Life
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Tavira Climate Change Plan Consultation
If you have not already responded to the Tavira Climate Change Action Plan Consultation here are the dates, link to the plan and an English translation.Also an English translation of the presentation given in the library.You have till 8 April 2025 to respond. English translation of Tavira Climate Change Plan over 10mb download Participatory Public Consultation Sessions – PMAC Tavira The Municipal Climate Action Plan (PMAC) is still being analyzed and the Camara want your participation! Join the participatory sessions in villages and contribute to a more sustainable future for Tavira. Schedule of Sessions: Sta. Catherine F. Bishop – 25.03 | Parish Board | 18h00 📍 Luz of Tavira –…
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Memoir writing
I went to Monchique yesterday to a memoir workshop. I took this workshop about 15 years ago and although writing regularly I am reluctant to share memoir pieces. I took my laptop which is how I usually write and it was powerful to get so much down and out. So here are a few memoir workshop pieces. I won’t share the workshop process as I respect the effort and experience that has gone into preparing the content. If you enjoy these three short pieces let me know. I have written a novel where many memories pop up. Still going through and adding. I think memoir is an aid to writing…
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Open Mic Night in Tavira
The Álvaro de Campos Festival / Birthday Party takes place in Tavira from 15 October to 30 November each year. Last year, I helped organise an impressive and enjoyable Open Mic Night in the cold of winter. On Friday, 22 November this year (2024), we will try again to bring musicians, poets and writers together to perform on a small stage to an eager audience at Casa Álvaro de Campos. The venue is a cafe with a piano and a small stage. Last year, we managed to get 6 delightful musicians and singers on the stage! The cafe is on the steps, just down from the Tavira Museum near the Igreja da Misericórdia de…
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Community Garden and Mobility Plan Update
Yesterday, 13 April I was blessed (I am not sure that is the right word) but anyway it was a gift, to be able to go to visit Community Gardens in Spain. I will do a separate blog post and add more photos and write about the trip tomorrow. But for now the important message is about the CEAT Community garden. The regulations consultation finishes tomorrow. It has been an impossibily short consultation period. I hope the Camara extends the period. This is the message I received from Ecotopia Activa Association today. “As mentioned on the bus, Monday (15/04) is the deadline for participation in the Public Consultation of the…
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Community garden – regulations consultation Tavira
Community gardens are becoming the backbone of communities, which is no less the case locally in Tavira. I recently watched a video from New Zealand about community composting, and it has fired me up because the benefits to the soil and human interaction are enormous. I wonder if Tavira could add a community composting club/project to the community garden. I digress; more about composting in a future post. Today I noticed on the facebook page Os Jardins Alimentares a post by Angela Rosa. It mentioned a consultation document about the regulations associated with community gardens in Tavira. The message from the Camara says: i️ Edital (extract) n. the 495/2024 Submit to…
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Mobility plan Tavira Consultation response
We have sent in a personal response to the mobility plan consultation before the deadline of 31 March 2024. Below is the response from CEAT and Ecotopia Activa. See attached document links in English and Portuguese. The Citizens’ movement for CEAT and Hortas Urbanas de Tavira and the association Ecotopia Activa, based in Tavira, announce their participation in the Public Consultation of the Sustainable Mobility Plan for the City of Tavira (PMSCT) – attached. We request that participation be publicized in order to make known to all interested parties the detailed analysis that was carried out on the Plan. We inform you that we have not yet received any response…
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Cachopo, the windmill, wild flowers, the earthstar and the stones
Some days I just want to bottle moments of joy. That not being possible, on International Women’s Day 2024, I decided to start recording the events of a magical day from earlier in the week. Four women had a mission, an electric car, which I drove and the sun on our backs. You could call our mission one of spirit – that is we wanted to find ancient stones. We are women who meet together to meditate and create art. We feel connected to each other and the earth, so for me our exploration was about deepening our relationship with nature. But also the opportunity for a “jolly out” together.…
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Solar and Cuba
Electricity has occupied my thoughts in the last week. Solar electricity and charging stations to be more accurate. To help the planet, we invested in an electric car, mainly because we are more or less 100% solar at home. Last week, we took off through the dry, red Alentejo countryside to Evora – a Roman town celebrate my birthday. We had done some homework about charging stations. Still, we fell at the first hurdle, not least because the instructions for charging were only in Portuguese and why not? It is Portugal, after all. We quickly translated the instructions. The other obstacle to accessing solar juice was the need for a…
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Pete Seeger – Community activist, musician, and inspiration for peace
I don’t want to focus my thoughts on war right now or the arguments about who is right or wrong. What I need is hope. So with that purpose in mind I have edited and updated this article first written in 2014. Maybe it will resonate with your desire for peace and hope too. Image credit – Pete Seeger at the Clearwater Festival in June 2007 Photo taken by Anthony Pepitone Pete Seeger, singer and musician, died on January 27, 2014. His unique style and passion for music brought people together locally and globally. His songs with words such as “We shall overcome” or “Where have all the flowers gone” stirred millions to march…
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Leading from the future as it emerges – U-lab course
Jim and I have recently become interested in taking a course called U-lab and fortunately the course is going to happen in Tavira.How cool is that? The U-lab course created by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is being rolled out across Portugal beginning in April 2018 and Tavira is on the list for it to be delivered in English, (in other towns it will be in Portuguese). The course explores leadership challenges through the lens of three divides, an ecological divide – separation between self and nature, social divide – separation between us and them, spiritual divide – separation between self and self (who I am today and my potential…
