If Only...

A more stressful day than we're used to lately... had to go to Évora for a conference on the 500 years celebration of the Protestant Reformation (which, btw, never reached Portugal, though the Counter-Reformation did; thus, the terrible, terrible Inquisition) - anyway, by far the best speaker was our colleague, Alan Pallister.

Lamenting the fact that I had no photos I liked, and then, as we rushed to buy some wood (the event started late and therefore, of course, finished late), suddenly saw in the sky, all these birds - must be a murmuration of starlings - plus loads of other larger birds, and hundreds of gulls - it was the most amazing sight - Mike didn't want to stop, but how could we not?? Could have stayed a lot longer, but...

... rushing back for our weekly dinner with the Padre, which was also, special... Zé Maria joined us (he's "the town drunk" who we will forever be grateful to for being so kind to us when we were utter strangers) and what a conversation we had, all of us together... he started singing the Ave Maria, as he does, and even the Padre joined in - sent chills down my spine... 

If only we could just all love and see the beauty in each other...