Still cold, but signs of Spring are everywhere

Walking around Lisbon we still see naked trees,nice in their silver tones.



But flowers are blooming, still shy, mostly in sheltered sunny spots, but we can see them if we search for beauty.

In the Bleak Mid-Winter - No pino do frio Inverno...Still

...And the rime of the carol continues like this:

Snow has fallen,
snow on snow
snow on snow
In the bleak med winter
Long ago...
...and serious snow is like that:

In the Bleak Mid-Winter - No pino do frio Inverno

In the bleak mid winter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone…

These are the firs lines of the rime of a carol from Holst (the same that composed the symphonic suite “The planets”) that children sing in Christmas time at the door houses to get some sweets. As in Portugal we sing the “Janeiras”

Two views of the northern world, to go with…

Back to blogging ...again. De volta

Winter has not been so productive as expected in terms of writing and photographing and "Cor e Forma" has been in hibernation. My surprise is that still there are some persistent visitors that keep coming.

To re-start, images of winter: ice in Beira Alta, spotting the grass in a shadowy spot, in a chilly morning in our French garden.



Other different images, of an unbelievable sunny December day, are from Ria Formosa, Algarve.
The symbols of summer are always present as this fish almost floating in the winter, still mild, breeze

Cores de Verão em dias frios - Summer colours in cold days

Os dias estão gelados (eu gosto...) e os últimos amarelos do Outono estão a desaparecer deixando os troncos cinzentos, invernais.
Sabe bem lembrar as cores de verão. O amarelo quase ouro do lírio.



Uma qualquer verde trepadeira, que também tem um florinha amarela, modesta comparada com o "glamour" do lírio, que se enrosca às canas, bordões da horta.


O roxo alegre da glicínea, na pérgola sobre o tanque de granito.

A Torre Sineira e as folhas Outonais - Bell tower and autumn leaves

Em Celorico da Beira há uma torre de relógio, com o campanário respectivo, lá bem no alto, perto do Castelo.




Numa manhã de sol, com o brilho e a luz que só há mesmo no Outono ou Inverno, as cores da folhagem dum plátano dão o tom quente à manhã fria.

Um pouco mais de Salvador -A little more of Salvador

Salvador é terra de devoções diversas, dos “orixás”a Santo António, como o provam os terreiros de candomblé e as centenas de Igrejas. À época, era fim de Maio, o Santo mas popular era mesmo Santo António. Havia os Tronos e as “Trezenas”, e por todo o lado, os vendedores dos “escapulários”, que tão na moda têm estado nalgumas das praias portuguesas.














Salvador is a place of diverse devotions, from the local “orixás” to Santo António, as the several “Terreiros” and the hundreds of churches are a proof. The altars to Santo António and the “trezenas” (a set of 13 days of special prayers) where present everywhere. Also present everywhere the sellers of special “amulets”, the “escapulários” that were fashionable in certain Portuguese beaches