Our second year in this piece of land was marked by the arrival of baby J! After a first year focusing mainly on the house, year two's focus were the garden - growing it, nourishing the earth and making it productive - and working on developing a source of income, a guest house in Vila Velha de Ródão. Oh, and parenting. Lots of that!

Let's then look back at this year, season by season...

Autumn

After a beautiful homebirth in November, there she is. Just perfect. Autumn and winter were passed in newborn bliss. The garden was sleeping and most time was spent indoors.

But a lot of time was spent in the house Sam's father bought and we're preparing to turn into a guest house. Our chickens were eaten by a fox, which turned out to break our attachment to the land and allow us to spend longer periods of time at Casa de Outrora. So much work was done there this season!

It was also a strange period - divided between two places. It was a good time to reflect and setting goals for the future.

Winter

We're still spending most of our time at the guest house. We come back home every now and then to harvest some vegetables and check on the house.

On the other hand, the guest house is starting to look amazing!

Spring

It's planting time and we start spending more time at home, again, to catch up the start of the season. It was a rainy spring, so slugs and snails got the most out of it... The poor plants could have told it themselves, had they survived.

J, unlike the pumpkin plants, is growing like a weed!

We start having garden meals again and we both turn a year older.

The "home" topic is still a hot one. Lately we've been maturing the idea of leaving Tapada da Ribeira to go to a more beautiful, recondite place, near like-minded friends and families. I wrote a post about this feeling, which was quite thought provoking and a great discussion starter.

Summer

Volunteers start arriving and we work around the house building new beds! There's also space left for a future cob oven - probably.

A new batch of chickens lives in the coop, now fox-proofed.

The garden is blooming and growing!

And we start receiving our first guests in Casa de Outrora!

This year passed so incredibly fast. It was full of emotions, above all. Re-balancing ourselves and asking who are we?, what do we want?, and planning the future. Also discovering a new us, as parents. Becoming a family has changed so many things! The way we relate to our home is shifting, to be honest. There are so many things we didn't think about when we moved in, that now as family seem so important - space, facilities, community.

Here's to working towards it over the third year!