Where has this author been? What has she seen?

On my way to Madeira, Portugal. My suitcase was packed pretty tight, how would I shop?

Ready for the adventure

Ready for the adventure

After a very long flight the plane landed in Funchal, Madera.
I was in a place that was settled in 1424. Yes, it is a tourist town and I was a tourist.

Research

Research

In my novel in progress, Designed for Love, Tiffany is a wall artist.

Yes, I tasted the Portuguese wines as well as Madeiran flavoured wines grown in the rich and sunny volcanic soil.

New Moon in Old Vines.

New Moon in Old Vines.

After a week in Funchal, I boarded a plane to the island of São Miguel, Açores and stayed in Ponta Delgada.

Visted 16th C churches with white limestone columns.

Beautifully carved entrances to churches

Beautifully carved entrances to churches

What was most amazing through this travel was to see how humans can make a life anywhere. Both of these islands are volcanic mountains. The fields are terraced and the patches small. Farmers have to work very hard to bring in their crops.

While in Ponta Deldgada, I visited the bookstore and purchased dead houses’ shepherd by Daniel De Sá.

It is a novel about a shepherd who is the last person in a village who tries to keep all of the abandoned houses ready for someone to come back to. But he knows as we all do when small towns are abandoned, often they crumble and die.

I enjoy travelling it adds many layers to my knowledge of peoples’ relationship to their history, their land and their literature.