Tag Archives: Madeira

Stormy break

Long time since I’ve posted. Time has run away and left me trying to keep up, though difficult to pin down exactly what has kept me so busy. But a holiday to escape the worst of the winter and a … Continue reading

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Summer gnashes its teeth

For the last couple of days summer has gnashed its teeth in Scotland, girning and moaning in windy torrents and lashings of rain. The atmosphere has been decidedly frosty too with a cold wind making low temperatures feel even lower. … Continue reading

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Flowers, succulents and croaks

As spring arrives in the garden in our part of Scotland in this pre-Easter week, and flowers and shrubs blaze out in sunny yellows, joyous pinks and creamy whites, I think back to our visit a few weeks ago to … Continue reading

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And then there were clowns

In the week before the carnival in Funchal the broad boulevard beside our apartment turned into a riotous mass of swirling shapes and colour. Madeira was in party mood. Bright awnings pierced with shapes were slung between trees. Beneath these, numerous stalls … Continue reading

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Carnival in Madeira

The colour, glitter and liveliness of this amazing parade. Continue reading

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Mmmm, that’s good!

The large mahogany table in the kitchen groaned with bowls and baskets of fruit, some, like tomatoes, staples of our diets at home though different varieties that seemed to have more flavour. We trawled market and supermarkets for salad ingredients … Continue reading

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It began as a card

It began as a card for my husband to mark a significant milestone, our special anniversary, but a card seemed insufficient to cover fifty years of marriage. So I wondered about a double card but wasn’t sure how I could make … Continue reading

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Exhilarating

The boat was a Turkish gulet, twenty-three metres in length, called Bonita da Madeira, made from rich coloured woods and stainless steel, with masts that soared towards the sky. At the stern, we lounged on blue plastic covered mattresses formed … Continue reading

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Let there be light

Winter holidays to warmer climates appeal. They shorten the winter at home, a winter that in the worst years can stretch from November to April, though those are the exceptions. Nor, because of the Gulf Stream, do we normally get … Continue reading

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Never say never

In Madeira, as in Scotland, you are never far from the sea, though there the similarity fragments like the spray of a wave. Madeira can boast a fairly benign climate year round, although it does have its off days. But … Continue reading

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