Abundance

Absolutely stunning day, and I've just spent ages trying to upload a slide show of the photos to give you an idea of the beauty at the moment, to no avail, so a couple of extras.

Ermelinda delayed their Sunday lunch here and we'd gone to church last night, so we suddenly had the day free, and decided to do a walk from Alqueva to Amieira, down the bottom of the Lake, but went wrong at Alqueva, and ended up on the artificial beach they're making there. Not a soul in sight, hot sun, warm water, white sand - had to be our first swim of the year.

The Great Artists had outdone themselves. Fields of camomile, underlaid with tiny pink flowers, interspersed with banks of French lavender, against turquoise water. Rolling hills of small yellow dandelions, sprinkled with purple and pink, lined with bushes of red spotted white rock roses. And bright pink rock roses, smaller, without the blood spots. Storks and birds of prey, crested larks, hoopoes, swallows. A hare bounding away. 

Gratefuls:
- the 8 and 10:30 Livestreams by Deb and Donald from our church in the UK
- a picnic at the water's edge in our swimming things
- the incense smell of rock roses in the heat