A rainbow over the Atlantic at Santa Barbara

This was not the easiest of days. We woke to squally wind and an overcast sky, and were both feeling heavyhearted owing to the fact that our dear young tom cat Billy has now been missing for five days. Generally he is a homeloving creature although he did once go missing for three days and returned safe and sound. We did what we could at a distance of a thousand miles or more, sending out messages and an SOS to local vets, the local "streetlife" page and emailing Jess and then we thought we had better just get on with the day and hope for the best.
First we drove over to Sete Cidades. This is a famous beauty spot, a huge caldera formed by seven (now highly dormant or extinct) volcanoes, containing two lakes and a village. We have already walked there once, a challenging uphill and downhill walk from home; but on our last visit it was wreathed in cloud. However when we arrived, visibility was very poor once again, and after a short stroll we decided to cut our losses and drive on to the main town and port on the island, Ponta Delgada. There we did a supermarket shop, visited the market and went to our favourite coffee shop.
Feeling at a bit of a loose end we decided to eat out early evening. Our guidebook recommended a traditional Portuguese restaurant on the north east coast at Santa Barbara ("booking is essential in the summer months") and so we rang and booked a table for two. In the event it turned out we were the only people n the dining room and though it was nice enough, there was a certain lack of ambience.