The house has survived with minimal damage, while others on our small street have burned to the ground. We are happy for them but can only imagine what it's like to be the only home standing in the middle of such devastation and loss. A Sheriff friend of our family took a few photos for us while he was patrolling the area. The last three photos show what it looked like before (from the 2017 sale).
Hello Tony,
I wanted to let you know that your old home, 1077 Alta Pine, survived the Eaton Fire and is still standing. It is mostly thanks to the initial landscaping layout and the epic shingle selection that you made before we purchased the home from you. Had we had cheaper shingles, I'm certain the home would have been lost.
Thank you, sir! ~Rich
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Hi Tony
Sorry I did not do the description justice in my original e-mail. 1077 is one of 2 homes still standing in the entire block from Lake to Mount Curve. The other home is one house in from Lake. If you can stomach the destruction, you can see it from satellite imagery here: https://wilg.github.io/la-fire-maps/images/1050010040277300.html
I had zero hopes driving up there Wednesday. Good thing I did because the gas main was on fire (this idiot didn't shut it off before leaving). Also, the crotch of the cedar tree outside the master bedroom was smoldering. I got it put out and cooled-down with buckets of sooty pool water. If that thing burnt more, it would have fallen onto the bedroom.
The pool area is devastated. Half the pergola burnt. The remaining half is cantilevered over the pool. Your old potting bench is now ash, and caused a bit of damage to the bedroom window. The eaves of the garage caught fire and the shingles took the brunt of the heat. But it looks like the fire crews took a stand there and chose to defend the house. I found a patio chair over by the apple tree and way too many fence slats and pergola pieces in the pool than one would naturally expect. The wooden walkway from the pool area to the courtyard is all gone. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise since it was really rotten.
Rest assured, we will rebuild and improve and we'll continue to carry the native and edible landscaping themes that you established. Seriously, thanks again for your sound decisions when you remodeled. ~Rich
It's been a quiet month here in the Algarve. We've had a lot of much needed rain that will certainly help to add to our local reservoirs. Despite the rain, we were still able to enjoy our surroundings and even some much-needed outdoor activities. From our perspective, this area is so beautiful, rain or shine. Late in the month, a few days of sunshine has fueled the wildflowers and plants into a beautiful display. We're seeing fields of yellow wildflowers against backdrops of deep green, and a few almond trees that seem to grow wild on vacant land are beginning to show their bright white flowers.
More goodies from our neighbors garden and my favorite dish that she delivers on occasion, Favas Algarve!
Jazz nas Adegas (Jazz in the Cellar) is a series of Jazz concerts held at different local wineries put on by the local council of Silves. Tickets are hard to come by and hard to pass up when you can get them ( @ €25)
View of the full moon rising from our back yard looking across the airport runway
A rare sight in our fig tree next to the house, a female Zebra Finch
We spent an afternoon in Albufeira located in the Algarve about 30 minutes east of us.
This months Algarve Wine Society event was a lunch and tasting at Rolha Wine Bar in Porches. Another great meal paired with some great wines from Herdade dos Outeiros Altos in the Alentejo region of Portugal.
A stormy day above Praia do Vau
Beach walk at Praia de Alvor and Tres Irmaos
Sunday lunch with Friends at Mama Mia
Exciting times for us as a new Baja Fresh has opened in Portimao! Living in California made us crazy for Mexican food. Most of what we find in Portugal doesn't live up to the traditional Mexican we came to know and love. Our California friends are saying Baja Fresh? Yes, it's not the traditional great Mexican you can find everywhere in California, but it's a perfect second option to others in Portugal. We ate at Baja on many occasions while living in California, and we're very happy with their food. We haven't tried this one yet, so we're looking forward to it.
Sunset in Alvor
Views around Portimao.
Storm waves at Tres Hermanos
Wine dinner with the Wine Mine group at Restaurante Veneza & Garrafeira featuring the wines of Ribeiro Santos from the Dao region in Portugal.
I have moved our restaurant experiences to this blog's "EAT & DRINK" section. If you are curious about the food we experience, click here.
Barney and Sonny are up to their usual shenanigans. Barney had his teeth cleaned and a biopsy for lesions in his mouth. The tests are negative for anything serious, just allergies. We now get to experiment with different foods to see if there is an ingredient that doesn't agree with him. So far, the hypoallergenic salmon has been a big hit!
He came home with a cone so he wouldn't mess with the stitches from his biopsy, but if you know Barney, that lasted only a few minutes as he wanted nothing to do with it. I know it's cruel, but it was funny to watch him walk around the house, still feeling the effects of the anesthesia, running into the furniture with his cone.
As always we hope everyone is doing well, healthy, happy, and thriving. We miss you and love you all...A lot!
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