Friday 24th December 2021Blog from the Edge - 19

Happy Christmas to all of our friends and family from myself and Alison - and a little news in her blog!



Merry Christmas from Madeira!

Paul and myself would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We are planning Christmas dinner right now. I think it will be prawn cocktail, followed by pork Wellington - turkey and sprouts nowhere in sight🤣.

The last year has been a challenge for a lot of us but one thing stands out - health is the key.

Where we are in the world at the moment is probably a lot safer than most places, for which we feel grateful and lucky.  We have had problems over the last six months but in the end they have all been overcome. Jose’s only English phrase resonates : ‘No problem, Mr Paul!’.

We are thinking of all our loved ones, friends and family over the seas, and we miss you all.  We look forward to 2022 for a lot more catch ups and visits back and forth as hopefully world travel gets back to ‘the norm’

Friday 24th December 2021Blog from the Edge - 19

Happy Christmas to all of our friends and family from myself and Alison - and a little news in her blog!



Merry Christmas from Madeira!

Paul and myself would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We are planning Christmas dinner right now. I think it will be prawn cocktail, followed by pork Wellington - turkey and sprouts nowhere in sight🤣.

The last year has been a challenge for a lot of us but one thing stands out - health is the key.

Where we are in the world at the moment is probably a lot safer than most places, for which we feel grateful and lucky.  We have had problems over the last six months but in the end they have all been overcome. Jose’s only English phrase resonates : ‘No problem, Mr Paul!’.

We are thinking of all our loved ones, friends and family over the seas, and we miss you all.  We look forward to 2022 for a lot more catch ups and visits back and forth as hopefully world travel gets back to ‘the norm’

Sunday 24th October 2021Blog from the Edge, 16

Pool and Passionflowers

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted and things are progressing fast - not so much on the house and electrics side, more outdoors. Paul’s ‘market garden’ is  coming along nicely!  We also decided to take the plunge 🤣 and go ahead with a swimming pool. This solves the problem of what to do with the big space - we can now plan and plant around it.  Umberto (son of Paulo our neighbour) and Jose are doing it - they actually dug it out by hand because of lack of access for a digger. The beer fridge has certainly come in handy!

This weekend saw the first festival in two years down in Ribeira Brava - the Passionflower Festival. Bar Rio had a pop up bar, we had to try the passion fruit Poncha 😜, and they were baking garlic bread.  Madeira’s answer to the Von Trapps, Il Divo and Adele provided the live music and a merry night was had!

This coming weekend sees a visit from my daughter with two girlfriends and, of course, my grandchildren Ellie and Libby arriving for three nights. I think a chill out time with cocktails around my sister’s pool is on the cards!

Tuesday 12th October 2021Blog from the Edge - 15

Poncha, Potatoes and Pool - Life in Madeira

This last lovely week was spent seeing Madeira anew with family again.  Suffice to say, my niece Emily has left already planning her next visit with her friends, and mapping out Levada walks and hikes!

We had one gentle meandering day walking the streets of Funchal, and then Emily (plus her parents and Paul and I) took the obligatory cable car up to Monte and raced down via the toboggan. On another day, we went out on a little boat, aiming to land on the secluded beach of Calhau da Lapa (the only access). Sadly, the sea was too choppy (I had already slipped getting on and bruised my thigh 😳) but we enjoyed sailing along the coast and had a swimming stop later for those who dared! 

A very memorable day was a trip out with Paulo, who took us around the north and east of the island, visiting Cabo Girao glass viewpoint (the highest in Europe) then down to pretty Camara de Lobos (famous for the Churchill connection).  Next, we travelled high through Curral das Freitas - or Nuns’ Valley: nuns took refuge there during the French privateer attacks from 1492-7.  From there we went on to the highest point on the island - Mount Pico at 2351m. The weather was perfect so we got stunning photos! We dropped down a little to Santana and had a lovely meal: we girls had the local Scabbard fish (found only in Madeira) with banana - delicious 😋! We all continued on around Sao Vicente, Ponta Delgado and finished at a local Poncha bar at the top end of Ribeira Brava - a long but unforgettable day!

Gilbert, our taxi driver, picked us up one night from Ribeira Brava then stopped at his home in Tabua on the way home and persuaded Paul to go in with him. They arrived back in the taxi with two huge bags of potatoes - they’d just dug them up from Gilbert’s potato patch in a cave in the dark! Gilbert then took us higher up to a little isolated Poncha bar, probably just frequented by locals - it had a real feeling of the ‘Wild West’ to it🤣. 

My sister’s pool was a big draw for us all - the weather was glorious all week. At this time of year it starts to get a bit mixed and cooler.  We had a fantastic last evening meal at Muralha’s in Ribeira Brava, accompanied by a stunning sunset.

Our next visitors could well be my daughter and family again for school half term week (at the end of this month) but flights have rocketed in price. It’s so unfair that airlines do this! If they do arrive, I’ll be blogging about it! Thank you for the lovely feedback for my earlier blogs.

Friday 08th October 2021Blog from the Edge, 14

Flags and Flowers 

The prayers flags are flying over our house in Madeira and we enjoyed fabulous flowers as we carried on exploring Funchal this week.

With the arrival of my sister Judith and brother-in-law Neil at the beginning of the week, and also of our combined small extra shipment of belongings, many days have been spent arranging, hanging and sorting furniture and paintings at their house and catching up with jobs at our own place. There was also the problem of having no hot water at their house (sounds familiar) - Nono to the rescue again!  After a visit to Tabua garden centre with Judith and Neil, a delivery of plants arrived for them which we duly potted up.  I resisted the temptation to buy more for us!

We went to Funchal on Tuesday. The actual flower festival parade was on the Sunday, but Funchal was still full of flowers - and the flower girls! It was actually a Bank Holiday on the Tuesday, so it was very quiet through the day - the perfect time to meander and explore the intriguing streets and back streets without the crowds!  The atmosphere picked up at night, when we enjoyed cocktails and a lovely meal.

Judith and Neil’s daughter has arrived for a week so we are planning more trips out, which you can read about in my next blog! 🤗

Tuesday 28th September 2021Blog from the Edge - 13

Bread and Yoga!

Another week and another set of visitors leave smitten with Madeira and looking for a place to buy for themselves!  Our friends want an old house rather than a new build (which are sprouting up all over in the most precarious spots clinging to hillsides).  Although there are plenty of derelict little houses dotted around, hidden among swaying banana plantations, it is very difficult to trace ownership of them.  A lot of families emigrated - Venezuela was popular - because of the lack of jobs on Madeira before the tourist boom hit.  When we were looking around with our visitors, it made us so aware of how lucky we are with our house in Ribeira Brava.

Our visitors gave us lessons in bread making and yoga (the yoga outside on the bedroom terrace), both of which I hope to keep going.  Paul was given advice on installing a water feature for his ‘cave project’ - all exciting stuff!

We were invited to Bar Rio on Friday for Paula’s birthday (her and her husband own it) and we were among a merry throng of family and friends and customers.

My sister and brother-in-law arrived last night 🤗 -  we ended up eating and drinking rather late and going to bed rather early 😳!  A date at their pool today was arranged - such a hardship!

As we approach October the weather is still beautiful - still hot through the day but cooler at nights. There’s not a cloud in the sky these mornings, but there is a mistiness on the horizon, which gives an autumnal feel.

Monday 20th September 2021Blog from the Edge, 12

Three Ps: Pondering, Potting and Produce

I made a batch of mango chutney this week for the first time ever, with fruit picked from my sister’s trees. We have now purchased two trees for ourselves and will get them in the ground this week.  It led me to thinking that this is something that I wouldn’t have contemplated doing in the UK - plus the fact that mango chutney is difficult to come by in our local supermarket here.

In fact, grocery shopping is totally different here in Madeira: if I see something that may come in useful, I grab it and stick it in the freezer or larder. For example, in the three months that we’ve been here, I’ve found sausages just twice!  Our diet is quite simple, as fresh food is what is available on the island - free range chickens and eggs, fish from the sea, potatoes and vegetables and fruit from the local farmers. I flavour them all with tons of garlic and fresh oregano!

Another example of making do with what’s available is that we’ve been trying to source an extra wide worktop for my sister’s laundry area. There are none in stock in the shops, it would take 2 months for one to arrive, so we are having to go down the custom-made route with the materials and labour that are available to us.

I’ve started potting some plants up for the house this week, but still need more 🤣. Our hibiscus pots are out in bloom - beautiful colours. It will be interesting to see how long they flower, alongside the geraniums and petunias. The rose bushes are a continual show of vivid red - with poinsettia bushes just behind them. 

Our guests have just arrived. The weather is not so hot at the moment, so it’s a good day to have a long walk around Tabua down to the sea front.

Monday 13th September 2021Blog from the Edge - 11

Funchal, Fiesta and a Rainbow

We’ve had a quietish week this week. I decided it would be a shame for number 11 to be blank, so I went ahead with my blog.

We took another trip into the big city of Funchal via the Rapido bus, there and back this time - a much quicker journey, but not as scenic (as there are so many tunnels). The price is the same. The trip primarily was for bureaucratic matters, but we took time out to bimble around the side streets and sea front and saw the first cruise ship for a while in the harbour. We found an art supplies shop for Paul 👍 - and then visited the big garden centre again. More plants were ordered - mainly bougainvillea for our perimeter wall.

The weather was cloudier this week with some rain, mainly through the night. It was actually a bit of a relief from the intense sun.  Because of the rain, weeds pop up before your eyes, so consequently Paul has been clearing the garden again and keeping on top of the orchard whilst I’ve been hanging huge curtains at my sister’s house.

We took a trip to Madeira’s equivalent of our B&Q to source items for my sister’s place - Nono (our electrician guy) kindly offered to take us. On the way back, we stopped for a beer at a little village and its very busy quinta (old, traditional house in Madeira) - they were just starting a fiesta. The priest was making his speech in the local church and outside people were gathering.

There was a lovely rainbow tonight - everything was green and sparkly and fresh!

Monday 06th September 2021Blog from the Edge - 10

Friends in the City

This week was highlighted by a lovely visit from friends who were staying in their favourite hotel in Funchal (Porto Santa Maria situated on the sea front, next to the old fort). 

We decided to return the visit before their week was up and rather than taking the 20 minute taxi ride to them, we decided we would take the local bus.  This was a Sunday and the ‘Rapido’ service doesn’t run on this day, so a full 1.5 hrs later, we arrived!

It was a lovely ride - twisting and turning up and down through numerous little villages along the way to Funchal, with fantastic views - for the princely sum of 3.35 euros each. We dodged heavy showers all day - a good excuse to shelter under cafe/bar umbrellas 🤣 - but even in the rain it was still warm and beautiful.  After a memorable chateaubriand for the men and fish for the girls it was getting a bit late (and dark), so we decided that a taxi back was the sensible option!   

Other days this week saw us putting in a few sweaty hours clearing my sister and brother-in-law’s garden in preparation of their impending visit to their holiday villa at the end of the month. A cooling dip in their pool was our reward after!  Their two mango trees were laden and so had to be picked - mango chutney on the hob this week, I think!  Also a walk up the hillside above our house revealed a mixture of impressive new villas mixed in with a smattering of the old.  Possible inspiration for future paintings for Paul perhaps?

Monday 30th August 2021Blog from the Edge, 9

Painting and Produce

Well, a bit of a quiet week here, folks, and a slight anticlimax after our first family visit to Madeira last week.

The weather is so hot still in Ribeira Brava, with a temperature ‘feel factor’ of 29-30C. We had about 30 minutes of light rain one night this week - just the 2nd shower since we arrived!

Our pots of geraniums are blooming. Here’s a tip I read about: soak banana skins in your watering can!  We picked Paul’s peppers today 😊. I can’t believe the rate everything grows here! I have all of the produce - basil pesto/mint sauce/fig jam and tomato sauce - bubbling away on the hob!

The big news this week is that Paul has started a painting - a window image from a derelict house in a little village close to Porto Moniz which we visited last Sunday.  This means that the cave project has been put on hold for a little while!

To finish this week off, we had an invite to our neighbours’ place for a traditional meat and pasta family meal - a lovely night was had.