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  In the night of Sunday, 5 August 2018, a swath of fire crawled over the Picota peak, from the north to the south of the Algarve, up the entire mountain and back again, destroying our beautiful mixed forest and gardens in Esgravatadouro near Caldas de Monchique on the southern side. Friends helped us fight the fire with buckets and hoses. Some of the fires would keep flaring up, but we didn’t give in nor did we accept to be evacuated. When the police did evacuate us we returned half an hour later to continue fighting the fire. No fire …

I was asked to write my thoughts about COP26, which has just ended in Glasgow. As if I were somehow an expert, or even what I believe is now called an “influencer” of some kind. I’m not, I’m afraid. So, I decided to write an open letter. Dear God (if you’re still around nowadays) I need your help. As you know, I’m just an ordinary guy. I’m concerned about the environment and climate change, and I’d like to contribute in some way. But, I’m confused: what can I myself do? You may remember that some time ago, you sent us …

One early morning on my Algarve trail I keep thinking about a dream, a story I‘d still like to tell here. The dream is about a group of young people who in their village along the trail start planting a small tree, then a second, a third… They agree that every day they will plant another tree together along the trail’s edge, so that those still young trees may, one fine day day in the future, when these trees have grown to be tall and strong, provide shade and offer up free fruit to their children and their children’s children. …

It’s a small house with two bedrooms in a quiet valley. Casa da Avó, which was once a ruin, comes together with a small permaculture area, the sheep Debbie, two chickens, and a sense of a “green” mission undertaken  by Margarida Almeida and João Spencer, a couple who found their “paradise” here in 1996.   Margarida (and João) used to live in Lisbon. How did you find this place, in Salir, here in the midst of nature? João was born in Mozambique, I was born in Brazil. My father was a traveling salesman, who was in partnership with an Italian …

Versatility is one of his favourite words, almost as if he believes that, once we have come into the world, we are ready for anything, for whatever the Universe wants to put in-front of us. That is why, from writing for a newspaper, where he spent nine years as a translator, Igor Duarte has moved into the hotel business and spent five years at the reception desk of a hotel. Today he dedicates body and soul to a new challenge: the kitchen of the A Villa restaurant in Salir. In this restaurant run by Mónica Matias, his sister-in-law, it is …

On a Sunday in October in this warm and dry year, at the tail end of a summer that shows no signs of wanting to end, I pull the door shut behind me, lock it, shoulder my backpack and start walking east, with my dog for company. I‘ve taken a week‘s time out for myself: a week with no computers, a life without Internet. In reality I want to take the track starting right behind my house, a trail leading into nature or, well, what is left of it after the great forest fire of 2018. After a few kilometres …

At some point I decided to no longer allow money to occupy such a prominent position in my life. I try to remain true to myself and not do anything for money that I wouldn’t do without receiving money for it. This is not the same thing as renouncing money completely. I do have to have something to live on. And I too love to be paid fairly for what I do. However, I don’t want to be a wage slave, I don’t want to sell myself, my work and the time available to me in this life so I …

Off the bat, I wouldn’t consider talking about taxes an interesting topic, because recent experience suggests that for many of us they simply represent a very real burden. A burden that despite everything, society pledges to take on. And all of us have an opinion on the matter; without much hesitation, I’d say that what we all want is for taxes to not overburden us, and at the same time for them to provide truly beneficial effects to society. It’s obvious that what constitutes something “truly beneficial” is subjective, variable and sometimes contradictory, as the preoccupations felt by citizens vary …

To Be or to Have, that too is the question here. Renault is celebrating its 122nd anniversary. What is there to celebrate exactly? Three stories come to my mind, completely different ones. The first is this: a seven-year old boy is hit by a car. The child, as noted in the police report, wanted to cross the street with his scooter at a pedestrian crossing. On doing so, the boy is hit by the car of a 48-year old driver. In the accident on Sunday evening the seven-year old was dragged along several metres by the car and was later …

We said that this would be a conversation and not an ordinary interview, you remember?   Manuel Nina: Yes, I have lots of questions about permaculture. I actually just went to see my father-in-law, who’s a farmer in the Douro valley. He has a two-hectare smallholding, where he grows vines and fruit for the family, and I brought these big baskets of lettuces and cabbages back home with me to Lisbon. But he also showed me the local trees. He has a small plot of land with pine trees, medronho trees, and olive trees as well. My first question is …