Daily Word Count: 0
Cumulative Words Written: 59,414
Total Words Discarded: 14,500
Total Chapters Drafted: 24
Time Spent Writing Today: 0 hours
Yesterday, I took a road trip. Off the page, life continues its shit pile trajectory. With a week to go at Buinho, I thought a change of scenery might feed my beleaguered soul.
I hopped in my Fiat and drove to Evora.
The Alentejo countryside is a lot like parts of California. High desert. Rolling hills. Brown against blue sky. Crops and cattle and sheep. Vineyards and olive groves. Glorious sunflowers, like those featured in the opening photo.
I’ll share most of what I did in Evora tomorrow, but first I pointed the Google Girl to the Almendres Cromlech.
What What? You say?
The Almendres Cromlech is an 8,000-year-old Neolithic site twenty minutes west of Evora, Portugal. It is the largest site of its kind in Iberia and one of Europe’s oldest.
It was worth a road trip!
Situated on a hilltop, the stones orient toward the east with sweeping views of the Alentejo valley.
I saw each stone as human. The site is very loud.
The stones were uncovered in the 1970s. Archeologists studied the ground and arranged them according to spatial evidence they found. Most of the stones are about the height of an average person. A few have flat tops with dimples carved into the face. Several sport other carvings, mostly eroded.
History happened here.
Addled by the cromlech’s energy, I hiked back to the car and snapped a couple of photos of the surrounding cork forest.
The Alentejo is known worldwide for its cork production. I never realized how cork is harvested. I always thought trees were cut down for their cork, but that isn’t the case.
I’m not sure it’s clear in the picture, but cork trees lack bark from limbs to trunk. Study the third tree back, just left of center. The gray stuff on the limb is bark. Cork is harvested below. Cork resembles a person with her clothes removed, at least to me. They mark each tree to track the last harvest, let the cork regenerate for several years, and repeat the process.
Here’s another shot of the cork forest for further study.
And what would a road trip be without gluttony?
Black pork and fried potato wedges is the Alentejo’s signature dish. I gave it a try. The pork is roasted until tender enough to fall apart at a fork’s touch. Cooked in a sauce of tomato, peppers, cilantro and spices, it is served in a casserole dish with potatoes on top.
Hungry?
To follow my residency at Buinho Creative Hub from the beginning, CLICK HERE and read forward.
3 Comments
Sunflowers are gorgeous and the pork sounds divine. I had kind of a wandering day yesterday. The dog and I explored together, on foot and in the truck. Today is making the new recording stuff work and maybe a poem. The novel is in the drawer this week.
Finished a draft? Or letting it rest?
Letting it rest. I can smell it percolating, but the writing is on hold. I did “finish” an essay, however, so I am maintaining the fantasy of being productive.
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