Another Wind of Change

I've been back a week....longer maybe. Lost track of the days.... I've been swirled  up in the bitter cold winds blowing in from the north....thermals laden with snow. Keeping me curled in on my fragile winter self.....and another recent body blow loss. 

My three week sojourn with my dear sisters  in the blue and golden landscape of  southern Portugal feels like a happy dream from another lifetime.

 The  swimming pool on the top terrace of the hotel....not as warm as it looks.....it has to be mega hot to get me in the water.

 I loved the view from our apartment balcony......constantly changing

 over the two landmark rocks, day and night.

Breakfast ...custard apples, fragrant guavas and Rocha pears....

and always visitors....

this one attracted by the ginger biscuit crumbs we threw for him.

 And always cats - they watched us from below...

even tried climbing up the buttress walls 

but never getting quite far enough 

 to reach our apartment .

 Watching people and their dogs walking long the beach was one of my favourite things to do...

When we wanted a break from eating lunch - usually cheese omelettes  -  in one of the restaurants, we cooked at home.....

simple, fresh and easy.

And in the afternoons we drank green matte tea and indulged in traditional sweet cakes - gifts from our Portuguese friends who live nearby and who always treat us to a wonderful day out every year.

And of course I could never resist the famous  custard tarts - pastel de nata - the ones in the hotel cafe baked warm and fresh to order.

Our beach combing treasure on the day after the storm....

when our view from the balcony looked like this...

 but nearly every day  the sea looked like this...

and sometimes like this...

or this..... washing away the remains of someone's sandcastle.

I loved watching the gulls and trying to capture them in flight....

but I need a better camera for that.....or I need to learn how to use the manual facility on my camera to get closer....

We had about an hour more sunshine than in the UK..

and had to come in off the balcony  - this is from the top terrace of the hotel one evening - by

5pm when it started to get chilly.

Yesterday 

I walked out in the blustery wind to take some garden greenery to Robin's grave.... blue flowering rosemary for remembrance ....and I had to brush away all the dead oak and chestnut leaves which have been collecting round the mound of Budleigh pebbles that I'm making at the base of his cross.

The last time I was here was on 24th October.

Tonight

I made a batch of Christmas dates...stuffed with almond butter..... and a knobbly walnut.....dipped in melted dark chocolate.....sprinkled with pistachio nuts.

It soothes me to be focused and practical while I'm trying to withstand the howling gale that is blowing through my days now...trying to find a foothold in the sudden space left behind by two dear friends who have sold up and gone to live in Lisbon....to start a new life. I'm still in their old life....mine  changed forever ....but you can't be in someone's life when they aren't there.

Another sharp wind of change stinging my face.