Above: view from our driveway of the park where people gather to watch the bulls, drink beer, and eat from the food trucks

Tourada!

At the beginning of August was our village’s annual festival and its accompanying bull-on-rope running in the street. We had a few friends over to the house beforehand and, between drinking sangria and the drizzle, missed the first three bulls but did catch the last one.

Two-Year Anniversary

On August 21 we celebrated the anniversary of our arrival on Ilha Terceira. It’s hard to believe that two years have gone by! Raymond and I could not be happier or feel more at home. What began as a leap into the unknown has very much become our life – familiar, comfortable, routine. I am ever grateful for the house, property, community, natural surroundings, and employment we have been blessed with here.

Above: Departing from Detroit Metro Airport, August 2023

Orchard Updates

This summer has been cooler and more humid than last summer, which has been wonderful for the orchard. The black fig tree is growing like crazy as are the two yellow fig clones we purloined last year. To celebrate our two-year anniversary we planted a lovely pear tree between the black fig and the chestnut tree (below). Raymond and I both have meaningful childhood memories of enjoying delicious yellow pears (from his neighbor’s tree and from my grandma’s tree) and are hopeful it will do well.

The big annona tree is still flowering even while the heart-shaped fruits are maturing (about three more months until they are ripe). I truly wish you all could smell the intoxicating aroma of the annona flowers – a sweet, honeydew musk that lingers heavily in and around the tent-like canopy of the tree.

Above: Raymond and I are excited to have the raspberry bush we planted last year already flowering and producing fruit. The berries are delicious!

Millstones

We were asked by our builder friend if we would be interested in donating two of our four millstones. He is working on a project in the village of Raminho (the northwest ‘corner’ of the island) to construct a functioning windmill in a public park. As it turns out, our millstones were the perfect size and we were happy to donate them and put them to good use (they were both unused – one leaning against the big stone wall along the driveway and the other made into an outdoor table).

Of course, we kept the millstone in the floor of the basement as well as the top stone we had moved into the yard. These have more provenance than the donated stones as they were actually used in our mill room.

While it is a bit sad to not have the round table anymore, our friend dropped off a traditional stone slab in exchange. We are excited at the idea of a larger, rectangular table with more seating.

A homemade sign in a little vineyard in Biscoitos advertising grapes, figs, and sweet wine. We love that this is the third time we’ve seen this sign appear.