Figueira da Foz

1 John 3:2

“Look at how much the Father God loves us, that we are His daughters and sons. The world doesn’t ‘ understand ‘ us because they didn’t ‘understand ‘ Him. We don’t know what we are going to be like but when Jesus appears, we will be like Him as He is. ” ( Sandy’s way of saying it. Our identity is a daughter or son of the Creator God.)

The city is at the midpoint of the Iberian Peninsula’s Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Mondego River, 25 miles west of Coimbra.

We will go into the town and look at the market. There, I find that in my blog written while travelling in  Scotland, I identified some flowers incorrectly. We will also look at some Portuguese tiles as we walk down a particularly colourful street.

Well stocked, and with those  tomatoes that have personality, big red skin gathered around a green stem and where one is enough for a family of four.

I bought purple statice and straw flowers. I was surprised by their woody stems and quantity of leaves. I then discovered that these grew on shrub like plants, not like the paper daisies I enjoyed seeing in Scotland and called straw flowers.

We can’t help noticing the tiles. Tiles in Portugal are a symbol of  cultural identity, have historical value, and are unique original works of art. The tiles  are ceramic slabs usually measuring 15x15cm with one side decorated and glazed, making it waterproof and shiny. Here are a few close-up photos from this street.

If you would like to watch The Art of Crafting Portuguese Tiles,  follow it on youtube.

I will travel with the word identity with three quotes to think about and  a little time working with the flowers and painting. This, too, is part of the memory of roads we travel.

‘We don’t need bigger cars, fancier clothes.

We need:

self respect

identity

community

challenge

a purpose in living greater than material accumulation.’

Donella Meadows

” Human identity is the most fragile thing that we have, and it is only found in moments of truth.”

James Baldwin

” When people get married because they think its a long-time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of spiritual identity.”

Joseph Campbell

I returned ” home “/ Bugzy to work with the flowers. They needed to have a lot of leaves taken off, and the straw flowers seemed quite small and delicate. We are happy to have them hanging on the door.

Take care.

Sandy 🙂