August

"It has become quite difficult to remember the simple fact about humankind. Its magical power and its beauty is only visible when you too are there, without the mirrors, and only when you are close enough to touch one another". Ece Temelkuran (2025). Together: a manifesto against a heartless world. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Sustainable prosperity

«A shift towards an economy of care, craft and creativity (...) is not just about the quality of public services or the possibility of creating decent employment. It's a direct answer to the search for a sustainable prosperity. The quest for the good life. To the desire to live well - within the limits of a finite planet.» Tim Jackson (2025). The Care Economy. 

Photo of tapestry (81 x 91 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). August 2025.

Garden design as Art

"(...) bear in mind that garden design as it is studied by the one nation which really understands it - the Japanese - takes many years of serious application to reach perfection. It is a very high art". Frances Wolseley (1919). Gardens: their form and design. Found and suggested by paula simoes' blog. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), July 13, 2025.

PS - The Countryman's Log Book

July

Earth, Mogli. Photo of Kaya by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), June 15, 2019. Cats.

July

“(…) the whole world is crumbling and we can do more than ask for hope. And what if there is no hope? Do we just lie down and accept our fate? Or, a more dangerous question: what if there is hope? Are they ready to do what it takes? (…) she looked like one of those rare women who had earned the lines on her face. ‘They mean something else when they speak of hope’ (…) ‘Think about faith’ (…) ‘Not the religious kind.’ So I did”. Ece Temelkuran (2025). Together: a Manifesto Against a Heartless World. Foto Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), July 2025.

July

“The will to touch reality” and all the “beings within it was as simple as the urge to breathe, and breathe together”. The Tree was right. “After all, one cannot hesitate when it comes to breathing. And one learns that breathing in difficult times is something that requires” other beings “to help you do it properly”. Ece Temelkuran (2025). Together: a Manifesto against a Heartless world. Foto Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), June 23, 2025.

Solstice

Developing self-confidence "empowers you to overcome your ego, acknowledge your deficiencies, and start on the path to doing and being better." Shane Parrish, 2023. Clear Thinking: the art and science of making better decisions.  Foto by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

...

"When we keep a safe distance from reality, we fail to understand that those inside it are fighting with everything they have. The uneasiness of the spectator, her feelings of guilt and helplessness, are simply irrelevant." Ece Temelkuran (2025). Together: a manifesto against a heartless world.

Equinox

A new cycle begins. “(…) it’s about as full circle as it gets. (…) One day at a time, and suddenly you realize life is brighter, life is lighter. You made it through the storm” (Dunbar, 2024), except, other entities bully your neighbors, make them suffer, threaten them, persecute them, injure them, kill them and destroy everything. And in the end, they hope to live happily and securely ever after? Is this the implosion of humanity, cause surely it is not a vision for a better world...

Lucy Claire Dunbar (2024). The Book of Gifts. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), março de 2025.

PS - Banda sonora pode ser a que li no que Flora Graham escreveu no Nature Briefing de 11 de fevereiro de 2025, sobre o músico Cosmo Sheldrake (com Nature) que ajudou investigadores a registar «the wonderful, wet and complex” sounds of the fungi and other organisms in the soil, in the words of evolutionary biologist and co-author Toby Kiers»: soil.

Gaze

in english: "a steady and intentional look at something or someone, often for a long time, typically indicating interest, admiration, or contemplation. It can also imply a psychological relationship of power between the observer and the observed". by DuckDuckGo 

in portuguese "a light, thin and transparent cotton or silk fabric, very porous, sterile (or sterilizable), of varying elasticity, thickness, shape, reticulation and size, depending on the use for which it is intended. It is usually used in dressings and surgical interventions, and may be impregnated with medications such as antiseptics." by Wikipedia

Photo of tapestry (80 x 80, belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January 19, 2025.

January

“(…) my story bleeds through from my cover into the real world, a message from a parallel universe revealed through graphic design and visual creativity. My cover is the shadow on Plato’s cave wall, a hint of the truth and imagination hidden within. When you look at me, I am designed to make you want to open the lid and let my stories escape through your gaze, diving through your eyes into your mind, where they can live and breed anew. I’m only a book. Hold me.” Robert Klanten, Mathias Hubnel and Andrew Losowsky (2013). Fully Booked. Photo of tapestry on the making (belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie), by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January, 2025.

January

“The courage not to be vanquished by anxiety, not to hurt others out of frustration, not to grow to furious with the world for the perceived injuries it heedlessly inflicts, not to go crazy and somehow to manage to persevere in a more or less adequate way through the difficulties (…), this is true courage, this is a heroism in a class all of its own.” Alain de Botton (2017). The Course of Love. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), janeiro de 2025.

January

 

"Vertigo is from the bottom up. Vertigo has always been defined as a disturbance felt in front of an abyss or at a high point in relation to the space between us and the ground. Reversing the direction of this axis by designating the vertigo that can be felt when looking upwards is equivalent to shifting the focus of this disturbance from the drop, the earth, and the materiality to the rise, the sky, and spirituality."

Placa colocada junto das fotografias da exposição do artista Fernando Lemos, no Espaço Engawa, do Centro de Arte Moderna da Gulbenkian. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), 30 de dezembro de 2024.