We made a home here almost a year ago now. We made a home here because it’s in the middle of The Atlantic, it has green fields like Yorkshire has green fields, yet it doesn’t get much colder than 14 degrees in the winter, it has gorgeous soil that can grow most things except pineapples, so here they grow pineapples in glasshouses and bananas in the fields, or avocados, strange flowers that look like they’ve landed from another planet, but mostly grass for cows that we woo into making cheese. Lots of cheese.

We like it here because there is a place, in the ocean, where we can swim that’s only five minutes from where we live. Where we live is near the centre of the capital city, a city that has everything we need, festivals where they adorn the streets in white sculptures, carpets, whales, fish and giant sea creatures, they have lidos that are carved into rocks, hot baths, warm sea, warm springs, octopus that reach out and touch you, bright coloured fish in bottle green sea, whales and dolphins, a working harbour, an Irish pub, pretty girls who are old fashioned when it comes to loving and people who like people when you make a little effort to like them..

The land has footpaths that criss cross from mountains down to rocky coves, black sand beaches, bars and restaurants that serve fish caught fresh from the sea, there are towns with bubbling mud and steam that curls up to the sky and parks with lakes that are as warm as fresh bread that make winter a time to reflect on the stars.

Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada, we’ll be staying here for a good good while…