Bountiful Blessings!

Well....it has been forever since I have been able to focus on preparing another blog entry! Following our return home, from Portugal, we have, literally, been ON THE RUN!!!! This is our first 'non-committed' weekend at home and although it is a rainy weekend, it is feeling fabulous! As I write this....Orion is colouring superhero pictures, Lawrence is prepping hamburger patties, the fireplace is cozily crackling and I am sitting in my favorite rocking chair, absorbing it's comforting warmth and creating this page.......

Since getting home, we have: sadly said goodbye to our brother-in-law, Larry, who passed away shortly after our return; travelled to two family weddings (on separate weekends); attended Michelle's convocation in Manitoba; spent time with Laura & Matt as they prepared to move to Ontario; planted flowers to celebrate summer; took part in our favourite annual RJC golf tournament; drove out to BC; hosted a large lake party and dealt with changing tenants for our Rosthern house!! Within all of this, we have worked....me, full time....Lawrence part time!! Needless to say, it has been a full and very, very busy 9 weeks!!

2 weekends ago....just prior to Canada Day.....we drove out to BC (60 hour return trip) to pick our precious Orion up, so that he could spend his summer vacation with us, here at Greenwater! Since his arrival, we have been boating, swimming, beaching, practising his reading/2 wheel bike riding, hosting a 'Celebrating Success' convocation party for Michelle and taking Orion into town every day, last week, for swimming lessons (by the way....he passed his Level 2!!!! Hooray!!....We are all so proud!).

In the evenings, while we enjoyed walks to Uncle Loyd and Aunty Cheryl's cabin and to the park, we have been finding and picking WILD STRAWBERRIES!!!

Yes!!!! These incredibly sweet & delicious morsels are quite abundant this year and after two nights of just picking, eating, and grinning....Orion asked if we could pick enough to make muffins! What a great idea!! So....on Thursday and Friday evening, while we walked, talked and picked, we decided NOT to eat our pickings and we gathered enough to make a small batch of amazing wild strawberry muffins!!

 

As we woke this morning to cloudy, cool weather, we KNEW we had been blessed with perfect baking weather!! Today was 'the' day and boy, did we have fun making a delicious bakers dozen of fresh WILD STRAWBERRY MUFFINS!!! Our house smelled and felt wonderful as the muffins baked, we played board games and the rain gently made music on our tin roof!!

 

How blessed we are! (Wanna come over for muffins and coffee? We still have some Poodle Noodle soup we would love to share with you, too!! :)

 

Welcome Back!!

P.S. After the rain.....We got MORE!! Yippee!!

 

 

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Adeus Tavira...Amos adoro!..(Goodbye Tavira...We Love It Here!)

The last two days have been spent winding down and revisiting all of our special places, saying good bye to the people who have been part of the fabric of our daily lives, walking, walking, walking, biking and intentionally trying to savour and imprint all of the beauty and magic of Tavira into our minds hearts and souls. We have loved it here so much and as I write this last blog FROM our wonderful studio 39 in Tavira, I am choking back tears that have come frequently the last couple of days, every time I think about leaving!

We have had a perfect holiday...an amazing experience in a new country with all of its traditions, culture, history, charm, warmth, beauty and imperfections which has made it such an authentic, fulfilling experience! As our friend, Rick Hamel, has said, we have been "living the life"!!

It is so hard to leave because, although we know we WILL come back to Tavira, realistically speaking, it will not be for a long time. So....the sadness is real and, as we have both said, neither of us has EVER felt this strongly about a place we have been to, on a vacation. We truly would love to live here for a period of time and....maybe we will, someday. But, for now.....it is so long, Beautiful Tavira....until we return......

Here are some random pictures of our nighttime walks and activities during our last couple of days......

Tavira has incredible salt pans, where they produce "white gold", which is a famously fine, gourmet salt, using centuries old techniques, that remain very traditional and sustainable. These techniques involve daily, manual raking of the top layers of fine salt that is produced from the salty waters of the Atlantic Ocean, through a natural evaporation process. It is a fascinating industry/ process and one that this town/area is very proud of.

Lawrence LOVED his swim in the very clean and calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, yesterday afternoon!

Here is the point where the Rio Gilao, which runs through Tavira, meets the mighty Atlantic!

Ilha de Tavira is sooooo beautiful....unbelievable! Many, many kilometres of fine sandy beaches and so many spots for privacy/seclusion within a paradise of ocean beauty!!

We enjoyed a delicious supper last night at a restaurant called Aqua Sul ...in this picture you see a lentil, avacodo salad and Sea bream fillets, cooked in paper. It was so delicious, along with the baked apple tart & ice cream, below....

 

Tavira, at night, is sooooooo beautiful, peaceful and SAFE, people stroll the streets late into the night. It is just sooooo special!

A street view, from our balcony during the day, when a group of school kids were out on a field trip.....such a auditory explosion into our studio as they trekked by, under our open balcony doors! Our street in Centro Tavira is vibrant and colourful in sight and sound.....we NEVER had the tv or radio on.....we just woke to and were entertained by the sounds of people having coffee and conversation right outside our windows! :)

That same street view at night...... Serene....beautiful!

Tonight, for our last night in Tavira, we went out, for supper to one of our favorite restaurants along the river....the Tavira Lounge.....classy, yet family friendly.....great service and....great food! We really enjoyed our curried chicken and Portugues salad, wine, and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert!

It has been so very nice being here and once again, just in case I haven't said it enough......

Tomorrow, we are going to Lisboa for a sleep over at The House ( the initial guest house we stayed at on our way here)....we are looking forward to our afternoon and evening there and then, we will arrive in Saskatoon on Friday night!

How blessed we have been to have experienced our beautiful Tavira! We seriously hope that many of you, who have been following our holiday, on this blog, will gift yourselves with a trip to this beautiful part of Portugal!!

 

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The Pleasure of 'Nothingness'....

We are in seriously slow mode, since our return from Spain!! Today, after a great breakfast in our apartment, we walked about 4 km, then decided to rent bikes, again, for our last 3 days! (We got helmets and are wearing them!). We have a few places we want to revisit, before we leave, that require bikes to get to.....

It was a very sunny, hot day, so after we had been out and about walking, biking, and to the market.....we came back home, for a light lunch and then, feeling exhausted, I napped, while Lawrence enjoyed reading the British newspaper. We have been soooooo far removed from the happenings, in the world....he seemed to enjoy, getting caught up!

When I woke up, we were on our way to bike ride in the country when we decided to stop at a favorite cafe/lounge spot, along the river, and we ordered a delicious and refreshing jug of sangria! While we were there, Lawrence began to feel increasingly ill and we NEEDED to go home! (And.....no it had nothing to do with the sangria....he had about 2 sips!). We did not even finish what we had ordered......we just left very quickly! When we got back, here, he rested and after awhile, he felt good to go again. We decided to just keep things at our chosen, slow-speed for today .....we went out for a tasty, light upper, which he tolerated well.....we went for an evening walk in our beautiful neighbourhood and (other than this bizarre, short-lived bout of stomach sickness, we are enjoying the simple pleasure of 'nothingness', before we have to get geared up to head home!

 

 

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Mother's Day in Portugal

Today, unbeknownst to me, was Mother's Day in Portugal. It was not as widely advertised as it is in North America, so it really was not anywhere on my radar! Lawrence totally surprised me with a Mother's Day gift and I was so blown away by this surprise and his thoughtfulness, that I started to cry!! The gift......a beautiful pair of earrings that are designed with the Portuguese filigree....to represent how much my heart has been stolen by Portugal and especially, our beautiful Tavira!

We met our Scottish-Portugal-resident friends, Kenny and Christine, at our designated meeting spot and walked 2 km. to Santa Luzia to have lunch at one of their favourite restaurants. The reason they love it is because it is NOT fancy or touristy.....it is down home, Portugal cooking, no frills, bells or whistles and it is cheap! There is no menu.....when you come, you get told what choices you have and then that is what you get.....and lots of it! I ordered the home style, traditional beans with pork....Lawrence ordered grilled pork.....Christine had grilled chicken and Kenny ordered eggs and homemade fries. Our restaurant owner brought us the usual olive/bread tapas and then surprised us with a plate of polvos (octopus) and a dish of seasoned broad beans for extra tapas! Well!!!.....None of us were keen on the octopus.....people here LOVE it but, it grosses L & I out big time......Our friends don't love it either, but, we Felt it would be offensive to the host so we all ate some of it!!! :) :( It actually tasted alright but it looks disgusting and it seriously grosses us out! I had only one piece....Lawrence was VERY good and had about 4 pieces!! He is SUCH a good man!!!

The octopus, a tomatoe/cucumber salad, the broad beans.....we had already eaten a lot of these tapas before I remembered to take the picture!

Lawrence taking his first bite of Polvos!

 

(Dessert=Chocolate mouse-homemade....biscuit cake and a fruit salad)

It was a very tasty meal and with 2 pitchers of wine, all of the appetizers mentioned, the main courses and 4 desserts, the bill came to 10 euros each!

From there we walked to Barril Beach via Santa Luzia. It is on the same sandy Ilha de Tavira (Tavira island beach) that we had been to, in our first week here. (We went by ferry from Tavira to the island. We were told it connected to Santa Luzia's Barril beach, and although we had walked and walked the beach that day, we did not come to it.) Today, we walked the 4 km. from the Santa Luzia point to the Tavira point and then took a water taxi back to Tavira. The day was beautiful....warm, sunny, a light breeze....and the water was warm and refreshing on our feet. Nude sunbathers are common....always an interesting piece of life on these European beaches!!! In total,today, we walked 7+ kilometres (4 of which were on the beach)!

You can walk across a bridge-like thing to get across to the island vs. having to take the ferry from Tavira.

To the left, in this picture, are hundreds of rusty, old anchors in a big field. It is called ' The Anchor Graveyard'.

Once again......a beautiful beach! What a great way to spend Portuguese Mother's Day!

This evening, we have done laundry, enjoyed ice cream in the park, read our books and just relaxed! It has been a great day!

 

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Return to Tavira

Yesterday (May 5th), as we were preparing to check out of our Tarifa HOSTAL, we heard the chanting of a procession in the streets. The man who was working the reception desk could not speak English, but he excitedly tried to tell us what was going on and the word 'Fatima' was being used. We hurried out to see what was happening and here is what we saw.......

We joined the procession and appreciated the canter's chants and the participant's singing as it seemed to be a dedication to the Virgin Mary. This whole area, in Spain, is reputed to have had sightings of the Virgin Mary, in past, and they have pilgrimages to these sighting spots every year, where thousands and thousands of people come to participate and pray. This seemed like some type of preamble to something bigger......but we totally did not know what was going on! The old, ornate, giant cathedral, they took her into, was very interesting as well......

(This was just one column of the church interior....there were two other columned areas to the right) see the main part, below......

After the procession, we enjoyed a great breakfast, then hit the road, for Sevilla, where the plan was to have lunch and shop! The drive into Sevilla was very beautiful. The area of Spain, we were travelling in, is called Andalusia and the landscape between Tarifa and Sevilla is referred to as the Frontera.....it is hilly, almost mountainous, forested, interspersed with fields tucked in ,here and there, winding roads....very, very pretty!!

The highways, in Spain, are in SUCH great shape and they seem to take pride in having 4 lane highways connecting main cities, which means, the smaller cities/towns, in between benefit from good highway access. (The highways in Portugal are actually the same, in terms of excellent shape!)

Our arrival in Sevilla became stressful as we made one little wrong decision/turn and we got thrown into a 'maze of unknown'.....we knew where we wanted to go, we just could not find our way there! We drove around quite a lot and then.......thanks be to God......we found the city centro AND parking!! Hallelujah!!!!.....is all we could say!!

It was hot in Sevilla....about 27 degrees......there were lots of people about (there was going to be a big bull fight that night!) ..... It had a VERY vibrant energy! We immediately sat down for lunch and a drink, then hit the streets, on foot, because I was on a mission to find some NICE Spanish leather boots!!! Well....it was a sad realization that there were NO boots in any shoe store!!! It must not be the season for boots because the only footwear sported in the shops were high heals, sandals, flats and loafers!! What a huge disappointment for me!

When I combined: the stressful arrival + the heat/sun (which I am so sensitive to) + the fact I was not feeling well all morning + the mega stimulating street activity + inability to find boots or any UNIQUE clothing stores + the fact we had to make our way out of Sevilla ....it all ='ed....."Let's just go home"!!! (Meaning our peaceful Tavira!!)

We had a bit more challenge getting out of Dodge, because of one simple wrong turn again....but it was not as stressful figuring our way out of that one! Before long, we were out on the highway, heading to Portugal and it felt relieving to be on our way back!

Here are a few pictures of the vibrant, beautiful, grand Spanish city of Sevilla....

 

 

 

 

 

 

We felt soooooo great getting back to our beautiful, peace-filled Tavira....it truly felt like 'coming home'! We were warmly greeted by people we see/talk to every day, we know our way around, we love the slow paced energy and familiarity!

(Here are the old men who gather to place bocce ball on the boulevard by the grocery store, in Tavira)

 

We put stuff away.....took the car back.....got dressed and headed out for our final 'Saturday Date Night' in Taviral! We went to a clarinet/accordion concert at the old church (part of the classical music concert series)....which was WONDERFUL,!! Then......out for supper to our Brazillian friends restaurant (Junior & Georgia's), then out for a walk, where we ran into Kenny & Christine, who were having a drink at a street cafe/bar. We joined them and had a great catch-up visit! We made a plan to meet them later today for a walk to St Luzia and lunch at a favourite restaurant of theirs.

We are glad to be back in Tavira, enjoying a laid back...slow paced....exquisitely peaceful Sunday....our last one here in Portugal! Next Sunday at this very time....we will be reconnecting with our Greenwater Lake home and our cats who, we are sure, have missed us!

 

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