Alentejo, Lavender Fragrance, by Carlos Carnicero
The Natural Park of Serra de São Mamede is a hemisphere of harmony and green vegetation, even in the torrid month of August, because it establishes a microclimate that benefits the neighboring cities of Alto Alentejo. A border territory of numerous disputes, it is dotted with fortifications and castles in rightful correspondence with its historical military importance.
To the flora of its endemic vegetation, we must now add lavender. This aromatic plant, from the mint family, is cultivated further north, such as in Provence or in some regions of Croatia. Its appearance gives the fields a phosphorescent look, and its bloom occurs, depending on the latitude, starting from the first half of June. Now, Portuguese lavender will be an early bloomer.
Teresa and Esteban, of middle age, decided to leave their jobs as economists in the Portuguese capital to embark on the adventure of lavender. They built a modern and comfortable building, exquisitely decorated, to welcome guests who, after a few minutes of arriving at Quinta das Lavandas, become true friends.
In this venture, surrounded by lavender crops, essential oils from this plant are distilled artisanally and are beginning to be marketed in the form of magical moisturizing water and other subtle uses of this medicinal, relaxing, and soothing plant. Craftsmanship at the service of sophisticated hedonism that requires no extravagance.
The pleasure at Quinta das Lavandas is the dolce far niente of doing nothing but thinking, reflecting, walking, enjoying their pool, and the patient explanations of the hosts.
The towns of Portuguese Alentejo have a perfectionist temptation. The white wrapping the stone of their historic buildings has telluric effects on their inhabitants, who gravitate in accordance with the land that embraces them.
Near the lavender fields is the town of Marvão. Clinging to the crags of a rugged mountain, walled on all sides and with the grandeur inherited from its founder, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad Ibn Marwan Ibn Yunus al-Yilligi al-Marid, a Muslim leader known as Ibn Marwan al-Yilliqui, the son of the Galician, who defied the Caliphate of Córdoba in the 10th century and fortified himself in the highlands of Alentejo.
From the tallest point of Marvão's castle, one can see a horizon polished with sensitivity and a possibly unconscious urbanism that facilitates self-conformity. I hesitated a lot before writing these words. I struggled between the selfishness of keeping the discovery of Quintas das Lavandas a secret and the ethical and aesthetic demand for its disclosure.
I have made a pact with Isabel and Nuria, two intelligent and calm true friends, to establish this magical place as the epicenter of meditations, confessions, and a factory of dreams, which, from the publication of this article, will cease to be a secret.
Portugal, and especially Alentejo, has the conditions for personal reconnection. It suggests that time is no longer a dynamic factor because the past and the future mix to simulate immortality. That is why, at sunset, we think we have time to build several lives without them being either simultaneous or successive.
Esteban, wearing a forever wide-brimmed straw hat, which didn't even fulfill its traditional role of preventing the deep tan of his sun-kissed, lavender-scented face, brought us a bottle of aromatic water and challenged us to see skin hydration free from the grease of creams.
Then, only then, did we claim the right to acknowledge that we have just the time for the important things in life. And perhaps to find a corner that simply allows us to be ourselves. The next meeting in spring, to patiently and disinterestedly observe the blooming of the lavender harvest.