White flowers in the Algarve

The Algarve countryside is covered in these at the moment.

It's time to start walking and rediscovering the beauty of nature!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Feb. 2014

Welcome again to my garden in the Algarve. This lavender is the star this month, the only plant that seems oblivious to the cold, wind and rain.

Scruffy is the word for my garden at the moment. I am now sure that I can have blooms outside every month of the year but I cannot keep the garden looking immaculate unless I have professional help in winter. I am allergic to the cold and get ill at a drop of a hat so the garden goes straggly and wild.

My gardener surprised me yesterday by popping in to prune the roses and nearly got bitten by Pandora, my newest dog, who didn't take too kindly to finding a strange man on the property. He couldn't, however, do anything about the grass overrun by common yellow oxalis because everything was too wet.

By the gate, the rosemary is looking good together with another lavender. I wish I had taken a better photo before the gardener pruned it a bit more than I would have liked.

My yellow orchid has taken a bit of a beating from the rain and wind. Next month I'm expecting more orchid blooms from other pots.

I have a daffodil... or two. In this pot there are other bulbs (not exactly sure what I planted there, oops).

 There's too much happening in this container, too (must avoid that next time).

This is one of my attempts at growing succulents. There are more pots around the place but I forgot to take photos.

I find that my strawberries don't do well in this pot (the soil dries too fast) so it has been planted with succulents, too.

And here is the sweet potato vine with the jasmine just waiting for some sun to burst into bloom and add scent to my back patio.

See you next month!

I'm off to May Dreams Gardens to look at what is happening in gardens around the world.

Grow Your Bog Party - postcard winners

Wow, what a party it was! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I discovered so many interesting blogs and never imagined I would get so many visitors, myself. I was also overwhelmed by the number of kind comments and new followers.

As promised, today I took three numbers randomly out of a bag and I am pleased to announce that these lovely bloggers will be receiving a postcard from Portugal:

Terri at Cache-Mire

Tanya Breese

Phoebe at Lou Messugo

Thank you to Vicki and all the people who helped her to make this event so cool!

p.s. I look forward to visiting all the blogs on the list, but it will take a couple of months...

Nature 2014

Welcome! If you are visiting from the Grow Your Blog Party, you'll find my post HERE.

Internet connection problems and work have slowed down my visits to other blogs at the party. My strategy is to visit bloggers who have left comments on my blog first, then go through the list Vicki kindly organised for us.

This is my Sunday post in response to Jake's prompt - NATURE 2014.

Ria Formosa at low tide

Yesterday I drove along the narrow road/bridge that crosses the lagoon and went to Faro beach. It had been years since I had done that!

With my back to the beach, I take in a view of the lagoon

I noticed that storms have carried a lot of sand over the low walls along the beach. You can find more photos of my outing on my Portuguese blog.

 

Swampy vegetation, Ria Formosa

Looking more closely at some of the wildflowers

On the way back, I stopped to look more closely at the vegetation.

With all the rain we've been having, wildflowers should abound this Spring. I hope I can spend more time watching nature do its thing.