Sunshine & Sardines

One of the great joys in life living in this country are the fantastic people we meet and share our lives with.
One of those people is Dona Lara, one of our closest friends and a nearby neighbour. Shes in her mid seventies and lives alone, but is always cheerful and smiling. She works so hard from first light to dark. She has chickens, ducks, goats, cats and a dog, grows all her own food and food for her animals and bedding for them too. She is a really lovely lady and often invites us for lunch at her home. Today was one of those days.
Although she has a good kitchen she, like most Portuguese would never dream of cooking fish inside the house... she has a fire pit in the yard with a grid over that she cooks the fish on, we prepared, tomato and onion  salad  plus shredded lettuce and onion salad, boiled potatoes she dug just as we arrived, and fresh bread and olives, lashings of her own olive oil and a large jug of her own wine to wash it all down with. We sat outside under her shady vine covered yard and stuffed ourselves... she then came back with a homemade Pudim which is kind of eggy desert.... and fresh plums from the tree...
What a wonderful way to pass the afternoon... the sun was shining, we had good food and wine, lovely company . Its what living here is all about for us. We may not have any money, but the quality of life is unbeatable...
One of the good things is also that I know the meal she gave us, didnt cost her much either, apart from the actual fish everything else was her own grown...