Blooms

In the last post I included a photo of Mimosa trees in bloom and Kathie wrote to say how much she had liked seeing something in bloom, or words to that effect. And she added, "is anything else blooming there?" I sent a couple of flower images and she said it gave her hope.

So, I thought, a lot is blooming here right now and to see some of it might give hope to those waiting for a glimpse of spring in the Great White North.


After the rain stopped this afternoon I went out in our neighbourhood with my camera to see what blooms I might find and document and be used as harbingers of spring in Canada - excluding BC of course, where spring no doubt has already arrived.
Most of you will know these flowering plants better than I but I will have a go at identifying them and if I am incorrect, hopefully someone will correct me.

The flower in the top left is a hibiscus and these are easy to find as they are in many front yards. The upper right is, Ruth and I think, euphorbia or crown of thorns. I am not sure about the white flowers above but they could be the flower of a fruit tree. Anyone know what they are?
The plant in the yard above and left is a poinsettia and, like the hibiscus, these are also ubiquitous.

The blooms, in the photo to the right, look to us like a type of lily but I have to say that I have never seen a lily like this. I couldn't get close to them but from the sidewalk where I stood behind a substantial fence they looked quite beautiful but not clearly identifiable. Click on the photo (any photo) to have a better look and let me know if they look like lilies to you, or not.

Here again I am looking from the sidewalk and the flowers are on the other side of a fence so I can't get close enough to have a good look, so can't really say. From my vantage point I originally thought they look a bit like carnations. My only experience with carnations is in jacket button holes and based on even that limited perspective my conclusion now is that these are not carnations. I'd say geraniums.

This beautiful purple iris stood alone in the foliage just over the fence, but there were several other buds not too far from opening. And on either side of the iris there were lots of red snapdragons.

Below, everyone will recognize, is a cluster of bougainvillea, another flowering plant that is quite prevalent here - there is a similar, though less abundant one next door to this one and there is another very large one less than a block from here.
Below the iris is a yard with bunches of flowers virtually everywhere - next to the house and in beds beside the walk ways driveway and fences.


From my location on the other side of the fence I cannot even guess what these flowering plants might be. If you are a flower person and you enlarge the image, maybe you can identify them.






The recent rain has left lots of water droplets on this rose - I'm pretty sure it's a rose - it looks like a rose and there are appear to be thorns on the stem, so I am guessing rose. Any dissent?

Another one of those bunches of flowers, I think in the same yard as the image above. And, again, they are lovely but I have no idea what they are.

And poinsettias again, these just up the street from the apartment. This group is on a fairly large "shrub" that is filled with these blossoms - maybe shrub is not the correct descriptor - my guess is that it is about 8 feet high and about the same spread. Maybe tree is a better term. There is another one larger than this a couple of blocks away and that one I would say is even more like a tree. I had no idea poinsettia plants were that large.


These bright orange flowers are in a yard I pass regularly on my short-cut route to the supermarket. I snapped a quick and unfocussed photo of these one day last week when they were in the sun. Even with the poor focus, anyone know what they are? I have no idea. I went by today and they are looking very tired and much less colourful.


This blossom is a bit of a puzzle. I am sorry that it is not better focussed. All of these photos were taken with my small camera and getting a sharp focus was difficult - and it was breezy which added to the difficulty. I have no idea but Ruth thinks it's a double hibiscus. Any thoughts? Again, click on the photo to enlarge it.

So, there is a hope of spring from the Algarve, Portugal to the Great White North and upstate New York!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Happy 11th birthday Ryan! Hope you have a great day!

For us 3 days, counting today, before our 6 am pick up to drive off into the sunrise to the Faro airport. So we are definitely thinking about getting organized for that event. But first, we have at least one last gift to get so, as it's a lovely day, we are off to old town sometime today for the last time. (In truth, this trip was yesterday.)

Speaking of old town, it has occurred to me that I have yet to share more than a couple of local images, so now's the time to have a peek at some that have become so familiar to us that we barely notice them, in some cases, for good reason.

This is a long post but I think worth reading in order to follow the images and, as the reading will not be arduous, it will go quickly.

In the photo above are two bars we pass every day on our way to the apartment. There used to be a Canadian flag displayed in the far one but the flags are no longer there, a change I think made by new owners. We have had lunch and enjoyed a sangria occasionally at the pastelaria/coffee shop with the red tables and neat cobblestone floor, which is just past the bars.

The image left is a copse of Mimosa trees, now in full bloom, which we pass on our short-cut to the Modelo, the supermarket.

When we go to old town from our end of town the bar in the photo on the right is one of the most prominent. As you will see in some of the following sign photos, in spite of the paucity of American tourists here, there seems to be a penchant for using names derived from the USA - here Louisiana

and this one, in case you can't make it out, says Vegas Bar, and down the street a nod to Ireland with the Shamrock Bar.

A bit further down the same street is the Hotel California and the sign below in front of a neighbouring bar offers several drinks with names like Long Island Ice Tea and something about San Francisco. I don't know anything about drink names, so these may be in common use - if so, their use here may not be as surprising as it seems to me.

Once we get past that area of bars, of which there are many, we get to the town square, or Praça, with lots of restaurants and their pitchmen who smilingly attempt to  entice you to eat or drink at their establishment.

Several streets exit the square usually to shopping areas with a variety of shops, some quite pricey and many which seem to have the same supplier of stuff with minor variations, most of which one would be wise to leave on the rack.

 This one is a good example of that.

This shop, to the right, is a bit more interesting - goods from the Andes where you can find some very nice clothes, bags, etc., and Ruth bought some things here today. They also entertain in the square with pan-flutes, ancient folk instruments, creating rather haunting versions of North American oldies. How these folks found their way here I don't know.


This street at the left is one I showed in an earlier post in a photo taken early in the morning with nothing in the street and no one around. This is also quite early  but activity has begun - you can see the woman sweeping the street in front of her gelado shop. Continuing down this street we are on our way to the escalators, which I have shown in a previous blog post, on our way toward home.

The escalator takes us up to the higher level "overlook" area where the next three photos were taken. In this photo I think you can appreciate that the folks in the distance on the right are on the overlook level and to the left of the foliage the buildings are at a much lower level. Since there should be a bit of mystery, I will leave it to you to sort out the centre part of this image, suffice it to say that this one

and this one were taken from pretty much the same place.

Moving along on the overlook level I passed this couple relaxing in the sun, appearing to be paying attention to the gull standing directly in front of them.






Here, a bit past the couple watching the gull, is the route home along the overlook level which gradually descends to a low spot then a steep climb to get to the area of our apartment. If you click on this photo to see a larger image (which you will want to do for all of the images), in the distance, I think you can see the breakwater that is a part of so many of my beach photos - well, maybe you can't see it - but that breakwater is right in the area of our apartment so that's where we're headed.

When I reached the beginning of the steep hill, I decided that instead of climbing it I would take the beach route the rest of the way.

While on the beach on the remainder of the walk "home" I looked back toward old town to find this dark cloud coming my way, so best not to dally.

Moving right along I passed these buildings which may be a part of our Apartment Hotel. The storm is moving pretty rapidly but I risked stopping to take this because I liked the dark clouds above the white buildings and the blue topped chimney pots.

Going the beach route to avoid the steep hill I mentioned above did not allow me to completely escape a hill. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, the hill from the beach to the apartment is also a steep climb but neither as long nor as steep as the one I avoided. I made it home ahead of the storm and on the way up that hill to the apartment building I stopped to take this photo of one of my favourite rows of chimney pots, then up the rest of the way and inside before the rain began.

"Home", sweet home!

The End.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Drew and Julia have been gone a week and we returned  5 days ago from our time in Setúbal and tenancy in the Pousada de São Fiiipe. It's quiet here without Drew and without Julia's wonderfully lively spirit and engaging perpetual motion, so we are, well, resting. We were extremely lucky with the weather while they were here including the day trips to Lisbon (Drew and me) and the western Algarve on which we all went together.
Unforgetable images of Drew and Julia on the beach. Drew actually fully immersed himself twice into the water. Julia was reluctant to get her feet into the water (below she is giving it careful consideration) - in the end she overcame her reluctance.

But, it's back to the daily routines and, as we are in our last week, we are thinking a bit about a few things to do before we go and paying attention to organizing our larder so as to not have too much food to deal with in the count down to departure.

And, of course, included in the "daily routines" are my visits to the beach and my compulsion to make photos of sunsets etc., and put them here, even if they contain blemishes, like this one. 

Hip and foot discomfort have continued to plague Ruth off and on, so this rest period is a good thing. Fortunately, she has found a couple of good sources of books very nearby - one is kind of a loaner arrangement for free and the other is a buy back one - bring it back and he buys it back for less than you paid for it. So, in addition to her kindle books she has a reasonable supply of actual books. And, she has done a bit of drawing and painting, which is great.

We have continued our good fortune with the weather - 3 or 4 days in a row with cloudless skies and temperatures 19 or 20 degrees C or higher! And for the full 5 weeks we have had little if any rain. Good for us, maybe not so good for growing things.

Yesterday, a beautiful warm cloudless day, we went in to old town, Ruth on the bus and me along the beach, mailed some things, bought a few things, you know - "all I got was this T-shirt" - things. Then we had lunch at Sir Harry's pub before coming home.

When I walked the beach it looked like this - the beach manicurists have been beautifying it by getting rid of all those bumpy footprints and troublesome shells that keep washing up on the shore.

Though I am back to my pattern of doing beach photos, I am trying to include a tiny bit of variety. For example, the next two images are "moonsets" in contrast to my all too common sunsets. Not as colourful but beautiful in their own way and kind of serene.

And this view I have not captured before at sunset - if you click on this image, as usual, you will see a larger image and I hope you can then see the reddish cliffs (this is not all caused by the sunset glow - the soil is really quite red), the hills or mountains in the background and the white buildings of the capital city of the Algarve, Faro.

Here is his equipment - can the fisherman be far away?

Ah!  There he is in the fullness of this sunrise.

Thanks to encouragement by Michael, I am once again trying some long exposure photography - still getting the hang of it so nothing to show yet but maybe something different in the next blog post. The fellow who wrote the e paper I am reading about long exposure photography says that when he goes out to capture some long exposure images he anticipates making 500 or more in a couple of hours! - keeping possibly 10 and showing 1. There will be a lot fewer than 500 before one finds its way onto this blog.

What's this? A few minutes ago my fisherman friend was up on the cliff (above) and here he is again - I am beginning to think that he is following me to get into the photo, and, if you look closely, you can see that he has brought his dog into the photo as well.

Last bit on São Filipe Fortress/Castle

Even here it seems I must make photos of the sunrise - this image is supposed to be a complete silhouette but the blog software lightens the photo a bit - not what I wanted but still okay.
A brief word about the Fortress/Castle thing. The terms tend to be used without a clear distinction. This place seems to be referred to here as the "Castle", but it clearly was a fortress, a military structure designed to defend the harbour. One definition of a "castle" is "a large building occupied by a ruler and fortified against attack". Though this structure was built on the direction of the king and he was apparently present when building began, I have seen nothing to suggest that he actually took up residency here. So, I would think fortress rather than castle.

Remember our arrival trip up the long tunnel with the light at the end? This is an image on the way down with a beautiful tile pattern around the arch and the light shining from the entrance doorway into what one might refer to as the "foyer". Somehow I doubt that the tiles around the arch were part of the original fortress but maybe they were.

Now we go back up again and at the upper end of the tunnel that opens near the  terrace, remember?

At the left is the entry to the chapel mentioned in the brief history of the fortress provided in the first post about the São Filipe Fortress/Castle. The chapel is decorated on every inch of space - except the altar - with painted tiles, some of which apparently depict the life of St. Phillip.

In an earlier post I mentioned that, while much of the original structure had been polished up to make it safe and tidy, some areas were left in a fairly weathered and worn condition, somewhat closer to what they had been like after 400 plus years. This stairway to the level above the terrace has the appearance of age that has not seen much renovation. Both the wall and steps are pretty rough and the rise and run of the steps varies substantially so you have to pay close attention when negotiating this avenue up to the top.

And once at the upper level you can slip into one of the corner turrets and from inside this one, through the small entry way, you can catch a glimpse of the inn and terrace area with the unique umbrellas which you will see more of in this post than you likely want!

These umbrellas, which you have seen in earlier posts, are great for shading the lunch area on the terrace, appreciated anytime but no doubt especially in the heat of the summer. But, in addition to providing shade, they have an aesthetic, interesting and appealing arrangement of shapes and curved outlines including the light patterns on the stone where the sun slips through (which you can see in the photo above)

and they are also interesting, at least to me, from above, as in this view from our room window

or this one with the tug boat far down on the water of the Sado river harbour and the tiny boat in the distance - also taken from our room window. This photo was made with a zoom lens so, because zooms compress distances, the tug boat appears much closer than it actually is.

And the last one, I promise, with the early morning sun creating an interesting outline of the umbrellas and a soft glow of light on the harbour through the "window" between the umbrellas and the terrace wall.

You've seen a view a bit like this one - looking southward toward the ocean and the town of Troia, but the flowers in the foreground in this view are, for me, a nice touch of colour and softness - a contrast to the grey stone of the fortress wall. You can also see a bit of the second wall, mentioned in an earlier post, at the base of the outer wall of the fortress. And, in the upper right, you may catch sight of the frequently displayed umbrellas.

And there is the door to our room to which we say good bye and good bye to Pousada de São Filipe, once a Fortress, perhaps in recent times, a Castle.
By the way, São in front of a name means Saint - so, in this case in English, Saint Philip.