Hello from Portugal! The Jiffy Podcast is OOO. I had every plan to record and produce a podcast episode from abroad — a sort of travel journal from the Portuguese hills — but every time I pull out my microphone, I go into Full Production Mode, which is a type of Type A Personality that isn’t fun for anyone on vacation, especially Jess, and I see her eyes roll so dramatically that they almost travel back to New York.

And this being Jess Lima’s Vacation, I want to respect the rules of the road. So far, we’ve spent three days in Lisbon and two in Porto, our home bases the Locke de Santa Joana and the Porto River Soul.

Wandering the slim and cobbled streets of Alfama, one of Lisbon’s oldest neighborhoods, we found Casa da Tia Helena, a small traditional Portuguese restaurant that was packed and seemed well-regarded by the residents. This is where I learned of the bifana no pão, a sandwich of thinly sliced or pounded pork, usually marinated in garlic, white wine, paprika, and vinegar, and stuffed into a split Portuguese roll. If I lived here, I would eat it every day of my life.

I also met a winemaker and restaurateur in the Vinho Verde region named Paulo who told me he’s perfected (maybe invented) a process of winemaking that produces wine that doesn’t oxidize after you uncork it! He also throws potatoes into his wine to filter the sediments in his casks, “sheep’s potatoes,” which he told me could also be used on a windshield if your wipers ever break while out driving in a storm.

We’ve visited palaces and eaten too many pastéis de nata, ridden in a Tesla, a tuk-tuk, and a train, and dined under a T-Rex.

All this to say, my podcast is taking a break this weekend, but I will be back at it in a few weeks with a report from the Leaf Watch Desk in the Woods of the James Cave Instagram Feed.

Speaking of Leaf Watching, this season’s drought seems to have sped up the fall foliage timeline this year. Francis X. Driscoll, a professional leaf-spotter for New York’s annual I Love NY Fall Foliage forecast project, told me, “The leaves started changing exceptionally early in my estimate this year.”

AccuWeather reports: “The main culprit has been a stretch of dry weather dating back to August, which has stressed certain trees and caused them to slow the supply of food and water to the leaves. Additionally, a spell of cooler weather around the start of September sped up the colorful transition.”

So it’s time for you to download my first-ever Peak Leaf Watch Guide, full of tips on how and where to peep, and what to bring along for the journey. Francis gives us his pro leaf-spotting tips; I give you a map of all my favorite leaf-peeping places — it’s free for paying subscribers, and it’s also only $5 for everyone else!

The day before our trip to Portugal, I paid a visit to the inaugural Taconic Antiques Fair — a great showing of some of our region’s best antiques collectors and dealers. In case you missed it on the Instagram Feed, I met with a few of the sellers to hear about some of their more interesting items: