Flowers in February
No, not red roses for Valentine's Day
February.
Is there a bleaker month?
The February that I am used to - from both Connecticut and St. Louis - is bitter cold, snow and/or ice, and wind. Despite being the shortest month, it’s always felt like the longest - February is when I was ready for winter to be over!
So it’s hard to express the astonishment I felt during our first winter here. Yes, the clouds are frequent and often oppressive. Yes, we have cold rain. But we have beautiful, sunny days topping out at 60f / 15 c as well. Today I’d like to bring you some of the pretty flowers we’ve had this month as we all cheer on Spring!
When we were moving into our home on Rua do Passadiço in 2023, I had the task of waiting for the movers to finish and leave, and then raced over, hoping to beat the moving truck. I was coming up the big hill to get onto our new street, and was bowled over by a wall of nasturtiums. There’s a chain link fence helping to restrain a retaining wall, and the nasturtiums covered it from top to bottom. Stunning. I then found out that it was my Grandpa’s favorite flower!
We’ve recently changed churches to St. George’s Church in Lisbon. It is in the midst of the incredibly beautiful and peaceful British Cemetery. To my delight, they need gardeners! It’s been very challenging not being able to garden for the two and a half years we’ve lived here.1
And finally, from walks about town….
That’s all for now!
Love from Lisbon,
Amy
Ok, I did get to garden with good friends who are reclaiming a piece of unused land and turning it into a garden for their neighborhood.
Thanks for that post!!! I don't walk past beautiful British cemeteries as a matter of course, but at the top of our Azinhaga (alley / road) that we walk up every day to go to the gym, there is an empty field with the most amazing weeds / flowers!! My phone is filled with pictures of what I call the watercolor nasturtiums and morning glories and other weeds with unknown names. That field also contains what my Granddaughters call "The Door to Nowhere." It's the remains of an old stone house in that field. It's wonderful and now I'm thinking I need to do another blog post just to post my zillions of pictures of that field and Door to Nowhere. :-) Thank you for sharing. Are you absolutely amazed that it's been 2.5 years already??? We're just coming up on 2 years and it's astonishing. Would we go back .... NEVER!!!!! Especially not now!!!
Beautiful photos!! My son and I walked outside this morning and he said “mom, it smells like spring.” Yes! Spring is almost here!!!