The Wandering Boys

We headed off early morning for the market at Santa Catharina da Fonte do Bispo.  A lovely winding drive through the mountains, I’m a lover of the backroads, with the hills alive from the abundance of wildflowers.  I think they might be at their peak.

 For whatever reason, the market wasn’t that heavily populated with vendors although many buyers or browsers were out and about. We enjoyed checking out all the stalls to see what might be interesting and walked away empty handed.  I took only one photo…

Once we left the market grounds we decided that we would take a little wander throughout the town.  For as many times as I have been here, or passed through, I had never actually walked about.  Turns out it is quite lovely with many hidden streets and staircases that go up the side of the hills.  We both quite enjoyed it.

I love the use of design and colour on the houses.

This tiny patio was chockablock full of plants and flowers.

An overgrown garden and an old outdoor arch.

This place was extraordinarily long and obviously abandoned. A perfect fixer upper.

I found this to look very tranquil and inviting.

The local church. Mass was just starting so we didn’t go inside. Afraid of lightning bolts!!!

Just look at this!!! Gorgeous, heavenly scent and colour.

Each rose was about the size of a large grapefruit!!

Marc enjoying the roses and debating about picking one. I think he might have been teasing me.

The other day we prepared a list of things we would like to do before we leave for home in a few weeks and one of them was to go to Santa Luzia for an octopus lunch.  Another was to drive up to Bemparece and have lunch at O Cantinho da Serra….the views are breathtaking from there and the food amazing.  Given Bemparece was close, up the mountain we headed………..we ohhhed and ahhhed all the way up.  Vistas, wildflowers, deep valleys etc..

There isn’t any point in taking a photo as you simply can’t appreciate it BUT….when I tell you there are millions of these plate sized blossoms dancing in the wind, I am not exaggerating. It’s a haze of white movement. Up close the cistus looks like this…….

and up even closer, it looks like this. Doesn’t it look hand painted?

French lavender is everywhere right now. You can taste it on the breeze.

And fields and fields of gladioli

We arrived at the restaurant but it was still way to early for lunch so, with a bit of conversation we decided to drive on to Santa Luzia and to return here later next week on a clearer day, as today was a bit hazy, to truly enjoy the views.

A happy man, about to devour a plate of polvo fricassee. He’s waited almost five months for this.

I so enjoy eating outside, especially here as we are literally right beside the sea. It’s across the street from the patio.

My roasted polvo with apricots, almonds and garlic.

Polvo Fricassee.

By the time we finished lunch, we were two very happy people.  We slowly wound our way back to the car, meandering along the main promenade.

A lovely tiled sign that caught our eye.

I love the tiled front of this lively little spot.

Speaking of lively, the crabs were scurrying about the beach.

Loved this shot.

This little seabird was difficult to capture on film as it was moving about at lightning speed poking for food. Patience paid off however

By now it was about 15h30 and we decided to drive home, park the car and walk over to the square to enjoy a bica with Ana and Simão, which we did.  It couldn’t have been a more pleasantly paced day and having explored a few new roads, seen new countryside.  We were content to call it a day and spend the rest of it relaxing at home.

When we opened our gate at home we found the neighbours dog, Barri, curled up in the sunshine on Gwen’s steps, something he did in the afternoons when she was here.  I think he might be missing her!!