Archive

Week 9: New mails and vets: Mom helped me make beans in the Instant Pot! I have made lentils a few times, but failed at beans. Mom shared her “secret sauce” and the beans turned out delicious! It’s the step I needed to stop buying the cooked ones in glass jars and start making my own from dried beans. 🍿 …

I noticed my street’s library box was a bit sad, so this morning I left six books in it! 📚 Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers… Hope someone enjoys reading them as much as I did.

I’ve been waiting months for this moment! Harvested carrots from my garden, grown from seeds! 🌱🥕

Just watched Nosferatu (2024) and it’s one of the bottom 10 movies of my life. A solid 0,5/10 (generous half point for the effort). 🍿🤮

Today I signed up for Posteo and Addy! 🚀 Moving away after years using a single Gmail account for everything is overwhelming, but I’m excited to use my own domain + aliases (and support EU business)!

Week 8: Instax printer love!: Two days after my Photolab 8 trial ended, DxO Photolab 9 came out and it has local AI masks! I bought it right away. I then spent the next 4 days troubleshooting a million bugs, crashes and performance issues. Note to self: never again buy software on the day of the release. 🐛 Luckily, I found out …

Migrated my mastodon account to my micro.blog fediverse account. It’s the perfect solution for me. I can still follow people and comment on things, without the social media/feed/like/repost aspects! 😍

DxO Photolab 9 came out today! 📷 I bought it within minutes of the release! I fell in love with v8 during the trial, it is miles ahead of LR. I’m so happy to be free from Adobe and supporting an European business!

Week 7: Sketching artist: I will start my week with an honorable mention: I forgot to write last week about our raclette night! It’s still a bit too warm for raclette, but it was so nice to sit outside in the garden and watch the stars while eating delicious melted cheese over mushrooms and sausages and potatoes! Njam …

Trading: fix 2000-tick chart looking wildly different: It is normal for tick charts to look a little bit different between different charting software (NT8, QT, Sierra) and between different data providers (CQG, Denali), because of how each one aggregates and displays the tick data. The key here lies in a little bit different. In a normal trading …

I haven’t read a single book page in two months 😱

Sierra Chart: indicator for bar closing on top/bottom third: Sierra Chart’s Color Bar Based on Alert Condition study is a powerful little tool we can use for setting up all kinds of chart indicators on a bar-by-bar level. In this example, I want to print a small dot above bars that are closing within their top third, and below bars closing within the …

Week 6: back to work: Vacations are over, nooooo! 😭 Just kidding. This first week back to work was actually really nice. Now that I am self-employed and work as a day trader, work days are always nice and something to look forward to. I actually like Mondays now, because I get to trade again and follow my process. First …

Amalfi Pasta: When I first tried this recipe last summer, it was like a revelation. Pasta with lemon is the most summery thing ever. Now it’s summer again, and Amalfi Pasta is back to our weekly rotation. This delicious recipe is from the book “The Easy Italian Cookbook”. Ingredients Serves 2 …

Stand Mixer Sourdough Bread: After a million tries, I found the recipe. All credit goes to Grant Yoder for this wonderful recipe that works every single time. I bake this boule every two weeks. 🍞🥖 Ingredients 100g sourdough 450g flour 275g water 10g salt Instructions Part I: Ryan I prefer to have a zero-discard, no-waste …

Mom, this morning: “Is it Tuesday already?”. Me, annoyed, emphatically: “Of course not, mom. Today is Wednesday”. At 18h30 we found out it’s Thursday and the only possible explanation is we must have been abducted by aliens! 👽

Creamy Mushroom Pasta: Had this two weeks ago paired with a delicious bottle of Amarone… Recipe by RecipeTinEats, with small adaptations (we only eat fresh homemade pasta, never dry; I always sub broth for more wine; and so on). A new favourite! Ingredients Serves 2 150g fresh homemade fettuccine 2 tbsp unsalted …

This week the cutest thing happened: five kittens were playing at a parking lot when this one spotted me hiding behind the bushes. She decided to investigate, I pretended to be part of the scenery, very very still, and sure enough, she got close enough for this portrait! 🐈📷

Vegan Bolognese with TVP: When I said I would make a vegan bolognese for dinner using soy TVP, I was met with distrust in their eyes and low expectation in their voices. Once they tried it, they went for seconds… This is an adaptation from Food.com’s amazing recipe. It looks beautiful, it tastes delicious, and …

My 73yo mom decided to start blogging too! After a few days trying out wp, micro.blog, publii, we settled on a self-hosted Htmly install. We needed PT-BR support and ultra easy to use UI. Finally all those old poems, stories and dreams will leave her text editor and live at mariza.blog instead!

Fig Jam: We have a fig tree in our garden. It produces hundreds of delicious, sweet little fruits every single year. I discovered I am allergic to them on the very day I had them for the first time. How nice /s. Luckily, I can eat them cooked. So I make jam. Jars and jars of jam, which we then eat with …

Week 5: Day Trips: This week my mom arrived from Brazil. We drove from Valencia to Madrid to pick her up, and on the way back stopped to visit Cuenca. 💚 We visited Mora de Rubielos and Rubielos de Mora, two beautiful towns in Teruel. After visiting a medieval castle and baking under a 38ºC heat wave, I tried getting …

Cuenca: A few days ago we drove to Madrid to pick my mom at the airport. She came from Brazil to stay with us for three months and the tickets from our hometown to Madrid were half the price of the tickets to Valencia this time. Only problem, the flight landed really early, like 8h30. With the sunrise …

Week 4: site redesign!: This week I decided to stop faffing around and just book a date for my driving theory exam. Did the driving aptitude test and I was honestly expecting some kind of Rorschach test (because if I remember right, I did that 20 years ago?!), but instead it was a really cool Atari-like videogame where you …

I have too many photos: Help, I have over 120k personal photos in my hard drive. I am overwhelmed by trying to organize, keyword, and find a way to see them, to share them. In the past I have created: Printed albums for our trips: beautiful result but too time consuming (and too expensive too, I’m not gonna lie). …

Week 3: dust off my cameras: This week I decided to take my cameras out of storage and put them to work. The visit to Galactica last week was so inspiring, we decided to go back to Aras de Los Olmos to photograph the stars and the Milky Way. I posted a few images here! 🪐✨🚀 Those were shot with two Canon 5D Mark IIIs and the …

Albarracín: Quick day trip to one of Spain’s most beautiful pueblos, Albarracín 🏰📷

Photographing the Milky Way: The visit to Galactica last week made such an impression on us, we decided to travel back to Sierra de Javalambre earlier this week to photograph the stars. We arrived an hour before sunset to scout locations and we watched a lovely sunset with a crescent moon above. Unfortunately the location we …

Week 2: Our galaxy: Vacations, finally! Enjoying the alternating weeks of heat waves and cold fronts. R.I.P. Ozzy! 🤘🖤 A few days ago we went to Mercado de la Imprenta in Valencia. Such a beautiful building! I posted some photos here. 📷🍷 This weekend we went to Galactica, an observatory open to the public! We went to …

Mercado de la Imprenta: Mercado de La Imprenta, a hidden gem in Valencia. Tucked away in an alleyway, out of the tourist path, frequented only by the locals, this place is really pretty and ideal for a cold beer or artisanal vermouth. We had both, while waiting for the restaurants to start serving… After starving …

Sunrise at Mirador El Garbí 📷☀️

Week 1: The start: Finally, a simple and elegant solution to my blogging anxieties: weeknotes! Instead of spamming people’s feeds with short updates on movies and dinners, I’ll collect everything into a weekly post. I still get my little corner on the internet to yell at the void, while keeping my own …

A month ago I went to Andalucía. It was amazing, I visited castles, went to two fancy restaurants, took a million photos telling myself I would make an online gallery, maybe even print and frame a few… and I still haven’t downloaded, edited or even looked at the images. It’s a …

One blog to rule them all: I’ve been blogging on and off since the early 2000’s. I’ve blogged about linux, going to university, movies, programming, photography, moving to Rio de Janeiro, moving to Sweden, moving to Spain, gardening, traveling, learning to play the piano, learning to sew, learning esperanto… Sadly, none of …

Sunset at Ciutat de les Arts i Cièncias: This weekend we went to the xmas market at Ciutat de les Arts i Cièncias. I’ve been there many times before, but I hadn’t seen it during sunset and blue hour. The colors, the reflections, the shapes, it was so inspiring! 📷

Astro 🐶

Luna red riding hood 🐕

Throwback to a sandy summer day!! 🐶

London: A few snaps of London, June 2022. 🗺️

Cozy couch + sunny winter day + comfy cute PJ! 🐕

Enjoying a little sun during winter!! 🐶

Albufera de Valencia, fall 2022.

Happy new year!!! 🐶

Last day of 2022! This year went by fast!! 🐕

Lazy mornings… 🐕

Chelva: Today we visited Chelva, a really beautiful pueblo that is known as Valencia’s Chefchaouen (a city in Morocco). In love with all the white and blue! From there, a quick hike in the Ruta del Agua trail.

Fresh air of the Mediterranean: Yesterday we went to the beach. There was no one around, we could run off leash, smell the fresh air and dip our paws in the Mediterranean!! Exhausted dogs after a 9km walk through forest and sandy beach!!

Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2022. 🗺️

Portugal's seascapes: Portugal, 2015. Shot on an expired roll of Fuji Pro 400h. Even expired this film is a delight! 🗺️📷 📷 Canon EOS 300 + Fuji Pro 400h

Sigtuna's reds: So many friends have asked me on social media about how my trip is going and, c’mon you guys, I haven’t left my home in 1.5 years!! I’m using these Covid times to go through, edit and share some old photos. Starting now, I’ll add the year taken to each image, in case anyone …

Sigtuna's blues: Sigtuna is magical. White and blue. Fishing boats. Ice cream. 🗺️📷 Sigtuna, 2016.

Mediterráneo

Stop sign

Self portrait, 2021. Backlit by the sun.

It’s been almost a year since my last post. Oops.

Good morning! 🐶

First day of summer vacations!! 🐕

This weekend we went exploring the forest La Vallesa and the margins of the river Turia! 🐕

Luna: Yesterday we celebrated exactly 15 days since Luna joined our family. Welcoming a second dog has been at the same time joy and challenge. 🐶 Here are three things I (re) learned about dogs in those past 2 weeks: Rising early and having a routine is essential. With the years, our routine with Astro …

Early risers find the best light. 🐶☀️

The view from my desk 🐶

Day 3 of Luna. She’s crazy about food. Today she tried to steal a wooden spoon from the sink with rests of omelette on it. The spoon fell with a noise and I caught her in the act. She then pretended she was not at all interested and waltzed out of the kitchen. She also dances near garbage cans …

24 hours together. Luna’s a little shy, but she already jumped on all beds and she found a great spot on the couch. She also tried to steal the garbage and has been brainstorming ways to get to the food the humans locked behind pantry doors. 🐕

BOOP!! 12 hours to Luna’s arrival! 🐶

Astro Astro came into my life in 2013, when I lived in Sweden. I didn’t have friends, barely went out (only for groceries), got a major vitamin D deficiency, life sucked. I considered getting a cat, then realized I’d spend the rest of my life on the couch hugging the cat. A friend then …

Emotional blackmail so I stop working and start playing 🐶

Sunny winters in Valencia ☀️

When we first moved to Spain, we rented an Airbnb for the first month in Castelldefels, a small town 30min by train from Barcelona. Even though we didn’t stay long there, we fell in love with the local people and the city’s relaxed, easy going vibes. It was winter back then, so the next …

The view from the road, arriving in Sa Calobra! Mallorca, 2018.

Mallorca: A small bed & breakfast inland and a rented car to explore the island. One full week of Mallorca! 🗺️ This beach is called Cala Agulla and it really was as blue as it looks in the image. The view from the road, arriving in Sa Calobra. Breathtaking. Last, but not least: Ryanair cancelled our …

Hi, I’m back! I haven’t posted in almost two years. Things have changed. I have changed. I moved to another city. I changed careers! Photography became my hobby and I didn’t know how to deal with it, with saying out loud I’m not a photographer anymore, I’m a frontend …

Astro is not obsessed about anything, EXCEPT for this: retrieving a ball or a stick from the sea. That’s something he can do for hours. I wish we lived closer to the dog beach or to some quiet lake, so he could get to enjoy summer his own way. In those moments, I miss Sweden (it’s rare …

We, blurred and shot on film, enjoying summer somewhere sometime. Eight and a half years with him. I hope it never ends.

Astro at Gålö dog beach. 🐶🏖️

Swedish summer: Reminiscences of a Swedish summer. One of the very best years, spent swimming at the dog beach and picnicking near secluded lakes and rivers. Also: one of my first rolls of 120 film + Mamiya 645!

While it’s true that the Swedish summer can be warm and nice, it usually isn’t. Most years are cold and rainy. There is always ONE week in July that’s quite perfect. Every five years there’s a heat wave that lasts two months. That’s it. The Swedish summer in a nutshell. …

Morocco, 2017.

Norway, summer 2016. The most beautiful country I’ve ever been to.

Stockholm, 2018. Beautiful, as usual.

Barcelona, 2016. The week that changed everything. I had no idea then that I would end up moving to Barcelona, quitting wedding photography, changing careers. All I know is, I’m living the life I’ve been dreaming about for the past 18 years!

Wild camping in Norway, 2016. This is one trip I’d love to do again!

Somewhere in northern Sweden, 2 years ago. 🐶

One of the prettiest pueblos I’ve ever been to: Besalú, Catalunya.

Those past two days have felt so cold here in Barcelona. Wishing I could go back one month to an incredibly warm day visiting Tarragona.

Castell de Xàtiva

Throwback to enjoying summer with my mom and our little trip to Valencia!

Loved visiting the medieval pueblo of Montblanc yesterday. So incredibly charming. Locals believe the famous fight between Saint George and the Dragon actually took place in the mountains surrounding the pueblo – and absolutely NOT in Cappadocia, as we have all been wrongly led to believe. …

Barcelona rooftop. High on my wishlist!

I take my dog every single day to the gardens behind Sagrada Familia. Who would have thought? - Barcelona, 2017.

Morocco: Morocco is a place of contrasts. An unsuspecting door in a back alley opens up to a parallel universe of mosaics, carved wood and beauty. 🗺️

Look up: When I was a kid, I once looked up while walking on a street in my hometown Recife, and I noticed some numbers at the very top of an old building. 1908. The year of the construction. That was game-changing for me. Most people look down when walking. They spend their lives looking at the floor when …

Barcelona: The little things I love about Barcelona.

Girona: Snaps from Girona. We had a lovely weekend, walks all over town, ate good food, had delicious vermut at a cute little terrace, and the chocolatiest cup of hot chocolate ever!

A cozy winter morning in Barcelona.

Discovered this little street by chance. I want to live in a little house like this!